Question

I have something like the following

class Group < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :group_users
end

class GroupUser < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user, :group
end

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :group_users
end

The reason I’m not using has_many_through is because the group_user class has more information than just a link table, so I want to be able to access those values.

What I would like to do though is pass @groups to the page and loop through the group users but get at the user object as well

so

<% @groups.each do |group| %>
    <%= group.group_user.user.name %>
<% end %>

Answer 1

Here is how I would do it:

User Model

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :memberships
  has_many :groups, :through => :memberships
end

Group Model

class Group < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :memberships
  has_many :users, :through => :memberships
end

Membership Model

class Membership < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user
  belongs_to :group
end

Controller

def show
  @groups = Group.all
end

View

<% @groups.each do |group| %>
  <% group.users.each do |user| %>
    <%= user.name %> 
  <% end %>
<% end %>

There are probably a few ways to do it, but this should get you started.

Hope this helps!