I am working with a Rails polymorphic inheritance configuration - I have the following setup:
User < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :rolable, :polymorphic => true
Student < ActiveRecord::Base
has_one :user, :as => :rolable
accepts_nested_attributes_for :user
Teacher < ActiveRecord::Base
has_one :user, :as => :rolable
accepts_nested_attributes_for :user
I want to be able to capture email address for teachers and a username for students (who won't typically have an email address). I defined those as attributes of the User model, but now I'm stuck when I try to do validations for Student and Teacher. I didn't define them in their respective models because I'm using Devise and there will be other user types. Abstracting what is currently type to a Role pattern isn't a good fit for my particular scenario either.
Since username and email are properties of User what I basically want to do is check if the rolable_type field from the polymorphic relationship is type student and if so, make username required and email not, but in the new method that property isn't set. However Rails 'knows' this is a Student, so it feels like there's some way to check the instance type. The closest link I've found to what I'm shooting for is the third comment to the accepted answer in this question: How to apply different validation rule according to polymorphic association type (Rails)?, but I'm having trouble getting the method_missing syntax correct as I'm not experienced with metaprogramming. Am I on the right track with this? Or is there a simpler way? Or should I move the properties to the polymorphic models instead?
Related
I'm working on a Rails 3.0.x application (actually it's Hobo 1.3.x but that's not material to this question). Among the models, there are GraphPanes, GraphLabels, and LabelSets. A GraphPane can have GraphLabels and LabelSets. GraphLabels can belong to GraphPanes or LabelSets, but not both. So if a GraphLabel belongs to a LabelSet, I'd like to keep it from being associated to a GraphPane.
I am trying to enforce that with this code in the GraphPane model:
has_many :graph_labels, :conditions => 'label_set_id = NULL'
However, I'm still able to associate GraphLabels with not-null label_set_id with GraphPanes. Why? How can I stop this?
This question is superficially similar, but my relationship isn't polymorphic, so the nominal solution there doesn't help me.
The functionality of :conditions on has_many is to filter the results that are passed back via the graph_labels, not to protect objects from being added to the association.
If you add a graph_label with no label_set_id, the association will build, but if you then ask for graph_pane.graph_labels, it will not return that non-condition-matching graph_label.
The has_many/belongs_to relationship is saved on the belongs_to model, graph_label, and so the parent/has_many/graph_pane does not stop the graph_label from writing whatever it wants to its graph_pane_id attribute. This delegation of responsibility is correct, although frustrating, I agree.
Now, as for how to stop this, I'm not sure. It sounds like you need some sort of validation on the graph_label object, something along the lines of not allowing a graph_pane_id to be set on a graph_label if that graph_label's label_set_id is nil. Since the has_many/belongs_to relationship is saved on the graph_label, you should write the validation on the graph_label. That way, the graph_label will not be able to be saved with a new graph_panel_id unless it fulfills the condition.
Thoughts? Questions?
Reference:
has_many
Alternate Solution
I've reread your question and I think want you want here is a polymorphic association.
def GraphPane < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :label_sets
has_many :graph_labels, as: :parent
end
def LabelSet < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :graph_pane
has_many :graph_labels, as: :parent
end
def GraphLabel < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :parent, polymorphic: true
end
That way, a GraphLabel can only have a single parent, which is what your “spec” above requires. Is there any reason not to implement the relations in this way?
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
class User
has_one :settings
class Settings
belongs_to :user
I want to do something like
#user_with_no_settings = User.where(:settings => nil)
But this returns an empty relation.
How do I find all users which don't have a settings related to them? (So I will find them and create them)
Most importantly, your association is incorrect;
Change it to:
class User
has_one :setting
class Settings
belongs_to :user
The Class name is plural but the association has_one is always singular. So you can't use :settings for has_one as oppose to has_many which is always plural.
Use this:
User.where("id not in (select user_id from settings)")
The above query will give all the users which don't have a settings associated to them.
Okay. In your situation you may need some TRY this code.
User.where('id NOT IN (?)', User.joins(:settings).pluck('settings.user_id'))
But, you need to follow Rails Convention.
Change settings to setting.
I have the following models:
Student has_many :subjects, :through => :classes
Subject has_many :students, :through => :classes
Class belongs_to :subject
belongs_to :student
The model class has an extra attribute (among the foreign keys to subject and students table) called level.
Basically I want to be able to have a form that will let the student to choose a subject and relate that subject to its record. So, I have this:
ClassesController < ApplicationController
def new
#list_of_subjects = Subject.all
# What should I do here?
end
My question is: How should I create the object for the form? From which model it should be, subject, student or class? I want to be able to create a record in the class table that would relate the student and the subject that the student has chosen, but I don't know if I am doing it wrong.
Thanks
I didn't think you could create a model called Class since it's a keyword, but that's neither here nor there...
First I think your controller and view should be using Student since it's the student that's selecting these things. Next, I think what you want to do is to add accepts_nested_attributes_for :class in your Student model which allows you to create an instance of the Class connector model from Student.
What you're trying to do sounds a little like something I tried to do. I have my full code there.
Using nested attributes to easily select associations in a form
I later refined it a bit in this question too to make the code less hideous:
Rails: How do I prepend or insert an association with build?
I know it's late, but I hope that helps.
I am new to Rails and finished Michael Hartl's "Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial". Although the book teaches me a lot, I find this puzzle I don't understand.
To preview the puzzle, that is, I don't understand, inside User model,
has_many :following, :through=>:relationship, :source=>:followed
how this piece of code link "user.following" to an array of User instances.
And below is the whole puzzle.
First of all, I have the Relationship model, which records followed_id and follower_id infos. Inside Relationship model, the association is simple as
class Relationship < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :followed_id
belongs_to :follower, :class_name => "User"
belongs_to :followed, :class_name => "User"
end
Then, inside the User model, a user will assume the role of follower, and collect all its following rows in relationships table through relationships association.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
.
.
.
has_many :relationships, :foreign_key => "follower_id", :dependent => :destroy
.
Until now, I got it.
But confusion came at the next line, where through user.following it can assemble all that user's following(User instances). Like so,
has_many :following, :through=>:relationships, :source=>:followed
I understand that :source=>:followed will overwrite the default, and let find all followed_ids associated with that user.
But, how can Rails recognize followed_id to link to User object? The label name doesn't match users, nor is there :class_name specified. I just don't get how Rails do this underlying work, or I missed out some hints.
Thank you! :)
But, how can Rails recognize followed_id to link to User object? The
label name doesn't match users, nor is there :class_name specified. I
just don't get how Rails do this underlying work, or I missed out some
hints.
Rails recognize that is an user object because it is set in Relationship's belongs_to. What Rails does here is to follow the relationship class through the foreign key "follower_id" and returning every User that has a relationship with the current user as followed. Of course Rails do that in a single SQL statement like this:
SELECT `users`.* FROM `users` INNER JOIN `relationships` ON `relationships`.followed_id = `users`.id WHERE ((`relationships`.follower_id = <the current user id> ))
has_many :following, :through=>:relationships, :source=>:followed
This explains to Rails that following is the inverse relationship of following and that users has many following and followed through his relationships.
The way Rails knows that followed_id is linked to User is that it is defined in your Relationship model.
Hope you've understood ! Good luck :)