Question

Lets say I have 3 Models called Dog, Cat and Mouse. I want all three to be able to have the same, different and many categories. I also want to add logic to a category and create it regularly like the other models. So it could be like:

Dog.categories = brown, spots, heavy fur, weak limbs
Cat.categories = brown, red, heavy fur
Mouse.categories = brown, small

Category 
   has_and_belongs_to_many :dogs
   has_and_belongs_to_many :cats
   has_and_belongs_to_many :mouses
   def watch_health
     if self.name == "weak limbs"
     do stuff here
   end
end

Now with that said. How would the model and table design be. I don’t fully understand how a polymorphic association would work in this setting so it seems like a HATBM for all 3 would be the correct way to go. What do you think? Is this correct?

Answer 1

Ok so I ended up doing a has_many :through association and you can get more help from here and here.