I've created 3 models:
Article: contains an article
Tag: contains tags
ArticleTag: meant for associating a many-to-one tags to article relationship. It contains a tag_id and an article_id.
The problem I'm having is I'm fairly new to the active record technology and I don't understand the proper way to define everything. Currently, which I think is wrong, is I have a
ArticleTag
belongs_to :article
belongs_to :tag
Now, from here my thought was to then add
Article
:has_many :tag
I'm not sure if im approaching this correctly at all. Thanks for the help!
It depends whether you want a join model or not. A join model lets you hold extra information against the association between two other models. For example, perhaps you want to record a timestamp of when the article was tagged. That information would be recorded against the join model.
If you don't want a join model, then you could use a simple has_and_belongs_to_many association:
class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
has_and_belongs_to_many :tags
end
class Tag < ActiveRecord::Base
has_and_belongs_to_many :articles
end
With a Tagging join model (which is a better name than ArticleTag), it would look like this:
class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :taggings
has_many :tags, :through => :taggings
end
class Tag < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :taggings
has_many :articles, :through => :taggings
end
class Tagging < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :article
belongs_to :tag
end
A Guide to Active Record Associations
You should use has_many when the relationship is one-way. An article has many tags, but tags also have many articles, so that's not quite right. A better choice might be has_and_belongs_to_many: an Article has many Tags, and those Tags also reference articles. A belongs_to B means that A references B; A has_one B means that B references A.
Here's a summary of the relationships you might see:
Article
has_and_belongs_to_many :tags # An article has many tags, and those tags are on
# many articles.
has_one :author # An article has one author.
has_many :images # Images only belong to one article.
belongs_to :blog # This article belongs to one blog. (We don't know
# just from looking at this if a blog also has
# one article or many.)
Off the top of my head, Article should be:
has_many :article_tags
has_many :tags, :through => :article_tags
Related
So currently i have in a app:
class Post < ApplicationRecord
belongs_to :category
end
and
class Category < ApplicationRecord
has_many :posts
end
which works fine as expected. However, i need to add multiple categories to a post . I thought about using has_many_and_belongs_to for each of them to acquire this but some trouble implementing this. It seems like a need to add an join table? If so, how would one look like with the setup shown above?
Any ideas?
I appreciate any input! Thanks in advance!
The table should be named categories_posts (categories comes first because of alphabetical sequence) and contain post_id and category_id integer columns (indexed, most probably). The it's as simple as:
class Post < ApplicationRecord
has_and_belongs_to_many :categories
end
class Category < ApplicationRecord
has_and_belongs_to_many :posts
end
You can create join table adding migration using:
rails g migration CreateJoinTableCategoryPost category post
Alternatively you can use has_many :through to have more control over a join table.
Advantages of using :through for many to many relationships
With has_many :through relationship you can have a model which will allow you to add validation, callbacks.
If you initially take some extra efforts to setup many to many relationship using through it can save a lot of time and headache in future
What if in future you want save the more information on join table like some custom sort, information about how the tables are associated which will not be allowed with has_and_belongs_to_many
Example
class Post < ApplicationRecord
has_many :categories, through: :post_categories
has_many :post_categories
end
class Category < ApplicationRecord
has_many :posts, through: :post_categories
has_many :post_categories
end
Adding relationship model with rails generator command
rails g model post_category category_id:integer post_id:integer custom:text
class PostCategory < ApplicationRecord
belongs_to :category
belongs_to :post
end
I guess this is a pretty conceptual question. I'm looking through the possible associations available through Rails, but cannot seem to wrap my head around how to build a "belongs_to_many" and "has_many" association.
Specifically, I want readers to have many books, and each book to belong to many readers.
The closest I can find is the "has_many_and_belongs_to" association, but based on all of the examples I found, it is not exactly accurate.
Likewise, according to the documentation, the "belongs to" and "has many" association is meant as a one to many.
Is there an association available that matches a belongs to many style or some sort of model structure I could use?
Update: Jul 2022
has_and_belongs_to_many is not recommended anymore.
Please use has_many :through approach.
