Scaffolding ActiveRecord: two columns of the same data type

Question

Another basic Rails question:

I have a database table that needs to contain references to exactly two different records of a specific data type.

Hypothetical

Answer 1

If there are any methods or validation you want specific to a certain company type, you could sub class the company model. This employs a technique called single table inheritance. For more information check out this article: http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/singletableinheritance

You would then have:

#db/migrate/###_create_companies
class CreateCompanies < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    create_table :companies do |t|
      t.string :type  # required so rails know what type of company a record is
      t.timestamps
    end
  end

  def self.down
    drop_table :companies
  end
end

#db/migrate/###_create_videogames
class CreateVideogames < ActiveRecord::Migration
  create_table :videogames do |t|
    t.belongs_to :developer
    t.belongs_to :publisher
  end    

  def self.down
    drop_table :videogames
  end
end

#app/models/company.rb
class Company < ActiveRecord::Base 
  has_many :videogames
  common validations and methods
end

#app/models/developer.rb
class Developer < Company
  developer specific code
end

#app/models/publisher.rb
class Publisher < Company
  publisher specific code
end

#app/models/videogame.rb
class Videogame < ActiveRecord::Base 
  belongs_to :developer, :publisher
end

As a result, you would have Company, Developer and Publisher models to use.

 Company.find(:all)
 Developer.find(:all)
 Publisher.find(:all)