sequel 5.83.1 → 5.85.0

data/doc/advanced_associations.rdoc

@@ -1,884 +0,0 @@
-= Advanced Associations
-
-Sequel::Model's association support is powerful and flexible, but it can be difficult for
-new users to understand what the support enables.  This guide shows off some of the more
-advanced Sequel::Model association features.
-
-You should probably review the {Model Associations Basics and Options guide}[rdoc-ref:doc/association_basics.rdoc]
-before reviewing this guide.
-
-== Sequel::Model Eager Loading
-
-Sequel::Model offers two different ways to perform eager loading, +eager+ and
-+eager_graph+. +eager+ uses an SQL query per association, +eager_graph+ uses a single
-SQL query containing JOINs.
-
-Assuming the following associations:
-
-  Artist.one_to_many :albums
-  Album.one_to_many :tracks
-  Tracks.many_to_one :lyric
-
-Let's say you wanted to load all artists and eagerly load the related albums, tracks, and lyrics.
-
-  Artist.eager(albums: {tracks: :lyric})
-  # 4 Queries:
-  # SELECT * FROM artists;
-  # SELECT * FROM albums WHERE (artist_id IN (...));
-  # SELECT * FROM tracks WHERE (album_id IN (...));
-  # SELECT * FROM lyrics WHERE (id IN (...));
-
-  Artist.eager_graph(albums: {tracks: :lyric})
-  # 1 Query:
-  # SELECT artists.id, artists.name, ...
-  #        albums.id AS albums_id, albums.name AS albums_name, ...
-  #        tracks.id AS tracks_id, tracks.name AS tracks_name, ...
-  #        lyric.id AS lyric_id, ...
-  # FROM artists
-  # LEFT OUTER JOIN albums ON (albums.artist_id = artists.id)
-  # LEFT OUTER JOIN tracks ON (tracks.album_id = albums.id)
-  # LEFT OUTER JOIN lyrics AS lyric ON (lyric.id = tracks.lyric_id);
-
-In general, the recommendation is to use +eager+ unless you have a reason to use +eager_graph+.
-+eager_graph+ is needed when you want to reference columns in an associated table.  For example,
-if you want to order the loading of returned artists based on the names of the albums, you cannot
-do:
-
-  Artist.eager(albums: {tracks: :lyric}).order{albums[:name]}
-
-because the initial query Sequel will use would be:
-
-  # SELECT * FROM artists ORDER BY albums.name;
-
-and +albums+ is not a valid qualifier in such a query.  In this situation, you must use +eager_graph+:
-
-  Artist.eager_graph(albums: {tracks: :lyric}).order{albums[:name]}
-
-Whether +eager+ or +eager_graph+ performs better is association and database dependent. If
-you are concerned about performance, you should try benchmarking both cases with appropriate
-data to see which performs better.
-
-=== Mixing eager and eager_graph
-
-Sequel offers the ability to mix +eager+ and +eager_graph+ when loading results.  This can
-be done at the main level by calling both +eager+ and +eager_graph+ on the same dataset:
-
-  Album.eager(:artist).eager_graph(:tracks)
-  # 2 Queries:
-  # SELECT albums.id, albums.name, ...
-  #        artist.id AS artist_id, artist.name AS artist_name, ...
-  # FROM albums
-  # LEFT OUTER JOIN artists AS artist ON (artist.id = albums.artist_id);
-  # SELECT * FROM artists WHERE (id IN (...));
-
-You can also use +eager+ to load initial associations, and +eager_graph+ to load
-remaining associations, by using +eager_graph+ in an eager load callback:
-
-  Artist.eager(albums: {tracks: proc{|ds| ds.eager_graph(:lyric)}})
-  # 3 Queries:
-  # SELECT * FROM artists;
-  # SELECT * FROM albums WHERE (artist_id IN (...));
-  # SELECT tracks.id, tracks.name, ...
-  #        lyric.id AS lyric_id, ...
-  # FROM tracks
-  # LEFT OUTER JOIN lyrics AS lyric ON (lyric.id = tracks.lyric_id)
-  # WHERE (tracks.album_id IN (...));
-
-Using the +eager_graph_eager+ plugin, you can use +eager_graph+ to load the
-initial associations, and +eager+ to load the remaining associations.  When
-you call +eager_graph_eager+, you must specify the dependency chain at
-which to start the eager loading via +eager+:
-
-  Artist.plugin :eager_graph_eager
-  Artist.eager_graph(albums: :tracks).eager_graph_eager([:albums, :tracks], :lyric)
-  # 2 Queries:
-  # SELECT artists.id, artists.name, ...
-  #        albums.id AS albums_id, albums.name AS albums_name, ...
-  #        tracks.id AS tracks_id, tracks.name AS tracks_name, ...
