Best way to specify a default record for a has_many relationship in rails

Ruby on Rails
1

Hey guys,

how would you address the following issue:

Particularly I’m looking for the options to implement such relationship, i.e. account has multiple addresses and only one is default.

Thanks in advance.

2

It depends on what you define as ‘default’.

Would the user be specifying their default address? If so, this could be as simple as a boolean ‘default_address’ field on the model. Then its a simple check for that boolean to be true in your logic.

I am sure there are more clever solutions out there, but this would be the simplest for my money.

3

Yes, exactly. However it also requires to reset “default” flag on all others addresses whenever new one is set as default.

4

Another idea is to use GitHub - brendon/acts_as_list: An ActiveRecord plugin for managing lists. and then treat default address as the top one, then, setting some address as default would be as simple as:

address.move_to_top if params[:set_as_default]

Especially if all you need is to show it the first in some list or combo box :smile:

5

Or just timestamp set_as_default_at and then special scope, to make the latter win.

6

Check https://github.com/mechanicles/set_as_primary gem which does the same thing.