ruby on rails architecture model, view and DTOs -

i .net guy , try understand concept behind rails , active record stuff.

as can see in examples assume view 1:1 copy of model. in reality that´s not true.

like view holds customer and contact person(s) not related customer. user should able edit both (customer , contact person(s) in 1 view e.g.)

in every example see bind view directly 1 activerecord object. stuff model, validation , on bind 1 object mapped directly database.

could rails guy explain what´s elegant way work active record in real life applications in complex model situations? in first moment thinking dtos not imagine way go rails.

agree john....

you asked: "like view holds customer , contact person(s) not related customer. user should able edit both (customer , contact person(s) in 1 view e.g.)"

ok, customer model has employees, right? if not, replace "employee" "person"

/app/model/customer.rb

class customer < activerecord::base   has_many :employees   accepts_nested_attributes_for :employees end 

/app/model/employee.rb

class employee < activerecord::base   belongs_to :customer end 

then in view of customer /app/views/customers/show.html.erb

<%= form_for(@customer) |f| %>   <%= f.text_field :name %>  .... yada yada ....   <%= f.fields_for(:employees) |ef} %>     <%= ef.text_field :first_name%>     <%= ef.text_field :phone %>  <% end %>  <%= f.submit %>  <% end %> 

the above has 1 form lets save customer , it's employees. called nested form, , think job of needing "view models".

if keep grouped how real-life grouped, goes pretty simple.