Guides.rubyonrails.org

Chapters

1. Command Line Basics
   • rails new
   • rails server
   • rails generate
   • rails console
   • rails dbconsole
   • rails plugin
   • runner
   • destroy
   • about
2. The Rails Advanced Command Line
   • Rails with Databases and SCM
   • server with Different Backends
   • The Rails Generation: Generators
   • Rake is Ruby Make

1 Command Line Basics

There are a few commands that are absolutely critical to your everyday usage of Rails. In the order of how much you’ll probably use them are:

• rails console
• rails server
• rake
• rails generate
• rails dbconsole
• rails new app_name

Let’s create a simple Rails application to step through each of these commands in context.

1.1 rails new

The first thing we’ll want to do is create a new Rails application by running the rails new command after installing Rails.

$ rails new commandsapp
     create
     create  README
     create  .gitignore
     create  Rakefile
     create  config.ru
     create  Gemfile
     create  app
     ...
     create  tmp/cache
     create  tmp/pids
     create  vendor/plugins
     create  vendor/plugins/.gitkeep

Rails will set you up with what seems like a huge amount of stuff for such a tiny command! You’ve got the entire Rails directory structure now with all the code you need to run our simple application right out of the box.

1.2 rails server

Let’s try it! The rails server command launches a small web server named WEBrick which comes bundled with Ruby. You’ll use this any time you want to view your work through a web browser.

Without any prodding of any kind, rails server will run our new shiny Rails app:

$ cd commandsapp
$ rails server
=> Booting WEBrick
=> Rails 3.0.0 application starting in development on http://0.0.0.0:3000
=> Call with -d to detach
=> Ctrl-C to shutdown server
[2010-04-18 03:20:33] INFO  WEBrick 1.3.1
[2010-04-18 03:20:33] INFO  ruby 1.8.7 (2010-01-10) [x86_64-linux]
[2010-04-18 03:20:33] INFO  WEBrick::HTTPServer#start: pid=26086 port=3000

With just three commands we whipped up a Rails server listening on port 3000. Go to your browser and open http://localhost:3000, you will see a basic rails app running.

1.3 rails generate

The rails generate command uses templates to create a whole lot of things. You can always find out what’s available by running rails generate by itself. Let’s do that:

$ rails generate
Usage: rails generate generator [options] [args]

...
...

Please choose a generator below.

Rails:
  controller
  generator
  ...
  ...

Using generators will save you a large amount of time by writing boilerplate code, code that is necessary for the app to work, but not necessary for you to spend time writing. That’s what we have computers for.

Let’s make our own controller with the controller generator. But what command should we use? Let’s ask the generator:

$ rails generate controller
Usage: rails generate controller ControllerName [options]

...
...

Example:
    rails generate controller CreditCard open debit credit close

    Credit card controller with URLs like /credit_card/debit.
        Controller: app/controllers/credit_card_controller.rb
        Views:      app/views/credit_card/debit.html.erb [...]
        Helper:     app/helpers/credit_card_helper.rb
        Test:       test/functional/credit_card_controller_test.rb

Modules Example:
    rails generate controller 'admin/credit_card' suspend late_fee

    Credit card admin controller with URLs /admin/credit_card/suspend.
        Controller: app/controllers/admin/credit_card_controller.rb
        Views:      app/views/admin/credit_card/debit.html.erb [...]
        Helper:     app/helpers/admin/credit_card_helper.rb
        Test:       test/functional/admin/credit_card_controller_test.rb

The controller generator is expecting parameters in the form of generate controller ControllerName action1 action2. Let’s make a Greetings controller with an action of hello, which will say something nice to us.

$ rails generate controller Greetings hello
     create  app/controllers/greetings_controller.rb
     invoke  erb
     create    app/views/greetings
     create    app/views/greetings/hello.html.erb
      error  rspec [not found]
     invoke  helper
     create    app/helpers/greetings_helper.rb
      error    rspec [not found]

What all did this generate? It made sure a bunch of directories were in our application, and created a controller file, a functional test file, a helper for the view, and a view file.