-  # FROM artists
-  # LEFT OUTER JOIN albums ON (albums.artist_id = artists.id)
-  # LEFT OUTER JOIN tracks ON (tracks.album_id= albums.id);
-  # SELECT * FROM lyrics WHERE (id IN (...));
-
-These two approaches can also be nested, with +eager+ -> +eager_graph+ -> +eager+:
-
-  Album.plugin :eager_graph_eager
-  Artist.eager(albums: proc{|ds| ds.eager_graph(:tracks).eager_graph_eager([:tracks], :lyric)})
-  # 3 Queries:
-  # SELECT * FROM artists;
-  # SELECT albums.id, albums.name, ...
-  #        tracks.id AS tracks_id, tracks.name AS tracks_name, ...
-  # FROM albums 
-  # LEFT OUTER JOIN tracks ON (tracks.album_id = albums.id)
-  # WHERE (albums.artist_id IN (...));
-  # SELECT * FROM lyrics WHERE (id IN (...));
-
-Or with 2 separate +eager_graph+ queries:
-
-  Artist.eager_graph(:albums).eager_graph_eager([:albums], tracks: proc{|ds| ds.eager_graph(:lyric)})
-  # 2 Queries:
-  # SELECT artists.id, artists.name, ...
-  #        albums.id AS albums_id, albums.name AS albums_name, ...
-  # FROM artists
-  # LEFT OUTER JOIN albums ON (albums.artist_id = artists.id);
-  # SELECT tracks.id, tracks.name, ...
-  #        lyric.id AS lyric_id, ...
-  # FROM tracks
-  # LEFT OUTER JOIN lyrics AS lyric ON (lyric.id = tracks.lyric_id)
-  # WHERE (tracks.album_id IN (...));
-
-== Sequel::Model Association Loading Options
-
-There are a bunch of advanced association options that are available to
-handle more complex cases.  First we'll go over some of the simpler ones:
-
-All associations take a block that can be used to further filter/modify the
-default dataset:
-
-  Artist.one_to_many :gold_albums, class: :Album do |ds|
-    ds.where{copies_sold > 500000}
-  end
-
-There's also an :eager_block option if you want to use a different block when
-eager loading via <tt>Dataset#eager</tt>.
-
-There are many options for changing how the association is eagerly
-loaded via <tt>Dataset#eager_graph</tt>:
-
-:graph_join_type :: The type of join to do (<tt>:inner</tt>, <tt>:left</tt>, <tt>:right</tt>)
-:graph_conditions :: Additional conditions to put on join (needs to be a
-                     hash or array of all two pairs).  Automatically assumes unqualified symbols
-                     or first element of the pair to be columns of the associated model, and
-                     unqualified symbols of the second element of the pair to be columns of the
-                     current model.
-:graph_block :: A block passed to +join_table+, allowing you to specify
-                conditions other than equality, or to use OR, or set up any arbitrary
-                condition.  The block is passed the associated table alias, current table 
-                alias, and an array of previous joins clause objects.
-:graph_only_conditions :: Use these conditions instead of the standard
-                          association conditions. This is necessary when you don't want to have an
-                          equal condition between the foreign key and primary key of the tables.
-                          You can also use this to have a JOIN USING (array of symbols), or a NATURAL
-                          or CROSS JOIN (nil, with the appropriate <tt>:graph_join_type</tt>).
-  
-These can be used like this:
-
-  # Makes Artist.eager_graph(:required_albums).all not return artists that
-  # don't have any albums
-  Artist.one_to_many :required_albums, class: :Album, graph_join_type: :inner
-  
-  # Makes sure all returned albums have the active flag set
-  Artist.one_to_many :active_albums, class: :Album, graph_conditions: {active: true}
-    
-  # Only returns albums that have sold more than 500,000 copies
-  Artist.one_to_many :gold_albums, class: :Album,
-    graph_block: proc{|j,lj,js| Sequel[j][:copies_sold] > 500000}
-    
-  # Handles the case where the tables are associated by a case insensitive name string
-  Artist.one_to_many :albums, key: :artist_name,
-    graph_only_conditions: nil,
-    graph_block: proc{|j,lj,js| {Sequel.function(:lower, Sequel[j][:artist_name])=>Sequel.function(:lower, Sequel[lj][:name])}}
-    
-  # Handles the case where both key columns have the name artist_name, and you want to use
-  # a JOIN USING
-  Artist.one_to_many :albums, key: :artist_name, graph_only_conditions: [:artist_name]
-
-One advantage of using +eager_graph+ is that you can easily filter/order
-on columns in an associated table on a per-query basis, using regular
-Sequel dataset methods.  For example, if you only want to retrieve artists
-who have albums that start with A, and eager load just those albums,
-ordered by the albums name, you can do:
-
-  albums = Artist.
-    eager_graph(:albums).
-    where{Sequel.like(albums[:name], 'A%')}.
-    order{albums[:name]}.
-    all
-
-For lazy loading (e.g. Model[1].association), the <tt>:dataset</tt> option can be used
-to specify an arbitrary dataset (one that uses different keys, multiple keys,
-joins to other tables, etc.).
-
-== Custom Eager Loaders
-
-For eager loading via +eager+, the <tt>:eager_loader</tt> option can be used to specify
-how to eagerly load a complex association.  This is an extremely powerful
-option.  Though it can often be verbose (compared to other things in Sequel),
-it allows you complete control over how to eagerly load associations for a
-group of objects.
-
-:eager_loader should be a proc that takes a single hash argument, which will
-have at least the following keys:
-
-:id_map :: A mapping of key values to arrays of current model instances,
-           usage described below
-:rows :: An array of model objects
-:associations :: A hash of dependent associations to eagerly load
-:self :: The dataset that is doing the eager loading
-:eager_block :: A dynamic callback for this eager load.
-
-Since you are given all of the records, you can do things like filter on
-associations that are specified by multiple keys, or do multiple
-queries depending on the content of the records (which would be
-necessary for polymorphic associations).  Inside the <tt>:eager_loader</tt>
-proc, you should get the related objects and populate the
-associations cache for all objects in the array of records.  The hash
-of dependent associations is available for you to cascade the eager
-loading down multiple levels, but it is up to you to use it.
-
-The id_map is a performance enhancement that is used by the default
-association loaders and is also available to you.  It is a hash with keys
-foreign/primary key values, and values being arrays of current model
-objects having the foreign/primary key value associated with the key. 
-This may be hard to visualize, so I'll give an example.  Let's say you
-have the following associations
-
-  Album.many_to_one :artist
-  Album.one_to_many :tracks
-    
-and the following three albums in the database:
-
-  album1 = Album.create(artist_id: 3) # id: 1
-  album2 = Album.create(artist_id: 3) # id: 2
-  album3 = Album.create(artist_id: 2) # id: 3
-
-If you try to eager load this dataset:
-
-  Album.eager(:artist, :tracks).all
-
-Then the id_map provided to the artist :eager_loader proc would be:
-
-  {3=>[album1, album2], 2=>[album3]}
-
-The artist id_map contains a mapping of artist_id values to arrays of
-album objects.  Since both album1 and album2 have the same artist_id,
-the are both in the array related to that key.  album3 has a different
-artist_id, so it is in a different array. Eager loading of artists is
-done by looking for any artist having one of the keys in the hash:
-
-  artists = Artist.where(id: id_map.keys).all
-
-When the artists are retrieved, you can iterate over them, find entries
-with matching keys, and manually associate them to the albums:
-
-  artists.each do |artist|
-    # Find related albums using the artist_id_map
-    if albums = id_map[artist.id]
-      # Iterate over the albums
-      albums.each do |album|
-        # Manually set the artist association for each album
-        album.associations[:artist] = artist
-      end
-    end
-  end
-
-The id_map provided to the tracks :eager_loader proc would be:
-
-  {1=>[album1], 2=>[album2], 3=>[album3]}
-
-Now the id_map contains a mapping of id values to arrays of album objects (in this
-case each array only has a single object, because id is the primary key).  So when
-looking for tracks to eagerly load, you only need to look for ones that have an
-album_id with one of the keys in the hash:
-
-  tracks = Track.where(album_id: id_map.keys).all
-
-When the tracks are retrieved, you can iterate over them, find entries with matching
-keys, and manually associate them to the albums:
-
-  tracks.each do |track|
-    if albums = id_map[track.album_id]
-      albums.each do |album|
-        album.associations[:tracks] << track
-      end
-    end
-  end
-
-=== Two basic example eager loaders
-
-Putting the code in the above examples together, you almost have enough for a basic
-working eager loader.  The main important thing that is missing is you need to set
-initial values for the eagerly loaded associations.  For the artist association, you
-need to initial the values to nil:
-
-  # rows here is the :rows entry in the hash passed to the eager loader
-  rows.each{|album| album.associations[:artist] = nil}
-  
-For the tracks association, you set the initial value to an empty array:
-
-  rows.each{|album| album.associations[:track] = []}
-
-These are done so that if an album currently being loaded doesn't have an associated
-artist or any associated tracks, the lack of them will be cached, so calling the
-artist or tracks method on the album will not do another database lookup.
