I want to create a select list for lets say colors, but dont want to create a table for the colors. I have seen it anywhere, but can't find it on google.
My question is: How can I put the colors in a model without a database table?
Or is there a better rails way for doing that?
I have seen someone putting an array or a hash directly in the model, but now I couldn't find it.
class Model
include ActiveModel::Validations
include ActiveModel::Conversion
extend ActiveModel::Naming
attr_accessor :whatever
validates :whatever, :presence => true
def initialize(attributes = {})
attributes.each do |name, value|
send("#{name}=", value)
end
end
def persisted?
false
end
end
attr_accessor will create your attributes and you will create the object with initialize() and set attributes.
The method persisted will tell there is no link with the database. You can find examples like this one:
http://railscasts.com/episodes/219-active-model?language=en&view=asciicast
Which will explain you the logic.
The answers are fine for 2013 but now rails 4 has extracted all the database independent features out of ActiveRecord
into ActiveModel
. Also, there's an awesome official guide for it.
You can include as many of the modules as you want, or as little.
As an example, you just need to include ActiveModel::Model
and you can forgo such an initialize
method:
def initialize(attributes = {})
attributes.each do |name, value|
send("#{name}=", value)
end
end
Just use:
attr_accessor :name, :age
The easiest answer is simply to not subclass from ActiveRecord::Base. Then you can just write your object code.
If you want to have a select list (which does not evolve) you can define a method in your ApplicationHelper
that returns a list, for example:
def my_color_list
[
"red",
"green",
"blue"
]
end