Hi!
In one of my current projects, I have an habtm relationship between two models. To access the table
via console, I created the model for the join table. so for example, I have
class Foo
has_and_belongs_to_many :bars, :join_table => ‘foo_bars’
I created a FooBar class so I can actually access the records via AR. My question is this, is it fine to
add another column to this table?
If you are going to add another column to the FooBar table then you might as well change the associations of models Foo and Bar to has_many :foo_bar and then put belongs_to :foo belongs_to :bar in your model FooBar. The point of the has_and_belongs_to_many is to setup a join table for association that you don’t plan on accessing through a model or need additional fields for.
B.
Using HABTM prevents you from using the additional column, but you can get the desired effect by replacing HABTM on each side with something like:
class Foo
has_many :foo_bars, :join_table => “foo_bars”
has_many :bars, :through => :foo_bars
end
Using HABTM prevents you from using the additional column, but you can get the desired effect by replacing HABTM on each side with something like:
I’ve ended up adding a new column to foo_bars which I can access fine without changing
the current relationships. The problem is with updating a FooBar record which has no ID column
which rails needs. Since I don’t need an ID column on foo_bars, i just update the record with
an sql statement.
Cheers!