Rails - Jun 2006 - Help with translating an object model to a relational mode

Hello rails friends,

I am writing a soap interface to a databse for a .Net guy in rails. 
Actionwebservice kicks ass, however, I need some help translating the 
object model to a relational one:

class Customer{
   string firstName
   #blah
   string[] email_addresses
   PurchaseHistory[] myPurchases
}

class PurchaseHistory{
   #blah blah blah
}

The object model is non-negotiable. I am not allowed to change it, I 
have to create
equivalent soap objects for his types.

 The problem comes with the arrays. How do I store those in the 
database?

Here is the migration I''ve wrote so far:

class CreateCustomers < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    create_table :customers do |t|
       t.column :firstName, :string
       #blah
       t.column : email_addresses, [:string] # This does not work. 
Migrate freaks out! help!
       # purchase history array???? help!
    end
  end

  def self.down
    drop_table :customers
  end

Migrate says this when i try to migrate that:

== CreateCustomers: migrating 
================================================-- create_table(:customers)
rake aborted!
undefined method `to_sym'' for [:string]:Array


So my questions are:

1. What is the proper way to do this?
  =>How do I store an array in the database?
  =>How do I tell activerecord to create a column for an array?

Please do not reply "your object model is poor" because that is out of
my control.

Thank you for your time and your help! I really appreciate the ROR 
community and the time they take promoting their framework. I guess when 
you help a noob like me, then eventually I get good at ROR and will be 
able reach out eventually and help other noobs.

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Someone Please...

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Hi Jon,

Jon wrote:
> I need some help translating the
> object model to a relational one:
<snip>
> 1. What is the proper way to do this?
>  =>How do I store an array in the database?
>  =>How do I tell activerecord to create a column for an array?
This may not be what you''re looking for but my understanding
(admittedly
very weak ;-) ) of your problem leads me to initially suggest you treat this 
as a has-many relationship with a record in a seperate table for each 
element in your array.  If that doesn''t make any sense in your case,
perhaps
you could say more about your problem, especially the object model
you''re
working with.

Best regards,
Bill