# Large Database with lots of tables

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/large-database-with-lots-of-tables/56094>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 28, 2006, 4:24am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/large-database-with-lots-of-tables/56094 "2006-03-28T04:24:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pallan)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 4:24am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/large-database-with-lots-of-tables/56094/1 "2006-03-28T04:24:48Z")

</div>

Hello all,

I am a rails nuby and I am evaluating using Rails for a new web  
application. The application will have a large number of tables (\>70)  
that will basically mimic a large collection of paper forms that user  
would otherwise have to fill out. From what I have read on rails thus  
far it seems I would have to create a lot of models and form templates.  
Is this common and if so does anyone have any suggestions of efficient  
ways to do this?

There is one catch, the forms need to be able to display their labels in  
more that one language.

Thanks

peer

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pallan)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 4:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/large-database-with-lots-of-tables/56094/2 "2006-03-28T04:58:32Z")

</div>

On Tue, Mar 28, 2006 at 04:24:49AM +0200, Peer A. wrote:  
} I am a rails nuby and I am evaluating using Rails for a new web  
} application. The application will have a large number of tables (\>70)  
} that will basically mimic a large collection of paper forms that user  
} would otherwise have to fill out. From what I have read on rails thus  
} far it seems I would have to create a lot of models and form  
templates.  
} Is this common and if so does anyone have any suggestions of efficient  
} ways to do this?

It sounds like each table will correspond to a single form. This is  
pretty  
much ideal for scaffolding. You should be able to generate basic models,  
controllers, and views for the forms with script/generate scaffold. You  
may  
want to tweak the views and validation and such, but that is to be  
expected. It sounds like scaffolding will be a very useful start for  
you,  
however.

} There is one catch, the forms need to be able to display their labels  
in  
} more that one language.

When the scaffolding is generated, assuming config/database.yml has the  
proper configuration and the database exists, a \_form.rhtml file will be  
generated (for each model) which uses label tags. I recommend creating a  
label helper method that will give the desired label based on the  
appropriate language and the label identifier. Then run the following on  
each \_form.rhtml to replace the label tags as they exist with  
invocations  
of the label helper method:

sed -i ‘s,\<label for="([^"]_)"\>[^\<]_,\<%= label :\1 %\>,g’  
\_form.rhtml

} Thanks  
} peer  
–Greg

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pallan)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 6:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/large-database-with-lots-of-tables/56094/3 "2006-03-28T06:21:15Z")

</div>

I’m trying to create a table AND create a row in my migration. I’m  
having trouble with the creating a row part (the line Planet.create  
below):

file: db/migrate/001\_first\_table.rb

class FirstTable \< ActiveRecord::Migration  
def self.up  
create\_table :planets do |t|  
t.column :name, :string  
end

```
 Planet.create(:name => "Earth")

```

end

def self.down  
drop\_table :planets  
end  
end

rake migrate =\> rake aborted!, uninitialized constant Planet

I’m getting this error on Rails 1.0 and edge 4068

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pallan)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 6:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/large-database-with-lots-of-tables/56094/4 "2006-03-28T06:30:35Z")

</div>

oh, I think you’ll need to create a model as well.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pallan)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 6:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/large-database-with-lots-of-tables/56094/5 "2006-03-28T06:25:03Z")

</div>

planet = Planet.new(:name =\> “Earth”)  
planet.save

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pallan)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 6:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/large-database-with-lots-of-tables/56094/6 "2006-03-28T06:44:53Z")

</div>

> oh, I think you’ll need to create a model as well.

Oh that helped, thanks … can you tell I haven’t done this much yet 😉  
I think maybe the scaffold I used before made the model … and checking  
this page:

[http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/UsingMigrations](http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/UsingMigrations)

didn’t remind me to make the model.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pallan)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 9:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/large-database-with-lots-of-tables/56094/7 "2006-03-28T09:03:19Z")

</div>

Peer A. wrote:

> There is one catch, the forms need to be able to display their labels in  
> more that one language.  
> I know others have suggested the model-per-form route, and that’s  
> probably the simplest route, but you may want to take a look at the  
> processes that the forms fit into, to see if there are simpler domain  
> models that you could take advantage. For instance, if forms A, B and C  
> contain different information, but always need to be filled out  
> sequentially (for instance, by different people) as part of the same  
> process, then you could use a single model to represent that process.  
> You’d still need the separate templates, of course, but you’d gain a  
> much simpler workflow system.

Just another idea for the melting pot…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pallan)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 2:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/large-database-with-lots-of-tables/56094/8 "2006-03-28T14:40:28Z")

</div>

> This kind of approach is one I was curious about. It seemed excessive  
> to me that I would have to create 70+ controllers, one for each form,  
> when most of the forms function in a similar way. I can understand  
> having to make that many models due to validation issues.

if theyre all forms, you proabbly want to be thinking more along the  
lines of a FormTemplate and FormFields class, and making a GUI editor so  
that you can design the forms from the interface, rather than writing  
model code for each. you could even scratch the FormTemplate class and  
just have the templates be tagged instances of a normal Form…and clone  
their state.

if you have a lot of complex interrelationships between the forms, and  
want to start thining about refactoring your business without having to  
also think about refactoring your app, i’d suggest checking out  
DabbleDB. theres no reason good chunks of Rails like ActiveRecord,  
Migrations, RJS, and addons like Markaby and the AJAX scaffold generator  
couldnt be plundered to create something like this, but the current  
assumption is that the model is static and defined at server launch  
time…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@pallan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pallan)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 2:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/large-database-with-lots-of-tables/56094/9 "2006-03-28T14:23:05Z")

</div>

Alex Y. wrote:

> Just another idea for the melting pot…

Every idea is welcome!

This kind of approach is one I was curious about. It seemed excessive  
to me that I would have to create 70+ controllers, one for each form,  
when most of the forms function in a similar way. I can understand  
having to make that many models due to validation issues.

Does anyone find it hard to maintain an app with so many files?

Peer