Can a 3-way relationship be modeled this way in Rails? - ruby-on-rails

A User can have many roles, but only one role per Brand.
Class User < AR::Base
has_and_belongs_to_many :roles, :join_table => "user_brand_roles"
has_and_belongs_to_many :brands, :join_table => "user_brand_roles"
end
The problem with this setup is, how do I check the brand and the role at the same time?
Or would I better off with a BrandRole model where different roles can be set up for each Brand, and then be able to assign a user to a BrandRole?
Class User < AR::Base
has_many :user_brand_roles
has_many :brand_roles, :through => :user_brand_roles
end
Class BrandRole < AR::Base
belongs_to :brand
belongs_to :role
end
Class UserBrandRole < AR::Base
belongs_to :brand_role
belongs_to :user
end
This way I could do a find on the brand for the user:
br = current_user.brand_roles.where(:brand_id => #brand.id).includes(:brand_role)
if br.blank? or br.role != ADMIN
# reject access, redirect
end
This is a new application and I'm trying to learn from past mistakes and stick to the Rails Way. Am I making any bad assumptions or design decisions here?

Assuming Roles,Brands are reference tables. You can have a single association table Responsibilities with columns user_id, role_id, brand_id.
Then you can define
Class User < AR::Base
has_many : responsibilities
has_many :roles, :through => responsibilities
has_many :brands,:through => responsibilities
end
Class Responsibility < AR::Base
belongs_to :user
has_one :role
has_one :brand
end
The you can define
Class User < AR::Base
def has_access?(brand)
responsibility = responsibilities.where(:brand => brand)
responsibility and responsibility.role == ADMIN
end
end
[Not sure if Responsibility is the term used in your domain, but use a domain term instead of calling it as user_brand_role]

This is a conceptual thing. If BrandRole is an entity for your application, then your approach should work. If BrandRole is not an entity by itself in your app, then maybe you can create a UserBrandRole model:
class User < AR::Base
has_many :user_brand_roles
end
class Brand < AR::Base
has_many :user_brand_roles
end
class Role < AR::Base
has_many :user_brand_roles
end
class UserBrandRole < AR::Base
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :brand
belongs_to :role
validates_uniqueness_of :role_id, :scope => [:user_id, :brand_id]
end

Related

Active Record Associations: has_and_belongs_to_many, has_many :through or polymorphic association?

The Ruby on Rails app I am working on allows users to create and share agendas with other users.
In addition, we must be able to:
Display a list of agendas for each user, on his profile
Display a list of users associated with an agenda, on the agenda's page
When sharing an agenda with another user, define a role for this user, and display the role of this user on the list mentioned right above
I was going to go with a has_and_belongs_to_many association between the user and the agenda models, like that:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_and_belongs_to_many :agendas
end
class Agenda < ActiveRecord::Base
has_and_belongs_to_many :users
end
But then I wondered whether this would let me get and display the #user.agenda.user.role list of roles on the given agenda page of a given user.
And I thought I should probably go with a has_many :through association instead, such as:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :roles
has_many :agendas, through: :roles
end
class Role < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :agenda
end
class Agenda < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :roles
has_many :users, through: :roles
end
And although I was pretty comfortable about the idea of a user having several roles (one for each agenda), I am not sure about the idea of an agenda having several roles (one for each user?).
Finally, to add to the confusion, I read about the polymorphic association and thought it could also be a viable solution, if done this way for instance:
class Role < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :definition, polymorphic: true
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :roles, as: :definition
end
class Agenda < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :roles, as: :definition
end
Does any of the above solutions sound right for the situation?
UPDATE: Doing some research, I stumbled upon this article (from 2012) explaining that has_many :through was a "smarter" choice than has_and_belongs_to_many. In my case, I am still not sure about the fact that an agenda would have many roles.
UPDATE 2: As suggested in the comments by #engineersmnkyn, a way of solving this would be to go with two join tables. I tried to implement the following code:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :agendas, through: :jointable
end
class Agenda < ActiveRecord::Base
end
class Role < ActiveRecord::Base
end
class Jointable < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :agenda
has_many :agendaroles through :jointable2
end
class Jointable2 < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :roles
belongs_to :useragenda
end
I am not sure about the syntax though. Am I on the right track? And how should I define the Agenda and the Role models?
UPDATE 3: What if I went with something like:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :roles
has_many :agendas, through: :roles
end
class Role < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :agenda
end
class Agenda < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :roles
has_many :users, through: :roles
end
and then, in the migration file, go with something like:
class CreateRoles < ActiveRecord::Migration
def change
create_table :roles do |t|
t.belongs_to :user, index: true
t.belongs_to :agenda, index: true
t.string :privilege
t.timestamps
end
end
end
Would I be able to call #user.agenda.privilege to get the privilege ("role" of creator, editor or viewer) of a given user for a given agenda?
Conversely, would I be able to call #agenda.user.privilege ?
Okay I will preface by saying I have not tested this but I think one of these 2 choices should work well for you.
Also if these join tables will never need functionality besides a relationship then has_and_belongs_to_many would be fine and more concise.
Basic Rails rule of thumb:
If you need to work with the relationship model as its own entity, use has_many :through. Use has_and_belongs_to_many when working with legacy schemas or when you never work directly with the relationship itself.
First using your example (http://repl.it/tNS):
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :user_agendas
has_many :agendas, through: :user_agendas
has_many :user_agenda_roles, through: :user_agendas
has_many :roles, through: :user_agenda_roles
def agenda_roles(agenda)
roles.where(user_agenda_roles:{agenda:agenda})
end
end
class Agenda < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :user_agendas
has_many :users, through: :user_agendas
has_many :user_agenda_roles, through: :user_agendas
has_many :roles, through: :user_agenda_roles
def user_roles(user)
roles.where(user_agenda_roles:{user: user})
end
end
class Role < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :user_agenda_roles
end
class UserAgenda < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :agenda
has_many :user_agenda_roles
has_many :roles, through: :user_agenda_roles
end
class UserAgendaRoles < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :role
belongs_to :user_agenda
end
This uses a join table to hold the relationship of User <=> Agenda and then a table to join UserAgenda => Role.
The Second Option is to use a join table to hold the relationship of User <=> Agenda and another join table to handle the relationship of User <=> Agenda <=> Role. This option will take a bit more set up from a CRUD standpoint for things like validating if the user is a user for that Agenda but allows a little flexibility.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :user_agendas
has_many :agendas, through: :user_agendas
has_many :user_agenda_roles
has_many :roles, through: :user_agenda_roles
def agenda_roles(agenda)
roles.where(user_agenda_roles:{agenda: agenda})
end
end
class Agenda < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :user_agendas
has_many :users, through: :user_agendas
has_many :user_agenda_roles
has_many :roles, through: :user_agenda_roles
def user_roles(user)
roles.where(user_agenda_roles:{user: user})
end
end
class Role < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :user_agenda_roles
end
class UserAgenda < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :agenda
end
class UserAgendaRoles < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :role
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :agenda
end
I know this is a long answer but I wanted to show you more than 1 way to solve the problem in this case. Hope it helps

Getting Association through self-inheriting STI model

In my Rails app I have Users and Forms.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :admin_roles
#desired association below
#has_many :forms, through: :admin_roles
end
class Form < ActiveRecord::Base
has_one :department
end
The Users need to administrate the Forms through any level of an Organization.
class AdminRole < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :organization
belongs_to :user
end
If assigned to a non-department organization the forms they have control over should come through the child departments.
The Forms are assigned to a departmental level only.
My model for the Organization is an STI model of 3 levels: market>subdomain>department
class Organization < ActiveRecord::Base
self.inheritance_column = :org_level
has_many :admin_roles
end
class Department < Organization
belongs_to :sub_domain, primary_key: :id, foreign_key: :parent_id
has_many :forms
end
class SubDomain < Organization
belongs_to :market, primary_key: :id, foreign_key: :parent_id
has_many :departments
end
class Market < Organization
has_many :sub_domains
end
The desired capability is to do user.forms and get all the associated forms back.
For example: Given there was a hierarchy of FooMarket>BarDomain>LoremDepartment
and a Form associated to LoremDepartment.
If a User is then tied to any of those 3 Organizations through the AdminRole it would allow for the return of the LoremDepartment Form.
Do you have to necessarily do it with associations ? u can always define an instance method in user model and back track it to forms.
But before that, just a reminder, you have to mention the foreign key in both the models for the association to work both ways.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :name
has_many :admin_roles
has_many :organizations, :through => :admin_roles
def forms
organizations.map(&:forms).flatten.uniq
end
end
class Department < Organization
belongs_to :sub_domain, primary_key: :id, foreign_key: :parent_id
has_many :forms, :foreign_key => :organization_id
end
class SubDomain < Organization
belongs_to :market, primary_key: :id, foreign_key: :parent_id
has_many :departments, foreign_key: :parent_id
def forms
departments.map(&:forms).flatten
end
end
class Market < Organization
has_many :sub_domains, foreign_key: :parent_id
def forms
sub_domains.map(&:forms).flatten
end
end
I tested this and it does work. But kinda round about.

