Question

I have a User model that has_many parents.
I want that user model to have one father and one mother.

So my class Parent belongs_to user

Currently I have

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :parents

  has_one :father, :class_name => 'Parent', :foreign_key => 'user_id', :conditions => {:type => 'male'}
  has_one :mother, :class_name => 'Parent', :foreign_key => 'user_id', :conditions => {:type => 'female'}
end

class Parent < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user
end

The problem is in my controller.

...
def edit
  @user = User.find(params[:id])
  @user.mother = Parent.new(:type => 'female')
  @user.father = Parent.new(:type => 'male')
...

When I go into the edit, it creates and throws the 2 parents into the database without even having changed anything in the form. For example, when I click edit on a user, I go to the edit page. When I look into the database, they’re already created.

My form looks like so:

= form_for @user do |f|
  = f.fields_for :father do |father_form|
    etc...
  = f.fields_for :mother do |mother_form|
    etc...

I’ve tried doing something alone the lines of this in my controller:

...
@user.parents.build(:type => 'male')
@user.parents.build(:type => 'female')
...

But the form doesn’t show up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Try to use

@user.build_father(:type => 'male')
@user.build_mother(:type => 'female')

instead of

@user.mother = Parent.new(:type => 'female')
@user.father = Parent.new(:type => 'male')

in your action