Comments on: acts_without_database: Leverage ActiveRecord with Non-Database Backed Objects

By: D James

D James — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 09:33:46 +0000

I just want to point out a situation this is directly applicable to: credit card processing. Smaller online merchants don’t want to store credit card data in their databases for liability reasons. Still, when developing for such merchants, we need to be able to take advantage of ActiveRecord validation and such.

I feel we’d all benefit from a tested example that uses ActiveRecord and acts_without_database side-by-side to offer a good solution for venders. I’ve spent hours trying to piece together a solid credit card processing application – and I know I’m neither the first nor will I be the last (hint hint).

By: jc

jc — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:08:40 +0000

Try this one out:
github.com/jcnetdev/active_record_without_table

It uses a different Parent object, however, I think it’ll work better for your purposes.

By: Anthony Caliendo

Anthony Caliendo — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:35:13 +0000

It will work with multiple classes because of how “class_variable_set” and “class_variable_get” work; when they execute, their scope will be unique for each class.

If you were to directly access “@@acts_without_database_columns” instead of through the reflection methods, then it would break.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:31:06 +0000

Looks pretty cool. Quick question though: doesn’t it break if you use it twice in the same app? The code looks like it would be better off with eigenclass instance variables instead of class variables.