Alternative polymorphic model

Here's a fully working example:

# The migration file:
class CreateUserEntities < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :user_entities do |t|
      t.integer :user_id
      t.references :entity, polymorphic: true

      t.timestamps
    end

    add_index :user_entities, [:user_id, :entity_id, :entity_type]
  end
end

# models:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_one :user_entity

  has_one :client, through: :user_entity, source: :entity, source_type: 'Client'
  has_one :agency, through: :user_entity, source: :entity, source_type: 'Agency'

  def entity
    self.user_entity.try(:entity)
  end

  def entity=(newEntity)
    self.build_user_entity(entity: newEntity)
  end
end

class UserEntity < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user
  belongs_to :entity, polymorphic: true

  validates_uniqueness_of :user
end

class Client < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :user_entities, as: :entity
  has_many :users, through: :user_entities
end

class Agency < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :user_entities, as: :entity
  has_many :users, through: :user_entities
end

As you can see i added a getter and a setter that i named "entity". That's because has_one :entity, through: :user_entity raises the following error:

ActiveRecord::HasManyThroughAssociationPolymorphicSourceError: Cannot have a has_many :through association 'User#entity' on the polymorphic object 'Entity#entity' without 'source_type'. Try adding 'source_type: "Entity"' to 'has_many :through' definition.

Finally, here are the tests i set up. I give them so that everyone understands know ho you can set and access data between those objects. i won't be detailing my FactoryGirl models but they're pretty obvious

require 'test_helper'

class UserEntityTest < ActiveSupport::TestCase

  test "access entity from user" do
    usr = FactoryGirl.create(:user_with_client)

    assert_instance_of client, usr.user_entity.entity
    assert_instance_of client, usr.entity
    assert_instance_of client, usr.client
  end

  test "only right entity is set" do
    usr = FactoryGirl.create(:user_with_client)

    assert_instance_of client, usr.client
    assert_nil usr.agency
  end

  test "add entity to user using the blind rails method" do
    usr = FactoryGirl.create(:user)
    client = FactoryGirl.create(:client)

    usr.build_user_entity(entity: client)
    usr.save!

    result = UserEntity.where(user_id: usr.id)
    assert_equal 1, result.size
    assert_equal client.id, result.first.entity_id
  end

  test "add entity to user using setter" do
    usr = FactoryGirl.create(:user)
    client = FactoryGirl.create(:client)

    usr.client = client
    usr.save!

I Hope this can be of some help to someone. I decided to put the whole solution here cause it seems to me like a good one compared to MTI and i think it shouldn't take someone that much time to set something like that up.

oojikoo-gist/alternative_polymorphic.md

Alternative polymorphic model