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Asked: 2026-06-02T19:47:35+00:00

I have previously created localhost-only RoR applications where models were created manually with scaffolds

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I have previously created localhost-only RoR applications where models were created manually with scaffolds generated for them, creating a nice, quick, easy to use CRUD interface for the data. I did this in Netbeans using SQLite.

Now I have a server with a MySQL database and wish to create a quick CRUD application which provides a quick and easy way to view data in the database and give a few options like edit/delete. As my database is already specified by MySQL this seems to open up a massive can of worms, making this a lot less straight forward in comparison to my Netbeans venture into scaffold-generated crud web apps in RoR.

I have looked into dumping the schema of my current database, db:raking it, then generating the scaffolds. Is this the correct approach? I have also read about Magic Model Generator. Is this the best way to go about getting the MySQL database to a RoR model format? http://magicmodels.rubyforge.org/magic_model_generator/

I guess what I’m asking is, for my database structure, is RoR appropriate to mock-up a quick CRUD web app so that the data can have basic manipulation performed on it?

Below is the schema.rb for my MySQL database. There is a FK relationship on userId and attachmentId.

ActiveRecord::Schema.define(:version => 0) do

  create_table "attachments", :primary_key => "attachmentId", :force => true do |t|
    t.string "attachmentName",               :null => false
    t.string "fileType",       :limit => 30, :null => false
    t.binary "content",                      :null => false
    t.string "printCode"
  end

  create_table "emails", :primary_key => "emailId", :force => true do |t|
    t.integer "userId",       :limit => 11,   :null => false
    t.integer "attachmentId", :limit => 11,   :null => false
    t.string  "body",         :limit => 1000
    t.string  "subject"
  end

  add_index "emails", ["attachmentId"], :name => "attachmentId", :unique => true
  add_index "emails", ["userId"], :name => "userId"

  create_table "printUsers", :primary_key => "userId", :force => true do |t|
    t.string "email", :null => false
  end

  add_index "printUsers", ["email"], :name => "email", :unique => true

end
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    There seem to be several approaches to using rails with an existing database. See Connect rails to existing postgres DB – models not seen by console and controllers, and especially the links from it: http://magicmodels.rubyforge.org/magic_model_generator/ and http://blog.aizatto.com/2007/05/21/activerecord-without-rails/

    It’s good to point out that you don’t need to use ActiveRecord with rails. Your model can be any Object, so it might be easier to use something like sequel or arel to access the data.

    Another approach would be to migrate the data out of your existing database and into a new one that you generate by scaffolding your models.

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