在ActiveRecord :: Base子类中设置table_name

Question

I have an abstract class:

class AbstractBrowsable < ActiveRecord::Base  
  self.abstract_class = true
  attr_accessible :heading
  [...]
  def get_following(count)
    AbstractBrowsable.where("heading > ?", self.heading).order('heading ASC').limit(count)
  end
end

It has some generic queries like the one above, so in the subclasses I need to set the table name eg

class Subject < AbstractBrowsable
  AbstractBrowsable.table_name = "subjects"
end

The ''only'' way I can get this to work is as shown above, ie AbstractBrowsable.table_name = "subjects" and not self.table_name = 'subjects' . This seems fishy to me, and my Google-Fu only turns up examples using self. . Is this OK, or else what am I missing?

If you haven't guessed, I'm new to Ruby/Rails; any help much appreciated. My Rails version is 3.2.13, and Ruby is 1.9.3.

Answer 1

You should be using self unless you are trying to do STI, which case you'd need to not set abstract_class.

-- edit --

Based on what you described in your comment what you need is to build the functionality into module(s) and include them in your classes. This is the purpose of modules in Ruby.

Recommend reading this: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3372-put-chubby-models-on-a-diet-with-concerns

Heres an example:

module Browsable
  # Browsable methods
end

class Subject < ActiveRecord::Base
  include Browsable
  # 
end