Rails 5: update nested attributes through another model

Question

I can not update nested attributes which is related with current model by 3rd model.

Focused model: Profile

class Profile < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :user
  has_many :phone_numbers

  ##Set nested attributes
  accepts_nested_attributes_for :phone_numbers, reject_if: :all_blank, allow_destroy: true

Netsted Attributes: PhoneNumber

class PhoneNumber < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :profile
end

3rd model: User

class User < ApplicationRecord
  has_one :profile
end

In database their relation is profile.user_id = user.id, phone_number.user_id = user.id

Question: How can I update Phone numbers when I update profile?

I tried

<%= form_for @profile, url: {action: "update"} do |f| %>
 ...
     <%= f.fields_for :phone_numbers do |ff| %>
       ...

and got error message:

Mysql2::Error: Unknown column 'phone_numbers.profile_id' in 'where clause': SELECT phone_numbers.* FROM phone_numbers WHERE phone_numbers.profile_id = 1

Answer 1

To add the profile_id column to phone_numbers table you need a migration. That is performed using the rails command as follows:

rails generate migration AddProfileRefToPhoneNumbers  profile:references
rake db:migrate

This will fix your problem with your error. I can also see down the line you will have an issue with:

class User < ApplicationRecord
  has_one :profile
end
class Profile < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :account

Your profile belongs_to account, not user. You want to replace account with user or replace your foreign key with account_id and change the line to:

  belongs_to :account, class_name: 'User'

Answer 2

The errors is super clear and full of call to action:

• add profile_id column to phone_numbers table to reflect the association between Profile and PhoneNumber models.