I have multiple models with created_by and modified_by columns. This is what I have for a Deal Model.
class Deal
has_one :user , :foreign_key => 'created_by'
has_one :user , :foreign_key => 'modified_by'
end
class User
belongs_to :created_by , :class_name => 'Deal' , :foreign_key => 'created_by'
belongs_to :modified_by , :class_name => 'Deal' , :foreign_key => 'modified_by'
end
When I create the deal, looks like it is saving correctly. But in the show view when I try to get #deal.created_by.email I get an "undefined method email" error. Can some tell me how to get this working please?
Also since I have multiple models with these two columns, there can be many belongs_to in User model. Is there an elegant solution for this case?
First thing you have to add is the specification of accessible attributes.
In User you would have to add:
attr_accessible :email, :created_by, :modified_by
In Deal:
attr_accessible :created_by, :modified_by
But you should also change the direction of your relation. The foreign_key is always on the belongs_to side.
This is what worked for me:
class Deal < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :created_by, :class_name => "User", :foreign_key => "created_by"
belongs_to :modified_by, :class_name => "User", :foreign_key =>"modified_by"
attr_accessible :created_by, :modified_by, :name
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :created_deals, :class_name => "Deal", :foreign_key => "created_by"
has_many :modified_deals, :class_name => "Deal", :foreign_key => "modified_by"
attr_accessible :created_deals, :modified_deals, :name
end
If you have more models, which look similiar you could probably use polymorphic associations: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/association_basics.html#polymorphic-associations
First of all, from my experience it is generally a bad idea to have associations using the foreign key as name. Especially when writing fixtures it seems rails will get confused between setting the actual value "created_by" or the model in the created_by association. In my models I generally use these associations for the cases you describe:
belongs_to :creator, :class_name => "User", :foreign_key => 'created_by'
belongs_to :modifier, :class_name => "User", :foreign_key => 'modified_by'
You can use association names like 'creating_user' instead if you prefer. If you really want created_by as association name you should have created_by_id or something similar as foreign key, just as long as its not equal to the association name.
Then I am a bit confused by your pasted code. Your choice "Deal has_one User" and "User belongs_to Deal" means that the users table will have the columns created_by and modified_by (foreign keys) containing Deal Ids, basically meaning that users get created by a single deal? However it seems like deals should get created by users and not the other way round. Your example of deal.created_by.email can not work at all with your associations, since deal would not have an association called "created_by", only "user", of which you have two associations with the same name in a single model which can not work at all in the first place.
Fixing your associations similar to what Patrick suggested:
class Deal < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :creator, :class_name => "User", :foreign_key => "created_by"
belongs_to :modifier, :class_name => "User", :foreign_key =>"modified_by"
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :created_deals, :class_name => "Deal", :foreign_key => "created_by"
has_many :modified_deals, :class_name => "Deal", :foreign_key => "modified_by"
end
Related
I have a Users model:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :sent_requests, :foreign_key => :sender_id, :class_name => "Request"
has_many :recieved_requests, :foreign_key => :recipient_id, :class_name => "Request"
and a requests model:
class Request < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :sender, class_name: "User", :source => "sender_id"
belongs_to :recipient, class_name: "User", :source => "recipient_id"
Im struggling to understand the difference of :foreign_key, :through, :source, :class_name, etc.
This seemed to be slightly different from most tutorial examples because a User can belong to a relationship on both sides (although not at the same time).
Any advice for how to get this working. And more importantly how to think about the relationship?
fyi:
my Request model just has sender_id, recipient_id, and accepted:boolean.
Here's what I'm using:
In user's model:
has_many :sent_requests,
:class_name => "Request",
:foreign_key => "sender_id"
has_many :received_requests,
:class_name => "Request",
:foreign_key => "receiver_id"
In request's model:
belongs_to :sender,
:class_name => "User"
belongs_to :receiver,
:class_name => "User"
Note that we user :class_name to specify the name of the class when rails cannot infer the name of the class. If you say:
has_many :requests
then you don't need to include the class name. Rails will automatically know that it is Request. But if you want to rename :request to something like :sent_request, you need to specify the class.
Also note that the foreign key is by default guessed to be the name of the association with an “_id” suffix. So a class that defines a belongs_to :person association will use “person_id” as the default :foreign_key. You need to specify the foreign_key if you are using a name that does not satisfy rails naming convention.
I have BudgetLine model. The model has budget_item_id column.
Second model is BudgetItem. it has an id and a column: full_name.
Now, I want to call: budget_line.item_name and get the name that is corresponding to the full_name in BudgetItem.
I tried (in BudgetLine):
has_one :item_name, :class_name => 'BudgetItem', :foreign_key => 'budget_item_id'
But it is not working.
