Model and controller design approach for polymorphic assocation

Question

Below I have outlined the structure of a polymorphic association.

In VacationsController I put some comments inline describing my current issue. However, I wanted to post this to see if my whole approach here is a little off. You can see in business_vacations_controller and staff_vacations_controller that I've had to make 'getters' for the model and controller so that I can access them from within vacations_model so I know which type of object I'm dealing with. Although it works, it's starting to feel a little questionable.

Is there a better 'best practice' for what I'm trying to accomplish?

models

vacation.rb

 class Vacation < ActiveRecord::Base
   belongs_to :vacationable, :polymorphic => true
 end

business.rb

 class Business < ActiveRecord::Base
   has_many :vacations, :as => :vacationable
 end

staff.rb

 class Staff < ActiveRecord::Base
   has_many :vacations, :as => :vacationable
 end

business_vacation.rb

 class BusinessVacation < Vacation
 end

staff_vacation.rb

 class StaffVacation < Vacation
 end

controllers

business_vacations_controller.rb

 class BusinessVacationsController < VacationsController

   private

     def controller_str
       "business_schedules"
     end

     def my_model
       BusinessVacation
     end

     def my_model_str
       "business_vacation"
     end

 end

staff_vacations_controller.rb

 class StaffVacationsController < VacationsController

   private

     def controller_str
       "staff_schedules"
     end

     def my_model
       StaffVacation
     end

     def my_model_str
       "staff_vacation"
     end

 end

vacations_controller.rb

 class VacationsController < ApplicationController

   def create
     # Build the vacation object with either an instance of BusinessVacation or StaffVacation

     vacation = @class.new(params[my_model_str])

     # Now here's the current issue -- I want to save the object on the association. So if it's a 'BusinessVacation' object I want to save something like:

     business = Business.find(vacation.vacationable_id)
     business.vacations.build
     business.save

     # But if it's a 'StaffVacation' object I want to save something like:

     staff = Staff.find(vacation.vacationable_id)
     staff.vacations.build
     staff.save

     # I could do an 'if' statement, but I don't really like that idea. Is there a better way?

     respond_to do |format|
       format.html { redirect_to :controller => controller_str, :action => "index", :id => vacation.vacationable_id }
     end

   end

   private
     def select_class
       @class = Kernel.const_get(params[:class])
     end
 end

Answer 1

It feels like a lot of hoops to jump through in the VacationsController to make it aware of the context. Is there a reason that the StaffVacationsController and BusinessVacationsController couldn't each have a #create action and the views would submit to whichever is appropriate? These actions would already know the model context and be able to redirect to the appropriate url afterward.