Check out the controller and modify it a little (in app/controllers/greetings_controller.rb):ma

class GreetingsController < ApplicationController
  def hello
    @message = "Hello, how are you today?"
  end

end

Then the view, to display our message (in app/views/greetings/hello.html.erb):

<h1>A Greeting for You!</h1>
<p><%= @message %></p>

Deal. Go check it out in your browser. Fire up your server. Remember? rails server at the root of your Rails application should do it.

$ rails server
=> Booting WEBrick...

The URL will be http://localhost:3000/greetings/hello.

Rails comes with a generator for data models too:

$ rails generate model
Usage: rails generate model ModelName [field:type, field:type]

...

Examples:
    rails generate model account

            Model:      app/models/account.rb
            Test:       test/unit/account_test.rb
            Fixtures:   test/fixtures/accounts.yml
            Migration:  db/migrate/XXX_add_accounts.rb

    rails generate model post title:string body:text published:boolean

        Creates a Post model with a string title, text body, and published flag.

But instead of generating a model directly (which we’ll be doing later), let’s set up a scaffold. A scaffold in Rails is a full set of model, database migration for that model, controller to manipulate it, views to view and manipulate the data, and a test suite for each of the above.

We will set up a simple resource called “HighScore” that will keep track of our highest score on video games we play.

$ rails generate scaffold HighScore game:string score:integer
    exists  app/models/
    exists  app/controllers/
    exists  app/helpers/
    create  app/views/high_scores
    create  app/views/layouts/
    exists  test/functional/
    create  test/unit/
    create  public/stylesheets/
    create  app/views/high_scores/index.html.erb
    create  app/views/high_scores/show.html.erb
    create  app/views/high_scores/new.html.erb
    create  app/views/high_scores/edit.html.erb
    create  app/views/layouts/high_scores.html.erb
    create  public/stylesheets/scaffold.css
    create  app/controllers/high_scores_controller.rb
    create  test/functional/high_scores_controller_test.rb
    create  app/helpers/high_scores_helper.rb
     route  map.resources :high_scores
dependency  model
    exists    app/models/
    exists    test/unit/
    create    test/fixtures/
    create    app/models/high_score.rb
    create    test/unit/high_score_test.rb
    create    test/fixtures/high_scores.yml
    exists    db/migrate
    create    db/migrate/20081217071914_create_high_scores.rb

The generator checks that there exist the directories for models, controllers, helpers, layouts, functional and unit tests, stylesheets, creates the views, controller, model and database migration for HighScore (creating the high_scores table and fields), takes care of the route for the resource, and new tests for everything.

The migration requires that we migrate, that is, run some Ruby code (living in that 20100209025147_create_high_scores.rb) to modify the schema of our database. Which database? The sqlite3 database that Rails will create for you when we run the rake db:migrate command. We’ll talk more about Rake in-depth in a little while.

$ rake db:migrate
(in /home/foobar/commandsapp)
==  CreateHighScores: migrating ===============================================
-- create_table(:high_scores)
   -> 0.0026s
==  CreateHighScores: migrated (0.0028s) ======================================

Let’s see the interface Rails created for us.

$ rails server

Go to your browser and open http://localhost:3000/high_scores, now we can create new high scores (55,160 on Space Invaders!)

1.4 rails console

The console command lets you interact with your Rails application from the command line. On the underside, rails console uses IRB, so if you’ve ever used it, you’ll be right at home. This is useful for testing out quick ideas with code and changing data server-side without touching the website.

1.5 rails dbconsole

rails dbconsole figures out which database you’re using and drops you into whichever command line interface you would use with it (and figures out the command line parameters to give to it, too!). It supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite and SQLite3.

1.6 rails plugin

The rails plugin command simplifies plugin management; think a miniature version of the Gem utility. Let’s walk through installing a plugin. You can call the sub-command discover, which sifts through repositories looking for plugins, or call source to add a specific repository of plugins, or you can specify the plugin location directly.

