Kendall, thank you for your explanations, especially about migrations. I removed my other post because i realized that in my situation the primary key used for the association was in fact "id", so it was a bad example.
Still, in your example, i do not understand the need for ":primary_key =>": Kendall Gifford wrote in post #989309: > class User < ActiveRecord::Base > set_table_name "tblUser" > set_primary_key "UserID" > has_many :comments, :primary_key => "UserID", > :foreign_key => "PosterID" > end was it not working without it? It seems redundant to write: class Instructor < ActiveRecord::Base set_primary_key 'person_id' has_many :lessons, :primary_key => 'person_id' ... end It also does not seem to me to be strictly necessary to add to the above: class Lesson < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :instructor, :primary_key => 'person_id' ... end However, i can philosophically understand the need for ":primary_key =>" on the "belongs_to" side of association, it could serve to make this side more independent from the "has_many" side, and avoid unexpected behavior of Lesson if Instructor is broken ("set_primary_key 'person_id'" deleted). It seems to me that Rails makes it possible to define and use only one side of an association, without defining the other (otherwise the ":inverse_of =>" option probably wouldn't be useful). I have not properly tested this situation with and without ":primary_key =>", but so far it seems to work without, "set_primary_key 'person_id'" seems to suffice for both sides. So i will try to leave it like this... P.S. the reason i am torturing Rails like that is that it also has a convention that it should obey the human. Seriously, i just want a nice and clear structure of my database, which would be editable by hand (it is not going to be big), and to use Rails just for a simple interface. -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en.