I''ve written an extension to AR to allow hiding of attributes(aka columns) in AR objects. If there''s interest in it I''ll roll it up into a plugin. Here''s an example: (straight from Agile Web Dev) # The table create table people ( id int not null auto_increment, type varchar(20) not null, /* common attributes */ name varchar(100) not null, email varchar(100) not null, /* attributes for type = Customer */ balance decimal(10,2), /* attributes for type = Employee */ reports_to int, dept int, /* attributes for type = Manager */ /* -- none -- */ ) class Person < ActiveRecord::Base end class Customer < Person hides_attribute :reports_to, :dept end class Employee < Person hides_attribute :balance end class Manager < Employee hides_attribute :reports_to, :dept end The extension will put out the attributes specified in hides_attribute so a Customer object will no longer respond to reports_to, reports_to=, dept, or dept So any interest? -wilig