Efficient way to count associated objects in Rails 4 - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am looking for a way to show a count of how many images there are for a category but obtained through a has_many association. I have been reading a little on counter_cache but as yet no joy on an implementation
class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :image_categories
has_many :images, through: :image_categories
end
class ImageCategory < ActiveRecord::Base
# Holds image_id and category_id to allow multiple categories to be saved per image, as opposed to storing an array of objects in one DB column
belongs_to :image
belongs_to :category
end
class Image < ActiveRecord::Base
# Categories
has_many :image_categories, dependent: :destroy
has_many :categories, through: :image_categories
end
Controller
#categories = Category.all
View
<% #categories.each do |c| %>
<li>
<%= link_to '#', data: { :filter => '.' + c.name.delete(' ') } do %>
<%= c.name %> (<%= #count here %>)
<% end %>
</li>
<% end %>

Answer 1

A couple important things to consider with counter_cache:
Certain Rails methods can update the database while bypassing callbacks (for instance update_column, update_all, increment, decrement, delete_all, etc.) and can cause inconsistent values for a counter cache. Same applies to any database changes outside of Rails.
Creating/deleting a child model always requires updating the parent. To ensure consistency of the counter cache Rails uses an additional DB transaction during this update. This usually isn't a problem but can cause database deadlocks if your child model is created/deleted frequently, or if the parent model is updated frequently. (http://building.wanelo.com/2014/06/20/counter-cache-a-story-of-counting.html)
These problems will be exacerbated since you're using a counter cache across a join table.
If you want to do an efficient dynamic count, that's always up to date, then you can use a custom select with a grouped join:
#categories = Category.select("categories.*, COUNT(DISTINCT images.id) AS images_count").joins(:images).group("categories.id")
<% #categories.find_each do |c| %>
<li>
<%= link_to '#', data: { :filter => '.' + c.name.delete(' ') } do %>
<%= c.name %> (<%= c.images_count # <- dynamic count column %>)
<% end %>
</li>
<% end %>
The cost of this grouped join should be very small provided your foreign keys are indexed, and I'd strongly consider taking this approach if you need images_count to always be consistent with the true value, or if images are frequently being created or destroyed. This approach may also be easier to maintain in the long run.

Answer 2

Since you are looking for an efficient way, i would suggest using counter_cache
Here is how your models should look like:
class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :image_categories
has_many :images, through: :image_categories
end
class ImageCategory < ActiveRecord::Base
# Holds image_id and category_id to allow multiple categories to be saved per image, as opposed to storing an array of objects in one DB column
belongs_to :image, counter_cache: :category_count
belongs_to :category, counter_cache: :image_count
end
class Image < ActiveRecord::Base
# Categories
has_many :image_categories, dependent: :destroy
has_many :categories, through: :image_categories
end
You'll need to add image_count field to your categories table and category_count in images table.
Once you are done adding the counters and fields, you'd need to reset the counters so that the fields are updated with the correct count values for the records already present in your db.
Category.find_each { |category| Category.reset_counters(category.id, :images) }
Image.find_each { |image| Image.reset_counters(image.id, :categories) }