Help with model association

Hi, I'm very new to RoR so my question may be bit stupid.

I'm trying to create application that could serve as training log. So I have "Trainee" who goes to a gym. What he/she does is a "Workout" (and there is a bunch of them in list to choose from). Now there are many Trainees in a gym at a same time having different (or same possibly) Workout. So I have a table with Trainees, table with Workouts and I would like to join them in Trainings ( Trainee id_1 did Workout id_2, Trainee id_2 did Workout id_4, both at 6 pm on 28.12.2008). One Training has many Trainees each with different or same Workout. Trainees and Workouts are connected together by join table with one additional value of date and time of training. At the beginning my idea was this

class Trainee < ActiveRecord::Base     has_many :trainings     has_many :workouts, :through => :trainings end

class Training < ActiveRecord::Base     belongs_to :workouts     belongs_to :trainee end

class Workouts < ActiveRecord::Base     has_many :trainings     has_many :trainees, :through => :trainings end

But I don't want to create new Trainee with new Workouts, both would be more or less stable (list of Trainees and list of Workouts to choose from). I would like to add new Training, choose date&time, choose Trainees (one or more) and attach Workouts to them (same or different to each) (so multiple Trainees on one Training, each Trainee with one his own Workout).

My queries should be something like - who did Workout_id1 with best time - which Workouts Trainee_id2 did in last 30 days - who attended Training on 28.12.2008 etc.

Is my association model correct ? Could I use join table directly like this ?. Thank you very much

Petr Ruzicka

of course you can do it like this. you have acertain amount of workouts and trainees and add a new training every time you want. your models seem correct.

your request would be like: - Workout.find(:first, :order => :elapsed_time).trainee ...

Thanks, I'll try it.

Petr