Question

Rails - AciveRecord use :dependent => :destroy on condition

What will be the best/DRY way to destroy all the dependents of an object based on a condition. ?

Ex:

class Worker < ActiveRecord::Base
 has_many :jobs , :dependent => :destroy
 has_many :coworkers , :dependent => :destroy
 has_many :company_credit_cards, :dependent => :destroy
end 

condition will be on Destroy:

if self.is_fired? 
 #Destroy dependants records
else
 # Do not Destroy records
end 

Is There a Way to use Proc in the :dependent condition. I have found the methods to destroy the dependents individually, but this is not DRY and flexible for further associations,

Note: I have made up the example.. not an actual logic

 21  11699  21
1 Jan 1970

Solution

 41

No. You should remove :dependent => :destroy and add after_destroy callback where you can write any logic you want.

class Worker < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :jobs
  has_many :coworkers
  has_many :company_credit_cards
  after_destroy :cleanup

  private
  def cleanup
    if self.is_fired?
      self.jobs.destroy_all
      self.coworkers.destroy_all
      self.company_credit_cards.destroy_all
    end
  end
end 
2011-05-18