Database Schema & Models

Relevant source files

The following files were used as context for generating this wiki page:

• db/schema.rb
• db/seeds.rb
• config/database.yml
• config/application.rb
• app/controllers/my_news_items_controller.rb
• lib/task_helpers/state_shapefile_request.rb

The Actionmap application utilizes a relational database to manage information regarding political representatives, geographical entities (states and counties), user interactions, and news items. The system is designed to provide a mapping between administrative regions and the officials who represent them, while allowing users to track and rate news articles related to specific political issues.

The persistence layer is built on ActiveRecord, supporting multiple database adapters including SQLite3 for development and testing, and PostgreSQL for production environments. The schema defines clear relationships between geography (States -> Counties), representation (Representatives -> News Items), and user-generated content (Users -> Ratings).

Database Configuration

The application supports environment-specific database configurations. Development and testing environments use SQLite3, while the production environment is configured for PostgreSQL.

Environment	Adapter	Database/URL
Development	sqlite3	db/development.sqlite3
Test	sqlite3	db/test.sqlite3
Production	postgresql	Derived from DATABASE_URL

Sources: config/database.yml:29-57, config/application.rb:26-28

Entity Relationship Overview

The following diagram illustrates the primary entities and their relationships within the Actionmap system.

The schema establishes a hierarchical geographical structure and a separate structure for political representation and user feedback.
Sources: db/schema.rb:14-100

Core Data Models

Geographical Models

The application tracks administrative divisions to localize news and events. States contain multiple counties, which are the base unit for local events.

Model	Field	Type	Constraints
State	name	string	null: false
	symbol	string	null: false
	fips_code	integer	limit: 1, null: false
	is_territory	integer	null: false
	lat_min/max	float	null: false
County	name	string	null: false
	state_id	integer	null: false, index
	fips_code	integer	limit: 2, null: false

Sources: db/schema.rb:14-23, db/schema.rb:71-82

Political Representation & News

The representatives table stores information about officials, while news_items links these officials to specific media coverage and political issues.

Model	Field	Type	Description
Representative	name	string	Full name of the official
	ocdid	string	Open Civic Data Identifier
	party	string	Political affiliation
	address	string	Official contact address
NewsItem	title	string	Headline of the news item
	link	string	URL to the article
	representative_id	integer	Foreign key to representatives
	issue	string	The specific political topic

Sources: db/schema.rb:40-50, db/schema.rb:58-68

Data Persistence & Session Management

The application utilizes ActiveRecord::SessionStore to persist user sessions in the database rather than using cookies for data storage. This is configured in the application initialization.

The sessions table includes a unique session_id and a data text field for serialized session information.
Sources: config/application.rb:27, db/schema.rb:51-57

Data Flow: News Item Selection and Rating

A specialized flow exists for users to find and rate news items for representatives. This involves temporary storage in the session before persisting a rating.

This flow allows users to interact with external news data and record their personal sentiment (rating) against specific articles within the local database.
Sources: app/controllers/my_news_items_controller.rb:16-56, db/schema.rb:31-39

Seed and Task Integration

The database is populated using seed scripts that ingest JSON and CSV data to establish the initial state and county records.

• Geographical Seeding: Reads from lib/assets/counties_fips_data/ to link counties to their parent states via state_id.
• Shapefile Requests: The StateShapefileRequest class manages the metadata for geographical boundaries (TopoJSON/GeoJSON), linking FIPS codes in the database to external spatial files.

Sources: db/seeds.rb:16-25, lib/task_helpers/state_shapefile_request.rb:21-30

Conclusion

The Actionmap database schema is structured to support a localized political information system. By separating geographical data (States/Counties) from representation (Representatives/NewsItems) and user interactions (Users/Ratings), the system provides a robust framework for tracking political discourse at various administrative levels. The use of an ActiveRecord-backed session store and explicit FIPS code tracking ensures data consistency across geographical and political queries.