I have an entity that has invoices and offers.

class Entity < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :invoices, dependent: :restrict_with_error
  has_many :offers, dependent: :restrict_with_error

Invoices and offers have ploymorphic positions as positionable.

class Invoice < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :entity
  has_many :positions, as: :positionable, dependent: :destroy

class Offer < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :entity
  has_many :positions, as: :positionable, dependent: :destroy

class Position < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :positionable, polymorphic: true

How can I get all positions that are under an entity?

@entity = Entity.first
@entity.positionables.positions # doesn't work: undefined method `positionables' for an instance of Entity
Position.preload(:positionable).positions # doesn't work: undefined method `positions' for an instance of ActiveRecord::Relation

I tried various other things but got nowhere.

I have an entity that has invoices and offers.

class Entity < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :invoices, dependent: :restrict_with_error
  has_many :offers, dependent: :restrict_with_error

Invoices and offers have ploymorphic positions as positionable.

class Invoice < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :entity
  has_many :positions, as: :positionable, dependent: :destroy

class Offer < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :entity
  has_many :positions, as: :positionable, dependent: :destroy

class Position < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :positionable, polymorphic: true

How can I get all positions that are under an entity?

@entity = Entity.first
@entity.positionables.positions # doesn't work: undefined method `positionables' for an instance of Entity
Position.preload(:positionable).positions # doesn't work: undefined method `positions' for an instance of ActiveRecord::Relation

I tried various other things but got nowhere.

• ruby-on-rails
• polymorphism
• rails-activerecord

• you could make position belong to entity. – Alex Commented Mar 28 at 16:14

1 Answer 1

To obtain all the Position objects for the Offer and Invoice objects associated with a given entity the following should work:

Position.where(
  positionable_type: 'Offer', 
  positionable_id: Offer.where(entity_id: @entity.id)
).or(
  Position.where(
    positionable_type: 'Invoice', 
    positionable_id: Invoice.where(entity_id: @entity.id)
))

This will result in SQL akin to

SELECT 
  positions.*
FROM 
  positions 
WHERE 
  (
   positions.positionable_type = 'Offer' 
   AND positions.positionable_id IN ( SELECT id FROM offers where offers.entity_id = 1) 
  ) OR ( 
   positions.positionable_type = 'Invoice' 
   AND positions.positionable_id IN ( SELECT id FROM invoices where invoices.entity_id = 1) 
  )

UPDATE based on the comment

The following should be more dynamic:

class Position < ApplicationRecord
  scope :by_entity, ->(entity_id) {
    # collect all the distinct positionable_types 
    distinct_positionables = Position.distinct.pluck(:positionable_type)
    # loop through the above to construct the same query dynamically
    distinct_positionables.filter_map do |obj|
      # skip any positionable_types that don't belong_to :entity
      next unless klass = obj.safe_constantize and klass.column_names.include?('entity_id')
      #construct the individual query 
      where( 
        positionable_type: obj, 
        positionable_id: klass.where(entity_id: entity_id)
      )
    end.reduce(:or) # join them all together with `or`
  }
  # alternative using Arel
  # scope :by_entity, ->(entity_id) {
  #  distinct_positionables = Position.distinct.pluck(:positionable_type)
  #  position_table = self.arel_table 
  #  condition = distinct_positionables.filter_map do |obj|
  #    next unless klass = obj.safe_constantize and klass.column_names.include?('entity_id')
  #    position_table[:positionable_type].eq(obj).and(
  #      position_table[:positionable_id].in(
  #         klass.select(:id).where(entity_id: entity_id).arel
  #       )
  #    )
  #  end.reduce(:or)
  #  where(condition)
  # }
end

Called as

@entity = Entity.first
Position.by_entity(@entity.id)

Another alternative is that we could construct OUTER JOINS for all of the other tables using both or even all 3 conditions for the join.

If someone that knows more about query planning than I, can comment on the efficiency of the subqueries vs the joins I will gladly post a JOIN based version as well.