scope - Rails: Why is with_exclusive_scope protected? Any good practice on how to use it?

Question

Given a model with default_scope to filter all outdated entries:

# == Schema Information
#
#  id          :integer(4)      not null, primary key
#  user_id     :integer(4)      not null, primary key
#  end_date    :datetime        

class Ticket < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user
  default_scope :conditions => "tickets.end_date > NOW()"
end

Now I want to get any ticket. In this case with_exclusive_scope is the way to go, but is this method protected? Only this works:

 Ticket.send(:with_exclusive_scope) { find(:all) }

Kind of a hack, isn't? So what's the right way to use? Especially when dealing with associations, it's getting even worse (given a user has many tickets):

 Ticket.send(:with_exclusive_scope) { user.tickets.find(:all) }

That's so ugly!!! - can't be the rails-way!?

Answer 1

FYI for anyone looking for the Rails3 way of doing this, you can use the unscoped method:

Ticket.unscoped.all