I'm having huge problems with my populate.rake file - after importing my existing file from my Rails 2.3.5 installation, Rails 3 wants nothing to do with it. I'm getting tens (if not hundreds) of errors in my console, many of them for simple statements, and some even in the middle of a string of plaintext.
Has the syntax changed for Rails 3 populate or, perhaps do I need to install a gem/plugin for it?
Thanks very much.
db-populate is a Rails plugin which uses a populate.rake file, it's not core Rails functionality so yes, you'd need a gem/plugin for it (http://github.com/ffmike/db-populate).
However, since you've upgraded to Rails 3, it might be a nice time to switch to using the built-in Rails seed functionality - that way it's easy to run rake db:setup which will create the db from database.yml, load the schema, and run seeds.rb or rake db:reset which does the same thing after dropping the db. Keeps you from having to maintain third-party code as well. Just food for thought. :)
I found the problem after carefully reconstructing the populate.rake file from a copy. Some of the sample text I introduced into the file had quotes and these were interfering with the quotes belonging to the string itself.
Once Rails interprets the string as having ended, then it logically starts to return errors within the successive strings, which it is reading as interpretable code.
Once I removed all the quotes from within my strings during that reconstruction, the file started working. Thank you Ryan and JenJenut for your replies!
Related
I am using yaml files to provide initialisation data for the database and also to provide initialisation data for some of my services models. Where should I store these files in a ruby on rails app?
Based on ruby_newbie's comment and the general lack of other responses, it seems that there is no well defined rails way for this. Reasonable locations are
rails_root/data
rails_root/config/data
rails_root/db/data
You should put any data required for your application to run in the seeds file(db/seeds.rb). http://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_migrations.html#migrations-and-seed-data
If you need create a initial database state you can use seeds files in "db/seeds/". After you can use rake to run and create initial state in your database.
In seeds file you can use Rails model without problems and run a follow command rake to create entries.
take db:seed
You can check Rails Documentation:
http://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_migrations.html#migrations-and-seed-data
There may be good use case for loading fixed data into a constant without needing to store in a database. Since this is technically fixed "data" I would suggest putting it in
rails_root/db/yaml/
# and you'll have files like
rails_root/db/yaml/measurments.yml
rails_root/db/yaml/locations.yml
# or if you prefer
rails_root/data/yaml/
When a rails project grows a lot, you can find yourself having trouble with fixes for the data in the production database.
I have normally used migrations or specific rake tasks for this, but I was wondering if a system similar to migrations existed for keeping the database fixes and run them when needed.
I know you probably figured this out by now but there IS a gem for this... it is called datafix
https://github.com/Casecommons/datafix
basically you create a datafix, like a migration, and a spec for it, then you can run it as needed on the server.
The following gems can be also used for this purpose:
nondestructive_migrations
datafix
migrake
migration-data
data-migrate
I prefer nondestructive_migrations and datafix they are very similar - nondestructive_migrations simpler implementation building on rails migrations.
I know environment.rb, environments/development.rb, initializers/foobar.rb will run one by one and in this order (as I put some print statements at the top of those files and see the sequence).
Beside these files, which files get run or get looked at, and in what sequence (update: and what causes it to happen?), when we start a Rails server?
This should help you find out it detail:
For Current Rails (3.0.x): http://guides.rubyonrails.org/initialization.html (thanks #Jack Chu)
For Edge Rails (3.1.x): http://ryanbigg.com/guides/initialization.html
For older Rails (from circa 2008): http://railsguts.com/initialization.html
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
When I manually enter tables into the .rb file in the migrate folder nothing shows up. I have followed a few different "how to's" but I can't get the tables to show up when I preview my work. I can however get one table to show up if I create it in the parameters when generating a scaffold, but that's one table. I have Rails version 2.3.4 and version 1.2.3 installed on my lame Windows Vista. I have tried using both versions multiple times. I am also trying to follow the Ruby on Rails for Dummies book, but it seems a little outdated. Any tips on getting tables to work? Its supposed to be really simple and take "just minutes" to complete this simple app. Maybe something didn't install right? Maybe a better book?
Just want to make sure you're using all the tools available to you:
To generate a migration file:
./script/generate MigrationFileName
Take a look at the Database Migrations Guide from the official Rails Guides for the correct syntax and options for creating a migration file.
Once you've created your migration, you need to run the following:
rake db:migrate
This will populate the database with the information specified in the migration file.