Rails App with 3 different types of Users

Question

I'm now in the design phase of application. Mostly doing stuff on the paper to get the insight of the application models, define what I will need and so on. And I found there one problem, which I don't know how to solve, or be more specific, I don't know how to implement it to keep it dry. So here is the deal:

I have application where will be three different types of users/accounts:

1. Regular account - Account has basic profile with basic rights in the application, User with regular account can see everyone's public profile, can modify own profile, can have only 1 profile picture, can search, etc.

2. Advanced account - has advanced profile, which means that user can specify contact informations, appearance detail, has booking page, can get offers, have calendar

3. Company account - has company profile which contains contact information for company, can make offers to Advanced users and can browse all profiles in the application

So basically, I have one User model together for all my Users and I decided to go with Devise for the authentication. After the User is created I want to show him/her a screen where he/she can choose account type - Regular, Advanced, Company. And after that he/she will have appropriate rights in the system and also appropriate profile. He will not be able to change between the account type in the future.

I want also keep the code clean and dry and I'm quite struggle with finding the best solution for. And now I banging my head against the wall, because I can't figure out how to do it. Here is the question:

How should look the final model diagram for this. Should it be polymorphic association? OR should it be just general:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  devise :database_authenticatable, :registerable,
         :recoverable, :rememberable, :trackable, :validatable

  attr_accessible :email, :password, :password_confirmation, :remember_me, :account_type

  has_one :account
  has_one :entertainer
  has_one :company
  after_create :create_account

  def create_account
    if self.account_type == 'Advanced'
      self.entertainer = AdvancedAccount.create(user_id: self.id)
    elsif self.account_type = "Company"
      self.company = CompanyAccount.create(user_id: self.id)
    else
      self.account = RegularAccount.create(user_id: self.id)
    end   
  end
end

Or I'm on the totally wrong path? What are the best practices for this matter? Thank you for your advices!

Answer 1

Instead of managing separate models for the different types of user, I've found the cancan gem to be very useful for managing user abilities and authorization. I used this blog post in the past to set it up with devise, though it may be fairly outdated by now.

Answer 2

I would use a few methods inside your UsersController to define what the various access levels are, for example:

@user = is_advanced?

This way you can allow them to choose the type of account they will have, store that selection in the database [users::account_type: integer]. This will allow you to let them change n the future if you decide to add that functionality.

I wouldn't create so many associations in your Users class, because it will bloat your RESTfull routes, etc and make debugging down the road a nightmare.