Best Practices for Multiple Model Creation

[Matthew Johnston]

So I have a few models that need to be created, but only based on a few inputs. There is no need for nested attributes, in fact I would rather avoid this.

The way I have been doing it is like so

class WidgetsController < ApplicationController

  def create

    respond_to do |format|

      if current_user.create_widget(params[:foo])

        flash[:success] = "Processed your request"

      else

        flash[:error] = "There was a problem processing your request"

      end

      format.html { redirect_to widgets_path }

    end

  end

end

class User < ActiveRecord::Base

  def create_widget params

    User.transaction do

      widget = self.widgets.build.save!

      widget.blinky_lights.build(params[:foo]).save!

      true

    end

  end

end

In this contrived example, Widget is basically an entity that other crap will hang from. Is this even a decent build pattern or does someone have a better idea of how to handle a case like this.