Let’s say you’re creating a website for a client who wants a small accounting system. Every event having to do with money must be logged, and must never be deleted. Wouldn’t it be great if we could override the behavior of a model to never actually take its record out of the database, but instead, just set a field?

There is such a thing! The plugin we’re installing is called acts_as_paranoid, and it lets models implement a deleted_at column that gets set when you call destroy. Later, when calling find, the plugin will tack on a database check to filter out “deleted” things.

$ rails plugin install http://svn.techno-weenie.net/projects/plugins/acts_as_paranoid
+ ./CHANGELOG
+ ./MIT-LICENSE
...
...

1.7 runner

runner runs Ruby code in the context of Rails non-interactively. For instance:

$ rails runner "Model.long_running_method"

1.8 destroy

Think of destroy as the opposite of generate. It’ll figure out what generate did, and undo it. Believe you-me, the creation of this tutorial used this command many times!

$ rails generate model Oops
      exists  app/models/
      exists  test/unit/
      exists  test/fixtures/
      create  app/models/oops.rb
      create  test/unit/oops_test.rb
      create  test/fixtures/oops.yml
      exists  db/migrate
      create  db/migrate/20081221040817_create_oops.rb
$ rails destroy model Oops
    notempty  db/migrate
    notempty  db
          rm  db/migrate/20081221040817_create_oops.rb
          rm  test/fixtures/oops.yml
          rm  test/unit/oops_test.rb
          rm  app/models/oops.rb
    notempty  test/fixtures
    notempty  test
    notempty  test/unit
    notempty  test
    notempty  app/models
    notempty  app

1.9 about

Check it: Version numbers for Ruby, RubyGems, Rails, the Rails subcomponents, your application’s folder, the current Rails environment name, your app’s database adapter, and schema version! about is useful when you need to ask for help, check if a security patch might affect you, or when you need some stats for an existing Rails installation.

$ rake about
About your application's environment
Ruby version              1.8.7 (x86_64-linux)
RubyGems version          1.3.6
Rack version              1.1
Rails version             3.0.0
Active Record version     3.0.0
Action Pack version       3.0.0
Active Resource version   3.0.0
Action Mailer version     3.0.0
Active Support version    3.0.0
Middleware                ActionDispatch::Static, Rack::Lock, Rack::Runtime, Rails::Rack::Logger, ActionDispatch::ShowExceptions, ActionDispatch::RemoteIp, Rack::Sendfile, ActionDispatch::Callbacks, ActionDispatch::Cookies, ActionDispatch::Session::CookieStore, ActionDispatch::Flash, ActionDispatch::ParamsParser, Rack::MethodOverride, ActionDispatch::Head
Application root          /home/foobar/commandsapp
Environment               development

2 The Rails Advanced Command Line

The more advanced uses of the command line are focused around finding useful (even surprising at times) options in the utilities, and fitting utilities to your needs and specific work flow. Listed here are some tricks up Rails’ sleeve.

2.1 Rails with Databases and SCM

When creating a new Rails application, you have the option to specify what kind of database and what kind of source code management system your application is going to use. This will save you a few minutes, and certainly many keystrokes.

Let’s see what a --git option and a --database=postgresql option will do for us:

$ mkdir gitapp
$ cd gitapp
$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in .git/
$ rails new . --git --database=postgresql
      exists
      create  app/controllers
      create  app/helpers
...
...
      create  tmp/cache
      create  tmp/pids
      create  Rakefile
add 'Rakefile'
      create  README
add 'README'
      create  app/controllers/application_controller_.rb
add 'app/controllers/application_controller_.rb'
      create  app/helpers/application_helper.rb
...
      create  log/test.log
add 'log/test.log'

We had to create the gitapp directory and initialize an empty git repository before Rails would add files it created to our repository. Let’s see what it put in our database configuration:

$ cat config/database.yml
# PostgreSQL. Versions 7.4 and 8.x are supported.
#
# Install the ruby-postgres driver:
#   gem install ruby-postgres
# On Mac OS X:
#   gem install ruby-postgres -- --include=/usr/local/pgsql
# On Windows:
#   gem install ruby-postgres
#       Choose the win32 build.
#       Install PostgreSQL and put its /bin directory on your path.
development:
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  database: gitapp_development
  pool: 5
  username: gitapp
  password:
...
...

