You are not looking for an has_many through relationship here
Try that :
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
# Associations
has_and_belongs_to_many :groups
has_many :created_groups, class_name: 'Group', foreign_key: 'creator_id'
end
class Group < ActiveRecord::Base
# Associations
belongs_to :creator, class_name: 'User'
has_and_belongs_to_many :members, class_name: 'User'
end
This is a solution if you don't need the member class to do any special treatment. You should have a migration that looks like that:
class CreateGroupsUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration
def change
create_table :groups_users, id: false do |t|
t.references :group
t.references :user
end
add_index :groups_users, [:group_id, :user_id]
add_index :groups_users, :user_id
end
end
And you have to make sure that your groups table have a creator_id !