Creating a Object.New with a foreign key results in nil? - ruby-on-rails

I have two models:
class Todo < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :assigned_to, :class_name => "TeamMembership"
end
and
class TeamMembership < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :assigned_todos, :class_name => 'Todo', :foreign_key => :assigned_to, :dependent => :destroy
end
when I do:
Todo.new(:title=>'hello',:assigned_to=>TeamMembership.first)
(where TeamMembership.first is a valid record from the database), I get a Todo with
:title = hello
:assigned_to = nil
Why is :assigned_to nil, and how can I fix it?
Thanks!

The "Rails way" to do this would be:
class Todo < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :team_membership
end
class TeamMembership < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :todos, depdendent: :destroy
end
And a t.references :team_membership line in the create_table block for your migration that creates the todos table.
Then to create a new Todo with the title "hello" that belongs to the first TeamMembership, you'd do:
TeamMembership.first.todos.build(title: "hello")
See http://guides.rubyonrails.org/association_basics.html#has-many-association-reference
There may be some specific reason that you want to rename the association & foreign key, but you can still use the build method on the collection of todos.

have you added any validation? if yes then try on console Todo.new(:title=>'hello',:assigned_to=>TeamMembership.first,:validate=>'false')
and see the result other wise please tell me the atributes of Todo

OK, so it turns out the problem was:
The database fields need to be renamed with _id as a suffix, creator_id etc.
Then you need to put the ID in as an integer, rather than pass in the object.

Related

How to detect changes in has_many through association?

I have the following models.
class Company < ApplicationRecord
has_many :company_users
has_many :users, :through => :company_users
after_update :do_something
private
def do_something
# check if users of the company have been updated here
end
end
class User < ApplicationRecord
has_many :company_users
has_many :companies, :through => :company_users
end
class CompanyUser < ApplicationRecord
belongs_to :company
belongs_to :user
end
Then I have these for the seeds:
Company.create :name => 'Company 1'
User.create [{:name => 'User1'}, {:name => 'User2'}, {:name => 'User3'}, {:name => 'User4'}]
Let's say I want to update Company 1 users, I will do the following:
Company.first.update :users => [User.first, User.second]
This will run as expected and will create 2 new records on CompanyUser model.
But what if I want to update again? Like running the following:
Company.first.update :users => [User.third, User.fourth]
This will destroy the first 2 records and will create another 2 records on CompanyUser model.
The thing is I have technically "updated" the Company model so how can I detect these changes using after_update method on Company model?
However, updating an attribute works just fine:
Company.first.update :name => 'New Company Name'
How can I make it work on associations too?
So far I have tried the following but no avail:
https://coderwall.com/p/xvpafa/rails-check-if-has_many-changed
Rails: if has_many relationship changed
Detecting changes in a rails has_many :through relationship
How to determine if association changed in ActiveRecord?
Rails 3 has_many changed?
There is a collection callbacks before_add, after_add on has_many relation.
class Project
has_many :developers, after_add: :evaluate_velocity
def evaluate_velocity(developer)
#non persisted developer
...
end
end
For more details: https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Associations/ClassMethods.html#label-Association+callbacks
You can use attr_accessor for this and check if it changed.
class Company < ApplicationRecord
attr_accessor :user_ids_attribute
has_many :company_users
has_many :users, through: :company_users
after_initialize :assign_attribute
after_update :check_users
private
def assign_attribute
self.user_ids_attribute = user_ids
end
def check_users
old_value = user_ids_attribute
assign_attribute
puts 'Association was changed' unless old_value == user_ids_attribute
end
end
Now after association changed you will see message in console.
You can change puts to any other method.
I have the feelings you are asking the wrong question, because you can't update your association without destroy current associations. As you said:
This will destroy the first 2 records and will create another 2 records on CompanyUser model.
Knowing that I will advice you to try the following code:
Company.first.users << User.third
In this way you will not override current associations.
If you want to add multiple records once try wrap them by [ ] Or ( ) not really sure which one to use.
You could find documentation here : https://guides.rubyonrails.org/association_basics.html#has-many-association-reference
Hope it will be helpful.
Edit:
Ok I thought it wasn't your real issue.
Maybe 2 solutions:
#1 Observer:
what I do it's an observer on your join table that have the responsability to "ping" your Company model each time a CompanyUser is changed.
gem rails-observers
Inside this observer call a service or whatever you like that will do what you want to do with the values
class CompanyUserObserver < ActiveRecord::Observer
def after_save(company_user)
user = company_user.user
company = company_user.company
...do what you want
end
def before_destroy(company_user)
...do what you want
end
end
You can user multiple callback in according your needs.
#2 Keep records:
It turn out what you need it keep records. Maybe you should considerate use a gem like PaperTrail or Audited to keep track of your changes.
Sorry for the confusion.

