Method to give number of favorites in has_many through relationship - ruby-on-rails

I have a User model where the users can "favorite" each other. I'm achieving this through a Favoriting model as a has_many through relationship to reference User to itself:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :favoriting
has_many :favorites, through: :favoritings, source: :favorited
has_many :favoriteds, class_name: "Favoriting", foreign_key: "favorited_id"
has_many :favoriters, through: :favoriteds, source: :user
...
end
class Favoriting < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :favorited, :class_name => 'User'
...
end
This all works great. I can do u.favorites and get a user's favorites, and I can do u.favoriters to get the users that have favorited u. I can also do u.favorites_count to get the number of favorites.
However, I can't do u.favoriters_count to get the number of users that have favorited u.
Any idea if there is access to a built-in method for favoriters_count or even favoriteds_count with this type of DB relationship? I could write my own but would rather keep the code base as simple and "Rails-y" as possible.

Have you considered adding a counter_cache alongside with a favoritings_count column?

No, the methods added by has_many are listed in 4.3.1 of http://guides.rubyonrails.org/association_basics.html and do not include a method by this name.

Related

User model with relationship table

I have two models User and UserRelation. The case is that User has several related users with himself(recommended by him), but he has only one person related_to(person who recommended him).
I would like to return from User object collection of recommended users and user who recommended him. I have written association for returning users collection and it works but I have no idea how should I write has_one association.
I get this error:
ActiveRecord::HasOneThroughCantAssociateThroughCollection: Cannot have a has_one :through association 'User#relation' where the :through association 'User#user_relations' is a collection. Specify a has_one or belongs_to association in the :through option instead
User model:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :user_relations
has_many :related_users, through: :user_relations, source: :related_user
has_one :relation, through: :user_relations, source: :user
end
UserRelation model:
class UserRelation < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :related_user, class_name: 'User'
end
UserRelation columns:
user_id
related_user_id
My choice would be to put a foreign key in your User table for the possible related_to field.
If the requirement is that it can only be one (or none) then why not?
You still keep the other "user_relations" for all other types. All the time in rails, we map to the same entity in different ways. It's not uncommon at all

Ruby on Rails 3 Multiple Associations

I have the following associations in place:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :shopping_requests
has_many :recommendations, :through => :shopping_requests
end
class ShoppingRequest < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
has_many :recommendations
end
class Recommendation < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :shopping_request
has_one :user, :through => :shopping_requests
end
Now I need to add a Compliment class. A user can compliment another user (so I have a user_from_id and a user_to_id). A compliment can be given for either a shopping request and/or a recommendation; and there's no limit (a user can be given several compliments by the same user or other users for any number of shopping requests as well as for recommendations).
I do know to make the Compliment polymorphic but not sure what is the best way to set it up in relation to users/shopping requests/recommendations.
I want to be able to run queries like this:
user_to_id.compliments (to get all the compliments for the user);
user_to_id.shopping_request.compliments (to get all that user's compliments for a particular shopping request;
user_to_id.recommendation.compliments (to get all that user's compliments for a particular recommendation; for this particular query, running user_to_id.shopping_request.recommendation.compliments is fine too);
user_from_id.compliments (to get all the compliments that a user gave another);
user_from_id.shopping_request.compliments (to get all the compliments given by this user for a particular shopping_request), etc....
So what is the best way to set up the association for the Compliment class?
Here's my first swing. Your already-written code works, and I haven't reproduced it here.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
...
has_many :outgoing_compliments, class_name: "Compliment", foreign_key: "from_id"
has_many :incoming_request_compliments, through: :shopping_requests, source: compliments
has_many :incoming_recommendation_compliments, through: :recommendations, source: compliments
...
end
class ShoppingRequest < ActiveRecord::Base
...
has_many compliments, as: :compliment able
...
end
class Recommendation < ActiveRecord::Base
...
has_many compliments, as: :complimentable
...
end
class Compliment < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :complimentable, polymorphic: true
#relies on two DB columns, complimentable_id and complimentable_type
belongs_to :complimenter, class_name: "User", foreign_key: "from_id"
end
I made one change to your database as you've defined it. Compliment knows which Complimentable it belongs to, and since each Complimentable knows its User, saving the complemented-User is redundant. You could choose to add the lines...
class Compliment
belongs_to :complimented, class_name: "User", foreign_key: "from_id"
class User
has_many :incoming_compliments, class_name: "Compliment", foreign_key: "to_id"
...but I don't think I would.
Those are the associations you'll need to create. However, some of your desired method calls aren't specific enough. One example:
user_to_id.shopping_request.compliments (to get all that user's
compliments for a particular shopping request;
Because what you've written is an instance method for User, we can assume the User is known. However, since a User can have many ShoppingRequests, it isn't possible, through what you've written, to hone in on one specific request to show Compliments for.