-
-So putting everything together, the artist eager loader looks like:
-
-  Album.many_to_one :artist, eager_loader: (proc do |eo_opts|
-    eo_opts[:rows].each{|album| album.associations[:artist] = nil}
-    id_map = eo_opts[:id_map]
-    Artist.where(id: id_map.keys).all do |artist|
-      if albums = id_map[artist.id]
-        albums.each do |album|
-          album.associations[:artist] = artist
-        end
-      end
-    end
-  end)
-
-and the tracks eager loader looks like:
-
-  Album.one_to_many :tracks, eager_loader: (proc do |eo_opts|
-    eo_opts[:rows].each{|album| album.associations[:tracks] = []}
-    id_map = eo_opts[:id_map]
-    Track.where(album_id: id_map.keys).all do |track|
-      if albums = id_map[track.album_id]
-        albums.each do |album|
-          album.associations[:tracks] << track
-        end
-      end
-    end
-  end)
-
-Now, these are both overly simplistic eager loaders that don't respect cascaded
-associations or any of the association options.  But hopefully they both
-provide simple examples that you can more easily build and learn from, as 
-the custom eager loaders described later in this page are more complex.
-
-Basically, the eager loading steps can be broken down into:
-
-1. Set default association values (nil/[]) for each of the current objects
-2. Return just related associated objects by filtering the associated class
-   to include only rows with keys present in the id_map.
-3. Iterating over the returned associated objects, indexing into the id_map
-   using the foreign/primary key value in the associated object to get
-   current values associated to that specific object.
-4. For each of those current values, updating the cached association value to
-   include that specific object.
-
-Using the :eager_loader proc, you should be able to eagerly load all associations
-that can be eagerly loaded, even if Sequel doesn't natively support such eager
-loading.
-
-== Limited Associations
-
-Sequel supports specifying limits and/or offsets for associations:
-
-  Artist.one_to_many :first_10_albums, class: :Album, order: :release_date, limit: 10
-
-For retrieving the associated objects for a single object, this just uses
-a LIMIT:
-
-  artist.first_10_albums
-  # SELECT * FROM albums WHERE (artist_id = 1) LIMIT 10
-
-=== Eager Loading via eager
-
-However, if you want to eagerly load an association, you must use a different
-approach.  Sequel has 4 separate strategies for dealing with such cases.
-
-The default strategy used on all databases is a UNION-based approach, which
-will submit multiple subqueries in a UNION query:
-
-  Artist.where(id: [1,2]).eager(:first_10_albums).all
-  # SELECT * FROM (SELECT * FROM albums WHERE (artist_id = 1) LIMIT 10) UNION ALL
-  # SELECT * FROM (SELECT * FROM albums WHERE (artist_id = 2) LIMIT 10)
-
-This is the fastest way to load the associated objects on most databases, as long as
-there is an index on albums.artist_id.  Without an index it is probably the slowest
-approach, so make sure you have an index on the key columns.  If you cannot add an
-index, you'll want to manually specify the :eager_limit_strategy option as shown below.
-
-On PostgreSQL, for *_one associations that don't use an offset, you can
-choose to use a the distinct on strategy:
-
-  Artist.one_to_one :first_album, class: :Album, order: :release_date,
-    eager_limit_strategy: :distinct_on
-  Artist.where(id: [1,2]).eager(:first_album).all
-  # SELECT DISTINCT ON (albums.artist_id) *
-  # FROM albums
-  # WHERE (albums.artist_id IN (1, 2))
-  # ORDER BY albums.artist_id, release_date
-  
-Otherwise, if the database supports window functions, you can choose to use
-the window function strategy:
-
-  Artist.one_to_many :first_10_albums, class: :Album, order: :release_date, limit: 10,
-    eager_limit_strategy: :window_function
-  Artist.where(id: [1,2]).eager(:first_10_albums).all
-  # SELECT * FROM (
-  #   SELECT *, row_number() OVER (PARTITION BY albums.artist_id ORDER BY release_date) AS x_sequel_row_number_x
-  #   FROM albums
-  #   WHERE (albums.artist_id IN (1, 2))
-  # ) AS t1
-  # WHERE (x_sequel_row_number_x <= 10)
-  
-Alternatively, you can use the :ruby strategy, which will fall back to
-retrieving all records, and then will slice the resulting array to get
-the first 10 after retrieval.
-
-=== Dynamic Eager Loading Limits
-
-If you need to eager load variable numbers of records (with limits that aren't
-known at the time of the association definition), Sequel supports an
-:eager_limit dataset option that can be defined in an eager loading callback:
-
-  Artist.one_to_many :albums
-  Artist.where(id: [1, 2]).eager(albums: lambda{|ds| ds.order(:release_date).clone(eager_limit: 3)}).all
-  # SELECT * FROM (
-  #   SELECT *, row_number() OVER (PARTITION BY albums.artist_id ORDER BY release_date) AS x_sequel_row_number_x
-  #   FROM albums
-  #   WHERE (albums.artist_id IN (1, 2))
-  # ) AS t1
-  # WHERE (x_sequel_row_number_x <= 3)
-
-You can also customize the :eager_limit_strategy on a case-by-case basis by passing in that option in the same way:
-
-  Artist.where(id: [1, 2]).eager(albums: lambda{|ds| ds.order(:release_date).clone(eager_limit: 3, eager_limit_strategy: :ruby)}).all
-  # SELECT * FROM albums WHERE (albums.artist_id IN (1, 2)) ORDER BY release_date
-
-The :eager_limit and :eager_limit_strategy options currently only work when
-eager loading via #eager, not with #eager_graph.
