Hi Walter, First, thank you for your reply and for your explanation of what UID means. In my app I have the following table for private messages:
create_table "private_messages", force: true do |t| t.integer "sender_uid" t.integer "receiver_uid" t.text "subject" t.text "body" t.datetime "created_at" t.datetime "updated_at" end However, when I enter, PrivateMessages, in rails console, I get a syntax error: syntax error, unexpected tSTRING_BEG, expecting => belongs_to :sender, foreign_key: 'sender_uid', :class_name 'User' The same error appears for receiver_uid... Per your explanation, does this mean that I have to add a columns, sender and receiver, to my users table? Or, should I make a sent_messages table and a received_messages table, giving them a foreign key, user_id? Or in my User model, should I create the following associations: has_many :sent_messages, class_name: 'PrivateMessages', foreign_key: 'sender_uid' has_many :received_messages, class_name: 'PrivateMessages', foreign_key: 'receiver_uid' I really appreciate your feedback, Walter. --------- Allow me to add a little context here, seeing as that I did not in my original post -- I have built a basic application, and I have built other applications (A pinterest app, a Reddit app, A black jack app) via available tutorials etc..., although I have not built the Hartl's tutorial. Moreover, I have some experience with Ruby and OOP -- granted, not enough. I'm still fairly junior and would not try to sell myself otherwise. Rails is just Ruby, and I am aware of that so I prefer focusing on my Ruby competency, seeing as that makes rails development more intelligent. My application is a bootstrapping platform for nonprofits. One of its main functionalities will allow nonprofits to work with volunteers on particular projects. However, before I go further in detail, the glue to all of these functionalities requires a, notification system that contains messages, project updates, forum updates etc... I want to help charities. Your advice and anyone else's is greatly appreciated -- this is not a for profit venture...just trying to add a little more good into the world :-) -- 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 unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rubyonrails-talk+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rubyonrails-talk/47064f0a45aa2022ab1788ff2cc4d1b3%40ruby-forum.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.