# Rails and Firebird **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 28, 2006, 11:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-and-firebird/59138 "2006-04-28T23:04:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Louis\_Erickson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Louis\_Erickson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Louis_Erickson)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 11:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-and-firebird/59138/1 "2006-04-28T23:04:35Z")
Hello! I’m new to Ruby and Rails, but have been reading along here, and searched the archives and didn’t see anything addressing some concerns I have with using Rails and Firebird. I prefer Firebird when it is available, and I’m very pleased to see that others have gotten it working with Ruby. I have been trying to use it with Rails, with mixed success. I’ve been looking at the books, mailing list archives, and sources, and haven’t seen an answer to these issues. Pointers to where I should have looked or discussion of the problem would be great! If there are things that need fixing, I’m happy to try and help. I thought I’d ask here and see if there was any information about the problems I’ve been having before I e-mailed the authors of the Firebird adapter and FireRuby to see if there is anything I’m missing or can help with. Any discussion would be welcome. First problem: [bug] Segmentation fault. One of my machines segfaults every time a Firebird query of any complexity is issued. The other machine I’m working on handle fairly complicated things easily. In trying to isolate differences, I noticed that one machine is running Firebird 1.5.0, and the other is running Firebird 1.5.2. Usually the newer one works better, but not in this case. I’ll be trying to upgrade them both to 1.5.3 to see if that changes anything. Ruby and Rails are the same on both machines. Has anyone else noticed problems with Firebird 1.5.2, or seen anything like this? Second problem: Fixtures don’t seem to allow quoting of column names. I’ve got a table that uses acts\_as\_list. It sounds like just the ticket for this data, and I’d love to let the framework do this piece of busy work for me. Firebird uses position as a keyword (as well as at least one other thing Rails uses, ‘type’) and you have to know how to make it work. In the table definition, they must be quoted, and all caps, “POSITION”. Easy enough once you know to do it, and it’s documented. The code in ActiveRecord even seems to be right, and refers to this column. The queries work as expected. Yay! The code that loads the fixtures does not, however, seem to use those same rules to manipulate the tables, and does not get the capitalization and quoting right for the database. I did try to put quotes in the fixture, and a couple of other things, which did not work. This means I can’t use any test cases on a table with a position column. Has anyone got a fix or work-around for this? I looked briefly for the code to load the fixtures, but did not find it. Can someone give me a quick heads up on where that lives so I can look and see if it needs updating to get this right? Will this be affecting any other databases? Doesn’t Oracle use ‘position’ and ‘type’ as well? Third problem: Migrations don’t work. The documentation notes that migrations won’t work with Firebird. They look like very useful things, and I’d like to be able to use them. Has anyone looked at what this would take to fix? What’s missing? How can I help? Fourth problem: rake tests doesn’t work. The documentation does not mention this, but the Firebird adapter apparently does not implement the “tables” functionality, so “rake tests” does not work. Bummer. I suspect that if migrations were fixed, this would work, too. Again, has anyone heard anything about this? I’d love to hear back from anyone successfully using Firebird with Rails! – Louis Erickson - removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid - [Lou's Home Page!](http://www.rdwarf.com/~wwonko/) Labor, n.: One of the processes by which A acquires property for B. – Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary” ---
**Author:** ![Louis\_Erickson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Louis\_Erickson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Louis_Erickson)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-and-firebird/59138/2 "2006-05-03T22:38:19Z")
Maybe I am the only one who’d trying this. Perhaps a different group of people would have more to say about this. =) Would there be a better place for me to be asking these things? Is there a rails-on-firebird mailing list or forum that anyone knows of? Should I politely contact the author of the Firebird adaptor and start a conversation with them? Any suggestions on how I might find others using Firebird to talk to? I’ve had to go to mysql to get anything done, and hope I can go back to Firebird. On Fri, 28 Apr 2006, Louis Erickson wrote: > haven’t seen an answer to these issues. Pointers to where I should have > First problem: [bug] Segmentation fault. > > Rails uses, ‘type’) and you have to know how to make it work. In the table > > Third problem: Migrations don’t work. > does not work. Bummer. I suspect that if migrations were fixed, this > would work, too. > > Again, has anyone heard anything about this? > > I’d love to hear back from anyone successfully using Firebird with Rails! – Louis Erickson - removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid - [Lou's Home Page!](http://www.rdwarf.com/~wwonko/) The probability of someone watching you is proportional to the stupidity of your action. ---
**Author:** ![Louis\_Erickson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Louis\_Erickson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Louis_Erickson)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 10:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-and-firebird/59138/3 "2006-05-03T22:48:04Z")
I’m sorry but I can’t help you since I don’t use Firebird. However, you’ve made me curious. Why are you using Firebird? I would have thought that sticking to the ‘mainstream’ is safer and would thus choose a more widely used DB for reasons such as those you gave and the lack of response. Ah well, at least you got a response 🙂 – G.