RoR Naming Conventions?

Rails
1

Brand new one here :slight_smile:

I’ve looked and googled and searched.

There are lots of references to RoR Naming Conventions - I haven’t
actually been able to locate the list of these conventions.

Is there a single list of conventions?
Or are they defined through out the documentation and you pick them up
as you go?

I’m looking for the Database ones right now.

I’ve got 8 text files of exported data that I’m putting into a
database and building my first RoR app around this data.

How should this table be done in relation to the RoR conventions?

CREATE TABLE makes (
code varchar(4) NOT NULL,
Description varchar(30) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (code)
);

CREATE TABLE years (
make_code varchar(4) NOT NULL,
family varchar(7) NOT NULL,
vehicleType varchar(2) NOT NULL,
yearGroup int(4) NOT NULL,
monthGroup int(2) NOT NULL,
description varchar(10) NOT NULL,
KEY make_code (make_code),
KEY family (family),
KEY vehicleType (vehicleType),
KEY yearGroup (yearGroup),
KEY monthGroup (monthGroup)
);

Thanks :slight_smile:

2

On Oct 25, 2007, at 9:54 PM, Nicholas O. wrote:

PRIMARY KEY (code)
);

Use generic ‘id’ values as your primary keys.
Keep your column names in typical_ruby_variable_style and certainly
not with a capital letter to start since that indicates a constant to
Ruby.

KEY vehicleType (vehicleType),
KEY yearGroup (yearGroup),
KEY monthGroup (monthGroup)
);

Thanks :slight_smile:

Your migration for these tables will have something like:

create_table :makes do |t|
t.column :code, :string, :limit => 4, :null => false
t.column :description, :string, :limit => 30, :null => false
end
add_index :makes, :code

create_table :years do |t|
t.column :make_code, :string, :limit => 4, :null => false
t.column :family, :string, :limit => 7, :null => false
t.column :vehicle_type, :string, :limit => 2, :null => false
t.column :year_group, :integer, :null => false
t.column :month_group, :integer, :null => false
t.column :description, :string, :limit => 10, :null => false
end
add_index :years, :make_code
add_index :years, :family
add_index :years, :vehicle_type
add_index :years, :year_group
add_index :years, :month_group

You should then also have validations in your models for the size
limits, for example:
class Make
validates_length_of :code, :in => 1…4
validates_length_of :description, :in => 1…30
end

See more at:
http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/ConnectionAdapters/
SchemaStatements.html#M000716

You probably also want to avoid names that are “magic” for
ActiveRecord like ‘type’, ‘id’, ‘position’, ‘updated_at’. I know
that you can find a list of these to avoid.

-Rob

Rob B. http://agileconsultingllc.com
[email protected]

3

Is there a single list of conventions?
Or are they defined through out the documentation and you pick them up
as you go?

I don’t think there’s an official list, it would in the Rails wiki or
dev.rubyonrails.org, something like that, but i did find these

http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/TipSheetForBeginners
http://areyoubeewhy.com/2007/10/18/ruby-101-naming-conventions

4

I don’t think there’s an official list, it would in the Rails wiki or
dev.rubyonrails.org, something like that, but i did find these

http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/TipSheetForBeginners
http://areyoubeewhy.com/2007/10/18/ruby-101-naming-conventions

Ruby Programming

That’s great,

Thanks for that too Gene :wink:

5

Can’t remember where I got this but here we go:

Variables/Methods: snake_case
Class names: CamelCase
Constants: ALL CAPITALS

Please someone advice if I’m wrong :slight_smile:

Elle

6

On 10/26/07, Rob B. [email protected] wrote:

Is there a single list of conventions?
CREATE TABLE makes (

KEY yearGroup (yearGroup),
end
add_index :years, :make_code
end

Rob B. http://agileconsultingllc.com
[email protected]

Thanks a lot for that Rob.

I didn’t make up this data structure. I know it totally doesn’t fit the
RoR
way, hence why I’m looking for the RoR way so I can adapt it :slight_smile:

I’ve also looked some more and found this list which is helpful :slight_smile:
http://blog.invisible.ch/2006/05/01/ruby-on-rails-reference/

Nick

7

On 10/25/07, Nicholas O. [email protected] wrote:

as you go?
Description varchar(30) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (code)
);

Unfortunately, since you say later that this is a legacy schema that
you aren’t able to change, you are facing more than just naming
conventions.

ActiveRecord doesn’t have any built-in support for non-integer primary
keys. You might google ‘ActiveRecord noninteger keys’ to look at what
others have done in this case.

KEY yearGroup (yearGroup),
KEY monthGroup (monthGroup)
);

In this table, it’s not clear (to me anyway) what the primary key is.
I think that in MySQL the default primary key would be make_code since
it’s the first indexed non-null field.

On the other hand, if this table really has a composite primary key,
then again, AR doesn’t directly support that, although there is some
outside work on supporting CPKs in AR:

http://compositekeys.rubyforge.org/

–
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/

8

On Oct 25, 9:40 pm, “Nicholas O.” [email protected] wrote:

Thanks for that too Gene :wink:
I finally found it,
Peak Obsession

I think for each model/column/controller/action/view, there’s a couple
dozen names you shouldn’t use. Here’s some things that can go wrong:
if you name a controller “files”:
http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/103619

partial named “flas”

model named “type”
http://www.movesonrails.com/articles/2007/02/23/tip-of-the-day

column named “type”
http://www.benlog.org/2007/1/16/legacy-rails-beware-of-type-columns

9

Attached is a little helper class I used on a project. May come in
handy,
may not.

–
Andrew S.

10

On 10/27/07, Rick DeNatale [email protected] wrote:

Unfortunately, since you say later that this is a legacy schema that
you aren’t able to change, you are facing more than just naming
conventions.

ActiveRecord doesn’t have any built-in support for non-integer primary
keys. You might google ‘ActiveRecord noninteger keys’ to look at what
others have done in this case.

I’m making a brand new app - I can do whatever the hell I want :slight_smile:
I’m going to have to have an import function, to map old to new which is
fine by me.

Nick

11

On 10/28/07, Nicholas O. [email protected] wrote:

I’m making a brand new app - I can do whatever the hell I want :slight_smile:
I’m going to have to have an import function, to map old to new which is
fine by me.

Good, glad you’ve got the freedom. Sometimes, I’m not quite so lucky.

–
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/