How to implement ancestry for this specific situation

We have a Real-Estate app in which the User can be a Renter or Landlord(Owner). Renters can search for specific houses listed by the Owners. Renters can also add other persons(friends or acquaintances who are staying with that specific renter). In the app we treat them as Coapplicants.
Models
# user.rb
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_one :renter
has_one :owner
end
# renter.rb
class Renter < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
has_many :coapplicants
end
# coapplicant.rb
class Coapplicant < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :renter
end
Now as to increase the number of users for the app,we implemented a mailing system which sends an Welcome Mail(when the Renter adds a Coapplicant) to signup as a User.And that Coapplicant can choose to be Renter and can add many Coapplicants too. And the process goes on again resulting in increasing the users.
It's like a tree structure and now I want to set-up a perfect database relations(associations) to track the users flowing in and through which renter/coapplicant they are coming.
Now the Current Model structure(not yet developed) looks like this
# user.rb
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_one :renter
has_one :owner
end
# renter.rb
class Renter < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
has_many :coapplicants
has_many :coapp_renters,
:through => :coapplicants
has_many :inverse_coapplicants,
:class_name => "Coapplicant",
:foreign_key => "coapp_renter_id"
has_many :inverse_coapp_renters,
:through => :inverse_coapplicants,
:source => :renter
end
# coapplicant.rb
class Coapplicant < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :renter
belongs_to :coapp_renter,
:class_name => "Renter"
end
I guess i messed up things a bit. Which database-relationships(associations) would be the best for my current situation.
Can someone throw some light on this please.I'm thinking about using the ancestry gem but how to implement to my current situation.
I've found that sometimes even a small change in perspective when designing your associations can make them flow a lot more naturally.
You have focused exclusively on person entities; User.find(1).renter for example isn't very intuitive, since both models depict essentially the same person.
Instead of trying to model what people are, I would try to model what they have. In this case, instead of a User having a Renter, let them have many Rentals:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :rentals,
foreign_key: 'renter_id'
end
class Rental
belongs_to :renter,
class_name: 'User'
belongs_to :property
end
I assume here that you have a model Property that stands for what is being rented - leave that out if it doesn't exist.
It's the same thing for owners. A User becomes an owner just by having Ownerships:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :ownerships,
foreign_key: 'owner_id'
end
class Ownership
belongs_to :owner,
class_name: 'User'
belongs_to :property
end
A co-application is slightly different in that it belongs to a Rental:
class CoApplication
belongs_to :co_applicant,
class_name: 'User'
belongs_to :rental
end
class Rental
has_many :co_applications
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :co_applications,
foreign_key: 'co_applicant_id'
has_many :received_co_applications,
through: :rentals,
source: :co_applications
end
Now your Users can be owners, renters, co-applicants - all at the same time. And these associations allow you to capture everything that happened - who signed on whom through what is just a matter of chronological order.
From here on it's a matter of nesting your has_many :through associations to get whatever you want.
Want to know the properties a landlord owns?
has_many :owned_properties,
through: :ownerships,
source: :property
The rentals to her properties?
has_many :leases,
through: :owned_properties,
source: :rentals
The people who rented her properties?
has_many :renters,
through: :leases,
source: :renter
Same thing with co-applications. Want to know who co-applied with a user?
has_many :co_applicants,
through: :received_co_applications,
source: :co_applicant
I would refactor your code and make the co-applicants just a renter that is a child of another renter
in your renter model you have to add a "parent_id" to know whom the co-applicants belongs to.
now in your model you can do something like
#renter.rb
class Renter < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
has_many :children, :class_name => "Renter"
belongs_to :parent, :class_name => "Renter"
end
# Example calls
Renter.first.children
Renter.first.parent
I hope this helps
Create a table called Relationship (or something) with two foreign_ids concerning what you want the User and Renter to be able to do with one another (example to be able to "Follow" one another => Follower_id and Following_id). Define methods in your Models related to those ids and then call those methods in your views to display the relations.

