# Best way to implement friendship thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [January 31, 2008, 8:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-implement-friendship-thing/127729 "2008-01-31T20:11:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vapor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@vapor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vapor)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 8:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-implement-friendship-thing/127729/1 "2008-01-31T20:11:40Z")
I am new to rails and have to develop a small app which will do regular social networking. So, whats the best and efficient way to implement friends/friendship thing so that I could get complete list of every user’s friends with @user.friends and also which is easy to maintain and implement. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![vapor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@vapor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vapor)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 8:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-implement-friendship-thing/127729/2 "2008-01-31T20:17:13Z")
Vapor … wrote: > I am new to rails and have to develop a small app which will do regular > social networking. > So, whats the best and efficient way to implement friends/friendship > thing so that I could get complete list of every user’s friends with > @user.friends and also which is easy to maintain and implement. > > Thanks. You’ll want to do a self referential ‘has\_many :through =\>’. A google search with just the right keywords (eg: self referential has\_many through) should get you all the information you need, and then some. Good Luck! And welcome to Rails. – [http://www.5valleys.com/](http://www.5valleys.com/) [http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/8078](http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/8078) ---
**Author:** ![vapor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@vapor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vapor)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 11:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-implement-friendship-thing/127729/3 "2008-01-31T23:10:25Z")
Hi Jon, Take a look at this plugin. [http://www.railslodge.com/plugins/40-has-many-friends](http://www.railslodge.com/plugins/40-has-many-friends) Jon G. wrote: > Vapor … wrote: > > > I am new to rails and have to develop a small app which will do regular > > social networking. > > So, whats the best and efficient way to implement friends/friendship > > thing so that I could get complete list of every user’s friends with > > @user.friends and also which is easy to maintain and implement. ---
**Author:** ![vapor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@vapor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vapor)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2008, 6:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-implement-friendship-thing/127729/4 "2008-02-01T06:15:36Z")
Scott A S wrote: > Hi Jon, > > Take a look at this plugin. > [http://www.railslodge.com/plugins/40-has-many-friends](http://www.railslodge.com/plugins/40-has-many-friends) actually I want to sort of understand it…I mean how it all actually works with has\_many =\> :through ---
**Author:** ![vapor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@vapor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vapor)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 8:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-implement-friendship-thing/127729/5 "2008-01-31T20:27:44Z")
Use the awesome plugin “has\_many\_friends”: [http://svn.dnite.org/has\_many\_friends/README](http://svn.dnite.org/has_many_friends/README) ---
**Author:** ![vapor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@vapor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vapor)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-implement-friendship-thing/127729/6 "2008-02-01T20:02:44Z")
Check out RailsSpace book on Amazon: [http://www.amazon.com/RailsSpace-Building-Networking-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321480791/ref=pd\_bbs\_sr\_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201892461&sr=1-1](http://www.amazon.com/RailsSpace-Building-Networking-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321480791/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201892461&sr=1-1) ---
**Author:** ![vapor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@vapor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vapor)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2008, 2:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-implement-friendship-thing/127729/7 "2008-02-01T14:12:45Z")
The post I liked the most is: [http://www.fallenrogue.com/article/view/143-I-am-what-I-am-or-self-referential-joins-in-Rails](http://www.fallenrogue.com/article/view/143-I-am-what-I-am-or-self-referential-joins-in-Rails) AWDWR and Rails Recipes also help a lot. Cheers, Sazima On Feb 1, 3:15 am, “Vapor …” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)