Design pattern for a report with input data and configuration in Rails -

i need present user profile publicly, in user can choose show , not show. design is:

class report < activerecord::base   belongs_to :user_data   belongs_to :report_config   delegate :show_name, :show_address, :to => :report_config   delegate :name, :address, :to => :user_data   def filter_data     report = self.user_data     report.name = nil if show_name.false?     report.address = nil if show_address.false?     return report   end end   class userdata  < activerecord::base  has_many :report end  class reportconfig  < activerecord::base   has_many :report end 

however, not design, because calling filter_data on report object return child object. how can allow report have attributes child objects?

i thinking of inheritance (i.e., report inherits userdata , reportconfig, won't work). other design patterns fit problem?

you can delegate attributes of user model want meta programming in ruby.

class report < activerecord::base   belongs_to :user_data   belongs_to :report_config   delegate :show_name, :show_address, :to => :report_config    self.class_eval     #reject attributes don't want delegate     userdata.new.attribute_names.reject { |n| %w(id created_at updated_at).include?(n) }.each |n|       delegate n , to: :user_data     end   end    def filter_data         name = nil if show_name.false?     address = nil if show_address.false?       end end 

when use it, initialize report:

report = report.find_by_user_data_id(your user data id) report.filter_data  report.name report.address report..... 

on other hand, need report object? using userdata , reportconfig?

class userdata  < activerecord::base   belongs_to :report_config   delegate :show_name, :show_address, :to => :report_config    def report_name     name if show_name   end    def report_address     address if show_address   end       end  class reportconfig  < activerecord::base  end 

i don't know detailed requirement , try supply option. hope helps :)