Can I somehow execute my db/seeds.rb file from my rails app? - ruby-on-rails

I am building a demo, and I want to make it very easy for a non-technical person to set up and run the demo. I have built a seeds.rb file with lots of demo data in it. I want to be able to reset the rails app to a known state by providing an administrator-level action via a page link. I don't want to provide these non-tech demonstrators with a command line and rake, because they might shoot themselves in the foot.
I have looked into using load 'db/seeds.rb' within a method, but that doesn't quite do what I want. I know I am missing something, but what?

You can call Rails.application.load_seed. That's all rake db:seed does.

I prefer the classic method:
bundle exec rails db:seed
But I guess, that you can also call Rails.application.load_seed as mentioned.

Related

Where do I put a recurring script that updates database from api in rails

I have a Rails app set up with a model Account that should be updated every morning with data coming from an external API I'm calling (a CRM). Basically either I create new accounts in my app that I find in the CRM and some of the fields that are mapped with my columns, either I find the account if it already exists and I update it.
So far, I've been putting this code into the seeds.rb file and from Heroku, where the app is hosted, I set up a scheduler with the command : rails db:seed that runs periodically.
My issue is that I'm sure there is a better way of doing this. I've read about rake tasks but I did not quite understand how that applied to my case. Otherwise I thought of putting my method in the models/account.rb file as a self method. But I don't really know how I can invoke it in a rake command to allow me to set up a scheduler in Heroku.
Any idea on where would be the best place to put this method, and how to call it from command line?
Thanks in advance.
You can create a script directory in your project, and put your script from db/seeds.rb into this directory, maybe called update_accounts.rb. Then you can run it with
rails runner script/update_accounts.rb
and schedule that task in heroku. More info about rails runner here.
I would suggest using a background processor such as Sidekiq: https://github.com/mperham/sidekiq
Once using Sidekiq, you need a scheduler like https://github.com/moove-it/sidekiq-scheduler to make sure it happens periodically as you require.
This will become easier to maintain as your application grows and you need more workers. It also moves your scheduling into version control.

Rails execute script

I am building a script in on of my controllers to fill a database with an excel files data. I would build the function, then access it through a route. (That i guess i can protect with cancan) But i thought about it, and it doesn't seem very ... 'Railsy'.
I know the scripts folder exists, and it is probably for these kinds of tasks. I've tried googling stuff like 'rails execute script' and other stuff, but i can't find any good advice for what to do next.
I'm sorry if this seems kind of stupid, but in my apps i've been kind of hacking around stuff to make it work, so any advice on this task would be appreciated.
If you need to upload the file in the app and process it, it should probably go in the "lib"directory and be accessed like any other Ruby library/module/etc.
If it's something you need to run locally, "on demand", "scripts" is fine. If you need access to your rails environment when running it like any Rails models, you can run it from "rails console" or "rails runner".
As Aln said, there are a variety of ways it could be scheduled as well.
You could simply do
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'rubygems'
# regular ruby code here
and have it running just like any other util. Of course you can always call any *.rb with simply
ruby somescript.rb
If you need some scheduled script, check into rufus-scheduler gem.

What code runs when a Rails application is started?

is there an event I can write some code for when a Rails application is first started? I want to make sure my administrator user exists whenever the app starts. I am using devise auth framework in case that helps.
It would be better to make a new user in seeds.rb and run rake db:seed before starting the application - that's what it's for.
You could probably make an initializer inside of config/initializers. You have to make sure you load up devise first, though.

How go about writing standalone Ruby ActiveRecord utility in my current rails project?

I have a RoR project on my Windows 7 PC.
I want to create some Ruby code that I can execute from the cmd.exe command line that manipulates the development database (via database.yml) of the project. (I don't want to have to run my utility code via a web page.)
What is the best way to go about pulling this off? (I'm a newbie.)
I can't put the code in the test/ directory because that executes against the test database.
I tried just creating a utility.rb file under app/ but when I run it I get this:
utility.rb:5: uninitialized constant ActiveRecord (NameError)
My standalone file obviously doesn't know about the rest of the rails framework.
Any suggestions?
Rails comes with a utility to do exactly this. Instead of using ruby filename, use script/runner filename (from within the top-level directory for the Rails project), which will automatically load up your Rails environment before running the script.
However, if what you're trying to do is manipulate the database, the right answer is probably to create a migration. Most people assume that migrations are only for changing the structure of your database (adding or removing columns or tables) but they can also be a great way to add seed data or manipulate all the data in the database.
You can write your own rake task which depends on :environment and pass RAILS_ENV=development when executing it.
Nice screencast about it: screencast

Running DB Migrations from application

I have a rails application where each user has a separate database. (taking Joel Spolsky's advice on this). I want to run DB migrations from the rails application to create a new database and tables for this user.
What is the easiest way to do this?
Maybe the db migration is not the best for this type of thing. Thanks!
It would be nice if it could be a completely automated process. The following process would be ideal.
A user signs up on our site to use this web app
Migrations are run to create this users database and get tables setup correctly
Is there a way of calling a rake task from a ruby application?
To answer part of your question, here's how you'd run a rake task from inside Rails code:
require 'rake'
load 'path/to/task.rake'
Rake::Task['foo:bar:baz'].invoke
Mind you, I have no idea how (or why) you could have one database per user.
We use seperate configuration files for each user. So in the config/ dir we would have roo.database.yml which would connect to my personal database, and I would copy that over the database.yml file that is used by rails.
We were thinking of expanding the rails Rakefile so we could specify the developer as a environment variable, which would then select a specfic datbase configuration, allowing us to only have one database.yml file. We haven't done this though as the above method works well enough.
Actually I have discovered a good way to run DB migrations from an application:
ActiveRecord::Migrator.migrate("db/migrate/")

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