Philip, Thanks for the post. This was kind of what I was thinking... but I am still unsure about it (or some of it). For example, what if the product has a detailed description that includes something like "includes 2 free wuzzits". And so I order that product. But later, the store owner changes the description to say "includes 3 free wuzzits". It's still the same product, but the description is different. So would you include the description on the line item?
And what about the case where it's not a product that's offered but more like a service. I guess you could still consider a line item for the service, but it's fuzzier, at least to me. I've thought of: having "locked" products (or services) that can't be changed... just disabled. I've thought of including all the necessary fields on the "line item" record I've thought of using versioning (a couple plugins out there) I've thought of doing nothing but having the application make it clear to the store owner that if they materially change information about a product or service, it will be reflected in previous orders. None of these seem perfect... they each have their pluses and minuses. Any more thoughts/advice? Thanks, -Danimal On Sep 17, 9:22 pm, Philip Hallstrom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I have a conundrum that I'm _sure_ someone else has already thought of > > and solved. How does one best handle the scenario of association > > object changes and data integrity? > > > For example, if I have a standard ecommerce site that sells Products > > and people can have Orders and an Order has_many Products... then, > > what happens if Product #3 is part of Order #2 but at some point, the > > shop owner goes in and edits Product #3 to change it's description... > > or it's price... or marks it as "no longer for sale"? Now, Order #2 is > > referencing Product #3 via the association but the data in Product #3 > > is no longer the right data for the Order? > > > I can imagine a number of ways to handle this, but none of them seem > > ideal. I'm curious what people do in this type of (very?) common > > scenario. > > Once a product is put into an order it becomes a "line item". The > line item has the sku, quantity and price at the time it was added. > I'd also put in a description which would be the product name and you > may as well associate it with the product, but don't ever look at the > product's price -- just the line items price. > > In the case where you want to delete a product, simply flag it as > unavailable/old/expired/hidden or something instead. That way you can > still go see the original product from a given order if you wanted to. > > -philip --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
