Rails STI association with subclasses - sql

I'm getting some strange behaviour when fetching collections from a has_many association with rails 3 when using STI. I have:
class Branch < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :employees, class_name: 'User::Employee'
has_many :admins, class_name: 'User::BranchAdmin'
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
end
class User::Employee < User
belongs_to :branch
end
class User::BranchAdmin < User::Employee
end
The desired behaviour is that branch.employees returns all employees including branch admins. The branch admins only seem to be 'loaded' under this collection when they have been accessed by branch.admins, this is output from the console:
Branch.first.employees.count
=> 2
Branch.first.admins.count
=> 1
Branch.first.employees.count
=> 3
This can be seen in the generated SQL, the first time:
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM "users" WHERE "users"."type" IN ('User::Employee') AND "users"."branch_id" = 1
and the second time:
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM "users" WHERE "users"."type" IN ('User::Employee', 'User::BranchAdmin') AND "users"."branch_id" = 1
I could solve this problem by just specifying:
class Branch < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :employees, class_name: 'User'
has_many :admins, class_name: 'User::BranchAdmin'
end
since they all be found from their branch_id but this creates problems in the controller if I want to do branch.employees.build then the class will default to User and I have to hack at the type column somewhere. I have got around this for now with:
has_many :employees, class_name: 'User::Employee',
finder_sql: Proc.new{
%Q(SELECT users.* FROM users WHERE users.type IN ('User::Employee','User::BranchAdmin') AND users.branch_id = #{id})
},
counter_sql: Proc.new{
%Q(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM "users" WHERE "users"."type" IN ('User::Employee', 'User::BranchAdmin') AND "users"."branch_id" = #{id})
}
but I would really like to avoid this if possible. Anyone, any ideas?
EDIT:
The finder_sql and counter_sql haven't really solved it for me because it seems that parent associations don't use this and so organisation.employees that has_many :employees, through: :branches will again only include the User::Employee class in the selection.

Basically, the problem only exists in the development environment where classes are loaded as needed. (In production, classes are loaded and kept available.)
The problem comes in due to the interpreter not having seen yet that Admins are a type of Employee when you first run the Employee.find, etc. call.
(Notice that it later uses IN ('User::Employee', 'User::BranchAdmin'))
This happens with every use of model classes that are more than one level deep, but only in dev-mode.
Subclasses always autoload their parent hierarchy. Base classes don't autoload their child hierachies.
Hack-fix:
You can force the correct behaviour in dev-mode by explicitly requiring all your child classes from the base class rb file.

Can you use :conditions?
class Branch < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :employees, class_name: 'User::Employee', :conditions => {:type => "User::Employee"}
has_many :admins, class_name: 'User::BranchAdmin', :conditions => {:type => "User::BranchAdmin"}
end
This would be my preferred method. One other way to do it might be to add a default scope to the polymorphic models.
class User::BranchAdmin < User::Employee
default_scope where("type = ?", name)
end

A similar problem continues to exist in Rails 6.
This link outlines the issue and workaround. It contains the following explanation and code snippet:
Active Record needs to have STI hierarchies fully loaded in order to generate correct SQL. Preloading in Zeitwerk was designed for this use case:
By preloading the leaves of the tree, autoloading will take care of the entire hierarchy upwards following superclasses.
These files are going to be preloaded on boot, and on each reload.
# config/initializers/preload_vehicle_sti.rb
autoloader = Rails.autoloaders.main
sti_leaves = %w(car motorbike truck)
sti_leaves.each do |leaf|
autoloader.preload("#{Rails.root}/app/models/#{leaf}.rb")
end
You may require a spring stop for the configuration changes to take.

Indeed, that was the plan in the early days of the gem, but it was abandoned soon (in 2019, before Rails 6 was out). Preloading has been deprecated for a long time, and has been deleted in the forthcoming Zeitwerk 2.5.
In a Rails application you can do it this way:
# config/initializers/preload_vehicle_sti.rb
Rails.application.config.to_prepare do
Car
Motorbike
Truck
end
That is, you "preload" just by using the constants in a to_prepare block.

Related

Returning associations for specific model when there is a polymorphic association in Rails 3.2

I have a polymorphic association in a Rails 3 app where a User may favorite objects of various classes.
class Favorite < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :favoriteable, :polymorphic => true
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :favorites
end
class Image < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :favorites, :as => :favoriteable
end
class Video < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :favorites, :as => :favoriteable
end
I would like to be able return a list of just a User's favorite_images for example.
user.favorite_images #returns a list of the images associated with the user via :favoritable
I'm guessing there is a straightforward way of doing this but I haven't been able to figure it out. Let me know if you need anymore info.
Thanks!
===edit====
I know that I could retrieve what I am looking for via
favorite_images = user.favorites.collect{|f| if f.favoriteable_type=='Image'; f.favoriteable; end}
I could define an instance method for the User class and put that inside. I was wondering if there is a way to do it as some sort of has_many association. Really just because going forward it would be easier to have all that in one place.
When you created the table for Favorite you created a couple of columns favoriteable_id and favoriteable_type and you can use this information to restrict your query.
If you do user.favorites you will get all of the favorites and to restrict them to say just the images then you can do user.favorites.where(favoriteable_type: 'image') but that just gives you the favorite records and it sounds like you want the actual images. To get those you can do it by then mapping and pulling the favoriteable out. You'll likely want to include it in the query though so you don't hit the database so much. I would also make this a method on User.
def favorite_images
favorites.includes(:favoriteable).where(favoriteable_type: 'Image').map(&:favoriteable)
end

