How can I inizialize that ActiveRecord Tableless Model? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am using Ruby on Rails 3 and I would like to inizialize an ActiveRecord Tableless Model.
In my model I have:
class Account < ActiveRecord::Base
# The following ActiveRecord Tableless Model statement is from http://codetunes.com/2008/07/20/tableless-models-in-rails/
def self.columns()
#columns ||= [];
end
def self.column(name, sql_type = nil, default = nil, null = true)
columns << ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::Column.new(name.to_s, default, sql_type.to_s, null)
end
attr_reader :id,
:firstname,
:lastname,
def initialize(attributes = {})
#id = attributes[:id]
#firstname = attributes[:firstname]
#lastname = attributes[:lastname]
end
end
If in a controller, for example in the application_controller.rb file, I do:
#new_account = Account.new({:id => "1", :firstname => "Test name", :lastname => "Test lastname"})
a debug\inspect output of the #new_account variable is
"#<Account >"
Why? How I should inizialize properly that ActiveRecord Tableless Model and make it to work?

Answer 1

According to that blog post it would have to look like this:
class Account < ActiveRecord::Base
class_inheritable_accessor :columns
def self.columns()
#columns ||= [];
end
def self.column(name, sql_type = nil, default = nil, null = true)
columns << ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::Column.new(name.to_s, default, sql_type.to_s, null)
end
column :id, :integer
column :firstname, :string
column :lastname, :string
end
And then:
#new_account = Account.new({:id => "1", :firstname => "Test name", :lastname => "Test lastname"})
Did you already try it like that?

Answer 2

I my view, you don't need to extend ActiveRecord::Base class.
You can write your own model class something like this
# models/letter.rb
class Letter
attr_reader :char
def self.all
('A'..'Z').map { |c| new(c) }
end
def self.find(param)
all.detect { |l| l.to_param == param } || raise(ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound)
end
def initialize(char)
#char = char
end
def to_param
#char.downcase
end
def products
Product.find(:all, :conditions => ["name LIKE ?", #char + '%'], :order => "name")
end
end
# letters_controller.rb
def index
#letters = Letter.all
end
def show
#letter = Letter.find(params[:id])
end
I hope it will help you.
Reference: http://railscasts.com/episodes/121-non-active-record-model