You need to use either
has_and_belongs_to_many
class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
has_and_belongs_to_many :readers
end
class Reader < ActiveRecord::Base
has_and_belongs_to_many :books
end
with this approach, you will need to create a join table named books_readers
rails g migration CreateJoinTableBooksReaders books readers
OR
has_many :through
class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :book_readers
has_many :readers, through: :book_readers
end
class Reader < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :book_readers
has_many :books, through: :book_readers
end
class BookReader < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :reader
belongs_to :book
end
with this approach, you will need to create a new model BookReader
rails g model BookReader book:references reader:references
I would like to create a double entry table form according two models.
For now I'm able to create a simple table with the members of a communities
on the columns, I must add the informations of an other model, like this :
My models :
Community
has_many :memberships
Membership
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :community
User
has_many ::memberships
has_many :skills
Skill
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :community
I there some gem existing to make a double entry table or is it easier to make it from scratch? if so, how can I begin ?
It seems like you would benefit from a through relationship here.
Instead of referencing community directly from the skill table, you could do:
Skill
belongs_to :user
has_many :communities, :through => :user
On user, add:
has_many :communities, :through => :memberships
Wouldn't this get the link between skill and community that you would like?
As Jay mentioned, you would benefit from a has_many :through relationship, or maybe a has_and_belongs_to_many relationship; whether it's the actual solution we'll have to see:
#app/models/user.rb
Class user < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :memberships
has_many :skill_users
has_many :skills, through: :skill_users
end
#app/models/skill_user.rb
Class SkillUser < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :skill
belongs_to :user
end
#app/models/skill.rb
Class Skill < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :skill_users
has_many :users, through: :skill_users
end
This will allow you to associate each user (note that members are different than users) with specific skills without using double-entries in your tables
Relational
The basis of what you're seeking can be found in Relational Databases
These work by storing data in single instances, and linking to other data through foreign_keys. These foreign keys are things such as user_id etc:
(more information here)
This means instead of populating the same data twice, it is correct to reference that data from other models, as required. This is where join models come in
Join Model
Join models allow you to "link" two pieces of data through a join model:
For you, it means storing your skills in its own model, and linking users with skills on a join model (I've called skill_user.rb). This means that you'll be able to call your user's skills like this:
#user.skills #-> goes through the join model
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.
I am trying to create an association between two tables. A student table and a computer table.
A computer can only ever be assigned to one student (at any one time) but a student can be assigned to multiple computers.
This is what I currently have in mind. Setting up a has-many through relationship and modifying it a bit.
class Student < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :assignemnts
has_many :computers, :through => :assignments
end
class Computer < ActiveRecord::Base
has_one :assignment
has_one :student, :through => :assignments
end
class Assignment < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :student
belongs_to :computer
end
Does this seem like the best way to handle this problem? Or something better sound out quickly to the experts here. Thanks!
You need first to decide if a simple one-to many relationship is enough for you.
If yes, it gets a lot easier, because you can get rid of the Assignment-class and table.
Your database-table "computers" then needs a student_id column, with a non-unique index
Your models should look like this:
class Computer < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :student
end
class Student < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :computers, :dependent => :nullify
end
"dependent nullify" because you don't want to delete a computer when a student is deleted, but instead mark it as free.
Each of your computers can only be assigned to a single student, but you can reassign it to a different student, for example in the next year.
Actually your approach is fine, as one offered by #alexkv. It is more discussion, than question.
Another thing if you want to use mapping table for some other purposes, like storing additional fields - then your approach is the best thing. In has_many :through table for the join model has a primary key and can contain attributes just like any other model.
From api.rubyonrails.org:
Choosing which way to build a many-to-many relationship is not always
simple. 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.
I can advise you read this, to understand what approach better to choose in your situation:
http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Associations/ClassMethods.html
http://blog.hasmanythrough.com/2006/4/20/many-to-many-dance-off
You can also use has_and_belongs_to_many method. In your case it will be:
class Student < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :assignemnts
has_and_belongs_to_many :computers, :join_table => 'assignments',
end
class Computer < ActiveRecord::Base
has_one :assignment
has_and_belongs_to_many :student, :join_table => 'assignments',
end
or you can rename assignments table to computers_students and remove join_table
class Student < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :assignemnts
has_and_belongs_to_many :computers
end
class Computer < ActiveRecord::Base
has_one :assignment
has_and_belongs_to_many :student
end