What Model Association?

rubyonrails-talk
1

I have the following two models and am not quite sure how they should be associated.

- Car - CarWashStation

At any given time, an instance of Car will be at (belong to?) one of a dozen car wash stations. What associations should I use (if any) between these models?

Thanks in advance!

Mark

2

I would anticipate a CarWashing model, which has_one Car and one CarWashStation, along with details about the time of the washing, what soap was used, and which attendants conducted it (through an AttendantsCarWashings join table), etc. A Car would then have many CarWashings, and a named scope could give the current_car_washing. Or something like that.

3

I just realized CarWashStation might be misleading. Each station refers to one "activity location" that the car mush move through per wash. A few example instances might be:

- Soap Application Station - Bristle Brush Station - Wax Station - Dry Station

4

The car exists independently of a CarWashStation.

A CarWashStation can perform these [Enumerated] functions on a Class of Vehicle [such as a car].

Version 0.

5

That sounds like a CarWashing should have a state-machine to manage transitions between stations (rather than stations being models of their own). You could have sub-types of CarWashing that would provide different combinations of states (for the simple Wash'n'Wax to the full-on hand-finished-chamois-wipe-down-with-under-body-jet-wash).

6

I'll look into what a state machine is. Thanks for that.

Each station currently has many to do items as well as a uptime status and employees operating in that station. Does it still make sense for stations to not be their own model?