Database connections, I cannot decide which way I should go!

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hello all! And thanks for your help and input.

I am in the process of building my first project for the company I work for and I am stumped as how to tackle my database information problem.

What I am dealing with is a database with a list of users and a separate table with a list of articles that users have written. The PEOPLE table includes the normal name conventions as so forth, but also a value called Author_ID which is derived from a government entity.

The ARTICLES table has a value which lists the authors of the articles, normally 2-7 authors per article. Here, I am not sure if this short be an array or just a string. I currently have it as a string. Also of note, some articles may have multiple authors within my PEOPLE table, most will also have authors that are not in my table as they are not a part of my faculty.

As I have it set up currently I was attempting to do a has_many through connection, but was unsure of how to call the articles for that particular Person. And as I work through the problem in my head I am not sure I even need to make a join of the tables.

My desired end result: Each faulty member’s personal page needs to pole the ARTICLES table and list any articles that have the corresponding Author_ID. I am happy to supply any code that I currently have if it is requested.

Thank you again for your time and help!

Jason

2

I am in the process of building my first project for the company I work for and I am stumped as how to tackle my database information problem.

Is this a legacy DB you're stuck with, or are you trying to design one for your app?

What I am dealing with is a database with a list of users and a separate table with a list of articles that users have written. The PEOPLE table includes the normal name conventions as so forth, but also a value called Author_ID which is derived from a government entity.

The ARTICLES table has a value which lists the authors of the articles, normally 2-7 authors per article. Here, I am not sure if this short be an array or just a string. I currently have it as a string.

Is this a collection of AUTHOR_IDs, or names?

It would probably help to gist the relevant parts of your schema.

3

Anyway a good database schema is needed for a good application. Choose carefully your database schema and in fact if you get to a good solution for storaging of data you'll probably win.

Get back to the design!