Multi level nested association shortcuts

Question

I'm having trouble with associations. Basically, Users have groups (not shared with anybody). Each group has clients, projects and tasks.

Should I define something like:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base 
  has_many :groups 
  has_many :clients, through: :groups
  has_many :projects, through :clients #(could be groups?) 
  has_many :task, through :groups 
end

is this the proper way of doing it? I just want, from each user, list all their task, groups and clients. Is it ok to 'travel' through the models like this? I've followed some RoR tutorials and books, but all of them deal with less models.

basic rough model

Answer 1

You can navigate through like you want. Here is explained the case when you want a shortcut through nested has_many associations (search a little below the link I posted).

So given this explanation, for this to work you need to do the following (you were close to it):

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :groups 
  has_many :clients, through: :groups
  has_many :projects, through :groups
  has_many :tasks, through :groups 
end

class Group < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user

  has_many :clients
  has_many :projects, through :clients
  has_many :tasks, through :clients 
end

class Client < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :group

  has_many :projects
  has_many :tasks, through :projects 
end

class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :client

  has_many :tasks
end

class Task < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :project
end

Another way (and maybe shorter) to set this up would be (look here for where both strategies are documented):

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :groups 
  has_many :clients, through: :groups
  has_many :projects, through :clients
  has_many :tasks, through :projects 
end

class Group < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user

  has_many :clients
end

class Client < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :group

  has_many :projects
end

class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :client

  has_many :tasks
end

class Task < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :project
end

Hope it helps!