Question

PROBLEM: @user.friends does not work. It’s returning 2 records and it should be 4..

I have the following models:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :friendships
  has_many :friends, 
    :through => :friendships,
    :conditions => "status = 'accepted'", 
    :order => :fname
  has_many :requested_friends, 
    :through => :friendships, 
    :source => :friend,
    :conditions => "status = 'requested'"
  has_many :pending_friends, 
    :through => :friendships, 
    :source => :friend,
    :conditions => "status = 'pending'"

class Friendship < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user
  belongs_to :friend, :class_name => "User", :foreign_key => "friend_id"

For some reason. <%=@user.friends%> is not returning all of the user’s friends.

Example data:

> @user.friendships.all.length
=> 4
> @user.friendships
=> [#<Friendship id: 20, user_id: 11, friend_id: 20, status: "accepted", created_at: "2011-12-22 12:59:22", updated_at: "2011-12-22 17:02:54">, #<Friendship id: 8, user_id: 11, friend_id: 12, status: "accepted", created_at: "2011-12-22 06:29:02", updated_at: "2011-12-22 07:41:24">, #<Friendship id: 3, user_id: 11, friend_id: 1, status: "approved", created_at: "2011-12-22 05:48:29", updated_at: "2011-12-22 06:22:09">, #<Friendship id: 1, user_id: 11, friend_id: 641, status: "approved", created_at: "2011-12-22 04:47:19", updated_at: "2011-12-22 04:47:19">]
> @user.friends.length
=> 2

@user.friends.length should have been 4 as the data above shows all the statuses as “accepted”. Any idea where I messed up in the model associations listed above?

Thank you!

Answer 1

status is “approved” for two of the friendships and “accepted” for two. That’s why it is returning only two accepted friendships as per your condition.