# Tagging recommendation - acts\_as\_taggable\_on\_steroids best?

**URL:** <https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/tagging-recommendation-acts-as-taggable-on-steroids-best/45925>\
**Category:** rubyonrails-talk\
**Created:** [September 9, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/tagging-recommendation-acts-as-taggable-on-steroids-best/45925 "2009-09-09T18:18:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Philip\_Hallstrom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Philip\_Hallstrom](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Philip_Hallstrom)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/tagging-recommendation-acts-as-taggable-on-steroids-best/45925/1 "2009-09-09T18:18:19Z")

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> What's the most popular tagging plugin/gem these days? Is it acts\_as\_taggable\_on\_steroids? Or is something else better?

Dunno. I recently (3 months ago) had to pick and went with acts-as- taggable-on. Seems to work just fine. Lets you have different "sets"  
of tags per model which I don't use, but could be useful.

Setting/Accessing tags is easy... just set "tag\_list" in your form as  
a text field (assuming 'tag' is the name of your set).

Don't remember why I didn't go with steroids...

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**Author:** ![Sandip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@Sandip](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Sandip)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 9:32am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/tagging-recommendation-acts-as-taggable-on-steroids-best/45925/2 "2009-09-10T09:32:21Z")

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Hi

I agree with phillip suggstion.

@max, Don’t go with steroids as it has limitations for multiple taggings like ( tags, skills, interests ) that were extended in acts\_as\_taggable\_on

Sandip

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**Author:** ![11175](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/8edcca/32.png) [@11175](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/11175)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 9:43am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/tagging-recommendation-acts-as-taggable-on-steroids-best/45925/3 "2009-09-10T09:43:31Z")

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Sandip Ransing wrote:

> Hi
> 
> I agree with phillip suggstion.
> 
> @max, Don't go with steroids as it has limitations for multiple taggings like ( tags, skills, interests ) that were extended in acts\_as\_taggable\_on
> 
> Sandip
> 
> -- Ruby on Rails Developer [http://funonrails.wordpress.com](http://funonrails.wordpress.com) www.joshsoftware.com

Thanks for the suggestions guys. We already have some tagging in place, using machine tags to delineate different kinds of tagging, eg "note:name=Eb", so i think we would stick with that system. Maybe that's how acts\_as\_taggable\_on does it under the hood? Anyway i'll look it that.

thanks! max

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Philip\_Hallstrom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Philip\_Hallstrom](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Philip_Hallstrom)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/tagging-recommendation-acts-as-taggable-on-steroids-best/45925/4 "2009-09-10T15:34:10Z")

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> > Hi
> > 
> > I agree with phillip suggstion.
> > 
> > @max, Don't go with steroids as it has limitations for multiple taggings like ( tags, skills, interests ) that were extended in acts\_as\_taggable\_on
> > 
> > Sandip
> > 
> > -- Ruby on Rails Developer [http://funonrails.wordpress.com](http://funonrails.wordpress.com) www.joshsoftware.com
> 
> Thanks for the suggestions guys. We already have some tagging in place, using machine tags to delineate different kinds of tagging, eg "note:name=Eb", so i think we would stick with that system. Maybe that's how acts\_as\_taggable\_on does it under the hood? Anyway i'll look it that.

It doesn't. Here's the migrations... It uses the 'context' field.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;create\_table :tags do |t| &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;t.column :name, :string &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;end

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;create\_table :taggings do |t| &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;t.column :tag\_id, :integer &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;t.column :taggable\_id, :integer &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;t.column :tagger\_id, :integer &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;t.column :tagger\_type, :string

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;# You should make sure that the column created is &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;# long enough to store the required class names. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;t.column :taggable\_type, :string, :limit =\> 32 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;t.column :context, :string, :limit =\> 32

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;t.column :created\_at, :datetime &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;end