Rails association with multiple foreign keys

I want to be able to use two columns on one table to define a relationship. So using a task app as an example.
Attempt 1:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :tasks
end
class Task < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :owner, class_name: "User", foreign_key: "owner_id"
belongs_to :assignee, class_name: "User", foreign_key: "assignee_id"
end
So then Task.create(owner_id:1, assignee_id: 2)
This allows me to perform Task.first.owner which returns user one and Task.first.assignee which returns user two but User.first.task returns nothing. Which is because task doesn't belong to a user, they belong to owner and assignee. So,
Attempt 2:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :tasks, foreign_key: [:owner_id, :assignee_id]
end
class Task < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
end
That just fails altogether as two foreign keys don't seem to be supported.
So what I want is to be able to say User.tasks and get both the users owned and assigned tasks.
Basically somehow build a relationship that would equal a query of Task.where(owner_id || assignee_id == 1)
Is that possible?
Update
I'm not looking to use finder_sql, but this issue's unaccepted answer looks to be close to what I want: Rails - Multiple Index Key Association
So this method would look like this,
Attempt 3:
class Task < ActiveRecord::Base
def self.by_person(person)
where("assignee_id => :person_id OR owner_id => :person_id", :person_id => person.id
end
end
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
def tasks
Task.by_person(self)
end
end
Though I can get it to work in Rails 4, I keep getting the following error:
ActiveRecord::PreparedStatementInvalid: missing value for :owner_id in :donor_id => :person_id OR assignee_id => :person_id
TL;DR
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
def tasks
Task.where("owner_id = ? OR assigneed_id = ?", self.id, self.id)
end
end
Remove has_many :tasks in User class.
Using has_many :tasks doesn't make sense at all as we do not have any column named user_id in table tasks.
What I did to solve the issue in my case is:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :owned_tasks, class_name: "Task", foreign_key: "owner_id"
has_many :assigned_tasks, class_name: "Task", foreign_key: "assignee_id"
end
class Task < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :owner, class_name: "User"
belongs_to :assignee, class_name: "User"
# Mentioning `foreign_keys` is not necessary in this class, since
# we've already mentioned `belongs_to :owner`, and Rails will anticipate
# foreign_keys automatically. Thanks to #jeffdill2 for mentioning this thing
# in the comment.
end
This way, you can call User.first.assigned_tasks as well as User.first.owned_tasks.
Now, you can define a method called tasks that returns the combination of assigned_tasks and owned_tasks.
That could be a good solution as far the readability goes, but from performance point of view, it wouldn't be that much good as now, in order to get the tasks, two queries will be issued instead of once, and then, the result of those two queries need to be joined as well.
So in order to get the tasks that belong to a user, we would define a custom tasks method in User class in the following way:
def tasks
Task.where("owner_id = ? OR assigneed_id = ?", self.id, self.id)
end
This way, it will fetch all the results in one single query, and we wouldn't have to merge or combine any results.
Extending upon #dre-hh's answer above, which I found no longer works as expected in Rails 5. It appears Rails 5 now includes a default where clause to the effect of WHERE tasks.user_id = ?, which fails as there is no user_id column in this scenario.
I've found it is still possible to get it working with a has_many association, you just need to unscope this additional where clause added by Rails.
class User < ApplicationRecord
has_many :tasks, ->(user) {
unscope(:where).where(owner: user).or(where(assignee: user)
