I have several user types in my app. I use Devise for authentication. I started with just a User model and that’s where all the Devise attributes are.
Later I added more user types and chose to use inheritance, so now I have something like this:
# user.rb
class User << ActiveRecord::Base
... basic Devise stuff
... basic user methods like full_name etc
end
# owner.rb
class Owner << User
... owner-specific associations
... extra methods/scopes specific to owners
end
# teacher.rb
class Teacher << User
... teacher-specific associations
... extra methods/scopes specific to teachers
end
# family.rb
class Family << User
... teacher-specific associations
... extra methods/scopes specific to families
end
It worked fine for a while but, predictably, requirements arose for owners to have a stripe_customer_id column, teachers to have a lesson_template column and families to have secondary_email column. More type-specific attributes are coming with future features so I’d like to improve this now rather than later.
I’ve been advised to do it instead with Composition but I haven’t quite grasped how. Could somebody show an example of how I might achieve it? And is it an easy move or am I too committed to this method to change it now?