Rails: create_join_table should include indexes and foreign key contraints

[AlexVPopov]

Currently, if one generates a join table like this:

rails g migration create_join_table_showroom_user showroom user

the following migration will be created:

class CreateJoinTableShowroomUser < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_join_table :showrooms, :users do |t|
      # t.index [:showroom_id, :user_id]
      # t.index [:user_id, :showroom_id]
    end
  end
end

Running this migration directly will create a very simple join table:

create_table "showrooms_users", id: false, force: :cascade do |t|
  t.integer "showroom_id", null: false
  t.integer "user_id",     null: false
end

So no indexes, no foreign keys etc. If one uncomments the two lines in the migration, now one gets:

create_table "showrooms_users", id: false, force: :cascade do |t|
  t.integer "showroom_id", null: false
  t.integer "user_id",     null: false
end

add_index "showrooms_users", ["showroom_id", "user_id"], name: "index_showrooms_users_on_showroom_id_and_user_id", using: :btree
add_index "showrooms_users", ["user_id", "showroom_id"], name: "index_showrooms_users_on_user_id_and_showroom_id", using: :btree

I would argue, that the generated migration should look like this:

class CreateJoinTableShowroomUser < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_join_table :showrooms, :users do |t|
      # t.references :showroom, index: true, null: false, foreign_key: true
      # t.references :user, index: true, null: false, foreign_key: true
      # t.index [:showroom_id, :user_id]
      # t.index [:user_id, :showroom_id]
    end
  end
end

If one uncomments the two references lines, the produced table will look like this:

create_table "showrooms_users", id: false, force: :cascade do |t|
  t.integer "showroom_id", null: false
  t.integer "user_id",     null: false
end

add_index "showrooms_users", ["showroom_id"], name: "index_showrooms_users_on_showroom_id", using: :btree
add_index "showrooms_users", ["user_id"], name: "index_showrooms_users_on_user_id", using: :btree

add_foreign_key "showrooms_users", "showrooms"
add_foreign_key "showrooms_users", "users"

Why wouldn't somebody want foreign keys and indexes on them in a join table? @rafaelfranca

[heptaman]

I agree! I have to do this all the time. Maybe we could add options to the generator, like:
rails g migration ... --fk --idx
or include them by default, and have options to disable them, like:
rails g migration ... --no_fk --no_idx

[erullmann]

I don't know, the migrations mostly don't use options like that. You can already enable the index by using :index. So running

rails g migration create_join_table_showroom_user showroom:index user:index

Produces

class CreateJoinTableShowroomUser < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_join_table :showrooms, :users do |t|
      t.index [:showroom_id, :user_id]
      t.index [:user_id, :showroom_id]
    end
  end
end

And you can use references to create an index as well when creating models. Like so:

rails g migration CreatePost title:string user:references:index

Which produces:

class CreatePost < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :posts do |t|
      t.string :title
      t.references :user, index: true, foreign_key: true
    end
  end
end

So maybe it would be best to allow something like:

rails g migration create_join_table_showroom_user showroom:references:index user:references:index

Creating this:

class CreateJoinTableShowroomUser < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_join_table :showrooms, :users do |t|
      t.references :showroom, index: true, foreign_key: true
      t.references :user, index: true, foreign_key: true
      # t.index [:showroom_id, :user_id]
      # t.index [:user_id, :showroom_id]
    end
  end
end

And then the default rails g migration create_join_table_showroom_user showroom user would produce:

class CreateJoinTableShowroomUser < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_join_table :showrooms, :users do |t|
      # t.references :showroom, index: true, foreign_key: true
      # t.references :user, index: true, foreign_key: true
      # t.index [:showroom_id, :user_id]
      # t.index [:user_id, :showroom_id]
    end
  end
end

[AlexVPopov]

+1 @erullmann This is a very nice solution. :smiley: