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Ruby

Posted by pat saunders
pat saunders
6,636 Points

Devise & single table inheritence

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice from anyone who has had some experience with the following:

I have an existing app with two "user types" that I would like to join using single table inheritance to a Devise user model.

The goal is simply to keep the existing functionality and relationships between the current models while making it easier to create and manage user accounts.

Is this how you would go about this task? I am interested to hear other options in the interest of furthering my RoR education.

Thank you.

4 Answers

Nick Fuller
Nick Fuller
9,027 Points
Nick Fuller
Nick Fuller
9,027 Points

Nothing wrong with this. I used STI with Devise when I had to maintain the concept of an Employee and a Contractor. Both user types were logging into the system, and both user types had a similar base set of attributes (first_name, last_name, email, password_digest etc. etc.) but obviously an employee and a contractor will end up requiring different subsets of data. It all depends on the application.

I think if you have 2x existing models and you're interested in building in STI... then it will be more difficult than starting with a User model and subclassing it off with an Employee model. But, as programmers, we love challenges :)

pat saunders
pat saunders
6,636 Points
pat saunders
pat saunders
6,636 Points

Hi Nick, thanks so much for the quick response. That was really helpful, I can continue with some confidence now haha.

I have seen your comments around the forum and always find them very helpful and friendly, thanks so much for helping people out.

Nick Fuller
Nick Fuller
9,027 Points
Nick Fuller
Nick Fuller
9,027 Points

Absolutely Pat! Glad to help!

pat saunders
pat saunders
6,636 Points

Hey Nick just another thought.

Once devise is installed and users sign up under the "devise user" model, how to you then go about specifying the appropriate account type?

There seems to me no issue with taking users with an existing account type and moving them to the "user" model using STI. But I don't get the logic of doing the reverse...

any thoughts?

Never mind I figured it out! Thanks again