Rails model .build set id

In my app I have 3 model:
OrganizationType
Organization
OrganizationTypeLink
as you guess: my organization could perform more than one action, and this type of action's I want to link with organization...
And in controller I write so:
def create
#admin_organization = Organization.new(admin_organization_params)
#admin_organization.organization_type_links.build(organization_type_id: params[:organization_type_id], organization_id: #admin_organization.id)
if #admin_organization.save
....
And in model OrganizationTypeLink I see new rows in db, but how to store in Organization organization_type_link_id ? How could I store it in db?
I am new to RoR, so please give advice )
upd:
class Organization < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :organization_type
has_many :organization_type_links, :dependent => :destroy
end
class OrganizationTypeLink < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :organization
belongs_to :organization_type
end
class OrganizationType < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :organizations
has_many :organization_type_links
end
how to store in Organization organization_type_link_id ? how could i store it in db?
The way you have currently defined associations in these 3 models: OrganizationType, Organization and OrganizationTypeLink
Organization has_many organization_type_links means that OrganizationTypeLink will have a foreign key named organization_id in it and not the other way round.
If you want to have organization_type_link_id in Organization then you would need to setup association as:
class Organization < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :organization_type
belong_to :organization_type_link
end
class OrganizationTypeLink < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :organizations, :dependent => :destroy
belongs_to :organization_type
end

Rails inverse polymorphic association

I'm familiar with using rails' polymorphic associations, where a model can be declared polymorphic to gain the capability of belonging to a multitude of other models, such as:
class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :commentable, :polymorphic => true
end
class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :comments, :as => :commentable
end
class Photo < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :comments, :as => :commentable
end
class Event < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :comments, :as => :commentable
end
Is there a common pattern to deal with the inverse case, where a model can have a multitude of other models that will be accessed through the same interface (e.g. a person has many pets, where pets can be either dogs, cats, etc.)? Should I just create a virtual attribute?
For your pets example, STI may be a solution:
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :pets
end
class Pet < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :owner, class_name: "Person", foreign_key: "person_id"
# Be sure to include a :type attribute for STI to work
end
class Dog < Pet
end
class Cat < Pet
end
This should still give you access to #person.pets and #dog.owner, #pet.owner, etc.

Rails 3 / Active Record - Association problems with additional model in assignment table

I currently have a setup that links the models User, Dealer and Role together. User and Dealer is many to many, and is working as expected with a Dealer_user assignment table.
The problem is that I want to have roles assigned to the user that are specific to the dealer also (i.e. a user could be a Sales Manager and a Parts Manager in one dealership, while being a Sales Manager and a Director in another).
In order to do this, I have a Role model (which belongs to a Role_type). Role should belong to Dealer_user, and Dealer_user has many Roles.
The intention is that I will be able to do dealer.users.where(:id => user.id).first.roles and it will return only the roles specific to that dealership.
The problem I have is that when I run the following test code: dealer.users.where(:id => user.id).first.roles.create(:role_type_id => 1 + Random.rand(4))
I get an error: Cannot modify association 'User#roles' because the source reflection class 'Role' is associated to 'DealerUser' via :has_many.
Can anyone suggest what I am doing wrong with my models (which are below)?
NOTE: The belongs_to relationship that Role has with Dealer_user is polymorphic because it could also belong to Sale_user or other association tables, which require the same functionality as Dealer.
class Dealer < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :name, :address_id
has_many :dealer_users
has_many :users, :through => :dealer_users
has_many :roles, :through => :dealer_users
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :first_name, :last_name
has_many :dealer_users
has_many :dealers, :through => :dealer_users
has_many :roles, :through => :dealer_users
end
class DealerUser < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :dealer_id, :user_id
belongs_to :dealer
belongs_to :user
has_many :roles, :as => :role_originator
end
class Role < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :role_type_id
belongs_to :role_type
belongs_to :role_originator, :polymorphic => true
end
Edit: No luck so far - can anyone help?
I would use has_many through association with the roles table. Get rid of the dealer_user table, and add columns to the roles table dealer_id and user_id
Then your models would look something like this:
class Dealer < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :users, :through => :roles
has_many :roles
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :dealers, :through => :roles
has_many :roles
end
class Role < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :dealer
belongs_to :user
end
That should make it easier to do the types of queries you're trying. The rails guide has a really good overview here

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