CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ruby-on-railsrubyactiverecord
vin_Bin87
vin_Bin87

Reputation: 348

Trying to figure out database table relations (Rails / ActiveRecord)

So I am building a web app over the next 2 weeks that aims to connect Music Students with Music Instructors.

This will all be done using Ruby on Rails with ActiveRecord database

I am trying to plan out my database with proper relations and want to make sure everything is good to go before moving forward.

My thought was to have a user to user interaction.

This would include the following columns:

  • first name (string)
  • last name (string)
  • location (string)
  • mobile (boolean)
  • bio (text)
  • email (string)
  • password (string)

The associations in the models for each would be something like

  • class Student
  • has_many :teachers, through: :tutorships
  • has_many :instruments

Then

  • class Teacher
  • has_many :students, through: :tutorships
  • has_many :instruments

Then a instruments table

  • instrument (string)
  • skill_level (integer) *using enum in model to associate with beginner, intermediate & advanced
  • Model would be (belongs_to (:student / :teacher)

Then the join table between the Users would be a tutorship table:

  • belongs_to :student
  • belongs_to :teacher
  • has_many :lessons

Then a lesson table

  • belongs_to :tutorship

So, this is what I have so far. My question is, when I am setting up my migrations in Rails, am I going to be missing anything in my tables?

I think I need to be putting something like, t.belongs_to :student but since it is a user to user relationship that feels off.

What am I missing here? I know something is amiss.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 98

Answers (2)

s1mpl3
s1mpl3

Reputation: 1464

You will only need to add t.belongs_to :studentto the tutorships and instruments tables, not to teachers, if it is that what you are wondering.

You many want to add some status columns to differentiate active/former/... on students and teachers

Upvotes: 0

Thomas R. Koll
Thomas R. Koll

Reputation: 3139

SQL databases are highly normalized, but you are of course allowed to copy the student and teacher ids into the lesson, thus denormalize, and for performance gains there's a good reason to do that.

Actually there's a case where this is a good idea, think of a teacher being sick and one lesson being taught by a replacement teacher. No need to create a new Tutorship, just assign a different teacher for that one lesson.

Something you are missing is of course timestamps/dates.

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions