Models and Virtual Database Fields

[eluser]andyy[/eluser]
[quote author="Shaun Andrews" date="1288144555"]Hi All,
I want my Budgets model to hold information that doesn't exist within the database. For instance, I want to be able to store the current cycle's spent amount, remaining amount, and status (under, at, or over budget) within each instance of the Budgets object. This information is not something I want (or should) store in the database, as its constantly changing and is based on a number of outside variables (i.e. expenses, date, cycle).[/quote]
Creating a table that holds the "constantly changing" information may be the only way. You could link a specific row in the "constantly changing" table to the id's in your budget and expense tables for a proper relationship, controlling the contents with properly designed methods.

I don't see any other way to do it, unless you run methods when you need the "constantly changing" data to appear in the interface, maybe leveraging sessions to carry this data throughout.