Sails.js - Is there intended support for a “one-way-many” association

Question

I'm interested in a one-way-many association. To explain:

// Dog.js
module.exports = {

    attributes: {
        name: {
            type: 'string'
        },
        favorateFoods: {
            collection: 'food',
            dominant: true
        }
    }
};

and

// Food.js
module.exports = {

    attributes: {
        name: {
            type: 'string'
        },
        cost: {
            type: 'integer'
        }
    }
};

In other words, I want a Dog to be associated w/ many Food entries, but as for Food, I don't care which Dog is associated.

If I actually implement the above, believe it or not it works. However, the table for the association is named in a very confusing manner - even more confusing than normal ;)

dog_favoritefoods__food_favoritefoods_food, with id, dog_favoritefoods, and food_favoritefoods_food.

REST blueprints function with the Dog model just fine, I don't see anything that "looks bad" except for the funky table name.

So, the question is, is it supposed to work this way, and does anyone see something that might potentially go haywire?

Answer 1

I think you should be ok.

However, there does not really seem any reason to not complete the association for a Many to Many. The reason would be because everything is already being created for that single collection. The join table and its attributes are already there. The only thing missing in this equation is the reference back on food.

I could understand if putting the association on food were to create another table or create another weird join, but that has already been done. There really is no overhead to creating the other association.

So in theory you might as well create it, thus avoiding any potential conflicts unless you have a really compelling reason not to?

Edited: Based on the comments below we should note that one could experience overhead in lift based the blueprints and dynamic finders created.