Question

If I have the following code:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :problems

  attr_accessible :email, :password, :password_confirmation, :remember_me, :first_name, :last_name, :location, :address

  attr_internal_accessor :user_address

  def user_address
    self.address
  end

end

class Problem < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user

  validates_presence_of :user_id, :title, :description, :tags
  delegate :address, :to => :user, :prefix => true

end

When I try to do this in AR this is what the call looks like:

Problem Load (0.2ms)  SELECT "problems".* FROM "problems" ORDER BY problems.user_address asc LIMIT 20 OFFSET 0
SQLite3::SQLException: no such column: problems.user_address: SELECT  "problems".* FROM "problems" ORDER BY problems.user_address asc LIMIT 20 OFFSET 0
Completed 500 Internal Server Error in 173ms

It gives me an error that it is not a column which is true, however it generates data just like active record would.

How can I search the output if this function as if it was a native active record column?

Answer 1

The way i usually do this is by using the model you want to return.

So if its addresses you want, something like:

def user_address
  Address.joins(:users).where(:user_id => user.id)
end

This way you get an AR relation object back and you can chain them.