}
end
Rails 5:
you need to unscope the default where clause
see #Dwight answer if you still want a has_many associaiton.
Though User.joins(:tasks) gives me
ArgumentError: The association scope 'tasks' is instance dependent (the scope block takes an argument). Preloading instance dependent scopes is not supported.
As it is no longer possible you can use #Arslan Ali solution as well.
Rails 4:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :tasks, ->(user){ where("tasks.owner_id = :user_id OR tasks.assignee_id = :user_id", user_id: user.id) }
end
Update1:
Regarding #JonathanSimmons comment
Having to pass the user object into the scope on the User model seems like a backwards approach
You don't have to pass the user model to this scope.
The current user instance is passed automatically to this lambda.
Call it like this:
user = User.find(9001)
user.tasks
Update2:
if possible could you expand this answer to explain what's happening? I'd like to understand it better so I can implement something similar. thanks
Calling has_many :tasks on ActiveRecord class will store a lambda function in some class variable and is just a fancy way to generate a tasks method on its object, which will call this lambda. The generated method would look similar to following pseudocode:
class User
def tasks
#define join query
query = self.class.joins('tasks ON ...')
#execute tasks_lambda on the query instance and pass self to the lambda
query.instance_exec(self, self.class.tasks_lambda)
end
end
I worked out a solution for this. I'm open to any pointers on how I can make this better.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
def tasks
Task.by_person(self.id)
end
end
class Task < ActiveRecord::Base
scope :completed, -> { where(completed: true) }
belongs_to :owner, class_name: "User", foreign_key: "owner_id"
belongs_to :assignee, class_name: "User", foreign_key: "assignee_id"
def self.by_person(user_id)
where("owner_id = :person_id OR assignee_id = :person_id", person_id: user_id)
end
end
This basically overrides the has_many association but still returns the ActiveRecord::Relation object I was looking for.
So now I can do something like this:
User.first.tasks.completed and the result is all completed task owned or assigned to the first user.
Since Rails 5 you can also do that which is the ActiveRecord safer way:
def tasks
Task.where(owner: self).or(Task.where(assignee: self))
end
My answer to Associations and (multiple) foreign keys in rails (3.2) : how to describe them in the model, and write up migrations is just for you!
As for your code,here are my modifications
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :tasks, ->(user) { unscope(where: :user_id).where("owner_id = ? OR assignee_id = ?", user.id, user.id) }, class_name: 'Task'
end
class Task < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :owner, class_name: "User", foreign_key: "owner_id"
belongs_to :assignee, class_name: "User", foreign_key: "assignee_id"
end
Warning:
If you are using RailsAdmin and need to create new record or edit existing record,please don't do what I've suggested.Because this hack will cause problem when you do something like this:
current_user.tasks.build(params)
The reason is that rails will try to use current_user.id to fill task.user_id,only to find that there is nothing like user_id.
So,consider my hack method as an way outside the box,but don't do that.
Better way is using polymorphic association:
task.rb
class Task < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :taskable, polymorphic: true
end
assigned_task.rb
class AssignedTask < Task
end
owned_task.rb
class OwnedTask < Task
end
user.rb
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :assigned_tasks, as: :taskable, dependent: :destroy
has_many :owned_tasks, as: :taskable, dependent: :destroy
end
In result, we can use it so:
new_user = User.create(...)
AssignedTask.create(taskable: new_user, ...)
OwnedTask.create(taskable: new_user, ...)
pp user.assigned_tasks
pp user.owned_tasks