Since your foreign key is in BudgetLine model, you should have belongs_to association in it:
belongs_to :item_name, class_name: 'BudgetItem', foreign_key: 'budget_item_id'
if you want to have method that returns only item_name, I'd advice renaming your association and adding separate method:
belongs_to :budget_item
def item_name
budget_item.try(:full_name)
end
instead of writing in BudgetLine
has_one :item_name, :class_name => 'BudgetItem', :foreign_key => 'budget_item_id'
You should write
belongs_to :item_name, :class_name => 'BudgetItem', :foreign_key => 'budget_item_id'
So lets I have a Transactions model.
Transactions.rb has:
belongs_to :buyer, :class_name => "User"
belongs_to :seller, :class_name => "User"
The user logged in, is accessed with current_user.
How can I do something like current_user.transactions? (which won't work as transactions doesn't have a user_id column) Or something like current_user.transactions.buyer?
Thanks!
(also the user model has_many :transactions)
All associations in Rails are one-way.
So for each belongs_to, you need to add a has_many or has_one on the other side.
I'd suggest you want something like this;
class User
has_many :transactions_as_buyer,
:class_name => "Transaction",
:foreign_key => :buyer_id
has_many :transactions_as_seller,
:class_name => "Transaction",
:foreign_key => :seller_id
end
Now you can say;
current_user.transactions_as_seller.map(&:buyer)
to get an array of buyers.
Of course, depending on your app you may have a better name than "transactions_as_buyer/seller"
I have Flight, Person, and Glider models in a Rails 3 app. I've defined custom relationships because I need more than one foreign key referencing a Person from the flights table. Associations work but ONE-WAY only.
class Flight < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :pilot, :class_name => "Person"
belongs_to :instructor, :class_name => "Person"
belongs_to :towplane_pilot, :class_name => "Person"
belongs_to :airplane_instructor, :class_name => "Person"
belongs_to :glider
belongs_to :rep_glider, :class_name => "Glider"
belongs_to :departure_airfield, :class_name => "Airfield"
belongs_to :arrival_airfield, :class_name => "Airfield"
end
class Glider < Aircraft
has_many :flights
has_many :replaced_flights, :foreign_key => "rep_glider_id", :class_name => "Flight"
end
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :flights, :foreign_key => "pilot_id", :class_name => "Flight"
has_many :instructed_flights, :foreign_key => "instructor_id", :class_name => "Flight"
has_many :towed_flights, :foreign_key => "towplane_pilot_id", :class_name => "Flight"
has_many :instructed_towing_flights, :foreign_key => "airplane_instructor_id", :class_name => "Flight"
end
####What works#####
Flight.first.glider
Flight.first.rep_glider
Flight.first.pilot
Flight.first.instructor
Flight.first.towplane_pilot
Flight.first.airplane_instructor
Glider.first.flights
Glider.first.replaced_flights
####What doesn't work#### ----> NoMEthodError 'match'
Person.first.flights
Person.first.instructed_flights
Person.first.towed_flights.
Person.first.instructed_towing_flights
I'm almost there, but I don't understand how Glider.first.flights does work when Person.first.flights doesn't.
UPDATE: Associations with 'Airfield' works... so I'm clueless as to why it doesn't work with 'Person'
class Airfield < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :takeoff_flights, :foreign_key => "departure_airfield_id", :class_name => "Flight"
has_many :grounded_flights, :foreign_key => "arrival_airfield_id", :class_name => "Flight"
end
###Works Correctly
Airfield.first.takeoff_flights
Airfield.first.grounded_flights
Flight.first.departure_airfield
Flight.first.arrival_airfield
Do your pilots have types? like a pilot_type column? I just also started reading into these kinds of patterns and luckily it's still a bit fresh(hopefully. please correct me if Im wron rails ninjas! :))
You are in need of the polymorphic pattern as discussed here:
http://asciicasts.com/episodes/154-polymorphic-association
I've been told that the association between these models is set correctly.
I added a new record to the flights table, and now the associations work correctly with this new record and all the previous ones. I'm not really sure how it is working now, but it sure does.
Quick question (I think). I have users, and I would like to allow them to send messages to one another. My question is, should I have a user table, a message table, and a users to messages join table, or should I just store to_user_id and from_user_id in the messages table. If the latter, what would the association look like for that? Can you even reference a 'local' key for an association?
You can do that with a couple of simple has_many associations. Since it's self-referential, you'll need to override some of the Rails magic to make it work.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :sent_messages, :class_name => 'Message', :foreign_key => 'sender_id'
has_many :received_messages, :class_name => 'Message', :foreign_key => 'recipient_id'
end
class Message < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :sender, :class_name => 'User'
belongs_to :recipient, :class_name => 'User'
end
Rails doesn't have a cleaner way to doing self-referential associations that I know of.
I think the latter sounds fine. This is just off the top of my head but I know AR's associations have options like this...
class Message < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :sender, :class_name => :user, :foreign_key => :from_user_id
belongs_to :recipient, :class_name => :user, :foreign_key => :to_user_id
#...
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :received_messages, :class_name => :message, :foreign_key => :to_user_id
has_many :sent_messages, :class_name => :message, :foreign_key => :from_user_id
end