How to combine two models in one RoR acts_as_tree treeview?

Question

I have two simple models each with acts_as_tree, say Departments and Employees. My goal is to create a treeview combining both models in to one overall tree, like so:

• Department 1
  • SubDepartment 1.1
    • Employee A
    • Employee B
  • SubDepartment 1.2
• Department 2
  
  • Subdepartment 2.1
    • Employee C
• Department 3
  • SubDepartment 3.1
    • Employee D
    • Employee E
  • Subdepartment 3.2

etc

I found this already: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2142285/acts-as-tree-with-multiple-models but I'm afraid I could use a little more pointers in the right direction.

Thanks!

Answer 1

So your schema is like this?

Department
  acts_as_tree  #requires departments.parent_id field
  has_many :employees

Employee
  belongs_to :department #requires employees.department_id field

I would just stick with this rather than trying to make the tree 'know' about employees. The only things that have the tree relationship are the departments. The employees belong to a department but they're not part of the tree structure.

As far as editing goes, then, when you change a department you set parent_id to be the id of its parent in the tree, and when you move an employee you set department_id to be the id of its 'parent'.

What's your actual problem? I mean what are you trying to do?