Mongoid strange ruby behavior

[CharlesPlantePulsar]

I have a strange behavior using Ruby and Mongoid

I have a Client model (simplified)

class Client
  include Mongoid::Document
  attr_accessor :full_address
  has_many :factures, foreign_key: :client
  has_many :articles, foreign_key: :client
  has_many :utilisateurs, foreign_key: :client
....

and and Utilisateur (user in french) that belong to one client:

class Utilisateur
  include Mongoid::Document
  has_many :articles, foreign_key: :utilisateur
  field :name, type: String
  field :role, type: String
  field :sizes, type: Array
  field :betweenLegs, type: String
  field :inactive, type: Boolean
  field :_forSearchByText, type: String
  field :matricule, type: String
  
  has_many :measurements

  belongs_to :client, foreign_key: :client
...

My problem is that when a make a POST/PUT (create/update), even if I set the client manually, the object writting in the database doesnt hold a reference to my client.

Here's my create method :

def create
    utilisateur = Utilisateur.new(utilisateur_params)
    utilisateur.client = Client.first() # I try to get the first one just to be sure its found
    utilisateur.save!

    render json: utilisateur, status: 200
  end

Note that on me POST result i got something that i would exepect:

{
    "_forSearchByText": null,
    "_id": "65ae5eb1f8bb26b629750208",
    "betweenLegs": "1325",
    "client": "582f6ce7a12a0e1770ee2762",
    "inactive": false,
    "matricule": "aaaaaaa",
    "name": "aaaaaaa",
    "role": null,
    "sizes": null
}

Problem is that on my database I still got no client field:

{
  "_id": {
    "$oid": "65ae5f28f8bb26b629750209"
  },
  "name": "aaaaaaa",
  "betweenLegs": "1325",
  "matricule": "aaaaaaa",
  "inactive": false
}

I found a way to "solve" the problem by changing remove the foreign_key of client
belongs_to :client
This make Ruby use client_id instead for the name of foreing_key attributes.

{
  "_id": {
    "$oid": "65ae60e9f8bb26b62975020a"
  },
  "name": "aaaaaaa",
  "betweenLegs": "1325",
  "matricule": "aaaaaaa",
  "client_id": {
    "$oid": "582f6ce7a12a0e1770ee2762"
  },
  "inactive": false
}

Final problem is that my web app is dependent on another backend (NodeJS) who is using "client". Is there someting I could have missed because I did this with other class that look the same without problem.

Any kind of help will be appraciated :)

[jamis]

Hey @CharlesPlantePulsar -- this is a tricky one. The problem is that the belongs_to macro creates getter methods both for the association, and for the foreign key. In this case, both are named the same thing, so it creates the client accessor for the association first, and then overwrites it with the client accessor for the foreign key.

In this case, you may need to rename the association to something else, so that it doesn't collide with the foreign key. For example:

class User
  include Mongoid::Document
  belongs_to :client_record, class_name: "Client", foreign_key: :client
end

It's not ideal, but working with legacy systems can be like that. :/

[CharlesPlantePulsar]

Thank you so much I didn't try to change the accessor instead !