Rails - Apr 2007 - has_many :through associated object ids assignment error

Hi,

I have the following situation:

class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :readings
  has_many :users, :through => :readings
end

class Reading < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :article
  belongs_to :user
end

Now what I''m trying to do is:

article = Article.new
article.save!
# user ids 1,2,3 exist in database, as does the article
article.user_ids = [ 1, 2, 3 ]

But I get the following error:

"undefined method `user_ids='' for #<Article:0x4aea69c>"

Why isn''t the "user_ids=" method created?

Thanks,
Bas

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Bas van Westing wrote:
> 
> class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
>   has_many :readings
>   has_many :users, :through => :readings
> end
> 
> class Reading < ActiveRecord::Base
>   belongs_to :article
>   belongs_to :user
> end
Seems to me this is not the model you are seeking.. perhaps this one:
class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many  :readings
end

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :readings
end

class Reading < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user   # like a regular join table.. but there are 
benefits to making it a first class model
  belongs_to :article
end

This makes sense to me, an article can be read by many users and a user 
can read many articles making either a join table or a join model 
necccessary..

if you just prefer the link table approach, you can go with this:

class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_and_belongs_to_many  :users, :through=>:readings
end

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_and_belongs_to_many :articles, :through=>:readings
end   # remember to set the link table "readings" id=>false in the 
migration file

> 
> Now what I''m trying to do is:
> 
> article = Article.new
> article.save!
> # user ids 1,2,3 exist in database, as does the article
> article.user_ids = [ 1, 2, 3 ]
> 
> But I get the following error:
> 
> "undefined method `user_ids='' for
#<Article:0x4aea69c>"
> 
> Why isn''t the "user_ids=" method created?
> 
> Thanks,
> Bas
with the above model approach, you can do

a = Article.create
3.times { a.readings << User.create }  # let rails assign the ids..
it''s
basically none of your bussiness outside of test cases.. :)

User.find(:all).count  # => 3

or with the link table approach, you can do
a = Article.new
3.times {a.users << User.create}

none of the above code segments have been tested but it''s the general 
idea.. :)

hope this helps

ilan



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Thanks Ilan for your reply,

I thought that has_and_belongs_to_many was depreciated (or at least not 
a best practice anymore), since in the "Agile Web development with 
Rails" book it is not advices to use it anymore.

The ActiveRecord join model is said to be the preferred way of working, 
but I still like to use the ''user_ids='' assignment which is
allowed in
the habtm variant.

In my current application, I just defined the missing method myself, so 
I can keep working with the benefits of the habtm approach.

class Article
  def user_ids=(array = [])
    ...
  end
end

This works for me, but I hoped it would be auto-generated for me by 
using the "has_many :users, through => :readings" DSL line.

Regards, Bas





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