Rails Model Complex Associations

Question

I have a User Model and a through table between user's called Invite Model.

I want users to be able to invite others, be invited and have the association created.

My migration file looks like this:

class CreateInvites < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :invites do |t|
      t.integer :invited_id
      t.integer :inviter_id
      t.timestamps
    end
end

In my Invite Model I have the following:

class Invite < ActiveRecord::Base  
    belongs_to :invited, :class_name => 'User'
    belongs_to :inviter, :class_name => 'User'
end

I am unsure how to construct the user model with the appropriate associations. I want to a User to belong to one inviter and have many inviteds. How should I update my User Model appropriately.

Answer 1

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :sent_invites, :class_name => "Invite", :foreign_key => :inviter_id
  has_many :inviteds, :through => :sent_invites

  has_one :invite, :foreign_key => :invited_id
  has_one :inviter, :through => :invite
end

Sidebar, it is generally a good idea to add indexes to foreign keys like so:

class CreateInvites < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :invites do |t|
      t.references :invited
      t.references :inviter
      t.index :invited_id
      t.index :inviter_id
      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end