ActiveRecord::UnknownAttributeError: unknown attribute 'customer_id' for Order

Question

I have a Customer, Item and Order model. Customer has_many Items through Orders and has_many Orders. Item has_many Customers through Orders and has_many Orders. Order belongs to Customer and Item. I get the ActiveRecord::UnknownAttributeError: unknown attribute 'customer_id' for Order. error when trying to save through the console:

Customer model:

class Customer < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :orders
  has_many :items, through: :orders

  devise :database_authenticatable, :registerable,
         :recoverable, :rememberable, :trackable, :validatable

end

Item model:

class Item < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :orders
  has_many :customers, through: :orders
end

Order model:

class Order < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :item
  belongs_to :customer
end

Orders table:

class CreateOrders < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :orders, id: false do |t|
      t.belongs_to :customers, index: true
      t.belongs_to :items, index: true
      t.timestamps null: false
    end
  end
end

Console Command to save Order (note that cuban_sandwich and chris are saved as a new Customer and Item already.)

order1 = chris.orders.build(customers_id: chris.id, items_id: cuban_sandwich.id)

Could I be saving this incorrectly? Or is there a problem with my model/table associations?

MilesStanfield MilesStanfield · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-25T01:57:27

First make sure you have customer_id column on orders table

rails g migration AddCustomerIdToOrders customer_id:integer
rake db:migrate

Also, I don't believe you need to put the customers_id as it will be filled in when the association is made. Also you need to use create not build

instead of this

order1 = chris.orders.build(customers_id: chris.id, items_id: cuban_sandwich.id)

try this

order1 = chris.orders.create(items_id: cuban_sandwich.id)

ActiveRecord::UnknownAttributeError: unknown attribute 'customer_id' for Order

2 Answers