Rails - May 2006 - Active Record Migrations -> Table Relations

Hi there !

I am currently investingation ROR.
I really like the idea of specifying my database schema via Migrations, 
but one questions came to my mind.

How does one specify Table relations in the migration ?

1. There is a fancy way of doing it with Active Records.
2. I just add manually some Integer ID columns etc... and lateron add 
the Foreign Key semantic via SQL..


Which one of the above holds true ? I was not able to find anythign in 
the documentation about it...

Thanks

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

On May 21, 2006, at 8:11 PM, Bernhard Gl?ck wrote:
> Hi there !
>
> I am currently investingation ROR.
> I really like the idea of specifying my database schema via  
> Migrations,
> but one questions came to my mind.
>
> How does one specify Table relations in the migration ?
>
> 1. There is a fancy way of doing it with Active Records.
> 2. I just add manually some Integer ID columns etc... and lateron add
> the Foreign Key semantic via SQL..
>
>
> Which one of the above holds true ? I was not able to find anythign in
> the documentation about it...
You add the foreign_key right there in the migration. For example,  
let''s say you have User and Item models that are related. User has a  
one-to-many relationship with Item.

class AddTableRelation < ActiveRecord::Migration
   def self.up
     create_table :users do |t|
       t.column :title, :string, :limit => 255
     end

     create_table :items do |t|
       t.column :title, :string, :limit => 255
       t.column :user_id, :integer
     end
   end

   def self.down
     drop_table :users
     drop_table :items
   end
end

In your model definitions for User and Item you also need to specify  
the relationship. In User you specify a "has_many :items" and in Item
you specify "belongs_to :user".

If you want the database engine to enforce the foreign key  
relationship, there is no direct ActiveRecord Migration support for  
that functionality. You need to specify it using the "execute"  
syntax. Some enterprising folks have added plugins that add foreign  
key methods to the migration facility but they are not a standard  
part of Rails.

I highly recommend taking a look at the UsingMigrations wiki page [1]  
for more information.

cr

[1] http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/UsingMigrations