Biodegradable Geek

Quick BASH Script to Dump & Compress a MySQL Database

A quick script I whipped up to dump my MySQL database. Usage: sh backthatsqlup.sh (be warned that it dumps ALL databases. This can get huge uncompressed) download BackThatSqlUp.sh

How To Use Fixtures to Populate Your Database in Rails

UPDATE: I’ve been using this method for awhile now: http://railspikes.com/2008/2/1/loading-seed-data Seed data is data that the app is dependent on. It is data that has to exist if you were to wipe the database clean and reload your schema. Some examples would be a list of cities/states, a list of categories, or the initial ‘admin’ [...]

Simple Way to Populate a Database in Rails

This is how I populate my database when I have a lot of data but can’t be bothered to write more than a quick throw-away hack. This doesn’t use fixtures, nor migrations (nothing wrong with them, I wuv migrations). Just a ruby file and the Rails console (this is optional actually). I create a new [...]

Understanding Basic Database Relationships in Rails

This short tutorial will be beneficial for you if database relationships and keywords like belongs_to and has_many confuse you, or if you’re trying to find out how relationships are implemented in Rails. As we create a small demonstration project, you’ll see that one beauty of Rails is how it does most of the work gluing [...]

Using Vim as a Complete Ruby on Rails IDE

NOTE: If you are experiencing segmentation faults with vim and rails.vim, see this post. When coding in Ruby on Rails, you’ll usually be switching between files and running scripts a lot. It can be time-consuming and frustrating coding Rails using a traditional text editor designed for working on big files individually. Vim lets you hop [...]