Rails - Sep 2005 - "Rails" way of Relating Tables

I''m having a terminology/technique brain-lock. This is, I know, easy,
but
I''m jumping through all kinds of hoops to get it done. Here''s
the issue:

I have a SalesPerson model (table: sales_people).

Each SalesPerson has zero or more Sales (table sales, foreign_key:
sales_person_id). When you create a new salesperson, they normally
don''t
have sales.

So...

class Admin::SalesPerson < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :sales_people

--and--

class Admin::Sale < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :sales_person

Here are the places I''m just not getting:

1. Typically, when I display a SalesPerson (list method), I display their
last sale order. This can''t be done for a new SalesPerson, (the list at
the
end of the create process), so I''ve resorted to the model code:

def territory
  sales.find(:first, :id, :order => ''date
DESC'').order_number
rescue
  ''''
end

This tries to find the chronologically most recent and if it barfs, then it
returns an empty string. Q: Is this the best way?

2. The logic of the entire Sales model is predicated on knowing the
SalesPerson id, so one can go to www.myfinesalessite.com/admin/sale/1 and
get the sales for SalesPerson 1. To make this link, when you click on the
"show" button in the SalesPerson list, it goes to

:controller => ''Sale'', :action =>
''list'', :id => @SalesPerson

In the case of a new sales person, there are no sales, so the list is empty,
but I want to persist this id so I can stuff it into the sales_person_id
field in the create method. Methods like list also rely on knowing this id
to show sales for only the correct SalesPerson. What is the "Rails"
way of
doing this?

Thanks

I''m not too sure if this will work, I''m a bit new to this
:)... but if
you change your territory method to

def territory
  sales.find(:first, :id, :order=>''date DESC'')
end

then if there is no sales present then the method should return a nil.
Then in your view you could have 

<%= @salesperson.territory.order_number unless @salesperson.territory.nil?
%>
<%= "No Sales Yet" if @SalesPerson.territory.nil? %>

I''d love to know if this works.

Cheers


On 9/2/05, Steve Ross
<sross-ju+vs0qJmycyYsO2DCxJlVaTQe2KTcn/@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> I''m having a terminology/technique brain-lock. This is, I know,
easy, but
> I''m jumping through all kinds of hoops to get it done.
Here''s the issue:
> 
> I have a SalesPerson model (table: sales_people).
> 
> Each SalesPerson has zero or more Sales (table sales, foreign_key:
> sales_person_id). When you create a new salesperson, they normally
don''t
> have sales.
> 
> So...
> 
> class Admin::SalesPerson < ActiveRecord::Base
>   has_many :sales_people
> 
> --and--
> 
> class Admin::Sale < ActiveRecord::Base
>   belongs_to :sales_person
> 
> Here are the places I''m just not getting:
> 
> 1. Typically, when I display a SalesPerson (list method), I display their
> last sale order. This can''t be done for a new SalesPerson, (the
list at the
> end of the create process), so I''ve resorted to the model code:
> 
> def territory
>   sales.find(:first, :id, :order => ''date
DESC'').order_number
> rescue
>   ''''
> end
> 
> This tries to find the chronologically most recent and if it barfs, then it
> returns an empty string. Q: Is this the best way?
> 
> 2. The logic of the entire Sales model is predicated on knowing the
> SalesPerson id, so one can go to www.myfinesalessite.com/admin/sale/1 and
> get the sales for SalesPerson 1. To make this link, when you click on the
> "show" button in the SalesPerson list, it goes to
> 
> :controller => ''Sale'', :action =>
''list'', :id => @SalesPerson
> 
> In the case of a new sales person, there are no sales, so the list is
> empty,
> but I want to persist this id so I can stuff it into the sales_person_id
> field in the create method. Methods like list also rely on knowing this id
> to show sales for only the correct SalesPerson. What is the
"Rails" way of
> doing this?
> 
> Thanks
> 
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