Retrieving model attribute from table+column name

Let's say you have the following models:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :comments, :as => :author
end
class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
end
Let's say User has an attribute name, is there any way in Ruby/Rails to access it using the table name and column, similar to what you enter in a select or where query?
Something like:
Comment.includes(:author).first.send("users.name")
# or
Comment.first.send("comments.id")
Edit: What I'm trying to achieve is accessing a model object's attribute using a string. For simple cases I can just use object.send attribute_name but this does not work when accessing "nested" attributes such as Comment.author.name.
Basically I want to retrieve model attributes using the sql-like syntax used by ActiveRecord in the where() and select() methods, so for example:
c = Comment.first
c.select("users.name") # should return the same as c.author.name
Edit 2: Even more precisely, I want to solve the following problem:
obj = ANY_MODEL_OBJECT_HERE
# Extract the given columns from the object
columns = ["comments.id", "users.name"]
I don't really understand what you are trying to achieve. I see that you are using polymorphic associations, do you need to access comment.user.name while having has_many :comments, :as => :author in your User model?
For you polymorphic association, you should have
class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :author, :polymorphic => true
end
And if you want to access comment.user.name, you can also have
class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :author, :polymorphic => true
belongs_to :user
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :comments, :as => :author
has_many :comments
end
Please be more specific about your goal.
I think you're looking for a way to access the user from a comment.
Let #comment be the first comment:
#comment = Comment.first
To access the author, you just have to type #comment.user and If you need the name of that user you would do #comment.user.name. It's just OOP.
If you need the id of that comment, you would do #comment.id
Because user and id are just methods, you can call them like that:
comments.send('user').send('id')
Or, you can build your query anyway you like:
Comment.includes(:users).where("#{User::columns[1]} = ?", #some_name)
But it seems like you're not doing thinks really Rails Way. I guess you have your reasons.

Rails has_many through avoiding duplication

I have a has_many through association setup between a song model and an artist model.
My code looks something like this
SongArtistMap Model
class SongArtistMap < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :song
belongs_to :artist
end
Artist Model
class Artist < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :song_artist_maps
has_many :songs, :through => :song_artist_maps
validates_presence_of :name
end
Song Model
class Song < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :song_artist_maps
has_many :artists, :through => :song_artist_maps
accepts_nested_attributes_for :artists
end
I have a form where a user submits a song and enters in the song title and the song artist.
So when a user submits a song and my Artists table doesn't already have the artist for the song I want it to create that artist and setup the map in SongArtistMap
If a user submits a song with an artist that is already in the Artists table I just want the SongArtistMap created but the artist not duplicated.
Currently everytime a user submits a song a new artist gets created in my artists table even if the same one already exists and a SongArtistMap is created for that duplicated artist.
Any idea on how to tackle this issue? I feel like rails probably has some easy little trick to fix this already built in. Thanks!
Ok I got this figured out awhile ago and forgot to post. So here's how I fixed my problem. First of all I realized I didn't need to have a has_many through relationship.
What I really needed was a has_and_belongs_to_many relationship. I setup that up and made the table for it.
Then in my Artists model I added this
def self.find_or_create_by_name(name)
k = self.find_by_name(name)
if k.nil?
k = self.new(:name => name)
end
return k
end
And in my Song model I added this
before_save :get_artists
def get_artists
self.artists.map! do |artist|
Artist.find_or_create_by_name(artist.name)
end
end
And that did exactly what I wanted.
I use a method in the model of the table the other two go through, that is called with before_create. This can probably be made much neater and faster though.
before_create :ensure_only_one_instance_of_a_user_in_a_group
private
def ensure_only_one_instance_of_a_user_in_a_group
user = User.find_by_id(self.user_id)
unless user.groups.empty?
user.groups.each do |g|
if g.id == self.group_id
return false
end
end
end
return true
end
Try this:
class Song < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :song_artist_maps
has_many :artists, :through => :song_artist_maps
accepts_nested_attributes_for :artists, :reject_if => :normalize_artist
def normalize_artist(artist)
return true if artist['name'].blank?
artist['id'] = Artist.find_or_create_by_name(artist['name']).id
false # This is needed
end
end
We are essentially tricking rails by over-loading the reject_if function(as we never return true).
You can further optimize this by doing case insensitive lookup ( not required if you are on MySQL)
artist['id'] = (
Artist.where("LOWER(name) = ? ", artist['name'].downcase).first ||
Artist.create(:name => artist['name'])
).id

