# How to read rails documentation **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 4, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-read-rails-documentation/93564 "2006-04-04T20:30:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-read-rails-documentation/93564/1 "2006-04-04T20:30:38Z")
One of the criticism I have heard about rails is that the documentation is bad. I must admit I have a hard time trying to follow it and I wonder if anyone can shed some light on it for me. For example, I am looking at the schema.rb file generated and I noticed this line: create\_table “accounts”, :force =\> true do |t| I thought to myself, what does :force =\> true mean? So I went to the docs to look it up. I figured this is the best place to start: [http://rubyonrails.org/api/classes/ActiveRecord/Schema.html](http://rubyonrails.org/api/classes/ActiveRecord/Schema.html) On the page, no mention of the create\_table method (is it a method?). For those of us used to looking at JavaDocs, even if a method is inheirited from a parent object, the doc shows you that, and gives you a link right to the parent object where is it define. But ok, fine, I’ll check the parent: [http://rubyonrails.org/api/classes/ActiveRecord/Migration.html](http://rubyonrails.org/api/classes/ActiveRecord/Migration.html) create\_table is not listed under the methods. Is create\_table not a method? It is listed under “Available transformations”. What is a transformation? Anyway, here is what it has: create\_table(name, options) - Creates a table called name and makes the table object available to a block that can then add columns to it, following the same format as add\_column. See example above. The options hash is for fragments like “DEFAULT CHARSET=UTF-8” that are appended to the create table definition. Ok, so what are the available options, and how do I find out what they do? > From looking at my schema.rb, force appears to be a valid boolean option, > but I have no way of knowing what effect it has. I’m actually not that > concerned about what effect force has, but more so just understanding > how > I’m supposed to read & understand the docs. I feel like as I work with > rails this kind of thing comes up all the time. There is some magic > method > that takes a hash of arguments and it is near impossible to trace down > what > the vaild options are. ---
**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-read-rails-documentation/93564/2 "2006-04-04T20:36:58Z")
On 4/4/06, Paul B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Ok, so what are the available options, and how do I find out what they do? > From looking at my schema.rb, force appears to be a valid boolean option, > but I have no way of knowing what effect it has. I’m actually not that > concerned about what effect force has, but more so just understanding how > I’m supposed to read & understand the docs. I feel like as I work with > rails this kind of thing comes up all the time. There is some magic method > that takes a hash of arguments and it is near impossible to trace down what > the vaild options are. Start here: [http://api.rubyonrails.org/](http://api.rubyonrails.org/) On the left, under Methods, click on “create\_table.” All of the options are explained. – James ---
**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 8:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-read-rails-documentation/93564/3 "2006-04-04T20:55:18Z")
wow, that’s easy enough. Now how about the scripts, like script/generate scaffold, how do I find out the details for that? ---
**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 9:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-read-rails-documentation/93564/4 "2006-04-04T21:23:16Z")
2006/4/4, Paul B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > wow, that’s easy enough. Now how about the scripts, like script/generate > scaffold, how do I find out the details for that? script/generate --help script/generate scaffold --help Bye ! ---
**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 11:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-read-rails-documentation/93564/5 "2006-04-04T23:23:53Z")
nice, thanks