Rails - Oct 2006 - Is there a way to specify a possible relationship between models?

My app allows users to register and login but it also allows anyone to add
comments, regardless of whether they are registered or not.

I have a comment table and a user table and I''d like to store the name
and
home page url of the comment author.

If the user is registered, then the comment needs a foreign key back to the
registered user. But if the comment was posted anonymously, then I need to
record the author name and url directly in the comment table. My comments
table ends up with both:

class CreateComments < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    create_table :comments do |t|
      t.column :comment,    :text
      t.column :article_id, :integer
      t.column :user_name,  :string #only used if user_id is empty
      t.column :user_url,   :string #only used if user_id is empty
      t.column :user_id,    :integer #when populated, user_name and user_url
are ignored
    end
  end

  def self.down
    drop_table :comments
  end
end

Then in my code when I need to find the author of the comment, I check the
comment''s user_id and either get the author from the user record
(user.name)
or from the comment directly (user_name).

My question: Does rails have any mechanism for automatically getting the
data either from a foreign key or directly from the record? Such a mechanism
would save me from checking the foreign key to determine where the data
should come from. Or perhaps there is a better database design for this
situation?

Cheers


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> My app allows users to register and login but it also allows anyone to add
> comments, regardless of whether they are registered or not.
>
> I have a comment table and a user table and I''d like to store the
name and
> home page url of the comment author.
>
> If the user is registered, then the comment needs a foreign key back to the
> registered user. But if the comment was posted anonymously, then I need to
> record the author name and url directly in the comment table. My comments
> table ends up with both:
>
> class CreateComments < ActiveRecord::Migration
>  def self.up
>    create_table :comments do |t|
>      t.column :comment,    :text
>      t.column :article_id, :integer
>      t.column :user_name,  :string #only used if user_id is empty
>      t.column :user_url,   :string #only used if user_id is empty
>      t.column :user_id,    :integer #when populated, user_name and user_url
> are ignored
>    end
>  end
>
>  def self.down
>    drop_table :comments
>  end
> end
>
> Then in my code when I need to find the author of the comment, I check the
> comment''s user_id and either get the author from the user record
(user.name)
> or from the comment directly (user_name).
>
> My question: Does rails have any mechanism for automatically getting the
> data either from a foreign key or directly from the record? Such a
mechanism
> would save me from checking the foreign key to determine where the data
> should come from. Or perhaps there is a better database design for this
> situation?
You could override Comments#user to do the check for you automatically. 
That might get you into trouble though for an unregistered users if you 
forget.

But that''s probably the easiest way to "hide it" from
yourself...

-philip

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