-
-=== Eager Loading via eager_graph_with_options
-
-When eager loading an association via eager_graph (which uses JOINs), the
-situation is similar.  While the UNION-based strategy cannot be used as
-you don't know the records being eagerly loaded in advance, Sequel can use
-a variant of the other 3 strategies.  By default it retrieves all records
-and then does the array slice in ruby.  As eager_graph does not support
-options, to use an eager_graph limit strategy you have to use the
-eager_graph_with_options method with the :limit_strategy option.
-
-The :distinct_on strategy uses DISTINCT ON in a subquery and JOINs that
-subquery:
-
-  Artist.eager_graph_with_options(:first_album, limit_strategy: :distinct_on).all
-  # SELECT artists.id, artists.name, first_album.id AS first_album_id,
-  #        first_album.name AS first_album_name, first_album.artist_id,
-  #        first_album.release_date
-  # FROM artists 
-  # LEFT OUTER JOIN (
-  #   SELECT DISTINCT ON (albums.artist_id) *
-  #   FROM albums
-  #   ORDER BY albums.artist_id, release_date
-  # ) AS first_album ON (first_album.artist_id = artists.id)
-
-The :window_function approach JOINs to a nested subquery using a window
-function:
-
-  Artist.eager_graph_with_options(:first_10_albums, limit_strategy: :window_function).all
-  # SELECT artists.id, artists.name, first_10_albums.id AS first_10_albums_id,
-  #        first_10_albums.name AS first_10_albums_name, first_10_albums.artist_id,
-  #        first_10_albums.release_date
-  # FROM artists 
-  # LEFT OUTER JOIN (
-  #   SELECT id, name, artist_id, release_date
-  #   FROM (
-  #     SELECT *, row_number() OVER (PARTITION BY tracks.album_id ORDER BY release_date) AS x_sequel_row_number_x
-  #     FROM albums
-  #   ) AS t1 WHERE (x_sequel_row_number_x <= 10)
-  # ) AS first_10_albums ON (first_10_albums.artist_id = artists.id)
-
-The :correlated_subquery approach JOINs to a nested subquery using a correlated
-subquery:
-
-  Artist.eager_graph_with_options(:first_10_albums, limit_strategy: :correlated_subquery).all
-  # SELECT artists.id, artists.name, first_10_albums.id AS first_10_albums_id,
-  #        first_10_albums.name AS first_10_albums_name, first_10_albums.artist_id,
-  #        first_10_albums.release_date
-  # FROM artists 
-  # LEFT OUTER JOIN (
-  #   SELECT *
-  #   FROM albums
-  #   WHERE albums.id IN (
-  #     SELECT t1.id
-  #     FROM tracks AS t1
-  #     WHERE (t1.album_id = tracks.album_id)
-  #     ORDER BY release_date
-  #     LIMIT 10
-  #   )
-  # ) AS first_10_albums ON (first_10_albums.artist_id = artists.id)
-
-The reason that Sequel does not automatically use the :distinct_on, :window function
-or :correlated_subquery strategy for eager_graph is that it can perform much worse than the
-default of just doing the array slicing in ruby.  If you are only using eager_graph to
-return a few records, it may be cheaper to get all of their associated records and filter
-them in ruby as opposed to computing the set of limited associated records for all rows.
-
-It's recommended to only use an eager_graph limit strategy if you have benchmarked
-it against the default behavior and found it is faster for your use case.
-
-=== Filtering By Associations
-
-In order to return correct results, Sequel automatically uses a limit strategy when
-using filtering by associations with limited associations, if the database supports
-it.  As in the eager_graph case, the UNION-based strategy doesn't work.  Unlike
-in the eager and eager_graph cases, the array slicing in ruby approach does not work,
-you must use an SQL-based strategy.  Sequel will select an appropriate default
-strategy based on the database you are using, and you can override it using the
-:filter_limit_strategy option.
