More arel

* joins: clarifications, conditions on the association, multiple joins on the same table
* order: reverse order, several orders, reorder
* clean code with arel
 Yes I know these don't get love in Arel's doc/README, but I will contribute there too.

arel.md

@@ -32,12 +32,54 @@ users.project(users[:id])
 ```
 
 ### `join`
+#### basic join
+In ActiveRecord (without Arel), if `:photos` is the name of the association, use `joins`
+```rb
+users.joins(:photos)
+```
 
+In Arel, if `photos` is defined as the Arel table,
 ```rb
-users.join(photos)
+photos = Photo.arel_table
+users.join(photos) 
 users.join(photos, Arel::Nodes::OuterJoin).on(users[:id].eq(photos[:user_id]))
 ```
 
+#### join with conditions
+```rb
+users.joins(:photos).merge(Photo.where(published: true))
+```
+
+If the simpler version doesn't help and you want to add more SQL statements to it:
+```rb
+users.join(
+   users.join(photos, Arel::Nodes::OuterJoin)
+   .on(photos[:user_id].eq(users[:id]).and(photos[:published].eq(true)))
+)
+```
+
+#### advanced join
+multiple `joins` with the same table but different meanings and/or conditions
+```rb
+creators = User.arel_table.alias('creators')
+updaters = User.arel_table.alias('updaters')
+photos = Photo.arel_table
+
+photos_with_credits = photos
+.join(photos.join(creators, Arel::Nodes::OuterJoin).on(photos[:created_by_id].eq(creators[:id])))
+.join(photos.join(updaters, Arel::Nodes::OuterJoin).on(photos[:assigned_id].eq(updaters[:id])))
+.project(photos[:name], photos[:created_at], creators[:name].as('creator'), updaters[:name].as('editor'))
+
+photos_with_credits.to_sql
+# => "SELECT `photos`.`name`, `photos`.`created_at`, `creators`.`name` AS creator, `updaters`.`name` AS editor FROM `photos` INNER JOIN (SELECT FROM `photos` LEFT OUTER JOIN `users` `creators` ON `photos`.`created_by_id` = `creators`.`id`) INNER JOIN (SELECT FROM `photos` LEFT OUTER JOIN `users` `updaters` ON `photos`.`updated_by_id` = `updaters`.`id`)"
+
+# after the request is done, you can use the attributes you named
+# it's as if every Photo record you got has "creator" and "editor" fields, containing creator name and editor name
+photos_with_credits.map{|x|
+  "#{photo.name} - copyright #{photo.created_at.year} #{photo.creator}, edited by #{photo.editor}"
+}.join('; ')
+```
+
 ### `limit` / `offset`
 
 ```rb
@@ -57,6 +99,8 @@ users.project(users[:id].count.as('user_count'))
 
 ```rb
 users.order(users[:name])
+users.order(users[:name], users[:age].desc)
+users.reorder(users[:age])
 ```
 
 ### With ActiveRecord
@@ -66,6 +110,20 @@ User.arel_table
 User.where(id: 1).arel
 ```
 
+### Clean code with arel
+
+Most of the clever stuff should be in scopes, e.g. the code above could become:
+```rb
+photos_with_credits = Photo.with_creator.with_editor
+```
+
+You can store requests in variables then add SQL segments:
+```rb
+all_time      = photos_with_credits.count
+this_month    = photos_with_credits.where(photos[:created_at].gteq(Date.today.beginning_of_month))
+recent_photos = photos_with_credits.where(photos[:created_at].gteq(Date.today.beginning_of_month)).limit(5)
+```
+
 ## Reference
 
 * <http://github.com/rails/arel>