Hi-
My model is such that I have Users who "own" 1 or more Contacts. My schema is like this (abriged):
<sql>
CREATE TABLE users ( id int primary key auto_increment, first_namename varchar(40) ....more columns.... );
CREATE TABLE contacts( id int primary key auto_increment, ...more columns... );
CREATE TABLE user_contacts ( user_id int not null, contact_id int null, CONSTRAINT fk_uc_user FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES user(id), CONSTRAINT fk_uc_contact FOREIGN KEY (contact_id) REFERENCES contacts(id), );
</sql>
Now, a user a can have multiple contacts, but from the other direction a single contact is "owned" by only 1 user. Yes, I could put a "user_id" column in the Contacts table and not have the linking table there at all, but this seems like bad design.
Currently, my model is:
class Contact < ActiveRecord::Base has_and_belongs_to_many :user, :join_table => "user_contacts" end
and
class User < ActiveRecord::Base has_and_belongs_to_many :contact, :join_table => "user_contacts" end
and this works. However, when back tracking via a contact, its an array for "user":
c = Contact.find(4)
=> #<Contact:0xb7431200 @attributes={"created_on"=>"2006-09-12 22:08:24", "dob"=>"2006-09-12", "id"=>"4", "first_name"=>"Foo", "last_name"=>"Bar"}>
c.user
=> [#<User:0xb794d164 @attributes={"created_on"=>"2006-09-11 23:58:28", "contact_id"=>"4", "id"=>"1", "user_id"=>"1", "first_name"=>"Blah", "password"=>"xxxx", "last_name"=>"Blubber", "email"=>"user@domain.com"}>]
c.user[0].first_name
=> "Blah"
Notice the reference to the 0th array element. Now what I would like to do is use my schema but have it enforce contact(many) to user(one) relationships without loading an array of objects going from contact to user. I think a "has_many :contact" in User is appropriate, but from the Contact side I dont see which association works, "belong_to" doesnt take any options that support going through a secondary join table.
What are my options?
Thanks in advance /Cody