Crazy @55 Inheritance

Rails
1

I have one table, called “people”.
Within this table, there are type “users”, “managers”… etc. So,
basic
STI.

Now, I want a “user” to have one manager, but a “manager” to have many
“users”.

Since I don’t want to use HABTM… how do I set this relationship up
seeing
that :has_one, :belongs_to and :has_many don’t
allow you to specify a :join_table ?

I can get the “has_one” part of the equation working using:
belongs_to :manager,
:class_name => “Client”,
:foreign_key => “assigned_manager”

… where “assigned_manager” is just a field with the “people” table…
but
I’m at a loss on how to specify the :has_many.

My assumption would be that I have to use HABTM in order to get the join
table recognized… but just need to ensure I’m not assigning
many managers to one user. Is this correct ?
Any clarification on this would be great.
Thank you !

Dylan

2

Dylan S. wrote:

many managers to one user. Is this correct ?
Any clarification on this would be great.
Why do you need a join table? Sounds like a standard has_many to me.

3

this is actually a mix of STI and a self referential join.

people

id
type (‘Employee’ or ‘Manager’)
manager_id (references people.id field)
name
…

models

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
end

class Employee < Person
belongs_to :manager
end

class Manager < Person
has_many :employees
end

script/console

bob = Manager.create(:name => “Bob”) # create bob as a manager
jack = Employee.create(:name => “Jack”) # create jack as an employee
bob.employees << jack # assign jack as an employee of bob, this sets the
manager_id field in the ‘jack’ record to the id of the ‘bob’ record

adjust to fit your specific setup