It also generated some lines in our database.yml configuration corresponding to our choice of PostgreSQL for database. The only catch with using the SCM options is that you have to make your application’s directory first, then initialize your SCM, then you can run the rails new command to generate the basis of your app.

2.2 server with Different Backends

Many people have created a large number different web servers in Ruby, and many of them can be used to run Rails. Since version 2.3, Rails uses Rack to serve its webpages, which means that any webserver that implements a Rack handler can be used. This includes WEBrick, Mongrel, Thin, and Phusion Passenger (to name a few!).

To use a different server, just install its gem, then use its name for the first parameter to rails server:

$ sudo gem install mongrel
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
Successfully installed gem_plugin-0.2.3
Successfully installed fastthread-1.0.1
Successfully installed cgi_multipart_eof_fix-2.5.0
Successfully installed mongrel-1.1.5
...
...
Installing RDoc documentation for mongrel-1.1.5...
$ rails server mongrel
=> Booting Mongrel (use 'rails server webrick' to force WEBrick)
=> Rails 3.0.0 application starting on http://0.0.0.0:3000
...

2.3 The Rails Generation: Generators

Generators are code that generates code. Let’s experiment by building one. Our generator will generate a text file.

The Rails generator by default looks in these places for available generators, where Rails.root is the root of your Rails application, like /home/foobar/commandsapp:

• Rails.root/lib/generators
• Rails.root/vendor/generators
• Inside any plugin with a directory like “generators” or “rails_generators”
• ~/.rails/generators
• Inside any Gem you have installed with a name ending in “_generator”
• Inside any Gem installed with a “rails_generators” path, and a file ending in “_generator.rb”
• Finally, the builtin Rails generators (controller, model, mailer, etc.)

Let’s try the fourth option (in our home directory), which will be easy to clean up later:

$ mkdir -p ~/.rails/generators/tutorial_test/templates
$ touch ~/.rails/generators/tutorial_test/templates/tutorial.erb
$ touch ~/.rails/generators/tutorial_test/tutorial_test_generator.rb

We’ll fill tutorial_test_generator.rb out with:

class TutorialTestGenerator < Rails::Generator::Base
  def initialize(*runtime_args)
    super(*runtime_args)
    @tut_args = runtime_args
  end

  def manifest
    record do |m|
      m.directory "public"
      m.template "tutorial.erb", File.join("public", "tutorial.txt"),
        :assigns => { :args => @tut_args }
    end
  end
end

We take whatever args are supplied, save them to an instance variable, and literally copying from the Rails source, implement a manifest method, which calls record with a block, and we:

• Check there’s a public directory. You bet there is.
• Run the ERb template called “tutorial.erb”.
• Save it into “Rails.root/public/tutorial.txt”.
• Pass in the arguments we saved through the :assign parameter.

Next we’ll build the template:

$ cat ~/.rails/generators/tutorial_test/templates/tutorial.erb
I'm a template!

I got assigned some args:
<%= require 'pp'; PP.pp(args, "") %>

Then we’ll make sure it got included in the list of available generators:

$ rails generate
...
...
Installed Generators
  User: tutorial_test

SWEET! Now let’s generate some text, yeah!

$ rails generate tutorial_test arg1 arg2 arg3
      exists  public
      create  public/tutorial.txt

And the result:

$ cat public/tutorial.txt
I'm a template!

