Is there a Rails 4 circular dependent: :destroy workaround?

Question

As an example for the circular dependent: :destroy issue:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_one: :staff, dependent: :destroy
end

class Staff         


        

Answer 1

If one side of the cycle only has that one callback, you can replace one of the dependent: :destroy with dependent: :delete

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  # delete prevents Staff's :destroy callback from happening
  has_one: :staff, dependent: :delete
  has_many :other_things, dependent: :destroy
end

class Staff < ActiveRecord::Base
  # use :destroy here so that other_things are properly removed
  belongs_to :user, dependent: :destroy
end

Worked great for me, as long as one side doesn't need other callbacks to fire.

Answer 2

I faced this issue as well, and came up with a solution that isn't pretty but works. Essentially, you'd just use a destroy_user that's similar to destroy_staff.

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_one: :staff

  after_destroy :destroy_staff

  def destroy_staff
    staff.destroy if staff && !staff.destroyed?
  end
end

class Staff < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user

  after_destroy :destroy_user

  def destroy_user
    user.destroy if user && !user.destroyed?
  end
end