Question

What is the best way to do per-user database connections in Rails?

I realize this is a poor Rails design practice, but we’re gradually replacing an existing web application that uses one database per user. A complete redesign/rewrite is not feasible.

Answer 1

Put something like this in your application controller. I’m using the subdomain plus ‘_clientdb’ to pick the name of the database. I have all the databases using the same username and password, so I can grab that from the db config file.

Hope this helps!

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base    before_filter :hijack_db    def hijack_db     db_name = request.subdomains.first + '_clientdb'      # lets manually connect to the proper db     ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection(       :adapter  => ActiveRecord::Base.configurations[ENV['RAILS_ENV']]['adapter'],       :host     => ActiveRecord::Base.configurations[ENV['RAILS_ENV']]['host'],       :username => ActiveRecord::Base.configurations[ENV['RAILS_ENV']]['username'],       :password => ActiveRecord::Base.configurations[ENV['RAILS_ENV']]['password'],       :database => db_name     )   end end