has_many :through relationships explained - ruby-on-rails

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

Related

Association for model - has_many :through

I have three models - Company, User and CompanyUser. The associations are as follows.
Company.rb
has_many :company_users
has_many :users, :through => :company_users
User.rb
has_many :company_users, :dependent => :destroy
belongs_to :company
CompanyUser.rb
belongs_to :company
belongs_to :user
For fetching current_user.company, what moddifications are to be made in the model association?
Any help would be appreciated.
It should be:
has_many :companies, through: :company_users
A has_many :through association is often used to set up a many-to-many
connection with another model. This association indicates that the
declaring model can be matched with zero or more instances of another
model by proceeding through a third model.
So if you are creating three models and making a has_many :through association I believe that User will have many Companies and Company will have many Users.
But if you need that the user belongs to only one company instead of creating the third model save the company_id in the users table itself.
Update:
Now as your scenario is A company can have may users and User belongs to a single company, you need two models: User and Company. Your User model should have an attribute company_id and then company_id should be saved in users table only. Then the associations as follows:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :company
end
class Company < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :users
end
Then you can do current_user.company
You can get more information on associations in the RailsGuides
According to the associations you have taken,
user already have as association with the company through the Company User model, so user may have many companies according to your associations.
so,
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :company_users, :dependent => :destroy
has_many :companies, :through => :company_users
end
current_user.companies will give you the companies.
But if you need only one company for a user then,
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :company
end
take belongs_to company and save company_id in users table,
then you can call,
`current_user.company`
According to your logic,
I think you may need to create a new variable session current_company_user which is object CompanyUser.
And then, to fetch company by :
current_company_user.company

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.

Multiple relationships to the same models

I'm having trouble figuring out the best way to do this. I have a User model and a Tournament model and I set up a has_many :through relation between these two models called 'followed_tournaments' so that users can follow a tournament. As such, I already have a has_many :tournaments in the User model and a has_many :users in the Tournament model so that a tournament has many followers and a user can follow many tournaments.
I'd like to set up another habtm or has_many :through relationship so that a User can be considered a "contributor" to a Tournament -- a completely separate relationship than what I already set up. I'd like a tournament to have any number of contributors and the user to contribute to many tournaments.
What's the best way to go about implementing this?
Use source or class_name
class Tournament < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :users # ... whatever
has_many :contributions
# using class_name
has_many :contributors, :through => :contributions
# using source
has_many :contributors, :through => :contributions, :source => :user
end
class Contribution < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :tournament
# using class_name
belongs_to :contributor, :class_name => 'User'
# using source
belongs_to :user
end

How to create multiple relations between the same models

I have a User model
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :projects
end
and I have a Project model
class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
end
Obviously right now each project is owned by a user and there can only be one user per project. I now want to make my models represent another relation between the two models. I want a User to be able to follow multiple Projects, no matter who owns the Project. I know that I am going to have to use a has_many :through and create a join, but I cant wrap my head around how to change the model to keep my current relationship and add the new relationship.
Well, in that case, in your show/index action display all the projects (Project.all) in your project table. This way all users have access to all the projects. Now, in your edit action, use user.projects.all to display projects of that particular user. That should solve your problem, I don't see the need of any further association here.
Update:
This should suffice:
class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :projects_followed, :through => :projects
user has_many :projects_owned, :through => :projects
If you don't wish to create two more relations, create just one:class ProjectsSubscribed
belongs_to :project with three fields: project_id, is_owned, is_followed
Try following relation.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :followers
has_many :projects, :through => :followers
end
class Follower < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :project
end
class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :followers
has_many :users, :through => :followers
end
Note it:
You can use 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.
Hope it is helpful.

rails has_many through with independent through table

I have a User model, Person model and Company model.
a User has many companies through Person and vice versa.
But i would like to be able to populate People and Companies that are not tied to Users that can be tied later.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :name
has_many :people
has_many :companies, :through => :people
end
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :user_id, :company_id
belongs_to :users
belongs_to :companies
end
class Company < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :name
has_many :people
has_many :users, :through => :person
end
now in the console i want to be doing the following
User.find(1).companies
then it should find me the companies in which user(1) is a person of interest.
Have I got this wrong, is there a small change that I should be making.
Your Person model can't directly "belong_to" more than one, your belongs_to :users and belongs_to :companies associations won't work that way. Companies-to-people need to be connected through another join table that describes the relationship between them, for example Employment which points to one instance of each model:
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :employments
has_many :companies, :through => :employments
end
class Employment < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :person
belongs_to :company
end
class Company < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :employments
has_many :people, :through => :employments
end
You can then use the :through option to associate the many companies/people on the other side of that employment relationship in the middle.
Similarly, if a Person can be owned by more than one User then you will need a join model between those two entities as well.
Just as a followup, in a has_many :through relationship, there is nothing that says you cannot use your join table (in your case, Person) independently. By nature of the relationship, you are joining through a completely separate ActiveRecord model, which is what most notably distinguishes it from the has_and_belongs_to_many relationship.
As Brad pointed out in his comment, you need to pluralize 'person' to 'people' in your relationship. Other than that, it looks like you set it up correctly. Exposing :user_id and :company_id with attr_accessible will enable you to mass-assign these values later from a postback, but often times you want to shy away from doing so with role-based associations, as you may not want to leave them exposed to potential HTTP Post attacks.
Remember, in your controller you can always do something like this with or without attr_accessible:
#person = Person.new
#person.user = User.find(...)
#person.company = Company.find(...)
#person.save
Hope that helps.

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