Rails Polymorphic Association with multiple associations on the same model

Question

My question is essentially the same as this one: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1168047/polymorphic-association-with-multiple-associations-on-the-same-model

However, the proposed/accepted solution does not work, as illustrated by a commenter later.

I have a Photo class that is used all over my app. A post can have a single photo. However, I want to re-use the polymorphic relationship to add a secondary photo.

Before:

class Photo 
   belongs_to :attachable, :polymorphic => true
end

class Post
   has_one :photo, :as => :attachable, :dependent => :destroy
end

Desired:

class Photo 
   belongs_to :attachable, :polymorphic => true
end

class Post
   has_one :photo,           :as => :attachable, :dependent => :destroy
   has_one :secondary_photo, :as => :attachable, :dependent => :destroy
end

However, this fails as it cannot find the class "SecondaryPhoto". Based on what I could tell from that other thread, I'd want to do:

   has_one :secondary_photo, :as => :attachable, :class_name => "Photo", :dependent => :destroy

Except calling Post#secondary_photo simply returns the same photo that is attached via the Photo association, e.g. Post#photo === Post#secondary_photo. Looking at the SQL, it does WHERE type = "Photo" instead of, say, "SecondaryPhoto" as I'd like...

Thoughts? Thanks!

Answer 1

Can you add a SecondaryPhoto model like:

class SecondaryPhoto < Photo
end

and then skip the :class_name from the has_one :secondary_photo?

Answer 2

I didn't use it, but I googled around and looked into Rails sources and I think that what you're looking for is :foreign_type. Try it and tell if it works :)

has_one :secondary_photo, :as => :attachable, :class_name => "Photo", :dependent => :destroy, :foreign_type => 'SecondaryPost'

I think that type in your question should be Post instead of Photo and, respectively, it would be better to use SecondaryPost as it assigned to Post model.

EDIT:

Above answer is completly wrong. :foreign_type is availble in polymorphic model in belongs_to association to specify name of the column that contains type of associated model.

As I look in Rails sources, this line sets this type for association:

dependent_conditions << "#{reflection.options[:as]}_type = '#{base_class.name}'" if reflection.options[:as]

As you can see it uses base_class.name to get type name. As far as I know you can do nothing with it.

So my sugestion is to add one column to Photo model, on example: photo_type. And set it to 0 if it is first photo, or set it to 1 if it is second photo. In your associations add :conditions => {:photo_type => 0} and :conditions => {:photo_type => 1}, respectively. I know it is not a solution you are looking for, but I can't find anything better. By the way, maybe it would be better to just use has_many association?

Answer 3

Your going to have to monkey patch the notion of foreign_type into has_one relationship. This is what i did for has_many. In a new .rb file in your initializers folder i called mine add_foreign_type_support.rb It lets you specify what your attachable_type is to be. Example: has_many photo, :class_name => "Picture", :as => attachable, :foreign_type => 'Pic'

module ActiveRecord
  module Associations
    class HasManyAssociation < AssociationCollection #:nodoc:
      protected
        def construct_sql
          case
            when @reflection.options[:finder_sql]
              @finder_sql = interpolate_sql(@reflection.options[:finder_sql])
           when @reflection.options[:as]
              resource_type = @reflection.options[:foreign_type].to_s.camelize || @owner.class.base_class.name.to_s
              @finder_sql =  "#{@reflection.quoted_table_name}.#{@reflection.options[:as]}_id = #{owner_quoted_id} AND "
              @finder_sql += "#{@reflection.quoted_table_name}.#{@reflection.options[:as]}_type = #{@owner.class.quote_value(resource_type)}"
              else
                @finder_sql += ")"
              end
              @finder_sql << " AND (#{conditions})" if conditions

            else
              @finder_sql = "#{@reflection.quoted_table_name}.#{@reflection.primary_key_name} = #{owner_quoted_id}"
              @finder_sql << " AND (#{conditions})" if conditions
          end

          if @reflection.options[:counter_sql]
            @counter_sql = interpolate_sql(@reflection.options[:counter_sql])
          elsif @reflection.options[:finder_sql]
            # replace the SELECT clause with COUNT(*), preserving any hints within /* ... */
            @reflection.options[:counter_sql] = @reflection.options[:finder_sql].sub(/SELECT (\/\*.*?\*\/ )?(.*)\bFROM\b/im) { "SELECT #{$1}COUNT(*) FROM" }
            @counter_sql = interpolate_sql(@reflection.options[:counter_sql])
          else
            @counter_sql = @finder_sql
          end
        end
    end
  end
end
# Add foreign_type to options list
module ActiveRecord
  module Associations # :nodoc:
     module ClassMethods
      private
        mattr_accessor :valid_keys_for_has_many_association
        @@valid_keys_for_has_many_association = [
          :class_name, :table_name, :foreign_key, :primary_key, 
          :dependent,
          :select, :conditions, :include, :order, :group, :having, :limit, :offset,
          :as, :foreign_type, :through, :source, :source_type,
          :uniq,
          :finder_sql, :counter_sql,
          :before_add, :after_add, :before_remove, :after_remove,
          :extend, :readonly,
          :validate, :inverse_of
        ]

    end
  end

Answer 4

I have done that in my project.

The trick is that photos need a column that will be used in has_one condition to distinguish between primary and secondary photos. Pay attention to what happens in :conditions here.

has_one :photo, :as => 'attachable', :conditions => {:photo_type => 'primary_photo'}, :dependent => :destroy
has_one :secondary_photo, :class_name => 'Photo', :as => 'attachable', :conditions => {:photo_type => 'secondary_photo'}, :dependent => :destroy

The beauty of this approach is that when you create photos using @post.build_photo, the photo_type will automatically be pre-populated with corresponding type, like 'primary_photo'. ActiveRecord is smart enough to do that.