Rails core - Sep 2005 - Redefining AR::Base#find_with_associations?

I''m trying to redefine the #find_with_associations method mixed into 
ActiveRecord::Base from ActiveRecord::Associations. The rationale is 
that the original method does not support offset/limit when to-many 
associations are included. That''s decidedly not POLS-compliant.

As I need pagination for that kind of queries, too, my first approach 
was to handle the case externally, by finding all objects and keeping 
only the desired ones. What can I say? It works, but is aesthetically 
displeasing.

As a remedy, I have implemented limit/offset using a sub-select on top 
of the [*] monster patch. I''m not yet convinced that it works and what 
to test for, but the results look right. For now, I have changed 
find_with_association another time, but in contrast to earlier changes 
this one relies on a feature not available in all DBMS supported by 
Rails. Thus, given the desirability of offset/limit for all kinds of 
queries, there need to be two implementations. The sub-select variant 
for the more capable DBMSs, another one that picks the desired objects 
from the entire result set, for their poorer cousins. Using [*], the 
latter approach isn''t too bad, as it is not necessary to instantiate 
unneeded objects.

Finally, to the point of the subject. I''ve tried to sneak in the 
sub-select implementation by redefining find_with_associations, but the 
thing eludes me.

Michael


[*] http://dev.rubyonrails.org/ticket/2172

-- 
Michael Schuerig                  There is no matrix,
mailto:michael@schuerig.de        only reality.
http://www.schuerig.de/michael/   --Lawrence Fishburn