ActiveRecord – Tableless Model

If you want to create an ActiveRecord model without any table reference, and want to add validation for that model means, you can go with this example code.

In app/models/base_model.rb

class BaseModel < ActiveRecord::Base
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

# Override the save method to prevent exceptions.
def save(validate = true)
validate ? valid? : true
end
end

In app/models/post.rb

class Article < BaseModel
column :title, :string
validates_presence_of :title
end

In script/console

Loading development environment (Rails 2.2.2)
>> article = Article.new
=> #<Article title: nil>
>> article.valid?
=> false
>> article.errors
=> #<ActiveRecord::Errors:0x235b270 @errors={“title”=>[“can’t be blank”]}, @base=#<Article title: nil>>


Reference Links:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/315850/rails-model-without-database/
http://railscasts.com/episodes/193-tableless-model
http://agilewebdevelopment.com/plugins/activerecord_base_without_table