I got assigned some args:
[["arg1", "arg2", "arg3"],
 {:collision=>:ask,
  :quiet=>false,
  :generator=>"tutorial_test",
  :command=>:create}]

Tada!

2.4 Rake is Ruby Make

Rake is a standalone Ruby utility that replaces the Unix utility ‘make’, and uses a ‘Rakefile’ and .rake files to build up a list of tasks. In Rails, Rake is used for common administration tasks, especially sophisticated ones that build off of each other.

You can get a list of Rake tasks available to you, which will often depend on your current directory, by typing rake --tasks. Each task has a description, and should help you find the thing you need.

rake --tasks
(in /home/foobar/commandsapp)
rake db:abort_if_pending_migrations       # Raises an error if there are pending migrations
rake db:charset                           # Retrieves the charset for the current environment's database
rake db:collation                         # Retrieves the collation for the current environment's database
rake db:create                            # Create the database defined in config/database.yml for the current Rails.env
...
...
rake tmp:pids:clear                       # Clears all files in tmp/pids
rake tmp:sessions:clear                   # Clears all files in tmp/sessions
rake tmp:sockets:clear                    # Clears all files in tmp/sockets

Let’s take a look at some of these 80 or so rake tasks.

2.4.1 db: Database

The most common tasks of the db: Rake namespace are migrate and create, and it will pay off to try out all of the migration rake tasks (up, down, redo, reset). rake db:version is useful when troubleshooting, telling you the current version of the database.

2.4.2 doc: Documentation

If you want to strip out or rebuild any of the Rails documentation (including this guide!), the doc: namespace has the tools. Stripping documentation is mainly useful for slimming your codebase, like if you’re writing a Rails application for an embedded platform.

2.4.3 gems: Ruby gems

You can specify which gems your application uses, and rake gems:install will install them for you. Look at your environment.rb to learn how with the config.gem directive.

2.4.4 notes: Code note enumeration

These tasks will search through your code for commented lines beginning with “FIXME”, “OPTIMIZE”, “TODO”, or any custom annotation (like XXX) and show you them.

2.4.5 rails: Rails-specific tasks

In addition to the gems:unpack task above, you can also unpack the Rails backend specific gems into vendor/rails by calling rake rails:freeze:gems, to unpack the version of Rails you are currently using, or rake rails:freeze:edge to unpack the most recent (cutting, bleeding edge) version.

When you have frozen the Rails gems, Rails will prefer to use the code in vendor/rails instead of the system Rails gems. You can “thaw” by running rake rails:unfreeze.

After upgrading Rails, it is useful to run rails:update, which will update your config and scripts directories, and upgrade your Rails-specific javascript (like Scriptaculous).

2.4.6 test: Rails tests

Rails comes with a test suite called Test::Unit. It is through the use of tests that Rails itself is so stable, and the slew of people working on Rails can prove that everything works as it should.

The test: namespace helps in running the different tests you will (hopefully!) write.

2.4.7 time: Timezones

You can list all the timezones Rails knows about with rake time:zones:all, which is useful just in day-to-day life.

2.4.8 tmp: Temporary files

The tmp directory is, like in the *nix /tmp directory, the holding place for temporary files like sessions (if you’re using a file store for files), process id files, and cached actions. The tmp: namespace tasks will help you clear them if you need to if they’ve become overgrown, or create them in case of an rm -rf * gone awry.

2.4.9 Miscellaneous Tasks

Feedback

You're encouraged to help in keeping the quality of this guide.

If you see any typos or factual errors you are confident to patch please clone docrails and push the change yourself. That branch of Rails has public write access. Commits are still reviewed, but that happens after you've submitted your contribution. docrails is cross-merged with master periodically.

You may also find incomplete content, or stuff that is not up to date. Please do add any missing documentation for master. Check the Ruby on Rails Guides Guidelines guide for style and conventions.

Issues may also be reported in Github.

And last but not least, any kind of discussion regarding Ruby on Rails documentation is very welcome in the rubyonrails-docs mailing list.