Rails uses MS SQL database

Question

In my rails application, I need to use an existing MS SQL database. I tried following this guide:

http://rubyrailsandwindows.blogspot.com/2008/03/rails-2-and-sql-server-2008-on-windows_24.html

I do not know how to make models, scaffolding, etc., because the rails cannot just use another db. I did not want to run rake db: migrate for my tables in the MS SQL database. What else do I need to write in the model? If it is simple: use tables from the MS SQL server database, but I also want to solve the problem with migrations, etc.

Answer 1

If you need to run Rails on top of an existing database, and you want you to be able to create all models matching existing tables, follow this guide:

• Reset the schema in schema.rb using http://guides.rubyonrails.org/migrations.html#schema-dumping-and-you . I would use the SQL schema schema ( config.active_record.schema_format = :sql ) and just use the SQL Server tools to create the SQL database schema file and save it as db/structure.sql
• After the database schema has been created, you can redirect tables and primary keys to your models using the approach described here: Putting Rails on top of an existing database

As an alternative to ActiveRecord, you can consider DataMapper , as it claims to work better with the brown field (that is, already installed).