Rails 5 allows UUID as column type in create_join_table

In Rails 4.x create_join_table allows us to create new join table with name given in first two arguments.

class CreateJoinTableCustomerProduct < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_join_table(:customers, :products)
  end
end

It will create new join table customer_products with columns customer_id and product_id. We can also use block with create_join_table.

class CreateJoinTableCustomerProduct < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_join_table :customers, :products do |t|
      t.index :customer_id
      t.index :product_id
    end
  end
end

However create_join_table won't allows us to define the column type. It will always create column of integer type. Because Rails 4.x ,by default, supports primary key column type as an auto increment integer.

If we wish to set uuid as a column type, then create_join_table won't work. In such case we have to create join table manually using create_table.

Here is an example with Rails 4.x.

class CreateJoinTableCustomerProduct < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :customer_products do |t|
      t.uuid :customer_id
      t.uuid :product_id
    end
  end
end

Rails 5 allows to have UUID as column type in join table

Rails 5 has started supporting UUID as a column type for primary key, so create_join_table should also support UUID as a column type instead of only integers. Hence now Rails 5 allows us to use UUID as a column type with create_join_table.

Here is revised example.

class CreateJoinTableCustomerProduct < ActiveRecord::Migration[5.0]
  def change
    create_join_table(:customers, :products, column_options: {type: :uuid})
  end
end