# Using rails without a database

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-rails-without-a-database/104709>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 21, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-rails-without-a-database/104709 "2007-05-21T20:06:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![isopaleocopria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/bb73d2/32.png) [@isopaleocopria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/isopaleocopria)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-rails-without-a-database/104709/1 "2007-05-21T20:06:47Z")

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I want to try writing a rails app, using edge rails, all models of  
which will extend ActiveResource. In other words, I don’t need a  
database.

How do I configure my app so that rails doesn’t look for an RDBMS and  
database? This is a problem for example when I run rake tasts, as rake  
attempts to connect to the default DB. I tried commenting out  
everything in the database.yml file, but that didn’t work.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![isopaleocopria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/bb73d2/32.png) [@isopaleocopria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/isopaleocopria)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 8:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-rails-without-a-database/104709/2 "2007-05-21T20:39:51Z")

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Isopaleocopria

> I want to try writing a rails app, using edge rails, all models of  
> which will extend ActiveResource. In other words, I don’t need a  
> database.

Just use sqlite3, and you won’t have to think about the DB. Rails will  
create the file silently for you, and you shouldn’t be bothered by  
error messages of any kind (I guess).

Alain

## – Alain R.

[http://blog.ravet.com](http://blog.ravet.com)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![isopaleocopria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/bb73d2/32.png) [@isopaleocopria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/isopaleocopria)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 9:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-rails-without-a-database/104709/3 "2007-05-21T21:08:54Z")

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I did try this in my environment.rb file:

```
config.frameworks -= [:active_record]
```

This did stop rails from trying to establish a connection to the  
database, but it also leads to exceptions, since other gems, like  
active support and railties, have dependencies on ActiveRecord.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![isopaleocopria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/bb73d2/32.png) [@isopaleocopria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/isopaleocopria)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 9:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-rails-without-a-database/104709/4 "2007-05-21T21:46:59Z")

</div>

Isopaleocopria

> I did try this in my environment.rb file:  
> config.frameworks -= [:active\_record]  
> … but it also leads to exceptions, since

Make your life simpler :

## file: database.yml

development:  
adapter: sqlite3  
database: db/development.sqlite3  
timeout: 5000  
production:  
development  
test:  
adapter: sqlite3  
database: db/test.sqlite3  
timeout: 5000

## – Alain R.

[http://blog.ravet.com](http://blog.ravet.com)