Adding Posts To A Collection with Join Models - ruby-on-rails

I'm trying to add a 'Collections' model to group Posts so that any user can add any Post they like to any Collection they've created. The Posts will have already been created by a different user. We are just letting other users group these posts in their own Collections. Basically like bookmarking.
What is the cleanest, and most Rails-ey-way of doing this?
I've created the model and run through the migration and what not. Also I've already created proper views for Collection.
rails g model Collection title:string user_id:integer
collections_controller.rb
class CollectionsController < ApplicationController
def index
#collections = current_user.collections.all
end
def show
#collection = Collection.all
end
def new
#collection = Collection.new
end
def create
#collection = current_user.collections.build(collection_params)
if #collection.save
redirect_to #collection, notice: 'saved'
else
render action: 'new'
end
end
def update
end
private
def collection_params
params.require(:collection).permit(:title)
end
end
collection.rb
class Collection < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
has_many :posts
validates :title, presence: true
end
post.rb
has_many :collections
It seems like has_many or has_and_belongs_to_many associations are not correct? Should I be creating another model to act as an intermediary to then use
has_many :collections :through :collectionList?
If my association is wrong, can you explain what I need to change to make this work?
Also the next part in this is since this is not being created when the Post or Collection is created, I'm not sure the best way to handle this in the view. What is the best way to handle this, keeping my view/controller as clean as possible? I just want to be able to have a button on the Post#Show page that when clicked, allows users to add that post to a Collection of their own.

In such case you should use or has_and_belongs_to_many or has_many :through association. The second one is recommended, because it allows more flexibility. So now you should:
Create new model PostsCollections
rails g model PostsCollections post_id:integer collection_id:integer
and migrate it
Set correct model associations:
Something like:
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :posts_collections
has_many :categories, through: :posts_collections
end
class Collection < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :posts_collections
has_many :posts, through: :posts_collections
end
class PostsCollections < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :post
belongs_to :collection
end
Then you'll be able to use
#collection.first.posts << #post
And it will add #post to #collection's posts
To add a post to a collection from view
Add a new route to your routes.rb, something like:
resources :collections do # you should have this part already
post :add_post, on: :member
end
In your Collections controller add:
def add_post
#post = Post.find(params[:post_id])
#collection = Collection.find(params[:id])
#collection.posts << #post
respond_to do |format|
format.js
end
end
As for views, you'll have to create a form to show a collection select and button to add it. That form should make POST method request to add_post_collection_path(#collection) with :post_id parameter.
You can read more explanations of how rails associations work in Michael Hartl's tutorial, because that subject is very wide, and can't be explained with short answer.

Related

Nested routes and CRUD operations with additional values for assciation in Rails

I created one has_many through relationship in rails api. I also used nested routes.
My models like below;
class Author < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :comments
has_many :posts, :through => :comments
end
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :comments
has_many :authors, :through => :comments
end
class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :author
belongs_to :post
end
my routes like below;
Rails.application.routes.draw do
namespace :api, defaults: { :format => 'json' } do
resources :posts do
resources :comments
end
resources :authors
end
end
So here my aims are
Comments are nested route so that i can create and display comments from post
Here not any post author. The author is meant for comment owner
I implemented the concepts and working almost all. But i am facing the following 2 problems with associations
How to add additional fields for associated table when parent create. Here my requirement is when a post is created, i need to insert one default entry for comment. My post controller implementation for create is like below
def create
params = create_params.merge(:record_status => 1)
#post = Post.new(params)
#post.authors << Author.find(1)
if #post.save
render :show, status: :created
end
end
def show
#post = Post.find(params[:id])
end
private
def create_params
params.permit(:name, :description, :author_id )
end
Here i am passing author_id in the request json. This needs to be added as author id in the comments table. Now i just hard coded as 1. I used '<<' for association entry. This is working but i also need to include two more fields which are :comments and :record_status. Again :comments is from the request itself.
Note: This is not rails mvc application. This is rails api and input as json.
When i display comments using nested routes i need to show author and also comments from comments table. My comments controller method is ;
class Api::CommentsController < ApplicationController
before_filter :fetch_post
def index
#authors = #post.authors.where(:record_status => 1, comments: { record_status: 1 })
end
private
def fetch_post
#post = Post.find(params[:post_id])
end
end
Here i got authors but not correct comments in the join table 'comments'
Please help me to solve these issues
For the first problem, you want to configure the posts_controller to accept the nested attributes for comments. Add this line at the beginning of your controller:
accepts_nested_attributes_for :comments
Check the documentation for further details on this method.
Then, you need to modify the parameters that the controller will allow:
def create_params
params.permit(:name, :description, :author_id, comments_attributes: [ :author_id, :comments, :record_status ] )
end
Modify the attributes listed in the comments_attributes array to match those of your Comment model.
I'm not sure what you're trying to get in the second problem, but maybe you just need to query a little differently:
#comments = Comment.where(post_id: #post.id).includes(:author)
The above would return a list of comments including the comment author.

