# Repost - Do dynamic finders work with legacy schemas? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [January 6, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/repost-do-dynamic-finders-work-with-legacy-schemas/51694 "2006-01-06T00:00:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6de8d8/32.png) [@Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Eden_B)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/repost-do-dynamic-finders-work-with-legacy-schemas/51694/1 "2006-01-06T00:00:55Z")
Hello everyone, I have another question related to a legacy schema I am working with. Do dynamic finders work with legacy schemas in general? The schema I am working with uses hungarian prefixes for column names. For example fOpen is 0 if a bug is closed and 1 if it is open (type smallint). When I try @bugs = Bug.find\_all\_by\_fOpen(1), I get the following exception: undefined method `find\_by\_fOpen’ for Bug:Class But when I try @bugs = Bug.find(:all, :conditions =\> [“fOpen = ?”, 1]), I get the expected find results. Any ideas? Thanks, Eden ---
**Author:** ![Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6de8d8/32.png) [@Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Eden_B)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 1:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/repost-do-dynamic-finders-work-with-legacy-schemas/51694/2 "2006-01-06T01:10:06Z")
On 1/5/06, Eden B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > But when I try @bugs = Bug.find(:all, :conditions =\> [“fOpen = ?”, 1]), I > get the expected find results. > > Any ideas? May I ask which DBMS you’re using (PgSQL, MySQL, Firebird, …)? - Rowan ---
**Author:** ![Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6de8d8/32.png) [@Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Eden_B)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 1:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/repost-do-dynamic-finders-work-with-legacy-schemas/51694/3 "2006-01-07T13:37:07Z")
What does Bug.column\_names return? - Rowan ---
**Author:** ![Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6de8d8/32.png) [@Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Eden_B)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 7:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/repost-do-dynamic-finders-work-with-legacy-schemas/51694/4 "2006-01-09T19:50:33Z")
Rowan, Thanks for helping me out with this. Bug.column\_names returns and empty array []. ---
**Author:** ![Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6de8d8/32.png) [@Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Eden_B)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 6:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/repost-do-dynamic-finders-work-with-legacy-schemas/51694/5 "2006-01-11T18:56:55Z")
Hi, I suspect that your problem is caused by a bug or a misconfiguration in your ODBC driver or by a bug in the ActiveRecord adapter for ODBC. Does the user as which you’re connecting to the MS SQL server have access to the information\_schema? You could test this by connecting to it as that user using an ODBC test program and issuing “select \* from information\_schema.columns”. If it happens that you can’t get it, AR won’t get it. I’m not even sure if it is possible to restrict acces to the information\_schema, but I’m having trouble coming up with a logical reason. Perhaps an AR developer can chip in and make a wild guess at why Model.column\_names wouldn’t return anything while raw queries do? To me it sounds as if AR either doesn’t try or doesn’t succeed in reading the information\_schema. - Rowan ---
**Author:** ![Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6de8d8/32.png) [@Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Eden_B)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 7:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/repost-do-dynamic-finders-work-with-legacy-schemas/51694/6 "2006-01-11T19:30:36Z")
Using isql to logon to the db, I get 350 rows from “select \* from information\_schema.columns”. ---
**Author:** ![Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6de8d8/32.png) [@Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Eden_B)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 8:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/repost-do-dynamic-finders-work-with-legacy-schemas/51694/7 "2006-01-11T20:25:53Z")
Clearly your ODBC configuration is working just fine. I think you should “Contribute [a] New Ticket” at [http://dev.rubyonrails.org/](http://dev.rubyonrails.org/) This has all the looks of an Active Record issue. I think it’s a good idea to refer to this thread for clarification and perhaps post a link to the new ticket in this thread. - Rowan ---
**Author:** ![Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6de8d8/32.png) [@Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Eden_B)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 1:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/repost-do-dynamic-finders-work-with-legacy-schemas/51694/8 "2006-01-07T13:37:07Z")
I am connecting to MS SQL server from linux using freeTDS and the ODBC layers. ---
**Author:** ![Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6de8d8/32.png) [@Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Eden_B)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 12:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/repost-do-dynamic-finders-work-with-legacy-schemas/51694/9 "2006-01-12T00:29:26Z")
Thanks again for your help. I created the following ticket as suggested: Ticket #3452 (defect) Opened 1 second ago Dynamic finders not working with legacy database Status: _new_ Reported by: ebrandeis Assigned to: David Priority: normal Milestone: Component: ActiveRecord Version: 1.0.0 Severity: normal Keywords: dynamic finder legacy schema Cc: I am using freeTDS and ODBC on FC4 to access a legacy MSSQL server DB. The schema I am working with uses hungarian prefixes for column names. For example fOpen is 0 if a bug is closed and 1 if it is open (type smallint). When I try @bugs = Bug.find\_all\_by\_fOpen(1), I get the following exception: undefined method `find\_by\_fOpen’ for Bug:Class But when I try @bugs = Bug.find(:all, :conditions =\> [“fOpen = ?”, 1]), I get the expected find results. I raised this issue on the rails mailing list (removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid) under the thread “Repost - Do dynamic finders work with legacy schemas?”. One reader (Rowan) had me check Bug.column\_names and I found that it returns an empty array []. I tried the query “select \* from information\_schema.columns” using isql and got 350 rows, so it seems my DB connection configuration is correct. Is this an ActiveRecord?[http://dev.rubyonrails.org/wiki/ActiveRecord](http://dev.rubyonrails.org/wiki/ActiveRecord)issue?