User (model) hierarchy, self-referential join

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to have a two level user relationship.

Photographers have clients. Clients have one photographer. Both are Users.

I've got a User model that looks like this:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  #authlogic

  has_many :client_associations, 
    :foreign_key => 'client_id', 
    :class_name => 'Association', 
    :dependent => :destroy

  has_many :clients, :through => :client_associations

  has_one :photographer_association, 
    :foreign_key => 'photographer_id', 
    :class_name => 'Association', 
    :dependent => :destroy

  has_one :photographer, :through => :photographer_association

end

And an Association model that looks like:

create_table "associations", :id => false, :force => true do |t|
    t.integer "photographer_id"
    t.integer "client_id"
end

class Association < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :client, :class_name => 'User'
  belongs_to :photographer, :class_name => 'User'
end

When I fill it with some data and fire up the console, running user.clients.all or user.photographer just gives me an empty array.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

You should switch the foreign_keys:

  has_many :client_associations, 
    :foreign_key => 'photographer_id', 
    :class_name => 'Association', 
    :dependent => :destroy

  has_many :clients, :through => :client_associations

  has_one :photographer_association, 
    :foreign_key => 'client_id', 
    :class_name => 'Association', 
    :dependent => :destroy

  has_one :photographer, :through => :photographer_association