Rails - Nov 2005 - Probably more of an SQL Question, but...

For my first Ruby app, I''m writing a plot management tool for 
screenwriters and authors.  And the SQL for it is rather fun (I actually 
drew my first ERD in ten years) and one of the problems I''m having is 
integrating the GENRE class with the WORLD class.

To explain: Authors have Worlds.  Worlds have Stories, Stories have 
Plots, Plots have Scenes.  Worlds also have Characters and Locations. 
Scenes have a Location and many Characters.

Much of what goes into a story is commentary: hair color, eye color, 
height, weight, etc.  I''m trying to do some nifty handling whereby when
you type a character''s name in the "narrative" box the
character''s bio
will automagically be displayed in a DIV in an upper box (perhaps an 
inset, not sure about that yet).   Some details are GENRE related.

I want GENRE to be dynamic: GENRE has GENRE_FIELDS (id, name, 
description), which are cross-indexed with the table type ("does this 
field belong to the Character table, or the Location table?").

Is it possible to use a table''s _name_ as a foreign key, and how would
I
access that from within Rails?

(If the answer to this is yes, then I''ll have what I need to also 
correlate TABLE_ID,CHARACTER_ID,GENRE_FIELD_ENTRY_ID, and display the 
correct data along with the correct label.)

Elf

Let me see if I understand... In the GENRE table you might have a genre
named "Western", with GENRE_FIELDS "Good Guy", "Bad
Guy", and "Town".
The genre fields "Good Guy" and "Bad Guy" would have a link
to the
CHARACTERS table, while the genre field "Town" would have a link to
the
LOCATIONS table. In the code, you want to be able to do something like this:

westerns = Story.find_by_genre("Western")

westerns.each do |western|

  western.genre.name        -> "Western"
  western.genre.fields      -> ["Good Guy" => character_object,
                                "Bad Guy" => character_object,
                                "Town" => location_object]

  western.genre.fields["Good Guy"].first_name  -> "Tex"
  western.genre.fields["Bad Guy"].first_name   -> "Bart"
  western.genre.fields["Town"].loc_name        ->
"Tombstone"

  western.genre.fields.each do |field, ob|
    str += "The #{field} for #{western.title} is #{ob.to_s}<br>"
  end

end

Is this correct?


Elf M. Sternberg wrote:
> For my first Ruby app, I''m writing a plot management tool for 
> screenwriters and authors.  And the SQL for it is rather fun (I actually 
> drew my first ERD in ten years) and one of the problems I''m having
is
> integrating the GENRE class with the WORLD class.
> 
> To explain: Authors have Worlds.  Worlds have Stories, Stories have 
> Plots, Plots have Scenes.  Worlds also have Characters and Locations. 
> Scenes have a Location and many Characters.
> 
> Much of what goes into a story is commentary: hair color, eye color, 
> height, weight, etc.  I''m trying to do some nifty handling whereby
when
> you type a character''s name in the "narrative" box the
character''s bio
> will automagically be displayed in a DIV in an upper box (perhaps an 
> inset, not sure about that yet).   Some details are GENRE related.
> 
> I want GENRE to be dynamic: GENRE has GENRE_FIELDS (id, name, 
> description), which are cross-indexed with the table type ("does this 
> field belong to the Character table, or the Location table?").
> 
> Is it possible to use a table''s _name_ as a foreign key, and how
would I
> access that from within Rails?
> 
> (If the answer to this is yes, then I''ll have what I need to also 
> correlate TABLE_ID,CHARACTER_ID,GENRE_FIELD_ENTRY_ID, and display the 
> correct data along with the correct label.)
> 
> Elf
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