As mentioned earlier, the ar_fixtures plugin is ideal for this type of need. You can find out more about it here:
http://nubyonrails.com/articles/2005/12/27/dump-or-slurp-yaml-reference-data Basically you get the table to look the way you want in your development DB, and than dump to a file. From than on you can load from that file. Pretty slick. You can also generate fixtures for your tests using this plugin. Should be as easy as script/plugin install ar_fixtures. Chris P.S. You should try and learn some SQL it comes in extremely handy and is often times necessary for the real fun stuff. On 1/15/07, Scott Hodson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
One tool I use to generate lots of similar-looking statements is Excel or any other spreadsheet program. See the attached XLS file. Just cut and past the columns that repeat, and separate out the User.create data into a separate column. Then copy and paste the worksheet into a text editor and remove all of the \t characters that usually gets pasted in. The more elegant way would be to create a collection of the values that change, iterate through them (like :name) and call User.create. The nice thing about the spreadsheet is that you can easily make changes en masse to your scripts and re-use them as needed. As a person with lots of DBA experience creating SQL scripts like this has come in handy many times. I don't see why you couldn't use the same approach with migrations code either. On 1/15/07, Kevin Burk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This may be another basic question, but I can't find a coherent > answer anywhere in either Rails or SQL books. > > I need to load a chunk of data into my SQL database. I'd like to do > this using a data migration in Rails. > Until now, I've created the migration, and edited the migration file > with the full code: > > User.create(:name => 'Kevin Burk', > :city => 'San Diego') > > User.create(:name => 'Someone Else', > :city => 'San Diego') > > and so forth. This is rather tedious, especially when I have a great > deal of data I want to incorporate. However, it does allow me to add > and drop all of the development data as needed, which is what I want. > > In AWR2, in the migrations chapter, they talk about loading data from > fixtures, using a YAML file. The form and syntax of the YAML file is > never discussed, and I can't get a straight answer from the author > telling me how to structure the YAML file. He's talking about row > labels, which I don't understand-and they don't seem to relate to the > "id" field for the row that is automatically generated when I run the > User.create() function in the migration file. > > I have no SQL experience, and no desire to go under the hood with > SQL. However, there must be a way that I can create an external data > file (as YAML, text, or whatever) that involves less typing, easier > syntax, and keeps my data_migration.rb files reasonably small. > > Using the User.create() approach in the rails migration is already a > vast improvement over the raw SQL INSERT code. I'd just like to know > if there's an easier way-and if there is, to have it described in > great detail because I lack the programming background to make some > very fundamental connections about how certain things are done. > > Thanks for your help! > > Kevin Burk > -- > *************************************** > BURK DESIGN GROUP > http://www.BurkDesignGroup.com > mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 6161 El Cajon Blvd #306 > San Diego, CA 92115 > PHONE (619) 583-2311 > FAX (619) 583-5801 > *************************************** > _______________________________________________ > Sdruby mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.sdruby.com/mailman/listinfo/sdruby > _______________________________________________ Sdruby mailing list [email protected] http://lists.sdruby.com/mailman/listinfo/sdruby
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