Ruby on Rails - nested associations - creating new records

I'm learning Rails (4.2 installed) and working on a social network simulation application.
I have setup an one to many relation between Users and Posts and now I'm trying to add also Comments to posts. After multiple tries and following the documentation on rubyonrails.org I ended up with the following setup:
User Model
has_many :posts, dependent: :destroy
has_many :comments, through: :posts
Post Model
belongs_to :user
has_many :comments
Comment Model
belongs_to :user
The comment is initiated from the Post show page, so the
Post Controller has:
def show
#comment = Comment.new
end
Now the question is: in Comments Controller , what is the correct way to create a new record.
I tried the below and many others, but without success.
def create
#comment = current_user.posts.comment.new(comment_params)
#comment.save
redirect_to users_path
end
(current_user is from Devise)
Also, afterwards, how can I select the post corresponding to a comment?
Thank you
You'll want to create a relation on Post, letting each Comment know "which Post it relates to." In your case, you'll likely want to create a foreign key on Comment for post_id, then each Comment will belong_to a specific Post. So, you'd add belongs_to :post on your Comment model.
So, your models become:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :posts, dependent: :destroy
has_many :comments, through: :posts
end
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
has_many :comments
end
class Comments < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :post
end
Then, to create a Comment, you would want to do one of two things in your controller:
Load the Post corresponding to the Comment you are creating via the URI as a parameter.
Pass the Post ID along in the form in which calls the create method on Comment.
I personally prefer loading the Post from a parameter in the URI, as you'll have less checking to do as far as authorization for can the Comment in question be added to the Post - e.g. think of someone hacking the form and changing the ID for the Post that the form originally sets.
Then, your create method in the CommentsController would look like this:
def create
#post = Post.find(post_id_param)
# You'll want authorization logic here for
# "can the current_user create a Comment
# for this Post", and perhaps "is there a current_user?"
#comment = #post.comments.build(comment_params)
if #comment.save
redirect_to posts_path(#post)
else
# Display errors and return to the comment
#errors = #comment.errors
render :new
end
end
private
def post_id_param
params.require(:post_id)
end
def comment_params
params.require(:comment).permit(...) # permit acceptable Comment params here
end
Change your Comment model into:
class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :post
belongs_to :user, through: :post
end
Pass the post_id from view template:
<%= hidden_field_tag 'post_id', #post.id %>
Then change your create action:
def create
#post = Post.find(params[:post_id])
#comment = #post.comments.build(comment_params)
#comment.user = current_user
redirect_to post_path(#post)
end

remove specific user from joined table

In Ruby on Rails I have a user models and a jobs model joined through a different model called applicants. I have a button for the users when they want to "remove their application for this job" but I don't know how to remove the specific user, and for that matter I don't know if I'm doing a good job at adding them either (I know atleast it works).
user.rb
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
...
has_many :applicants
has_many:jobs, through: :applicants
end
job.rb
class Job < ActiveRecord::Base
...
has_many :applicants
has_many:users, through: :applicants
end
applicant.rb
class Applicant < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :job
belongs_to :user
end
when someone applies for a job my jobs controller is called:
class JobsController < ApplicationController
...
def addapply
#job = Job.find(params[:id])
applicant = Applicant.find_or_initialize_by(job_id: #job.id)
applicant.update(user_id: current_user.id)
redirect_to #job
end
...
end
Does that .update indicate that whatever is there will be replaced? I'm not sure if I'm doing that right.
When someone wants to remove their application I want it to go to my jobs controller again but I'm not sure what def to make, maybe something like this?
def removeapply
#job = Job.find(params[:id])
applicant = Applicant.find_or_initialize_by(job_id: #job.id)
applicant.update(user_id: current_user.id).destroy
redirect_to #job
end
does it ave to sort through the list of user_ids save them all to an array but the one I want to remove, delete the table then put them all back in? I'm unsure how this has_many works, let alone has_many :through sorry for the ignorance!
thanks!
Let's assume the user will want to remove their own application. You can do something like this:
class UsersController < ApplicationController
def show
#applicants = current_user.applicants # or #user.find(params[:id]), whatever you prefer
end
end
class ApplicantsController < ApplicationController
def destroy
current_user.applications.find(params[:id]).destroy
redirect_to :back # or whereever
end
end
And in your view:
- #applicants.each do |applicant|
= form_for applicant, method: :delete do |f|
= f.submit
Don't forget to set a route:
resources :applicants, only: :destroy
Some observations, I would probably name the association application instead of applicant. So has_many :applications, class_name: 'Applicant'.

