An implementation level question

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi   I have a message model and message_participants table. message_participants table because same message goes to various recipients.   Messaging between either company to users OR user to company. So an initial design of tables made like

messages table

2

Tom Mac wrote:

Hi   I have a message model and message_participants table. message_participants table because same message goes to various recipients.   Messaging between either company to users OR user to company.

[...]

    Here about 'type' field I am not sure. My question is should I treat message_participants like STI or polymorphic? I can't decide it.

STI: single-table *inheritance*. Does User inherit from Company, or Company from User? Probably not. So no inheritance is involved, and you probably want a polymorphic association.

Best,