choosing between category and then by many subcategories

Question

I have some question, I will try to explain.

I want to build categorization, that provides such functions. I have some big category such Waste recycling equipment under that is subcategories such choppers then again I have subcategories.

I want to build categorization system that allows when I create new product chose such route to categories.

I want to know what is the best way to provide such function to my app ?

Any suggestions?

acts_as_taggable provide such functions ?

Thanks !

Answer 1

I've used the gem ancestry for similar purposes. This would at least provide support in the model layer for the tree structure that you're talking about.

RailsCasts has done a tutorial about it.

To play with ancestry, I would recommend using the rails console, for example like this:

# category.rb

class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessor :name, :parent
  has_ancestry
end

# rails console

~/Rails/CTK/jwbc[master] $ rails console
Loading development environment (Rails 3.2.11)
1.9.3p286 > main = Category.create(name: "Main category")
# => created
1.9.3p286 > sub1 = Category.create(name: "First subcategory", parent: main)
# => created
1.9.3p286 > sub2 = Category.create(name: "Sub-subcategory"), parent: sub1)
# => created
1.9.3p286 > main.children
# => Would return sub1
1.9.3p286 > main.descendants
# => Returns sub1 and sub2
1.9.3p286 > Category.at_depth(1)
# => Returns all subcategories, in this case sub1