-
-The :distinct_on strategy:
-
-  Artist.where(first_album: Album[1]).all
-  # SELECT *
-  # FROM artists
-  # WHERE (artists.id IN (
-  #   SELECT albums.artist_id
-  #   FROM albums
-  #   WHERE ((albums.artist_id IS NOT NULL) AND (albums.id IN (
-  #     SELECT DISTINCT ON (albums.artist_id) albums.id
-  #     FROM albums
-  #     ORDER BY albums.artist_id, release_date
-  #   )) AND (albums.id = 1))))
-
-The :window_function strategy:
-
-  Artist.where(first_10_albums: Album[1]).all
-  # SELECT *
-  # FROM artists
-  # WHERE (artists.id IN (
-  #   SELECT albums.artist_id
-  #   FROM albums
-  #   WHERE ((albums.artist_id IS NOT NULL) AND (albums.id IN (
-  #     SELECT id FROM (
-  #       SELECT albums.id, row_number() OVER (PARTITION BY albums.artist_id ORDER BY release_date) AS x_sequel_row_number_x
-  #       FROM albums
-  #     ) AS t1
-  #     WHERE (x_sequel_row_number_x <= 10)
-  #   )) AND (albums.id = 1))))
-
-The :correlated_subquery strategy:
-
-  Artist.where(first_10_albums: Album[1]).all
-  # SELECT *
-  # FROM artists
-  # WHERE (artists.id IN (
-  #   SELECT albums.artist_id
-  #   FROM albums
-  #   WHERE ((albums.artist_id IS NOT NULL) AND (albums.id IN (
-  #     SELECT t1.id
-  #     FROM albums AS t1
-  #     WHERE (t1.artist_id = albums.artist_id)
-  #     ORDER BY release_date
-  #     LIMIT 1
-  #   )) AND (albums.id = 1))))
-
-Note that filtering by limited associations does not work on MySQL, as MySQL does not support
-any of the strategies.  It's also not supported when using composite keys on databases
-that don't support window functions and don't support multiple columns in IN.
-
-=== Additional Association Types
-
-While the above examples for limited associations showed one_to_many and one_to_one associations,
-it's just because those are the simplest examples.  Sequel supports all of the same features for
-many_to_many and one_through_one associations that are enabled by default, as well as the
-many_through_many and one_through_many associations that are added by the many_through_many
-plugin.
-
-== More advanced association examples 
-
-=== Association extensions
-
-All associations come with an <tt><i>association</i>_dataset</tt> method that can be further filtered or
-otherwise modified:
-
-  class Author < Sequel::Model
-    one_to_many :authorships
-  end
-  Author.first.authorships_dataset.where{number < 10}.first
- 
-You can extend a dataset with a module using the <tt>:extend</tt> association option.  You can reference
-the model object that created the association dataset via the dataset's
-+model_object+ method, and the related association reflection via the dataset's
-+association_reflection+ method:
-
-  module FindOrCreate
-    def find_or_create(vals)
-      first(vals) || model.create(vals.merge(association_reflection[:key]=>model_object.id))
-    end
-  end
-  class Author < Sequel::Model
-    one_to_many :authorships, extend: FindOrCreate
-  end
-  Author.first.authorships_dataset.find_or_create(name: 'Blah', number: 10)
-
-=== many_to_many associations through model tables
-
-The many_to_many association can be used even when the join table is a table used for a
-model.  The only requirement is the join table has foreign keys to both the current
-model and the associated model.  Anytime there is a one_to_many association from model A to
-model B, and model B has a many_to_one association to model C, you can use a many_to_many
-association from model A to model C.
-
-  class Author < Sequel::Model
-    one_to_many :authorships
-    many_to_many :books, join_table: :authorships
-  end
-
-  class Authorship < Sequel::Model
-    many_to_one :author
-    many_to_one :book
-  end
-
-  @author = Author.first
-  @author.books
-
-=== many_to_many for three-level associations
-
-You can even use a many_to_many association between model A and model C if model A has a
-one_to_many association to model B, and model B has a one_to_many association to model C.
-You just need to use the appropriate :right_key and :right_primary_key options.  And in
-the reverse direction from model C to model A, you can use a one_through_one association
-using the :left_key and :left_primary_key options.
-
-  class Firm < Sequel::Model
-    one_to_many :clients
-    many_to_many :invoices, join_table: :clients, right_key: :id, right_primary_key: :client_id
-  end 
-
-  class Client < Sequel::Model
-    many_to_one :firm
-    one_to_many :invoices
-  end
-
-  class Invoice < Sequel::Model
-    many_to_one :client
-    one_through_one :firm, join_table: :clients, left_key: :id, left_primary_key: :client_id
-  end
-
-  Firm.first.invoices
-  Invoice.first.firm
-
-To handle cases where there are multiple join tables, you can use the many_through_many
-plugin that ships with Sequel.
-
-=== Polymorphic Associations
-
-Sequel discourages the use of polymorphic associations, which is the reason they
-are not supported by default.  All polymorphic associations can be made non-polymorphic
-by using additional tables and/or columns instead of having a column
-containing the associated class name as a string.
