Multiple Table Inheritance

Multiple Table Inheritance is a plugin designed to allow for multiple table inheritance between your database tables and your ActiveRecord models.

This plugin is a derivative of the original class-table-inheritance gem, which can be found at http://github.com/brunofrank/class-table-inheritance

Compatibility

Multiple Table Inheritance is Rails 3.x compatible.

How to Install

From the command line:

gem install multiple_table_inheritance

From your Gemfile:

gem 'multiple_table_inheritance', '~> 0.2.1'

Usage

The following sections attempt to explain full coverage for the Multiple Table Inheritance plugin. For full code examples, take a look at the test database structure and associated models found in spec/support/tables.rb and spec/support/models.rb, respectively.

Running Migrations

When creating your tables, the table representing the superclass must include a subtype string column. (Optionally, you can provide a custom name for this field and provide the custom name in your model options.) It is recommended that this column be non-null for sanity.

create_table :employees do |t|
  t.string :subtype, :null => false
  t.string :first_name, :null => false
  t.string :last_name, :null => false
  t.integer :salary, :null => false
  t.timestamps
end

When creating tables that are derived from your superclass table, simply provide the :inherits hash option to your create_table call. The value of the option represent the name by which the association is referenced in your model.

create_table :programmers, :inherits => :employee do |t|
  t.datetime :training_completed_at
end

create_table :managers, :inherits => :employee do |t|
  t.integer :bonus, :null => false
end

Creating Models

The acts_as_superclass method is used to represent that a model can be extended.

class Employee < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_superclass
end

As mentioned in the migration section, the name of the subtype column can be defined here if it's something other than the default of "subtype". (Please note that type is a reserved word in ActiveRecord, and naming your column as such should be avoided.)

class Employee < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_superclass, :subtype => 'employee_type'
end

Conversely, the inherits_from method is used to represent that a given model extends another model. It takes one optional parameter, which is the symbol desired for referencing the relationship.

class Programmer < ActiveRecord::Base
  inherits_from :employee
end

class Manager < ActiveRecord::Base
  inherits_from :employee
end

Additional options can be passed to represent the exact relationship structure. Specifically, any option that can be provided to belongs_to can be provided to inherits_from. (Presently, this has only be tested to work with the :class_name option.)

class Resources::Manager < ActiveRecord::Base
  inherits_from :employee, :class_name => 'Resources::Employee'
end

Creating Records

Records can be created directly from their inheriting (child) model classes. Given model names Employee, Programmer, and Manager based upon the table structures outlined in the "Running Migrations" section, records can be created in the following manner.

Programmer.create(
    :first_name => 'Bob',
    :last_name => 'Smith',
    :salary => 65000,
    :training_completed_at => 3.years.ago)

Manager.create(
    :first_name => 'Joe'
    :last_name => 'Schmoe',
    :salary => 75000,
    :bonus => 5000)

Retrieving Records

Records can be retrieved explicitly by their own type.

programmer = Programmer.first  # <Programmer employee_id: 1 training_completed_at: "2009-03-06 00:30:00">
programmer.id                  # 1
programmer.first_name          # "Bob"
programmer.last_name           # "Smith"
programmer.salary              # 65000

Records can be retrieved implicitly by the superclass type.

employees = Employee.limit(2)  # [<Programmer employee_id: 1 training_completed_at: "2009-03-06 00:30:00">,
                                  <Manager employee_id: 2 bonus: 5000>]
employees.first.class          # Programmer
employees.last.class           # Manager
employees.first.bonus          # undefined method `bonus`
employees.last.bonus           # 5000

Deleting Records

Records can be deleted by either the parent or child reference.

Manager.first.destroy          # destroys associated Employee reference as well
Employee.first.destroy         # destroys associated Manager reference as well

Validation

When creating a new record that inherits from another model, validation is taken into consideration across both models.

class Employee < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_superclass
  validates :first_name, :presence => true
  validates :last_name, :presence => true
  validates :salary, :presence => true, :numericality => { :min => 0 }
end

class Programmer < ActiveRecord::Base
  inherits_from :employee
end

class Manager < ActiveRecord::Base
  inherits_from :employee
  validates :bonus, :presence => true, :numericality => true
end

Programmer.create(:first_name => 'Bob', :last_name => 'Jones', :salary => -50)
# fails because :salary must be >= 0

Manager.create!(:first_name => 'Bob', :last_name => 'Jones', :salary => 75000)
# fails because :bonus is not present

Mass Assignment Security

Mass assignment security can optionally be used in the same manner you would for a normal ActiveRecord model.

class Employee < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_superclass
  attr_accessible :first_name, :last_name, :salary
end

class Manager < ActiveRecord::Base
  inherits_from :employee
  attr_accessible :bonus
end

Associations

Associations will also work in the same way as other attributes.

class Team < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :name
end

class Employee < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_superclass
  belongs_to :team
end

class Programmer < ActiveRecord::Base
  inherits_from :employee
  has_many :known_languages
  has_many :languages, :through => :known_languages
end

class Language < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :name
  has_many :known_languages
  has_many :programmers, :through => :known_languages
end

class KnownLanguage < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :programmer
  belongs_to :language
end

programmer = Programmer.first           # <Programmer employee_id: 1 training_completed_at: "2009-03-06 00:30:00">
programmer.languages.collect(&:name)    # ['Java', 'C++']
programmer.team.name                    # 'Website Front-End'

Methods

When inheriting from another parent model, methods can optionally be called on the parent model automatically as well. To do so, specify the :methods option when calling inherits_from.

class Employee < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_superclass
  belongs_to :team
  
  def give_raise!(amount)
    update_attribute!(:salary, self.salary + amount)
    puts "Congrats on your well-deserved raise, #{self.first_name}!"
  end
end

class Programmer < ActiveRecord::Base
  inherits_from :employee, :methods => true
end

@programmer = Programmer.first
@programmer.give_raise!
# yields: "Congrats on your well-deserved raise, Mike!"