Rails - Dec 2005 - belongs_to and multiple foreign keys

Hi all,

I''m confused about how I''m supposed to specify a belongs_to
relationship when
the table includes multiple columns that reference the same parent table.

In my case I have a "schedules" table with "opened_by" and
"closed_by" columns,
that both reference the "users" table.  In theory, they can be two
different
user ids.

table schedules (
    ...
    opened_by int,
    closed_by int,
    foreign key (closed_by) references users (id),
    foreign key (opened_by) references users (id)
);

Do I simply specify multiple belongs_to?

Regards,

Dan

On 12/14/05, Daniel Berger
<Daniel.Berger-6vC2hAQLr78AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> table schedules (
>     ...
>     opened_by int,
>     closed_by int,
>     foreign key (closed_by) references users (id),
>     foreign key (opened_by) references users (id)
> );
>
> Do I simply specify multiple belongs_to?
untested:

belongs_to :closer, :class_name=>''User'',
:foreign_key=>''closed_by''
belongs_to :opener, :class_name=>''User'',
:foreign_key=>''opened_by''

the other half of this association is:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :closed_schedules, :class_name => "Schedule",
:foreign_key =>
"closed_by" # schedules closed by user
  has_many :open_schedules, :class_name => "Schedule", :foreign_key
=>
"opened_by" # schedules opened by user
end

On 12/14/05, Jeremy Evans
<jeremyevans0-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
>
> On 12/14/05, Daniel Berger
<Daniel.Berger-6vC2hAQLr78AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > table schedules (
> >     ...
> >     opened_by int,
> >     closed_by int,
> >     foreign key (closed_by) references users (id),
> >     foreign key (opened_by) references users (id)
> > );
> >
> > Do I simply specify multiple belongs_to?
>
> untested:
>
> belongs_to :closer, :class_name=>''User'',
:foreign_key=>''closed_by''
> belongs_to :opener, :class_name=>''User'',
:foreign_key=>''opened_by''
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Sorry to resuscitate this post, but is it possible to do something with 
a has_and_belongs_to_many relationship?

e.g. in this case, I want to be able to have the methods 
Researcher.projects, Project.principal_investigator, and 
Project.co_investigators

class Researcher < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_and_belongs_to_many :projects
end

class Projects < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_one :principal_investigator, :class_name => "Researcher", 
:foreign_key => "princ_inv" # A Project can only have one principal
investigator
  has_many :co_investigator, :class_name => "Researcher",
:foreign_key
=> "co_inv" # Projects can have many co-investigators
end

Is this possible?  What would the join table look like?

Thanks!

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Edward OG wrote:
> Sorry to resuscitate this post, but is it possible to do something with 
> a has_and_belongs_to_many relationship?
> 
> e.g. in this case, I want to be able to have the methods 
> Researcher.projects, Project.principal_investigator, and 
> Project.co_investigators
> 
> class Researcher < ActiveRecord::Base
>   has_and_belongs_to_many :projects
> end
> 
> class Projects < ActiveRecord::Base
>   has_one :principal_investigator, :class_name =>
"Researcher",
> :foreign_key => "princ_inv" # A Project can only have one
principal
> investigator
>   has_many :co_investigator, :class_name => "Researcher",
:foreign_key
> => "co_inv" # Projects can have many co-investigators
> end
Looks to be an interesting problem you are tackling.  Being a PI, I''d 
love to hear more about your application.

Meanwhile..

In this particular case, I think you have your models set up 
incorrectly.
In theory, PIs, co-investigators, and researchers are all people (or 
users) who happen to have different roles.  The role will be different 
on different projects, perhaps you need something like..

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
 has_many :collaborations
end

class Collaboration < ActiveRecord::Base
 belongs_to :user
 belongs_to :project
 has_one :role
end

class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
 has_many :collaborations
end

you could do this with a HABTM table with attributes, but this seems a 
little more natural to me, and I can see the collaboration model 
becoming more complex.

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Kevin Olbrich wrote:
> Edward OG wrote:
>> Sorry to resuscitate this post, but is it possible to do something with
>> a has_and_belongs_to_many relationship?
>> 
>> e.g. in this case, I want to be able to have the methods 
>> Researcher.projects, Project.principal_investigator, and 
>> Project.co_investigators
>> 
>> class Researcher < ActiveRecord::Base
>>   has_and_belongs_to_many :projects
>> end
>> 
>> class Projects < ActiveRecord::Base
>>   has_one :principal_investigator, :class_name =>
"Researcher",
>> :foreign_key => "princ_inv" # A Project can only have one
principal
>> investigator
>>   has_many :co_investigator, :class_name => "Researcher",
:foreign_key
>> => "co_inv" # Projects can have many co-investigators
>> end
> 
> Looks to be an interesting problem you are tackling.  Being a PI,
I''d
> love to hear more about your application.
> 
> Meanwhile..
> 
> In this particular case, I think you have your models set up 
> incorrectly.
> In theory, PIs, co-investigators, and researchers are all people (or 
> users) who happen to have different roles.  The role will be different 
> on different projects, perhaps you need something like..
> 
> class User < ActiveRecord::Base
>  has_many :collaborations
> end
> 
> class Collaboration < ActiveRecord::Base
>  belongs_to :user
>  belongs_to :project
>  has_one :role
> end
> 
> class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
>  has_many :collaborations
> end
> 
> you could do this with a HABTM table with attributes, but this seems a 
> little more natural to me, and I can see the collaboration model 
> becoming more complex.

Hi Kevin,

The application''s intention is to rework my university''s
research
funding department''s database by making it easier to make queries and 
reports. In its current MS Access form, it''s pretty ugly and
there''s
already data corruption (missing or duplicated fields where there 
shouldn''t be, etc.). I consider myself  lucky that there''s
isn''t too
much existing data to sift through and that my supervisor is open to 
changing away from Access.

I''ll hopefully get permission to open source the code when I''m
done, as
it might be a handy tool for some people.

I''m pretty sure you''re correct on the assumption that the
relationship
model in the Access db was setup incorrectly, but now''s the time to 
change over.

I like the way your idea for a schema would lay out. It certainly seems 
much less complicated.

Brilliant.  Thanks!

-Edward

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