Rails-InverseOf.md

Pattern: Missing use of :inverse_of

Issue: -

Description

This rule looks for has_(one|many) and belongs_to associations where ActiveRecord can't automatically determine the inverse association because of a scope or the options used. This can result in unnecessary queries in some circumstances. :inverse_of must be manually specified for associations to work in both ways, or set to false or nil to opt-out.

Examples

# good
class Blog < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :posts
end

class Post < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :blog
end

# bad
class Blog < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :posts, -> { order(published_at: :desc) }
end

class Post < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :blog
end

# good
class Blog < ApplicationRecord
  has_many(:posts,
    -> { order(published_at: :desc) },
    inverse_of: :blog
  )
end

class Post < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :blog
end

# good
class Blog < ApplicationRecord
  with_options inverse_of: :blog do
    has_many :posts, -> { order(published_at: :desc) }
  end
end

class Post < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :blog
end

# good
# When you don't want to use the inverse association.
class Blog < ApplicationRecord
  has_many(:posts,
    -> { order(published_at: :desc) },
    inverse_of: false
  )
end

# good
# You can also opt-out with specifying `inverse_of: nil`.
class Blog < ApplicationRecord
  has_many(:posts,
    -> { order(published_at: :desc) },
    inverse_of: nil
  )
end

# bad
class Picture < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :imageable, polymorphic: true
end

class Employee < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :pictures, as: :imageable
end

class Product < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :pictures, as: :imageable
end

# good
class Picture < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :imageable, polymorphic: true
end

class Employee < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :pictures, as: :imageable, inverse_of: :imageable
end

class Product < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :pictures, as: :imageable, inverse_of: :imageable
end

# bad
# However, RuboCop can not detect this pattern...
class Physician < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :appointments
  has_many :patients, through: :appointments
end

class Appointment < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :physician
  belongs_to :patient
end

class Patient < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :appointments
  has_many :physicians, through: :appointments
end

# good
class Physician < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :appointments
  has_many :patients, through: :appointments
end

class Appointment < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :physician, inverse_of: :appointments
  belongs_to :patient, inverse_of: :appointments
end

class Patient < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :appointments
  has_many :physicians, through: :appointments
end

Default configuration

Attribute	Value
Include	app/models/**/*.rb

Further Reading

• RuboCop - Rails/InverseOf