Question

When there are associated models , it is known that specifying the association in both the models will create a cyclic dependency and causes a “stack level too deep” error . So what’s the correct place to specify the relationship ? Please see these simple associations :

class Patient
  has_many :doctors, :through => :join_model
end

class Doctor
  has_many :patients, :through => :join_model
end

also

class User
  has_many :posts
end

class Post
  belongs_to :user
end

In the factories for these models , Which one is the right place to hold the associations ?

Answer 1

there is a section in the factory_girl readme that has an example for a has_many association: https://github.com/thoughtbot/factory_girl/blob/master/GETTING_STARTED.md#associations

i think there is no golden rule here. i usually have a default factory per model, that has a simple or no relations set and then i have special factories like :user_with_posts that are used for a variety of related tests.
i also often just build them up myself in the test themselfes create(:user, posts: [create(:some_special_post)])