Interacting with JSONB Columns Like an Active Record Resource

Working with JSONB columns in your Active Record models doesn’t have to be messy. By leveraging the Active Model API, you can treat JSONB data with the same elegance as regular Active Record resources.

Why JSONB?

PostgreSQL’s JSONB is a binary JSON format that provides validation and faster processing. It’s perfect for storing configuration data, user preferences, and other semi-structured data alongside your regular model attributes.

Active Model to the Rescue

Active Model serves as the foundation for Active Record, and its modules can be used independently to add powerful features to plain Ruby objects.

Key Modules

ActiveModel::API

Adds validation capabilities to your JSONB-backed class:

class Pricing
  include ActiveModel::API
  validates :amount, presence: true
end

ActiveModel::Serialization

Provides serializable_hash for easy storage back to the JSONB column.

ActiveModel::Callbacks

Enables lifecycle hooks like before_save for tasks such as normalizing prices before persistence.

ActiveModel::Dirty

Tracks attribute changes — for example, restricting billing cycle modifications to the first of the month.

Putting It Together

The complete Pricing class combines all modules. The save method persists data to the parent Company model’s JSONB column, while update manages attribute assignment gracefully.

Conclusion

By combining Active Model modules, you can create rich, validated, trackable objects that live inside JSONB columns — giving you the flexibility of schemaless data with the safety of Active Record patterns.