how to access rails join model attributes when using has_many :through

I have a data model something like this:
# columns include collection_item_id, collection_id, item_id, position, etc
class CollectionItem < ActiveRecord::Base
self.primary_key = 'collection_item_id'
belongs_to :collection
belongs_to :item
end
class Item < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :collection_items
has_many :collections, :through => :collection_items, :source => :collection
end
class Collection < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :collection_items, :order => :position
has_many :items, :through => :collection_items, :source => :item, :order => :position
end
An Item can appear in multiple collections and also more than once in the same collection at different positions.
I'm trying to create a helper method that creates a menu containing every item in every collection. I want to use the collection_item_id to keep track of the currently selected item between requests, but I can't access any attributes of the join model via the Item class.
def helper_method( collection_id )
colls = Collection.find :all
colls.each do |coll|
coll.items.each do |item|
# !!! FAILS HERE ( undefined method `collection_item_id' )
do_something_with( item.collection_item_id )
end
end
end
I tried this as well but it also fails with ( undefined method `collection_item' )
do_something_with( item.collection_item.collection_item_id )
Edit: thanks to serioys sam for pointing out that the above is obviously wrong
I have also tried to access other attributes in the join model, like this:
do_something_with( item.position )
and:
do_something_with( item.collection_item.position )
Edit: thanks to serioys sam for pointing out that the above is obviously wrong
but they also fail.
Can anyone advise me how to proceed with this?
Edit: -------------------->
I found from online documentation that using has_and_belongs_to_many will attach the join table attributes to the retreived items, but apparently it is deprecated. I haven't tried it yet.
Currently I am working on amending my Collection model like this:
class Collection < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :collection_items, :order => :position, :include => :item
...
end
and changing the helper to use coll.collection_items instead of coll.items
Edit: -------------------->
I've changed my helper to work as above and it works fine - (thankyou sam)
It's made a mess of my code - because of other factors not detailed here - but nothing that an hour or two of re-factoring wont sort out.
In your example you have defined in Item model relationship as has_many for collection_items and collections the generated association method is collection_items and collections respectively both of them returns an array so the way you are trying to access here is wrong. this is primarily case of mant to many relationship. just check this Asscociation Documentation for further reference.
do_something_with( item.collection_item_id )
This fails because item does not have a collection_item_id member.
do_something_with( item.collection_item.collection_item_id )
This fails because item does not have a collection_item member.
Remember that the relation between item and collection_items is a has_many. So item has collection_items, not just a single item. Also, each collection has a list of collection items. What you want to do is probably this:
colls = Collection.find :all
colls.each do |coll|
coll.collection_items.each do |collection_item|
do_something_with( collection_item.id )
end
end
A couple of other pieces of advice:
Have you read the documentation for has_many :through in the Rails Guides? It is pretty good.
You shouldn't need the :source parameters in the has_many declarations, since you have named your models and associations in a sensible way.
I found from online documentation that using has_and_belongs_to_many will attach the join table attributes to the retreived items, but apparently it is deprecated. I haven't tried it yet.
I recommend you stick with has_many :through, because has_and_belongs_to_many is more confusing and doesn't offer any real benefits.
I was able to get this working for one of my models:
class Group < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :users, :through => :memberships, :source => :user do
def with_join
proxy_target.map do |user|
proxy_owner = proxy_owner()
user.metaclass.send(:define_method, :membership) do
memberships.detect {|_| _.group == proxy_owner}
end
user
end
end
end
end
In your case, something like this should work (haven't tested):
class Collection < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :collection_items, :order => :position
has_many :items, :through => :collection_items, :source => :item, :order => :position do
def with_join
proxy_target.map do |items|
proxy_owner = proxy_owner()
item.metaclass.send(:define_method, :join) do
collection_items.detect {|_| _.collection == proxy_owner}
end
item
end
end
end
end
Now you should be able to access the CollectionItem from an Item as long as you access your items like this (items.with_join):
def helper_method( collection_id )
colls = Collection.find :all
colls.each do |coll|
coll.items.with_join.each do |item|
do_something_with( item.join.collection_item_id )
end
end
end
Here is a more general solution that you can use to add this behavior to any has_many :through association:
http://github.com/TylerRick/has_many_through_with_join_model
class Collection < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :collection_items, :order => :position
has_many :items, :through => :collection_items, :source => :item, :order => :position, :extend => WithJoinModel
end

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