Creating a many-to-many relation in Rails

So I'm Rails n00b and I want to create a "favorites" relationship such that a User can have many favorite Item. I'm not entirely sure how to do this, this is how I'm going to try but I'm not sure if this is a good practice at all:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :favorites
//other code
end
class Favorite < ActiveRecord::Base
belong_to :user
has_one :item
end
class Item < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :item
end
Is this a good way to do it? Should I be using has_and_belongs_to_many ?
I'm specially concerned in the following scenario: Say a user has 100 favorite items.
When I do a User.find(id) will I also be retrieving the 100 favorites and the 100 Items?
In case it's important: ruby version 1.9.3, rails version 3.2.11
Can you try has_many => :through?
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :favorites
has_many :items, :through => :favorites
//other code
end
In your case has_many :through is definitely the way to go. I would recommend reading: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/association_basics.html
Of particular interest with regard to your question:
2.8 Choosing Between has_many :through and has_and_belongs_to_many
Rails offers two different ways to declare a many-to-many relationship between models. The simpler way is to use has_and_belongs_to_many, which allows you to make the association directly:
class Assembly < ActiveRecord::Base
has_and_belongs_to_many :parts
end
class Part < ActiveRecord::Base
has_and_belongs_to_many :assemblies
end
The second way to declare a many-to-many relationship is to use has_many :through. This makes the association indirectly, through a join model:
class Assembly < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :manifests
has_many :parts, :through => :manifests
end
class Manifest < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :assembly
belongs_to :part
end
class Part < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :manifests
has_many :assemblies, :through => :manifests
end
The simplest rule of thumb is that you should set up a has_many :through relationship if you need to work with the relationship model as an independent entity. If you don’t need to do anything with the relationship model, it may be simpler to set up a has_and_belongs_to_many relationship (though you’ll need to remember to create the joining table in the database).
You should use has_many :through if you need validations, callbacks, or extra attributes on the join model.
It is better than using has_and_belongs_to_many.
When I do a User.find(id) will I also be retrieving the 100 favorites
and the 100 Items?
No. You'll just get the user object.
Update:
Calling User.include(:favourites, :items).find(id) will get you joined tables in case you want to make many calls to items table from user object.

has_many :through relationships explained

I'm new to Rails and have some doubts about the kind of relationship do I need to use. Here is the case.
I have two models Offer and User, a user could belong to to many offers and offers can have many user. Also the users create the offers.
I think I have to use a has_many :through ralationship. For example I've created another model "Applicant". Applicant belongs_to user and belongs_to offer. But how is the relationship from the user and offer model? For example:
User Model
has_many :offer, :through => :applicant
Offer Model
has_many :user, :through => :applicant
My doubt is because I already have this two relationship
User Model
has_many :offers, :dependent => :destroy
Offer Model
belongs_to :user
After solve this, I guest I have to save the record in the applicant model from the applicanst_controller, right?
Thanks in advance
What you have described is a many-to-many relationship using a join table. You're actually pretty close but you just need to remove the has_many :offers, :dependent => :destroy from your user model and the blongs_to :user in your offer model. It should look something like this:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :offers, :through => :applicants
end
class Applicant < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :users
belongs_to :offers
end
class Offer < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :users, :through => :applicants
end
You don't have to worry about the dependent destroy part as associations are automatically removed as the corresponding objects are removed. With a many to many association it doesn't really matter how you go about building the relationship. Either of the following will work:
#user.offers << #offer
#offers.users << #user
If you don't need to store any information specific to your applicant join table (e.g., time stamps, descriptions) you might instead want to look at a has_and_belongs_to_many relationship. Check out choosing between has_many_through and has_and_belongs_to_many for reference.
Edit
Heres the code for a HABTM relationship:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_and_belongs_to_many :offers
end
class Offer < ActiveRecord::Base
has_and_belongs_to_many :users
end

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