Question

What’s the best way to extract the related data from a has many through relationship?

If my tasks and categories are joined through categorizations, I’d like to display a list of tasks and their related categories in my index view.

I’ve tried putting the following in my controller:

@tasks = Task.find(:all, :include => :taskcategories )

However that fails.

In my view, I tried this:

<% for task in @tasks %>

<li><%= task.title %> <%= task.taskcategory_name %></li>

<% end %>

That also fails.

Answer 1

Given your association definitions are right, you can just:

@tasks = Task.find(:all, :include => :categories)

… and within the view:

<% for task in @tasks %>
  <li><%= task.title %> <%= task.categories.map{|c| c.name}.join(', ') %></li>
<% end %>