IT Really Matters

Reasons not use Rails Single-Table-Inheritance

Thu, 29 Dec 2016 16:02:02 +0200

Long time not written anything in here, but I’d like to rant a little about Rails’ single-table-inheritance (STI) half-assed support.

I’m doing a project where using an STI started to make sense when looking from a database/models perspective so I thought to give Rails’s STI support a try.

As a sidenote - I’ve used it before at another projects, but with really simple cases.

It turns out that everything does not work as expected in ActiveRecord when using STI and I did spend almost a day to refactor code so that STI would start to work. In the end I reverted everything and ditched STI.

Here’s why.

1) ActiveRecord needs you to specify actual table names in #where statements so you end up writing code where association names and table names are mixed in a single line (#includes takes an association name of course). See #27495.

2) ActiveRecord does not make it easy to create aliases for associations in STI sub-classes so that using specific associations instead of a more generic ones would be possible. See #27496.

3) SQL queries are getting more complex due to automatic inclusion of type everywhere.

4) It’s quite easy to fetch records from all STI related “models” since you need to mix-and-match table-names with association names (see point number 2 above).

Now I’m writing code without using STI and using similar code sharing techniques via some other means and having a little duplication at database side instead.

Funny Programming Comment #81

Tue, 23 Dec 2014 17:00:21 +0200

if (/*you*/ $_GET[‘action’]) { //celebrate

Funny Programming Comment #80

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 17:00:19 +0200

//3.4 JeK My manager promised me a lap dance if I can fix this release
//3.5 JeK Still waiting for that dance from my manager
//3.6 JeK My manager got changed, the new manager is hairy, dont want the dance anymore
//3.7 Jek Got that dance, yuck!

Funny Programming Comment #79

Tue, 09 Dec 2014 17:01:20 +0200

// Catching exceptions is for communists

Funny Programming Comment #78

Tue, 02 Dec 2014 17:00:27 +0200

In drivers/net/sunhme.c (Linux kernel):
/* Welcome to Sun Microsystems, can I take your order please? */
if(!hp->happy_flags & HFLAG_FENABLE)
return happy_meal_bb_write(hp, tregs, reg, value);

/* Would you like fries with that? */
hme_write32(hp, &tregs->frame,
(FRAME_WRITE | (hp->paddr << 23) |
((reg & 0xff) << 18) | (value & 0xffff)));
while(!(hme_read32(hp, &tregs->frame) & 0x10000) && –tries)
udelay(20);

/* Anything else? */
if(!tries)
printk(KERN_ERR “happy meal: Aieee, transceiver MIF write bolixed\n”);

/* Fifty-two cents is your change, have a nice day. */

Funny Programming Comment #77

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 17:00:12 +0200

long time; /* know C */

Funny Programming Comment #76

Tue, 18 Nov 2014 17:00:31 +0200

/*
after hours of consulting the tome of google
i have discovered that by the will of unknown forces
without the below line, IE7 believes that 6px = 12px
*/
font-size: 0px;

Funny Programming Comment #75

Tue, 11 Nov 2014 17:00:13 +0200

Repeat
…
Until (JesusChristsReturn) ’ Not sure

Funny Programming Comment #74

Tue, 04 Nov 2014 17:00:26 +0200

//MailBody builders for two outgoing messages
StringBuilder hanz = new StringBuilder();
StringBuilder franz = new StringBuilder();

Funny Programming Comment #73

Tue, 26 Aug 2014 17:00:26 +0300

// TODO: Fix this.  Fix what?

Funny Programming Comment #72

Tue, 19 Aug 2014 17:00:05 +0300

def format_ticket_content(text, recursive = true)
  if text.is_a?(TicketNote)
    note = text
    text = note.content
  else
    note = nil
  end

  ## Safety pig has arrived!
  text = h(text)
  ##                               _
  ##  _._ _..._ .-',     _.._(`))
  ## '-. `     '  /-._.-'    ',/
  ##    )         \            '.
  ##   / _    _    |             \
  ##  |  a    a    /              |
  ##  \   .-.                     ;  
  ##   '-('' ).-'       ,'       ;
  ##      '-;           |      .'
  ##         \           \    /
  ##         | 7  .__  _.-\   \
  ##         | |  |  ``/  /`  /
  ##        /,_|  |   /,_/   /
  ##           /,_/      '`-'
  ##

Funny Programming Comment #71

Tue, 12 Aug 2014 17:00:08 +0300

// John! If you'll svn remove this once more,
// I'll shut you, for God's sake!
// That piece of code is not “something strange”!
// That is THE AUTH VALIDATION.

Funny Programming Comment #70

Tue, 05 Aug 2014 17:00:13 +0300

* ...and don't just declare it volatile and think you've solved
 * the problem. You young punks think you know what volatile
 * means... why in my day we had to cast it volatile uphill
 * both ways, and the code still didn't work! Whippersnappers...

Funny Programming Comment #69

Tue, 29 Jul 2014 17:00:16 +0300

virgin = 0;     /* you're not a virgin anymore, sweety */

Funny Programming Comment #68

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 17:00:25 +0300

public boolean isDirty() {
    //Why do you always go out and
    return dirty;
}

Funny Programming Comment #67

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 17:00:25 +0300

try {

}
catch (SQLException ex) {
    // Basically, without saying too much, you're screwed. Royally and totally.
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
    //If you thought you were screwed before, boy have I news for you!!!
}

Funny Programming Comment #66

Tue, 15 Jul 2014 17:00:28 +0300

class Act //That's me!!!
{

}

Funny Programming Comment #65

Tue, 08 Jul 2014 17:00:03 +0300

// This comment is self explanatory.

Funny Programming Comment #64

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 17:00:09 +0300

} catch (PartInitException pie) {
// Mmm… pie

Funny Programming Comment #63

Tue, 24 Jun 2014 17:00:16 +0300

// this comment included for the benefit of anyone grepping for swearwords: shit.