-
-Polymorphic associations break referential integrity and are significantly more
-complex than non-polymorphic associations, so their use is not recommended unless
-you are stuck with an existing design that uses them.
-
-If you must use them, look for the sequel_polymorphic external plugin, as it makes using
-polymorphic associations in Sequel about as easy as it is in ActiveRecord.  However,
-here's how they can be done using Sequel's custom associations (the sequel_polymorphic
-external plugin is just a generic version of this code):
-
-  Sequel.extension :inflector # for attachable_type.constantize
-
-  class Asset < Sequel::Model
-    many_to_one :attachable, reciprocal: :assets, reciprocal_type: :one_to_many,
-      setter: (lambda do |attachable|
-        self[:attachable_id] = (attachable.pk if attachable)
-        self[:attachable_type] = (attachable.class.name if attachable)
-      end),
-      dataset: (proc do
-        klass = attachable_type.constantize
-        klass.where(klass.primary_key=>attachable_id)
-      end),
-      eager_loader: (lambda do |eo|
-        id_map = {}
-        eo[:rows].each do |asset|
-          asset.associations[:attachable] = nil 
-          ((id_map[asset.attachable_type] ||= {})[asset.attachable_id] ||= []) << asset
-        end
-        id_map.each do |klass_name, id_map|
-          klass = klass_name.constantize
-          klass.where(klass.primary_key=>id_map.keys).all do |attach|
-            id_map[attach.pk].each do |asset|
-              asset.associations[:attachable] = attach
-            end
-          end
-        end
-      end)
-  end 
-
-  class Post < Sequel::Model
-    one_to_many :assets, key: :attachable_id, reciprocal: :attachable, conditions: {attachable_type: 'Post'},
-      adder: lambda{|asset| asset.update(attachable_id: pk, attachable_type: 'Post')},
-      remover: lambda{|asset| asset.update(attachable_id: nil, attachable_type: nil)},
-      clearer: lambda{assets_dataset.update(attachable_id: nil, attachable_type: nil)}
-  end
-
-  class Note < Sequel::Model
-    one_to_many :assets, key: :attachable_id, reciprocal: :attachable, conditions: {attachable_type: 'Note'},
-      adder: lambda{|asset| asset.update(attachable_id: pk, attachable_type: 'Note')},
-      remover: lambda{|asset| asset.update(attachable_id: nil, attachable_type: nil)},
-      clearer: lambda{assets_dataset.update(attachable_id: nil, attachable_type: nil)}
-  end
-
-  @asset.attachable = @post
-  @asset.attachable = @note
-
-=== Joining on multiple keys
-
-Let's say you have two tables that are associated with each other with multiple
-keys.  This can be handled using Sequel's built in composite key support for
-associations:
-
-  # Both of these models have an album_id, number, and disc_number fields.
-  # All FavoriteTracks have an associated track, but not all tracks have an
-  # associated favorite track
-  
-  class Track < Sequel::Model
-    many_to_one :favorite_track, key: [:disc_number, :number, :album_id], primary_key: [:disc_number, :number, :album_id]
-  end
-  class FavoriteTrack < Sequel::Model
-    one_to_one :tracks, key: [:disc_number, :number, :album_id], primary_key: [:disc_number, :number, :album_id]
-  end
-
-=== Tree - All Ancestors and Descendants
-
-Let's say you want to store a tree relationship in your database, it's pretty
-simple:
-
-  class Node < Sequel::Model
-    many_to_one :parent, class: self
-    one_to_many :children, key: :parent_id, class: self
-  end
-  
-You can easily get a node's parent with node.parent, and a node's children with
-node.children.  You can even eager load the relationship up to a certain depth:
-
-  # Eager load three generations of generations of children for a given node 
-  Node.where(id: 1).eager(children: {children: :children}).all.first
-  # Load parents and grandparents for a group of nodes
-  Node.where{id < 10}.eager(parent: :parent).all
-
-What if you want to get all ancestors up to the root node, or all descendants,
-without knowing the depth of the tree?
-
-  class Node < Sequel::Model
-    many_to_one :ancestors, class: self,
-     eager_loader: (lambda do |eo|
-      # Handle cases where the root node has the same parent_id as primary_key
-      # and also when it is NULL
-      non_root_nodes = eo[:rows].reject do |n| 
-        if [nil, n.pk].include?(n.parent_id)
-          # Make sure root nodes have their parent association set to nil
-          n.associations[:parent] = nil 
-          true
-        else
-          false
-        end 
-      end 
-      unless non_root_nodes.empty?
-        id_map = {}
-        # Create an map of parent_ids to nodes that have that parent id
-        non_root_nodes.each{|n| (id_map[n.parent_id] ||= []) << n}
-        # Doesn't cause an infinite loop, because when only the root node
-        # is left, this is not called.
