Question

I have three models: Post, Comment, User and Vote.
I’m using polymorphic associations to make posts and comments votable
(users can vote +1 and -1).

Each time the user votes a post or a comment, its id is stored in the user_id foreign key of the vote (and the id of the post and comment should be stored in the votable_id and votable_type foreign keys as well).

post.rb:

class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :title, :content

  belongs_to :user

  has_many :comments, :dependent => :destroy
  has_many :votes, :as => :votable, :dependent => :destroy 
end

comment.rb:

class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base    
  attr_accessible :content, :user_id

  belongs_to :post, :counter_cache => true
  belongs_to :user

  has_many :votes, :as => :votable, :dependent => :destroy 
end

user.rb (omitted the Devise part):

class User < ActiveRecord::Base        
  has_many :posts, :dependent => :destroy
  has_many :comments, :dependent => :destroy
  has_many :votes    
end

vote.rb:

class Vote < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :votable, :polymorphic => true
  belongs_to :user

  before_create :update_total

  protected

  // Update the value of total each time a vote is created
  def update_total
    self.total ||= 0
    self.total += self.polarity
  end
end

schema.rb (only included relevant parts, omitted stuff like created_at):

  create_table "comments", :force => true do |t|
    t.text     "content"
    t.integer  "post_id"
    t.integer  "user_id"
  end

  add_index "comments", ["post_id", "user_id"], :name => "index_comments_on_micropost_id_and_user_id"

  create_table "posts", :force => true do |t|
    t.string   "content"
    t.integer  "user_id"
    t.string   "title"
    t.integer  "comments_count", :default => 0, :null => false
  end

  create_table "users", :force => true do |t|
    t.string   "email",                                 :default => "", :null => false
    t.string   "username"
  end

  add_index "users", ["email"], :name => "index_users_on_email", :unique => true
  add_index "users", ["reset_password_token"], :name => "index_users_on_reset_password_token", :unique => true

  create_table "votes", :force => true do |t|
    t.integer  "votable_id"
    t.string   "votable_type"
    t.integer  "user_id"
    t.integer  "polarity" // (+1 or -1)
    t.integer  "total"
  end

I have two questions:

1. I’m not sure is the total should be a column in the posts or votes table.
2. I know how to create a vote in the terminal (e.g. Vote.create(polarity => 1). But besides of that, I would like to know how to actually make the Devise current_user vote a post or a comment (in the terminal).

I would appreciate any help in the problems above.

Answer 1

1) total column should be in the posts table.

2) There’s no session in the console, you’re not executing any controller or routing code, there’s no current_user. Instead, just get any user and make him vote.

u = User.first
p = Post.first
Vote.create(votable: p, user: u)