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ruby-on-railsruby-on-rails-5has-many

how to retrieve data from the database using the has_many association


I have

message table

and

message_pictures

table(It belongs to the message table) and what I want to do is retrieve each messsge pictures (if there is any) from the

message_controller

.

How can I do it. I have surfed the web but found little scanty explanations on it.

This is the message class(model)

class Message < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :user
  has_many :message_pictures, dependent: :destroy
  accepts_nested_attributes_for :message_pictures
end

This is the message_pictures class(model)

class MessagePicture < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :message, optional: true
  mount_uploader :message_pictures, PictureUploader
end

and this is the index method of the message_controller class

def index
    @user = User.find(current_user.id)#414, 449, 494
    @messages = @user.messages.paginate(page: params[:page])
    #@messages = @messages.message_pictures.paginate(page: params[:page])
end

You can see the line 4 of the index method to see the way I did mine but its not working


Solution

  • I believe what you need is has_many ... :through

    app/models/user.rb

    class User < ApplicationRecord
      # ...
      has_many :messages, dependent: :destroy
      has_many :message_pictures, through: :messages
    end
    

    app/controllers/messages_controller.rb

    class MessagesController < ApplicationController
      # ...
    
      def index
        @user = User.find(current_user.id)
        @messages = @user.messages.paginate(page: params[:page])
        @message_pictures = @user.message_pictures
      end
    end
    

    has_many ... :through simplifies the retrieving of "nested" children records via "SQL JOINS", of which normally you would have done it in a longer (more explicit way) like the following (which also works):

    class MessagesController < ApplicationController
      # ...
    
      def index
        @user = User.find(current_user.id)
        @messages = @user.messages.paginate(page: params[:page])
        @message_pictures = MessagePicture.joins(message: :user).where(
          messages: { # <-- this needs to be the table name, and not the association name, and is why it is in plural form
            users: { # <-- this needs to be the table name, and not the association name, and is why it is in plural form
              id: @user.id
            }
          }
        )
      end
    end
    

    Update: Alternative Solution

    Looking back at your question, I have a feeling you'd only want @message_pictures that corresponds to @messages and not to all@user.messages, because I noticed you have pagination for the messages. I'll do it like this instead:

    app/controllers/messages_controller.rb

    class MessagesController < ApplicationController
      # ...
    
      def index
        @user = User.find(current_user.id)
    
        # the `includes` here prevents N+1 SQL queries, because we are gonna loop
        # through each `message_picture` in each `message` record (see index.html.erb below)
        @messages = @user.messages.includes(:message_pictures).paginate(page: params[:page])
      end
    end
    

    app/views/messages/index.html.erb (example)

    <h1>Messages:</h1>
    <% @messages.each do |message| %>
      <section>
        <h2>Message:</h2>
        <p><%= message.content %></p>
    
        <h3>Message Pictures:<h3>
        <div>
          <% message.message_pictures.each do |message_picture| %>
            <% message_picture.message_pictures.each do |message_picture_attachment| %>
              <%= image_tag message_picture_attachment.url.to_s %>
            <% end %>
            <br>
          <% end %>
        </div>
      </section>    
    <% end %>
    

    ^ Above assumes MessagePicture is using carrierwave. P.S. It looks to me there's something wrong with how you defined your models, because your message has many message_pictures, while each of the message_picture also has many attached message_picture carrierwave attachments (assuming you used the "multiple-file" upload set up for carrierwave because you used mount_uploader :message_pictures, PictureUploader instead of mount_uploader :message_picture, PictureUploader. The model problem I think is because it's like this: message < message_pictures < message_pictures attachments, but (depending on your use-case), it should probably be just like message < message_pictures - message_picture attachment, or just simply message < message_pictures attachments