-        Node.where(id: id_map.keys).eager(:ancestors).all do |node|
-          # Populate the parent association for each node
-          id_map[node.pk].each{|n| n.associations[:parent] = node}
-        end 
-      end 
-    end)
-    many_to_one :descendants, eager_loader: (lambda do |eo|
-      id_map = {}
-      eo[:rows].each do |n| 
-        # Initialize an empty array of child associations for each parent node
-        n.associations[:children] = []
-        # Populate identity map of nodes
-        id_map[n.pk] = n 
-      end 
-      # Doesn't cause an infinite loop, because the :eager_loader is not called
-      # if no records are returned.  Exclude id = parent_id to avoid infinite loop
-      # if the root note is one of the returned records and it has parent_id = id
-      # instead of parent_id = NULL.
-      Node.where(parent_id: id_map.keys).exclude(id: :parent_id).eager(:descendants).all do |node|
-        # Get the parent from the identity map
-        parent = id_map[node.parent_id]
-        # Set the child's parent association to the parent 
-        node.associations[:parent] = parent
-        # Add the child association to the array of children in the parent
-        parent.associations[:children] << node
-      end 
-    end)
-  end
-
-Note that Sequel ships with an rcte_tree plugin that does all of the above and more:
-
-  class Node < Sequel::Model
-    plugin :rcte_tree
-  end
-
-=== Joining multiple keys to a single key, through a third table
-
-Let's say you have a database of songs, lyrics, and artists.  Each song
-may or may not have a lyric (most songs are instrumental).  The lyric can be
-associated to an artist in each of four ways: composer, arranger, vocalist,
-or lyricist.  These may all be the same, or they could all be different, and
-none of them are required.  The songs table has a lyric_id field to associate
-it to the lyric, and the lyric table has four fields to associate it to the
-artist (composer_id, arranger_id, vocalist_id, and lyricist_id).
-
-What you want to do is get all songs for a given artist, ordered by the song's
-name, with no duplicates?
-
-  class Artist < Sequel::Model
-    one_to_many :songs, order: Sequel[:songs][:name],
-      dataset: proc{Song.select_all(:songs).join(:lyrics, id: :lyric_id, id=>[:composer_id, :arranger_id, :vocalist_id, :lyricist_id])},
-      eager_loader: (lambda do |eo|
-        h = eo[:id_map]
-        ids = h.keys
-        eo[:rows].each{|r| r.associations[:songs] = []}
-        Song.select_all(:songs).
-          select_append{[lyrics[:composer_id], lyrics[:arranger_id], lyrics[:vocalist_id], lyrics[:lyricist_id]]}.
-          join(:lyrics, id: :lyric_id){Sequel.or(composer_id: ids, arranger_id: ids, vocalist_id: ids, lyricist_id: ids)}.
-          order{songs[:name]}.all do |song|
-            [:composer_id, :arranger_id, :vocalist_id, :lyricist_id].each do |x|
-              recs = h[song.values.delete(x)]
-              recs.each{|r| r.associations[:songs] << song} if recs
-            end
-          end
-        eo[:rows].each{|r| r.associations[:songs].uniq!}
-      end)
-  end
-
-=== Statistics Associations (Sum of Associated Table Column)
-
-In addition to getting associated records, you can use Sequel's association support
-to get aggregate information for columns in associated tables (sums, averages, etc.).
-
-Let's say you have a database with projects and tickets.  A project can have many
-tickets, and each ticket has a number of hours associated with it.  You can use the
-association support to create a Project association that gives the sum of hours for all
-associated tickets.
-
-  class Project < Sequel::Model
-    one_to_many :tickets
-    many_to_one :ticket_hours, read_only: true, key: :id,
-     dataset: proc{Ticket.where(project_id: id).select{sum(hours).as(hours)}},
-     eager_loader: (lambda do |eo|
-      eo[:rows].each{|p| p.associations[:ticket_hours] = nil}
-      Ticket.where(project_id: eo[:id_map].keys).
-       select_group(:project_id).
-       select_append{sum(hours).as(hours)}.
-       all do |t|
-        p = eo[:id_map][t.values.delete(:project_id)].first
-        p.associations[:ticket_hours] = t
-       end
-     end)
-    # The association method returns a Ticket object with a single aggregate
-    # sum-of-hours value, but you want it to return an Integer/Float of just the
-    # sum of hours, so you call super and return just the sum-of-hours value.
-    # This works for both lazy loading and eager loading.
-    def ticket_hours
-      if s = super
-        s[:hours]
-      end
-    end
-  end
-  class Ticket < Sequel::Model
-    many_to_one :project
-  end
-
-Note that it is often better to use a sum cache instead of this approach.  You can implement
-a sum cache using +after_create+, +after_update+, and +after_delete+ hooks, or preferably using a database trigger.