Associated Models and :dependent => :destroy

Rails
1

Hello,

I’m a rails beginner and I would appreciate any help on this problem.

I have two models, Workbook and WorkbookContent. Workbook holds
uploaded Excel workbooks (through attachment_fu). I want to parse the
data into fields in WorkbookContent.

My Workbook model uses
has_one :workbook_content, :dependent => :destroy

and my WorkbookContent model uses
belongs_to :workbook_content, :dependent => :destroy

My understanding is that, if Workbook includes the dependent => destroy
property, all its children will be destroyed upon its destruction.
However, when I look in the MySQL database, I can see that the child is
not being destroyed. Is this something I am doing wrong with my
migration? My migration for workbook__contents currently contains the
code:
t.references :workbook
which I found while scouring the internet. Before, I had no explicit
mention of workbook and did not explicitly create a workbook_id column.

I don’t understand why I can’t get the child to be destroyed. Any help
would be greatly appreciated!

Also, if anyone can guide me to some good reference materials on
associated models, I would be very grateful.

Thanks!

2

On Oct 16, 7:58 am, Avi Ir [email protected] wrote:

and my WorkbookContent model uses
belongs_to :workbook_content, :dependent => :destroy

Shouldn’t this be:
belongs_to :workbook, :dependent => :destroy

3

Yes, sorry that was just a typo from copy/paste.

Is there anything I need to do with the migration to get this to work,
or is it only the :dependent => :destroy command?

Thank you for your help.

4

Can’t say as I’ve used the t.references command yet, but a look at your
table definition for workbook_contents should tell you whether you have
a workbook_id field in there.

What I do find curious is that you have the :dependent => :destroy in
both models, workbook and workbook_content.

If the user only ever deletes the workbook, then that model is the one
that needs the dependent clause. I’m not sure the effects of having the
clause on both models, and I’ve never had to code the dependent -
destroy from the belongs_to side of the association.

From the Rails Framework Docs, it does note that dependent can be used
as an option, but it does caution that:

:dependent - If set to :destroy, the associated object is destroyed when
this object is. If set to :delete, the associated object is deleted
without calling its destroy method. This option should not be specified
when belongs_to is used in conjunction with a has_many relationship on
another class because of the potential to leave orphaned records behind.