Retrieve associated belongs_to record without using with_deleted for belongs_to association

[Anas-Shahid]

Hi!
First of all, thank you for this amazing gem, it has helped me ALOT.
So, I'm trying to retrieve the soft-deleted belongs_to record without using with_deleted for the belongs_to association, as it would disturb the normal flow of the associations used elsewhere in the app.
Here's what I'm trying to do:

   class Leave < ApplicationRecord
       acts_as_paranoid
       
       belongs_to :user
   end

   class User < ApplicationRecord
       acts_as_paranoid
       
       has_many :leaves, dependent: :destroy
   end

I'm trying to retrieve the deleted User, from the deleted Leave like so:

   Leave.with_deleted.find(1).user.with_deleted

Expected Behavior

Retrieve the deleted user for the deleted leave.

Actual Behavior

Getting error: `undefined method `with_deleted' for nil:NilClass`

Though, I'm able to retrieve the deleted leave.

Configuration

Ubuntu 20.04
Rails 5.1.7
Ruby 2.5.7

Please guide me on what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks 🙂

[ozzyaaron]

Just commenting here because I was looking at a similar issue.

The quick fix is something like

belongs_to :user, -> { with_deleted }

or

belongs_to :user, -> { unscope(where: :deleted_at) }

In my case I used the latter as I had a polymorphic belongs_to where not all polymorphic classes included the with_deleted scope.

That being said I think if the User is deleted you probably don't want to included deleted users in a normal association like that.

In my experience having a separate association to include deleted items will serve better in the long run.

[Anas-Shahid]

@ozzyaaron - Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I agree with you to separate these associations.

[Anas-Shahid]

Can be achieved by following this.