So I needed to establish a relation between one model and many other models, the User model can own many other models like Restaurants and Cafes, has_many_polymorphs comes to the rescue, check the plugin homepage for installation details.
Here are my models
class User < ActiveRecord::Base acts_as_authentic has_many_polymorphs :entities, :from => [:restaurants, :travel_agencies] end class EntitiesUser < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :user belongs_to :entity, :polymorphic => true end
following is the migration for the EntitiesUser model
class CreateEntitiesUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration
def self.up
create_table :entities_users do |t|
t.references :entity, :polymorphic => true
t.references :user
t.timestamps
end
end
def self.down
drop_table :entities_users
end
end
And to make sure the links between the two models are being established I used the following code in the Entity model
after_create :add_entity_user
after_destroy :delete_entity_user
protected
def add_entity_user #add a relation between the entity and the currently logged in user
user = UserSession.find.record
eu = EntitiesUser.new( :entity_id => self.id, :entity_type => self.class.name, :user_id => user.id )
eu.save
end
def delete_entity_user #delete the relations for this entity
eus = EntitiesUser.find(:all, :conditions => ["entity_id = ? and entity_type = ?", self.id, self.class.name])
eus.each { |e| e.destroy }
end
hope this helps.