I've written a model for "Category". The requirements here are that each category can fall into one category "type". I'm learning rails at the same time as doing this project, and managed to get the above working with the following class method (where_category_type);
class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
#associations
belongs_to :category_type
has_and_belongs_to_many :recipes
def self.where_category_type category_type
Category.find(:all, :include => :category_type, :conditions => { :category_types => {:name => category_type }})
end
end
All works etc. but I am very keen to make sure I'm doing things "the rails way", so I was wondering if I'm missing some syntactic sugar somewhere that would make this a little more readable / less verbose?
class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
#associations
belongs_to :category_type
has_and_belongs_to_many :recipes
end
Then instead of defining *where_category_type* Category's class static method, you can call just:
Category.joins(:category_type).where('category_types.name' => 'name of your category').all
Related
We can use ActiveRelation like this:
MyModel.where(:field => "test").create => #<Message ... field:"test">
But it doesnt work for joins with polymorphic has_one associations:
class RelatedModel < AR::Base
# has :some_field
belongs_to :subject, :polymorphic => true
end
class MyModel < AR::Base
# need some dirty magic here
# to build default related_model with params from active_relation
has_one :related_model, :as => :subject, :dependent => :destroy
end
describe MyModel do
it "should auto-create has_one association with joins" do
test = MyModel.joins(:related_model).where("related_models.subject_type" => "MyModel", "related_models.some_field" => "chachacha").create
test.related_model.should_not be_nil
test.related_model.some_field.should == "chachacha"
test.related_model.subject_type.should == "MyModel"
test.related_model.subject_id.should == test.id
# fails =)
end
end
Is it possible to extract active_relation params, pass them to MyModel for use in before_create and build RelatedModel with them?
Diving into ActiveRecord sources i found that
ActiveRecord::Relation covers 'create' with 'scoping' method.
ActiveRecord::Persistance 'create' calls 'initialize' from ActiveRecord::Core.
ActiveRecord::Core 'initialize' calls 'populate_with_current_scope_attributes'
This method declared in ActiveRecord::Scoping uses 'scope_attributes' declared in ActiveRecord::Scoping::Named.
scope_attributes creating relation 'all' and calls 'scope_for_create' on it.
'ActiveRecord::Relation's 'scope_for_create' uses only 'where_values_hash' from current_scope that does not contain rules like 'related_models.subject_type' (this values are contained in where_clauses). So we need to have simple key-value wheres to be used with 'create' on ActiveRecord::Relation. But ActiveRecord not clever enough to know that 'some_field' in where clause should be used with join table.
I found it can be implemented only by accessing where options with self.class.current_scope.where_clauses in 'before_create' on MyModel, parsing them and setting up attributes.
class MyModel < AR::Base
before_create :create_default_node
def create_default_node
clause = self.class.current_scope.where_clauses.detect{|clause| clause =~ /\`related_models\`.\`some_field\`/}
value = clause.scan(/\=.+\`([[:word:]]+)\`/).flatten.first
self.create_node(:some_field => value)
end
end
But it is so dirty, then i decided to find simpler solution and inverted dependency as described in Railscast Pro #394, moved RelatedModel functionality to MyModel with STI. Actually i needed such complicated relation creation because RelatedModel had some functionality common for all models (acts as tree). I decided to delegate 'ancestors' and 'children' to RelatedModel. Inverting dependency solved this problem.
class MyModel < AR::Base
acts_as_tree
belongs_to :subject, :polymorphic => true
end
class MyModel2 < MyModel
end
class RelatedModel < AR::Base
# has :some_field
has_one :my_model, :as => :subject, :dependent => :destroy
end
MyModel.create{|m| m.subject = RelatedModel.create(:some_field => "chachacha")}
MyModel.ancestors # no need to proxy relations
class Newsroom < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :blog_posts
has_many :quote_posts
end
class BlogPost < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :newsroom
end
class QuotePost < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :newsroom
end
I would like to have an instance method, such that I could do #newsroom.posts to get a collection of blog_posts and quote_posts sorted by created_at.
def posts
#posts ||= #load and sort blog_posts, quote_posts, etc
end
What is the best and most efficient way to accomplish this? I have looked into using default_scope, something like:
default_scope :include => [:blog_posts, :quote_posts]
def posts
#posts ||= [blog_posts + quote_posts].flatten.sort{|x,y| x.created_at <=> y.created_at}
end
But I would rather keep the sorting at the database level, if possible. Any suggestions on how to accomplish this? Thanks.
Try something like this:
#app/models/newsroom.rb
scope :ordered_posts, lambda {
includes(:blog_posts,:quote_posts) & BlogPost.order("created_at asc") & QuotePost.order("created_at asc")
}
ARel should be able to handle the ordering of included Quote and Blog Posts. You could clean that up slightly by having scopes in both the BlogPost and QuotePost model that order by created_at and then use those scopes in the Newsroom#ordered_posts method.
I ended up using a polymorphic post model. This seems to give me what I want with the insignificant downside of having an extra model/table. I used delegate to hand off specific attribute getter methods to the correct model.
class Newsroom < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :posts
end
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
belong_to :blog_post, :polymorphic => true
delegate :title, :author, :etc, :to => :postable
end
class BlogPost < ActiveRecord::Base
has_one :post, :as => :postable
end
(This is not the actual code I'm using, although this sums up the idea of what I want to do)
class Connection < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :connection1, :polymorphic => true
belongs_to :connection2, :polymorphic => true
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :followers, :class_name => 'Connection', :as => :connection1
has_many :followings, :class_name => 'Connection', :as => :connection2
end
My question is that I want to know how I will be able to create a method called "network" such that what is returned isn't an array. Like so,
u = User.first
u.network # this will return a merged version of :followings and :followers
So that I'll still be able to do this:
u.network.find_by_last_name("James")
ETA:
Or hmm, I think my question really boils down to if it is possible to create a method that will merge 2 has_many associations in such a way that I can still call on its find_by methods.
