Multiple many-to-many association between two models

Question

I've created a many to many relation ship like the following structure.

Class User
 has_many :companies, :through => company_admins
 has_many :company_admins
end

Class Company
 has_many :company_admins
 has_many :users,  :through => company_admins
end

Class CompanyAdmin
 belongs_to :company
 belongs_to :user
end

Here, User can be assigned as admin on many Company.

Now I've to create another many-to-many relationship with User and Company, where User can follow many company. How can I do that?

I've added

Class User
 has_many :companies, :through => company_admins
 has_many :companies, :through => followers
 has_many :company_admins
 has_many :followers
end

Class Company
 has_many :company_admins
 has_many :followers
 has_many :users,  :through => company_admins
 has_many :users,  :through => followers
end

Class Follower
 belongs_to :company
 belongs_to :user
end

Now, If I search for users which are admin to any company using @company.users it searches in the Follower table. Can anyone help me with the association?

Answer 1

I guess your association set up should be something like this

#user.rb
Class User
 has_many :company_admins
 has_many :companies, :through => company_admins
 has_many :followers
 has_many :followed_companies, :through => followers, :source => :company
end

#company.rb
Class Company
 has_many :company_admins
 has_many :users, :through => company_admins
 has_many :followers
 has_many :followed_users, :through => followers, :source => :user    
end

#follower.rb
Class Follower
 belongs_to :company
 belongs_to :user
end

Now if you give @company.users, it will search in company_admins table and if you give @company.followed_users, it will search in followers table.

Note: Didn't tested.