Rails model with foreign_key and link table - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am trying to create a model for a ruby on rails project that builds relationships between different words. Think of it as a dictionary where the "Links" between two words shows that they can be used synonymously. My DB looks something like this:
Words
----
id
Links
-----
id
word1_id
word2_id
How do I create a relationship between two words, using the link-table. I've tried to create the model but was not sure how to get the link-table into play:
class Word < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :synonyms, :class_name => 'Word', :foreign_key => 'word1_id'
end

Answer 1

In general, if your association has suffixes such as 1 and 2, it's not set up properly. Try this for the Word model:
class Word < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :links, :dependent => :destroy
has_many :synonyms, :through => :links
end
Link model:
class Link < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :word
belongs_to :synonym, :class_name => 'Word'
# Creates the complementary link automatically - this means all synonymous
# relationships are represented in #word.synonyms
def after_save_on_create
if find_complement.nil?
Link.new(:word => synonym, :synonym => word).save
end
end
# Deletes the complementary link automatically.
def after_destroy
if complement = find_complement
complement.destroy
end
end
protected
def find_complement
Link.find(:first, :conditions =>
["word_id = ? and synonym_id = ?", synonym.id, word.id])
end
end
Tables:
Words
----
id
Links
-----
id
word_id
synonym_id

Answer 2

Hmm, this is a tricky one. That is because synonyms can be from either the word1 id or the word2 id or both.
Anyway, when using a Model for the link table, you must use the :through option on the Models that use the Link Table
class Word < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :links1, :class_name => 'Link', :foreign_key => 'word1_id'
has_many :synonyms1, :through => :links1, :source => :word
has_many :links2, :class_name => 'Link', :foreign_key => 'word2_id'
has_many :synonyms2, :through => :links2, :source => :word
end
That should do it, but now you must check two places to get all the synonyms. I would add a method that joined these, inside class Word.
def synonyms
return synonyms1 || synonyms2
end
||ing the results together will join the arrays and eliminate duplicates between them.
*This code is untested.

Answer 3

Word model:
class Word < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :links, :dependent => :destroy
has_many :synonyms, :through => :links
def link_to(word)
synonyms << word
word.synonyms << self
end
end
Setting :dependent => :destroy on the has_many :links will remove all the links associated with that word before destroying the word record.
Link Model:
class Link < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :word
belongs_to :synonym, :class_name => "Word"
end
Assuming you're using the latest Rails, you won't have to specify the foreign key for the belongs_to :synonym. If I recall correctly, this was introduced as a standard in Rails 2.
Word table:
name
Link table:
word_id
synonym_id
To link an existing word as a synonym to another word:
word = Word.find_by_name("feline")
word.link_to(Word.find_by_name("cat"))
To create a new word as a synonym to another word:
word = Word.find_by_name("canine")
word.link_to(Word.create(:name => "dog"))

Answer 4

I'd view it from a different angle; since all the words are synonymous, you shouldn't promote any one of them to be the "best". Try something like this:
class Concept < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :words
end
class Word < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :concept
validates_presence_of :text
validates_uniqueness_of :text, :scope => :concept_id
# A sophisticated association would be better than this.
def synonyms
concept.words - [self]
end
end
Now you can do
word = Word.find_by_text("epiphany")
word.synonyms

Answer 5

Trying to implement Sarah's solution I came across 2 issues:
Firstly, the solution doesn't work when wanting to assign synonyms by doing
word.synonyms << s1 or word.synonyms = [s1,s2]
Also deleting synonyms indirectly doesn't work properly. This is because Rails doesn't trigger the after_save_on_create and after_destroy callbacks when it automatically creates or deletes the Link records. At least not in Rails 2.3.5 where I tried it on.
This can be fixed by using :after_add and :after_remove callbacks in the Word model:
has_many :synonyms, :through => :links,
:after_add => :after_add_synonym,
:after_remove => :after_remove_synonym
Where the callbacks are Sarah's methods, slightly adjusted:
def after_add_synonym synonym
if find_synonym_complement(synonym).nil?
Link.new(:word => synonym, :synonym => self).save
end
end
def after_remove_synonym synonym
if complement = find_synonym_complement(synonym)
complement.destroy
end
end
protected
def find_synonym_complement synonym
Link.find(:first, :conditions => ["word_id = ? and synonym_id = ?", synonym.id, self.id])
end
The second issue of Sarah's solution is that synonyms that other words already have when linked together with a new word are not added to the new word and vice versa.
Here is a small modification that fixes this problem and ensures that all synonyms of a group are always linked to all other synonyms in that group:
def after_add_synonym synonym
for other_synonym in self.synonyms
synonym.synonyms << other_synonym if other_synonym != synonym and !synonym.synonyms.include?(other_synonym)
end
if find_synonym_complement(synonym).nil?
Link.new(:word => synonym, :synonym => self).save
end
end