Are you sure that you want a collection of Connections, rather than a collection of Users?
If it's a collection of Connections that you need, it seems like you'll be well served by a class method on Connection (or scope, if you like such things).
connection.rb
class Connection < ActiveRecord::Base
class << self
def associated_with_model_id(model, model_id)
include([:connection1, :connection2]).
where("(connection1_type IS #{model} AND connection1_id IS #{model_id})
OR (connection2_type IS #{model} AND connection2_id IS #{model_id})")
end
end
end
user.rb
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
def network
Connection.associated_with_model_id(self.class.to_s, id)
end
end
Probably not as useful as you'd like, but maybe it'll give you some ideas.
Is there a way to override one of the methods provided by an ActiveRecord association?
Say for example I have the following typical polymorphic has_many :through association:
class Story < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :taggings, :as => :taggable
has_many :tags, :through => :taggings, :order => :name
end
class Tag < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :taggings, :dependent => :destroy
has_many :stories, :through => :taggings, :source => :taggable, :source_type => "Story"
end
As you probably know this adds a whole slew of associated methods to the Story model like tags, tags<<, tags=, tags.empty?, etc.
How do I go about overriding one of these methods? Specifically the tags<< method. It's pretty easy to override a normal class methods but I can't seem to find any information on how to override association methods. Doing something like
def tags<< *new_tags
#do stuff
end
produces a syntax error when it's called so it's obviously not that simple.
You can use block with has_many to extend your association with methods. See comment "Use a block to extend your associations" here.
Overriding existing methods also works, don't know whether it is a good idea however.
has_many :tags, :through => :taggings, :order => :name do
def << (value)
"overriden" #your code here
super value
end
end
If you want to access the model itself in Rails 3.2 you should use proxy_association.owner
Example:
class Author < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :books do
def << (book)
proxy_association.owner.add_book(book)
end
end
def add_book (book)
# do your thing here.
end
end
See documentation
I think you wanted def tags.<<(*new_tags) for the signature, which should work, or the following which is equivalent and a bit cleaner if you need to override multiple methods.
class << tags
def <<(*new_tags)
# rawr!
end
end
You would have to define the tags method to return an object which has a << method.
You could do it like this, but I really wouldn't recommend it. You'd be much better off just adding a method to your model that does what you want than trying to replace something ActiveRecord uses.
This essentially runs the default tags method adds a << method to the resulting object and returns that object. This may be a bit resource intensive because it creates a new method every time you run it
def tags_with_append
collection = tags_without_append
def collection.<< (*arguments)
...
end
collection
end
# defines the method 'tags' by aliasing 'tags_with_append'
alias_method_chain :tags, :append
The method I use is to extend the association. You can see the way I handle 'quantity' attributes here: https://gist.github.com/1399762
It basically allows you to just do
has_many : tags, :through => : taggings, extend => QuantityAssociation
Without knowing exactly what your hoping to achieve by overriding the methods its difficult to know if you could do the same.
This may not be helpful in your case but could be useful for others looking into this.
Association Callbacks:
http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Associations/ClassMethods.html
Example from the docs:
class Project
has_and_belongs_to_many :developers, :after_add => :evaluate_velocity
def evaluate_velocity(developer)
...
end
end
Also see Association Extensions:
class Account < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :people do
def find_or_create_by_name(name)
first_name, last_name = name.split(" ", 2)
find_or_create_by_first_name_and_last_name(first_name, last_name)
end
end
end
person = Account.first.people.find_or_create_by_name("David Heinemeier Hansson")
person.first_name # => "David"
person.last_name # => "Heinemeier Hansson"
Rails guides documents about overriding the added methods directly.
OP's issue with overriding << probably is the only exception to this, for which follow the top answer. But it wouldn't work for has_one's = assignment method or getter methods.
I am trying to calculate the average (mean) rating for all entries within a category based on the following model associations ...
class Entry < ActiveRecord::Base
acts_as_rateable
belongs_to :category
...
end
class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :entry
...
end
class Rating < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :rateable, :polymorphic => true
...
end
The rating model is handled by the acts as rateable plugin, so the rateable model looks like this ...
module Rateable #:nodoc:
...
module ClassMethods
def acts_as_rateable
has_many :ratings, :as => :rateable, :dependent => :destroy
...
end
end
...
end
How can I perform the average calculation? Can this be accomplished through the rails model associations or do I have to resort to a SQL query?
The average method is probably what you're looking for. Here's how to use it in your situation:
#category.entries.average('ratings.rating', :joins => :ratings)
Could you use a named_scope or custom method on the model. Either way it would still require some SQL since, if I understand the question, your are calculating a value.
In a traditional database application this would be a view on the data tables.
So in this context you might do something like... (note not tested or sure it is 100% complete)
class Category
has_many :entry do
def avg_rating()
#entries = find :all
#entres.each do |en|
#value += en.rating
end
return #value / entries.count
end
end
Edit - Check out EmFi's revised answer.
I make no promises but try this
class Category
def average_rating
Rating.average :rating,
:conditions => [ "type = ? AND entries.category_id = ?", "Entry", id ],
:join => "JOIN entries ON rateable_id = entries.id"
end
end