iosman001

Hello,

I'm building a relatively simple subscription based app using Stripe, https://www.krogerfeedback.nl https://talktosonic.onl https://talktowendys.vip Devise, Pundit and a few other resources. My only real hangup at the moment is that the subscription requires an initial setup fee, and I'm really having a hard time with it.

Example:
A new user signs-up for Subscription-A; Subscription-A has a yearly interval price of $5. Upon signing up the new user gets charged a one-time fee of $10, then the following years gets charged only $5.

I'm currently in the research phase, but haven't found too much on this topic. I normally would show what I've attempted so far, but in this case I'm having a hard time even getting this started.

thanks
iosman

Hello,

Imagine a travel website where you have HotelOwners and Tourists. When they start a conversation, the app creates a join model named Conversation using has_many through. It's a classic many to many association:

class HotelOwner
has_many :tourists, through: :conversations
has_many :conversations
end

class Tourist
has_many :hotel_owners, through: :conversations
has_many :conversations
end
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https://chatroulette.onl
https://chatavenue.vip
class Conversation
belongs_to :hotel_owner
belongs_to :tourist
end
Now we can use hotel_owner.tourists and tourist.hotel_owners. Also, the join model Conversation is also being used to keep some state on that association between them both (like, HotelOwner comments on Tourist and vice-versa).

But now we need a Reservation model. My initial ideia was this:

class Reservation
belongs_to :hotel_owner
belongs_to :tourist
end
But we also need to create the Conversation join model, since app logic requires that there cannot be a Reservation without a previous Conversation, even if a blank one. Also, the hotel_owner notes on tourist and vice-versa should be kept there and need to exist if a reservation exists.

After thinking about using manual callbacks to manually create the join model Conversation, I read that it would not be a good idea to add a belongs_to :conversation on Reservation because it could lead to database inconsistencies (like the problem if reservation.conversation.tourist pointed to a different tourist then reservation.tourist .. there should be a single source of truth to this association right?)

I then had the idea of using Conversation as a proxy to Reservations, like this:

class HotelOwner
has_many :tourists, through: :conversations
has_many :conversations
has_many :reservations, through: :conversations
end

class Tourist
has_many :hotel_owners, through: :conversations
has_many :conversations
has_many :reservations, through: :conversations
end

class Conversation
belongs_to :hotel_owner
belongs_to :tourist
has_many :reservations
end

class Reservation
has_one :hotel_owner, through: :conversation
has_one :tourist, through: :conversation
belongs_to :conversation
end
Since there is no belongs_to through in Rails to use in Reservation, other posts in SO suggest using has_one trough instead, just like I did above.

The problem is that conversation has_many reservations, and does not belong_to a reservation (like it does belong to a Tourist and HotelOwner).

It's not only semantics that bother me. If I do hotel_owner.reservations.create(tourist: Tourist.last), it does create the Reservation, but the join model Conversation is not created, leaving reservation.conversation nil.

After a simple hotel_owner.reload, hotel_owner.reservations return nil.

What is the correct database design and Rails association model for something like this?

thanks
iosman