Rails - Apr 2006 - Manipulating has_many :through associations

Hi,

I haven''t done any associations before, so please forgive my incorrect
use of terminology...

If I set up a has_many :through association, can I manipulate the
associated instances directly (like an Array), or do I need to
manipulate the join model?

For example, suppose I have two classes and the associated join model:

  class foo
    has_many :foo_bars
    has_many :bars, :through => :foo_bars

  class bar
    has_many :foo_bars
    has_many :foos, :through => :foo_bars

  class foo_bars
    belongs_to :foo
    belongs_to :bar

If I have an instance of foo and an instance of bar, how do I add the
association between the two of them?

  my_foo.bars << my_bar

or (inversely),

  my_bar.foos << my_foo

or do I somehow need to manipulate the join model explicitly?

Thanks,
  Brad
--
Bradley Mazurek

I think my_foo.foo_bars.create(:bars => my_bar) would work. Am not sure if
that is the best way to do it though.

On 4/4/06, Bradley Mazurek <bradley.mazurek@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I haven''t done any associations before, so please forgive my
incorrect
> use of terminology...
>
> If I set up a has_many :through association, can I manipulate the
> associated instances directly (like an Array), or do I need to
> manipulate the join model?
>
> For example, suppose I have two classes and the associated join model:
>
>   class foo
>     has_many :foo_bars
>     has_many :bars, :through => :foo_bars
>
>   class bar
>     has_many :foo_bars
>     has_many :foos, :through => :foo_bars
>
>   class foo_bars
>     belongs_to :foo
>     belongs_to :bar
>
> If I have an instance of foo and an instance of bar, how do I add the
> association between the two of them?
>
>   my_foo.bars << my_bar
>
> or (inversely),
>
>   my_bar.foos << my_foo
>
> or do I somehow need to manipulate the join model explicitly?
>
> Thanks,
>   Brad
> --
> Bradley Mazurek
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
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