ActiveRecord::EagerLoadPolymorphicError: Cannot eagerly load the polymorphic association

 

If you have encountered this error and wondering how to fix it this post is for you.

Rails raises this error when it tries to eager load a polymorphic association using a JOIN.

For example i have a Booking which belongs_to polymorphic association order. An Order can be a PickupOrder or DeliveryOrder

class Booking < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :order, polymorphic: true
end

class PickupOrder < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :bookings, as: :order, dependent: :destroy, inverse_of: :order
end

class DeliveryOrder < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :bookings, as: :order, dependent: :destroy, inverse_of: :order
end

I can load all bookings along with orders like this

Booking.includes(:order)

Now if I want to search list of bookings by `order_name` like `ja`

Booking.includes(:order).references(:order).where("order.order_name ilike %ja%")

Throws the error

​​ActiveRecord::EagerLoadPolymorphicError: Cannot eagerly load the polymorphic association :order

Solution: Do it in sql. with left outer joins.

Booking.joins("left outer join delivery_orders on delivery_orders.id = bookings.order_id and bookings.order_type='DeliveryOrder'").
        joins("left outer join pickup_orders on pickup_orders.id = bookings.order_id and bookings.order_type='PickupOrder'").
        where("pickup_orders.order_name like '%ja%' or delivery_orders.order_name like '%ja%'")

Happy coding!