how (replace|create) an enum field on rails 2.0 migrations? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I would like to create an enum field at sone migration I'm doing, I tried searching in google but I can't find the way to do it in the migration
the only thing I found was
t.column :status, :enum, :limit => [:accepted, :cancelled, :pending]
but looks like the above code runs only on rails 1.xxx and since I'm running rails 2.0
this what I tried but it fails
class CreatePayments < ActiveRecord::Migration
def self.up
create_table :payments do |t|
t.string :concept
t.integer :user_id
t.text :notes
t.enum :status, :limit => [:accepted, :cancelled, :pending]
t.timestamps
end
end
def self.down
drop_table :payments
end
end
So, in case that isn't allowed, what do you think could be a good solution? just a text field, and validating from the model?

Answer 1

You can manually specify the type by using the t.column method instead. Rails will interpret this as a string column, and you can simply add a validator to the model like Pavel suggested:
class CreatePayments < ActiveRecord::Migration
def self.up
create_table :payments do |t|
t.string :concept
t.integer :user_id
t.text :notes
t.column :status, "ENUM('accepted', 'cancelled', 'pending')"
t.timestamps
end
end
def self.down
drop_table :payments
end
end
class Payment < ActiveRecord::Base
validates_inclusion_of :status, :in => %w(accepted cancelled pending)
end

Answer 2

Look at tip #3 on http://zargony.com/2008/04/28/five-tips-for-developing-rails-applications
This exactly what you need!
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
validates_inclusion_of :status, :in => [:active, :inactive]
def status
read_attribute(:status).to_sym
end
def status= (value)
write_attribute(:status, value.to_s)
end
end
HTH

Answer 3

You can try the (very) comprehensive jeff's enumerated_attribute gem OR go with this simple workaround:
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
SEX = [:male, :female]
def sex
SEX[read_attribute(:sex)]
end
def sex=(value)
write_attribute(:sex, SEX.index(value))
end
end
And then declare the sex attribute as an integer:
t.integer :sex
This worked very fine for me! =D

Answer 4

I have dozens of these little enums, with 3-300 entries in each. I implement them as lookup tables. I don't have a model file for each one; I use some metaprogramming to generate a model for each, since each table has the same set of columns (id, name, description).
Since some of the sets had enough elements to warrant their own table, it was more consistent to move them all to tables. Just another option if you'll have more of these enums later.
EDIT: Here's how I generate the models:
ACTIVE_RECORD_ENUMS = %w{
AccountState
ClientType
Country
# ...
}
ACTIVE_RECORD_ENUMS.each do |klass|
eval "class #{klass} < ActiveRecord::Base; end"
klass.constantize.class_eval do
class << self
def id_for(name)
ids[name.to_s.strip.humanize.downcase]
end
def value_for(id)
values[id.to_i]
end
def values
#values ||= find(:all).inject({}) {|h,m| h[m.send(primary_key)] = m.name; h}
end
def ids
#ids ||= self.values.inject({}) {|h, {k, v}| h[v.downcase] = k; h}
end
end
end
end
This file lives in the models directory, and is included in application_config.rb. This lets me do stuff like this:
AccountState.ids
# => {"active" => 1, "deleted" => 2}
AccountState.values
# => {1 => "Active", 2 => "Deleted"}
AccountState.id_for("Active")
# => 1
AccountState.value_for(1)
# => "active"

Answer 5

Have you looked at the enum-column plugin on RubyForge?

Answer 6

Similarly, the enumerated_attribute gem manages enums at the object level.
enum_attr :status, %w(accepted cancelled ^pending)
Define a string in the migration
t.string :status
Also provides some nice features like dynamic predicate methods.
http://github.com/jeffp/enumerated_attribute/tree/master

Answer 7

Add the following:
module ActiveRecord
module ConnectionAdapters #:nodoc:
class TableDefinition
def enum(*args)
options = args.extract_options!
column_names = args
column_names.each { |name| column(name, 'enum', options) }
end
end
end
end
to lib/enum/table_definition.rb and include it in your init.rb.

Answer 8

ok, just read the whole rails api and found what I neeed and I dont like :(
Rails doesn't support emum as native type on migrations, here is the info, I need to search for a plugin or other method.
I will keep you posted.

Answer 9

Another option: drop to SQL.
def self.up
execute "ALTER TABLE `payments` ADD `status` ENUM('accepted', 'cancelled', 'pending')"
end

Answer 10

With simple_form i use this:
<%= f.input :gender, :collection => {'Male' => 'male','Female' => 'female'}, :include_blank => false %>