Question

I am using this file upload example to upload some files in the database. I have a rruby.rb with r-script in it which makes statistical analysis of the file(name it A) , and as a result it saves a plot in the directory where the file A is situated.
What I need is to extract the file from the database, do analysis and save the plot back into a database.
Where should I place the code of rruby.rb?In uploads_controller, upload.rb?

Answer 1

I would keep the rruby.rb file separate and use it as is. But where to place that file?

There are two equally valid options. Either you place it in lib folder, or place it in the models folder.

I would place it in the lib folder if I consider more generic and code that I happen to need. Code in lib is code that eventually could be turned into a gem. It is code that I consider completely unrelated to any business code or models.

If the code is strongly related to my business domain and other models.

So in your case I would place the rruby file in the lib folder since (if I understand correctly) it contains an pretty isolated procedure, no dependency on the rest of the code, just needs a file as input, and will generate a file as output.

Another advantage of keeping rruby code separate is that you can test it in isolation as well.

Hope this helps.

[EDIT: added example implementation]

I presume your rruby is a simple script, so you wrap it in a module, since it performs statistical analysis I call it Statistical, but you should give it a more appropriate name

So in lib/statistical.rb write

module Statistical

  def self.do_analysis(file_to_analyse)
    # .. do a lot of stuff and return a result-file
  end
end

Then in your uploadscontroller or uploads model, you do something like

result_file = Statistical.do_analysis(uploaded_file)

Normally all files inside the lib are automatically added to rails load-path, so this is all you need to do.