Keep fix data in database table while deploying

Rails
1

Hi there,

I’m pretty new to rails, but so far it’s fun!

But I couldn’t find an answer to solve this problem the rails way:

I deploy a webapp using capistrano and everything works fine.

In my db I have a table that has some fix entries, like “categories”,
and I want them to move to the deployment server.

What’s the best way to make the data of a table move with it, when
deploying?

Regards,

Chris

2

I would think you can do this with seed data OR just have one of your
migration files add the categories like

%w(cat1 cat2 cat3 cat4).each do |cat|
Category.create(:name => cat)
end

Normally for production this is only done once then it stays in the db
for each deployment after that. It almost sounds like you clear the db
when you deploy is that correct? Is this for a test server or
development?

3

Hi Freddy,

thanks for the hint, I guess this helps me out. :slight_smile:

At this point, I only set up the db structure in migrations, no data
at all.
So no data could be transfered to the server…

4

Chris wrote:

Hi Freddy,

thanks for the hint, I guess this helps me out. :slight_smile:

At this point, I only set up the db structure in migrations, no data
at all.
So no data could be transfered to the server…

Setting up data in migrations is possible but awkward if you have more
than a very small number of records. Fortunately, there are a couple of
gems and plugins designed for seed data (I’ve never used any of them,
but a quick Web search should get you some useful info), and it wouldn’t
be at all hard to write a simple Rake task or config item that reads
data out of a YAML file or something.

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]