Associations

Crecto provides helper macros for defining associations between data models.

Has Many and Belongs To

class User < Crecto::Model
    # schema...

    has_many :images, Image
end

class Image < Crecto::Model
    # schema...

    belongs_to :user, User
end

Has Many options

• through - Specifying a join table
• dependent: :destroy - On deletion, will delete all associated records first
• dependent: :nullify - On deletion, will nullify all associated records foreign keys
• foreign_key - Specify the foreign key field of of the associated table foreign_key: :user_id

Has One

class User < Crecto::Model
    # schema...

    has_one :address, Address
end

Has One options

• dependent: :destroy - On deletion, will delete all associated records first
• dependent: :nullify - On deletion, will nullify all associated records foreign keys
• foreign_key - Specify the foreign key field of of the associated table foreign_key: :user_id

Has Many Through / Join tables

class User < Crecto::Model
    # schema...

    has_many :memberships, Membership
    has_many :groups, through: :memberships
end

class Group < Crecto::Model
    # schema...

    has_many :memberships, Membership
    has_many :users, through: :memberships
end

class Membership < Crecto::Model
    belongs_to :user, User
    belongs_to :group, Group
end

Setting associations

user = Repo.get!(User, 1)
image = Image.new
image.user = user
Repo.insert(image)

Nil-check associations

If an association is not loaded, the normal accessor will raise an exception

user = Repo.get!(User, 1)
user.posts? # nil
user.posts # raises Crecto::AssociationNotLoaded

For `has_many` preloads, the result will always be an array

user = Repo.get!(User, 1, Query.preload(:posts))
user.posts? # Array(Post)
user.posts  # Array(Post)

For belongs_to and has_one preloads, the result may still be nil if no record exists. If the association is nullable, always use the association_name? syntax.

post = Repo.get!(Post, 1, Query.preload(:user))
post.user? # nil
post.user  # raises Crecto::AssociationNotLoaded