Rails 3 association eager load vs opposite association

I have associated models like this:
class Batch
has_many :logs
class Log
belongs_to :batch
I'm using includes to load batches with logs:
b = Batch.includes(:logs)
Which runs 2 selects as expected (batches and logs).
Then I do
b.first.logs.first.batch
and this triggers another select on batches, even when they were actually loaded already.
I figured to "fix" it by doing includes(:logs => :batch) but I'm still thinking that something is wrong here because the same batches are loaded twice. What gives?
You can fix this with the :inverse_of setting, which lets ActiveRecord know that the two associations are the inverse of each other.
class Batch
has_many :logs, :inverse_of => :batch
end
class Log
belongs_to :batch, :inverse_of => :logs
end

Querying for rows without matching ID in associated table

I have a very standard app backed by an SQL database with a User model, a Problem model, and a CompletedProblem model acting as a join table between the two.
I'm trying to create a method that returns all problems not solved by a particular user. I have run into a wall, however, and I would appreciate pointers on what my method should look like.
Below are the models as well as my latest (incorrect) pass at creating this method.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :completed_problems
has_many :problems, :through => :completed_problems
def unsolved_problems
Problem.includes({:wall => :gym}, :completed_problems).
where('completed_problems.user_id != ? OR completed_problems.user_id IS NULL)', self.id)
end
end
class Problem < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :completed_problems
has_many :users, :through => :completed_problems
end
class CompletedProblem < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :problem
end
(For the curious: this method does work so long as there is only one user marking problems as solved. As soon as you add a second, each user starts to return only those problems that have been solved by other users, instead of those not solved by herself.)
Via a friend:
select * from problems where id not in (select problem_id from completed_problems where user_id = USER_ID))
Although I'd still be interested in hearing if there's a way in ActiveRecord to do this.
I think something like this will do it:
Problem.where(["id NOT IN (?)", self.problems.all.map(&:id)])

Rails 3 - associations

I print in my view a number that tell me, how many people read my article. It looks something like a:
<%=article.hits.count%>
As is possible to see, I created a simple association.
Now I am trying to get the information, if the user who is log in on my page, so if he is already had read this article. In my table that contains hits is column user_id.
But I can't still find the way, how to get...
I tried something like:
<% if session[:login_user_id].hits.user_id == session[:login_user_id]%>
Have you read it already.
<% end %>
But the example above doesn't work me... Could anyone help me please, how to do?
EDIT: The models:
class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :hits
end
class Hits < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :article, :class_name => "DataHit", :foreign_key => "article_id"
has_many :users
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :hit
end
Thanks in advance
Let's first talk about the model you like to receive. For me, it sounds like:
Every article can be visited / read by many users.
Every user can read / visit many articles.
This is a classical n:m-association which is normally implemented by a has-many-through association.
If this is the intention, it should be implemented like:
class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :hits
has_many :users, :through => :hits
end
class Hits < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :article, :class_name => "DataHit", :foreign_key => "article_id"
belongs_to :user
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :hits
has_many :articles, :through => :hits
end
Of course, you have to add migrations that ensure that the final DB model is like that:
Hit has article_id and user_id to ensure that users may find the articles they have read
If you have that model implemented, it should be more easy. Then you have operations available like: #article.users.contains(User.find(user_id)). Have a look at the tutorial at Ruby on Rails Guides which explain what the has-many-through relation is and which advantages they have.
It would be helpful if you try the things first in the console of Rails. To do that, start with:
Start the rails console in the root directory of your application: rails c
Enter there e.g.: art = Article.find(1) to get the article with the id.
Try which methods are available: art.methods.sort to see all methods that could be used. If there is no method users, you have did something wrong with the assocication.
Try the call: us = art.users and look at the result. It should be a rails specific object, an object that behaves like a collection and understands how to add and remove users to that collection (with the whole life cycle of rails). The error your currently have could mean different things:
Your database model does not match your associations defined in Rails (I suspect that).
Some minor tweak (misspelling somewhere) which hinders Rails.
I hope this gives you some clues what to do next, I don't think that we can fix the problem here once and for all times.

Filter based on model attribute has_many relationship through, rails 3?

I have a simple question, but can't seem to find any solution, though I have found things that are similar, but just not exactly what I am looking for.
I have an application where a User has many Assets through the class UserAsset. I want to be able to do current_user.user_assets , but I only want to return records that have an Asset with a specified field value of "active".
This post is similar but I need to use the main model not the join model as a filter.
class UserAsset < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :asset
belongs_to :user
end
class Asset < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :user_assets
has_many :users, :through => :user_assets
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :user_assets
has_many :assets, :through => :user_assets
end
I tried setting the default scope on Asset, and also some conditions on the has many (user_assets) relationship, but rails is failing to consider the join on the Assets table. ie Unknown column 'asset.live' in 'where clause'. Trying to achieve the following:
#active_user_assets = current_user.user_assets #only where assets.active = true
So how do I use conditions or scopes to achieve this? I need the user_asset object because it contains info about the relationship that is relevant.
Thanks in advance!
You want current_user.assets, then your scopes should work.
Oh, but you want the user_assets. Hmm. I think you need the :include clause to find() but where to put it, I can't be arsed to think of right now.
Perhaps
current_user.user_assets.find(:all, :include => :assets).where('asset.live=?', true)
(I'm not on Rails 3 yet, so that's going to be mangled)
Are you using :through when you really want a HABTM?