statistics table via a trigger

rubyonrails-talk
1

I'm trying to implement something similar to a historical price chart, where I save the prices when they change to a "stats" table.

I'd like to take the current value and save it to a statistics model before it gets updated with the new value.

Is there a way to do it with a trigger or should I just save the value in two different models?

Something like this:

@book = Book.find(params[:id]) @stats = Stat.new()

puts @book.price #=> $10.00

@stats.book_id = @book.id @stats.price = @book.price

@book.price = $20.00

@book.save() @stats.save()

2

Anthony,

Is Book the only model that you'll be doing this for? ...or are there other models that will use this historical log of prices?

There's a few options here. One, you could add method to be called by after_save to check the price previously stored with the new one... if they are different... add a new entry to the historical log.

Another option is to not store prices in the Book model and only in another table called something like BookPrice.

book has_many book_prices

Then you can scope book_prices for current to do something like:

book.book_prices.current.price # => get the current price

book.book_prices.each { |book_price| ... } # => iterate through all book prices

Anyhow, there's a few options to throw your way. Good luck!

Cheers, Robby

3

Robby Russell wrote:

Something like this: @book.price = $20.00

@book.save() @stats.save()

Anthony,

Is Book the only model that you'll be doing this for? ...or are there other models that will use this historical log of prices?

There's a few options here. One, you could add method to be called by after_save to check the price previously stored with the new one... if they are different... add a new entry to the historical log.

Another option is to not store prices in the Book model and only in another table called something like BookPrice.

book has_many book_prices

Then you can scope book_prices for current to do something like:

book.book_prices.current.price # => get the current price

book.book_prices.each { |book_price| ... } # => iterate through all book prices

Anyhow, there's a few options to throw your way. Good luck!

Cheers, Robby

Thanks Robby.

I will be doing this for one model for now, perhaps others down the road.

The "Book" model has numeric attributes that I want to save into a "statistics" table so I can draw a line-graph over time from it.

Other attributes would be archived as well.

Its sounds to be a before_update would give me access to the current price. And I don't want to keep the current price in a stats table because that table will eventually grow and slow down the regular query.

book

4

Book having many :prices does make sense. That way you get to keep the history of the price of the book. Of course, the latest price in the association is the current price.

Ramon Tayag

5

Ramon Tayag wrote:

Book having many :prices does make sense. That way you get to keep the history of the price of the book. Of course, the latest price in the association is the current price.

Ramon Tayag

The problem with that is to get the current price (most uses cases) I have to scan the entire 'prices' table.

*sniff* I smell premature optimization. :wink:

Seriously, with database indexes... this is doubtful to be an issue. If it's ever an issue you can cache the current price in the book model, but really... I wouldn't be concerned about that for a while.

I'd rather do it in such a way that it only saves the current price, year, edition, etc. to a "stats" whenever the book is updated (without any explicit association).

This is the case either way. Just not convinced you need to cache this in the Book model from the get-go, which is what you're leaning toward.

Cheers, Robby

6

Robby Russell wrote:

have to scan the entire 'prices' table.

*sniff* I smell premature optimization. :wink:

Seriously, with database indexes... this is doubtful to be an issue. If it's ever an issue you can cache the current price in the book model, but really... I wouldn't be concerned about that for a while.

I'd rather do it in such a way that it only saves the current price, year, edition, etc. to a "stats" whenever the book is updated (without any explicit association).

This is the case either way. Just not convinced you need to cache this in the Book model from the get-go, which is what you're leaning toward.

Thanks Robby, you may indeed be correct.

Is it safe to say your recommendation is to create a model for each statistical attribute I want to archive?

ie: Price Year Edition

...and associate them to the Book via: has_many and then use the most recent as the current price?

7

You can have, on your book table, a price_id that points to it's latest price. Thus book.price points to its latest price, while book.prices returns all its prices. Do a after_create on Price to set its book's price_id to itself so that everytime you create a price it'll set the book's price_id.

Ramon Tayag

8

Anthony E. wrote:

Robby Russell wrote:

have to scan the entire 'prices' table.

*sniff* I smell premature optimization. :wink:

Seriously, with database indexes... this is doubtful to be an issue. If it's ever an issue you can cache the current price in the book model, but really... I wouldn't be concerned about that for a while.

I'd rather do it in such a way that it only saves the current price, year, edition, etc. to a "stats" whenever the book is updated (without any explicit association).

This is the case either way. Just not convinced you need to cache this in the Book model from the get-go, which is what you're leaning toward.

Thanks Robby, you may indeed be correct.

Is it safe to say your recommendation is to create a model for each statistical attribute I want to archive?

ie: Price Year Edition

...and associate them to the Book via: has_many and then use the most recent as the current price?

I can't get the save to work across the association. The price is coming from a backend system un-related to rails so I have got the data itself no problem with "get_price" and saving it to self.price is fine...but I can't refactor this into saving to another model (ie: prices)

Book < ActiveRecord::Base has_many :prices before_save :get_price after_save :set_price

def get_price   price = Legacy::Data.new().price end

At this point my understanding breaks down...how do I save that "get_price" value to the "Prices" model?

#brokenzy

def set_price   @price = self.prices.new   @price.price = self.price end