# Is there a tutorial for RoR using legacy DB's

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-a-tutorial-for-ror-using-legacy-dbs/65497>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 18, 2006, 7:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-a-tutorial-for-ror-using-legacy-dbs/65497 "2006-08-18T19:24:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![johnf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@johnf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/johnf)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 7:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-a-tutorial-for-ror-using-legacy-dbs/65497/1 "2006-08-18T19:24:02Z")

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Hi,

I need to setup a website reporting tool. I thought I try RoR  
(therefore I’m  
a newbie). But I need to access a legacy database and tables. All the  
tutorials I have seen deal with “green” setups. Of course my situation  
does  
not match the green setup. The table names don’t have ‘s’ on the end.  
The  
primary keys mostly have pkid as the field name but often are not  
numbers  
(varchar’s).

So I was wondering if anybody had a URL or what ever to help me get this  
running…? (using RoR).

John

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![johnf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@johnf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/johnf)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 7:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-a-tutorial-for-ror-using-legacy-dbs/65497/2 "2006-08-18T19:36:04Z")

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On 8/18/06, johnf [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> I need to setup a website reporting tool. I thought I try RoR (therefore I’m  
> a newbie). But I need to access a legacy database and tables. All the  
> tutorials I have seen deal with “green” setups. Of course my situation does  
> not match the green setup. The table names don’t have ‘s’ on the end. The  
> primary keys mostly have pkid as the field name but often are not numbers  
> (varchar’s).
> 
> So I was wondering if anybody had a URL or what ever to help me get this  
> running…? (using RoR).

You’ll probably get better answers at  
[http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) than here.

-austin

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![johnf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@johnf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/johnf)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-a-tutorial-for-ror-using-legacy-dbs/65497/3 "2006-08-18T19:57:05Z")

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> > So I was wondering if anybody had a URL or what ever to help me get this  
> > running…? (using RoR).

> You’ll probably get better answers at…

He’s right about that being the right place to ask but the short  
simplistic answer is that integrating rails with legacy databases is a  
pain in the butt because Rails’ ease of use comes from a huge number  
of assumptions and conventions that legacy databases rarely adhere to.  
It also doesn’t support things like composite keys and other fun and  
common db goodness that legacy databasese frequently leverage.

See Dave T.'s RailsConf keynote for more issues with enterprise /  
legacy integration.

-kate