has_many through relationship to the same Model - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have User table:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :broker_clients, :class_name => "BrokerClients", :foreign_key => "broker_id"
has_many :clients, :through => :broker_clients, :foreign_key => "broker_id"
has_many :brokers, :through => :broker_clients, :foreign_key => "client_id"
end
And BrokerClients table:
class BrokerClients < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :broker, class_name: "User"
belongs_to :client, class_name: "User"
end
Now when I create a relationship:
>> BrokerClients.create(broker_id: User.first.id, client_id: User.last.id)
User Load (9.7ms) SELECT "users".* FROM "users" ORDER BY "users"."id" ASC LIMIT 1
User Load (1.3ms) SELECT "users".* FROM "users" ORDER BY "users"."id" DESC LIMIT 1
(1.3ms) BEGIN
SQL (41.5ms) INSERT INTO "broker_clients" ("broker_id", "client_id", "created_at", "updated_at") VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4) RETURNING "id" [["broker_id", 4], ["client_id", 210], ["created_at", Fri, 10 Oct 2014 13:43:27 EDT -04:00], ["updated_at", Fri, 10 Oct 2014 13:43:27 EDT -04:00]]
(0.5ms) COMMIT
=> #<BrokerClients id: 1, broker_id: 4, client_id: 210, created_at: "2014-10-10 17:43:27", updated_at: "2014-10-10 17:43:27">
>> User.first.brokers.first
When I try to get clients it's working fine:
>> User.first.clients.first
User Load (0.6ms) SELECT "users".* FROM "users" ORDER BY "users"."id" ASC LIMIT 1
User Load (1.2ms) SELECT "users".* FROM "users" INNER JOIN "broker_clients" ON "users"."id" = "broker_clients"."
=> #<User id: 210, ....
But for the client when I try to get the brokers related to it wont work:
>> User.last.brokers.first
User Load (0.7ms) SELECT "users".* FROM "users" ORDER BY "users"."id" DESC LIMIT 1
User Load (0.7ms) SELECT "users".* FROM "users" INNER JOIN "broker_clients" ON "users"."id" = "broker_clients"."broker_id" WHERE "broker_clients"."broker_id" = $1 ORDER BY "users"."id" ASC LIMIT 1 [["broker_id", 210]]
=> nil
Any help ?

Answer 1

Change in the User modal as:--
has_many :broker_clients, :class_name => "BrokerClients", :foreign_key => "broker_id"
has_many :clients, :through => :broker_clients, :foreign_key => "broker_id"
has_many :inverse_broker_clients, :class_name => "BrokerClients", :foreign_key => "client_id"
has_many :brokers, :through => :inverse_broker_clients, :foreign_key => "client_id"

Answer 2

Look at your insert vs. your query:
Insert:
SQL (41.5ms) INSERT INTO "broker_clients" ("broker_id", "client_id", "created_at", "updated_at") VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4) RETURNING "id" [["broker_id", 4], ["client_id", 210], ["created_at", Fri, 10 Oct 2014 13:43:27 EDT -04:00], ["updated_at", Fri, 10 Oct 2014 13:43:27 EDT -04:00]]
Queries:
User Load (0.7ms) SELECT "users".* FROM "users" INNER JOIN "broker_clients" ON "users"."id" = "broker_clients"."broker_id" WHERE "broker_clients"."broker_id" = $1 ORDER BY "users"."id" ASC LIMIT 1 [["broker_id", 210]]
You insert (broker_id=4, client_id=210) but you query for broker_id=210. That's why you're getting nil for brokers.first. Pretty sure you're foreign keys are backwards:
has_many :clients, :through => :broker_clients, :foreign_key => "broker_id"
has_many :brokers, :through => :broker_clients, :foreign_key => "client_id"
Should be
has_many :clients, :through => :broker_clients, :foreign_key => "client_id"
has_many :brokers, :through => :broker_clients, :foreign_key => "broker_id"
Hope that helps.