Question about AR associations (belongs_to)

Rails
1

Hi !

A simple question about belongs_to…

Two models : Upload and Uploadedfile.

In Upload :

belongs_to :uploadedfile, :foreign_key => “file_number_id”

The primary key of Uploads is id, and there is a column named number.

When I try :

upload = Upload.find(1)
upload.uploadedfile

Rails do :
SELECT * FROM uploadedfiles WHERE (uploadedfiles.id = 255)

(255 is the value in file_number_id of course)

But I want Rails to do :
SELECT * FROM uploadedfiles WHERE (uploadedfiles.number = 255)

My question :

In belongs_to, Rails have got a parameter to name the foreign_key in the
current model, but why Rails does not have a parameter to name the
column in the other?
In some case, the column I want to search is not the primary key!

For example I could write :

belongs_to :uploadedfile, :foreign_key => “file_number_id”, :column =>
“number”
and it would send :
SELECT * FROM uploadedfiles WHERE (uploadedfiles.number = 255)

2

Nicolas B. wrote:

Hi !

A simple question about belongs_to…

Two models : Upload and Uploadedfile.

Hmmm :slight_smile:

So a few things to note:

  1. the belongs_to goes in the ‘child’ record. ie. the record with the
    foreign key. Person belongs_to :team ( the person table would have id
    and team_id )

I’m thinking you should probably have UploadedFile belongs_to :upload
and have an upload_id in UploadedFile.

  1. Associations work like foreign keys, and so generally should ‘point’
    to a primary key (usually ‘id’).

So with tables:

uploads( id, number, name, whatever)
uploaded_files( id, upload_id, filename, whatever)

and models

Upload
has_one :uploaded_file

UploadedFile
belongs_to :upload

You should be set…I think.

Does this help ?

Alan

3

Alan F. wrote:

So with tables:

uploads( id, number, name, whatever)
uploaded_files( id, upload_id, filename, whatever)

and models

Upload
has_one :uploaded_file

UploadedFile
belongs_to :upload

I forgot to add :slight_smile:

You can now do

@upload = Upload.find_by_number( aNumber )
@upload.uploaded_file

or

@upload = Upload.find(1)
@upload.uploaded_file

A.