Module: Sequel::Plugins::NestedAttributes

Defined in:: lib/sequel/plugins/nested_attributes.rb

Overview

The nested_attributes plugin allows you to create, update, and delete associated objects directly by calling a method on the current object. Nested attributes are defined using the nested_attributes class method:

Artist.one_to_many :albums
Artist.plugin :nested_attributes
Artist.nested_attributes :albums

The nested_attributes call defines a single method, association_attributes=, (e.g. albums_attributes=). So if you have an Artist instance:

a = Artist.new(:name=>'YJM')

You can create new album instances related to this artist:

a.albums_attributes = [{:name=>'RF'}, {:name=>'MO'}]

Note that this doesn’t send any queries to the database yet. That doesn’t happen till you save the object:

a.save

That will save the artist first, and then save both albums. If either the artist is invalid or one of the albums is invalid, none of the objects will be saved to the database, and all related validation errors will be available in the artist’s validation errors.

In addition to creating new associated objects, you can also update existing associated objects. You just need to make sure that the primary key field is filled in for the associated object:

a.update(:albums_attributes => [{:id=>1, :name=>'T'}])

Since the primary key field is filled in, the plugin will update the album with id 1 instead of creating a new album.

If you would like to delete the associated object instead of updating it, you add a _delete entry to the hash:

a.update(:albums_attributes => [{:id=>1, :_delete=>true}])

This will delete the related associated object from the database. If you want to leave the associated object in the database, but just remove it from the association, add a _remove entry in the hash:

a.update(:albums_attributes => [{:id=>1, :_remove=>true}])

The above example was for a one_to_many association, but the plugin also works similarly for other association types. For one_to_one and many_to_one associations, you need to pass a single hash instead of an array of hashes.

This plugin is mainly designed to make it easy to use on html forms, where a single form submission can contained nested attributes (and even nested attributes of those attributes). You just need to name your form inputs correctly:

artist[name]
artist[albums_attributes][0][:name]
artist[albums_attributes][1][:id]
artist[albums_attributes][1][:name]

Your web stack will probably parse that into a nested hash similar to:

{:artist=>{:name=>'Y', :albums_attributes=>{0=>{:name=>'X'}, 1=>{:id=>'2', :name=>'Z'}}}}

Then you can do:

artist.update(params[:artist])

To save changes to the artist, create the first album and associate it to the artist, and update the other existing associated album.

Defined Under Namespace

Modules: ClassMethods, InstanceMethods

Class Method Summary collapse

.apply(model) ⇒ Object

Depend on the instance_hooks plugin.

Class Method Details

.apply(model) ⇒ `Object`

Depend on the instance_hooks plugin.



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