How do I stop ActiveRecord looking for a table?

Question

I am trying to create an ActiveRecord model called 'Search' without a table. I keep getting this error when I do @search = Search.new.

sql::Error: Table 'searchdemo_development.tablelesses' doesn't exist: SELECT * FROM tablelesses

I am using the idea from this comment: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/315850/rails-model-without-database/318919#318919. I also get the same kind of error doing the basic:

class Search < ActiveRecord::Base

end

How do I get ActiveRecord stop looking for a table?

Answer 1

Why in the name of the lord would you want an actve record model without a table? The purpose of an active record model is to communicate with a database. I assume that it is impossible to have an active record model without a db table.

Perhaps you want a regular class?

class Search
  # your methods here
end

Answer 2

I can think of a few reasons you might want to do something like this. Perhaps you want to leverage some of the non-db-related methods on ActiveRecord or you want to pass your object to something that expects and ActiveRecord instance. Without more info, it is impossible to say whether the choice to use AR here is correct or incorrect.

In any event, if you want to continue on this path...

check out this Railscast http://railscasts.com/episodes/121-non-active-record-model

and also checkout this gem: http://github.com/kennethkalmer/activerecord-tableless-models/tree/master