Implementing tags in Rails: How to reference multiple items with one tag?

I'm writing a blog engine in rails, and have set up a tag model and a post model which have a have_and_belongs_to_many relationship. Tag addition works fine, the problem comes when looking for all posts with a specific tag:
If I add tag "test" to Post A, then add tag "test" to post B, there are two tag objects, both with name "test" but with different IDs, both referencing different posts. Now if I have a controller action indexTagPosts which takes the parameter "tag" and finds all posts with that tag, it will only return one post, since the other tag has a different ID and is not really associated. Should I be somehow restricting the addition of new tags, or should I be manipulating the way I pull all relevant tags differently?
Here is the controller action which is supposed to grab all relevant posts based on the parameter 'tag':
def indexTagPosts
#tag = Tag.find(params[:tag])
#posts = #tag.posts.all
end
And here is the action to save a tag:
def create
#post = Post.find(params[:post_id])
#tag = #post.tags.create(params[:tag])
respond_to do |format|
if #tag.save
format.html { redirect_to edit_post_path(#post),:notice => "Success" }
end
end
end
Thanks in advance and apologies for redundancy or bad wording.
I wish I knew where everyone got the idea to use has_and_belongs_to_many because it's a really difficult thing to manage, even if it seems simple at the start. The better approach is to have a has_many ..., :through type relationship because you can manage the individual links and add meta-data to them easily.
For instance, here is a simple two way join with an intermediate model, a pattern you'll find occurs quite often:
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :post_tags
has_many :tags, :through => :post_tags
end
class Tag < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :post_tags
has_many :posts, :through => :post_tags
end
class PostTag < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :post
belongs_to :tag
end
Adding and removing Tag links at this point is trivial:
#post = Post.find(params[:post_id])
if (params[:tags].present?)
#post.tags = Tag.where(:name => params[:tags].split(/\s*,\s*/))
else
#post.tags = [ ]
end
The has_many relationship manager will create, update, or destroy the PostTag association models as required.
Generally you'll evolve the Post model to include a utility method for retrieving and assigning the tags using whatever separator you like:
class Post
def tags_used
self.tags.collect(&:name).join(',')
end
def tags_used=(list)
self.tags = list.present? ? Tag.where(:name => list.split(/\s*,\s*/)) : [ ]
end
end

Retrieve all posts where the given user has commented, Ruby on Rails

I have users, posts and comments. User can post only one comment to each post.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :posts
has_many :comments
end
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :comments
belongs_to :user
end
class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :post
end
On userpage (http://host/users/1 for example) I want to show all posts where the given user has commented. Each post then will have all other comments.
I can do something like this in my User controller:
def show
#user = User.find(params[:user_id])
#posts = []
user.comments.each {|comment| #posts << comment.post}
end
This way I will find User, then all his comments, then corresponding post to each comment, and then (in my view) for each post I will render post.comments. I'm totally new in Rails, so I can do this =) But I think it's somehow bad and there is a better way to do this, maybe I should use scopes or named_scopes (don't know yet what this is, but looks scary).
So can you point me out to the right direction here?
You could define an association which retrieves all the posts with comments in a single query. Keeping it in the model reduces the complexity of your controllers, enables you to reuse the association and makes it easier to unit test.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :posts_with_comments, :through => :comments, :source => :post
# ...
end
:through is an option for has_many to specify a join table through which to perform the query. We need to specify the :source as Rails wouldn't be able to infer the source from :post_with_comments.
Lastly, update your controller to use the association.
def show
#user = User.find(params[:user_id])
#posts = #user.posts_with_comments
end
To understand more about :through and :source take a look at the documentation.
When you got the user, you have the associations to his posts and each post has his comments.
You could write:
(I don't know the names of your table fields, so i named the text text)
# In Controller
#user = User.find(params[:user_id]).include([:posts, :comments])
# In View
#user.posts.each do |post|
post.text
# Comments to the Post
post.comments.each do |comment|
comment.text
end
end
I haven't tested the code, so there could be some errors.

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