Rail Supported Associations:
  • belongs_to
  • has_one
  • has_many
  • has_many :through
  • has_one :through

  • has_and_belongs_to_many (no need to ever use)

  • belongs_to sets up a one-to-one connection. This also means that the foreign key is in this class . In other words belongs_to can ONLY go in the class that holds the foreign key. belongs_to relationship will be called yourassociationname_id The belongs_to association supports these options:
    • :autosave
    • :class_name
    • :counter_cache
    • :dependent
    • :foreign_key
    • :primary_key
    • :inverse_of
    • :polymorphic
    • :touch
    • :validate
    • :optional
  • has_one sets up a one-to-one connection with another model. This also means that there is a foreign key in another table that references this class. So has_one can ONLY go in a class that is referenced by a column in another table. has_one supports the following options:
    • :as
    • :autosave
    • :class_name
    • :dependent
    • :foreign_key
    • :inverse_of
    • :primary_key
    • :source
    • :source_type
    • :through
    • :validate
  • has_many

    association indicates a one-to-many connection with another model. You’ll often find this association on the “other side” of a belongs_to association. This association indicates that each instance of the model has zero or more instances of another model.

The table with the foreign key will be declare after ` has_many` which is referred as the association table.

has_many association supports these options: - :as - :autosave - :class_name - :counter_cache - :dependent - :foreign_key - :inverse_of - :primary_key - :source - :source_type - :through - :validate

  • has_many :through association is where you create a - through table to act as a go-between for two models that have a many-to-many relationship.

  • ` has_one :through` one-to-one connection with another model.

  • Association Options
    • :class_name specify the class your association should point. 
      class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :author, :class_name => "User"
  belongs_to :editor, :class_name => "User"
end

      Rails will automatically look for the foreign key named after the association, e.g. author_id or editor_id, in the Posts table and it associated with User method

    • ` :foreign_key` allows you to specify the name of the foreign key name if you are not going by regular ruby naming convention. 
      class User < ActiveRecord::Base
 has_many :authored_posts, :foreign_key => "author_id", :class_name => "Post"
 has_many :edited_posts, :foreign_key => "editor_id", :class_name => "Post"
end

    • :source Rails uses the name of the association in the through table to determine which foreign key and table name to reach out to. If it’s named anything irregular, you’ll use the :source . Think of :source as being just like :class_name but for the associations in the “through table”.

      class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
   has_many :post_authorings, :foreign_key => :authored_post_id
   has_many :authors, :through => :post_authorings, :source => :post_author
   belongs_to :editor, :class_name => "User"
 end

      -