Question

I’m interested in adding two objects to a serialized meta-data column in my activity feed model (Rails 3.1) to cut down on db calls.

Example: I have an Activity model with a data:text column which is serialized. I know I can add a Book object to this model and get it back as so:

test = Activity.create(:data => Book.find(1))
test.book.author # => James Joyce

Can I add two objects to this column (e.g. a Book and a User)? I tried using hashes/arrays but couldn’t get them to work properly. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Here’s how you might use a hash:

test = Activity.create(:data => {:book => Book.find(1), :user => User.find(1)})
test.data[:book] # => #<Book id:1 ...>
test.data[:user] # => #<User id:1 ...>