Rails - May 2006 - New to rails, looking for some advice re: migrations

I''m trying to get started with Rails, but I''m running into a
few places
where I''m having trouble understanding the expected workflow.

I''m trying to work with migrations from the beginner; its a port of an
existing application, but I''d like to let the db schema evolve as the
application grows, so I''m starting from an empty (tableless) database.

If I generate a migration, I can fill in the up/down methods and start
creating a table; rake migrate ran fan.  However when I then generate a
model it seems to create another migration automatically that is named
appropriately for the eariler self-created migration.  This seemed odd,
so I thought I did something against the expected way.  As I hadn''t
done
anything, I wiped the DB and the rails project and recreated both.  This
time I tried generating a scaffolding first, thinking that it would
create the first migration that I would then fill in and get things
rolling from there.  This generated the "before updating scaffolding
from a new DB schema..." error.  (Which makes sense to me now that I
think about it.)

Can anyone help me out and explain what the "expected" order of
"generate foos" are when starting from a completely blank slate if I
want to do things the "rails"-way?  (I would prefer to use migrations
as
opposed to creating the ddl manually, as long as that preference isn''t
at odds with normal rails practices)

Also, am I correct that the only way to "back-out" a script/generate
foo
is to rollback via version control?

Thank you.

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

On Monday, May 22, 2006, at 6:11 AM, Eric Nielsen wrote:
>I''m trying to get started with Rails, but I''m running into
a few places
>where I''m having trouble understanding the expected workflow.
>
>I''m trying to work with migrations from the beginner; its a port of
an
>existing application, but I''d like to let the db schema evolve as
the
>application grows, so I''m starting from an empty (tableless)
database.
>
>If I generate a migration, I can fill in the up/down methods and start
>creating a table; rake migrate ran fan.  However when I then generate a
>model it seems to create another migration automatically that is named
>appropriately for the eariler self-created migration.  This seemed odd,
>so I thought I did something against the expected way.  As I hadn''t
done
>anything, I wiped the DB and the rails project and recreated both.  This
>time I tried generating a scaffolding first, thinking that it would
>create the first migration that I would then fill in and get things
>rolling from there.  This generated the "before updating scaffolding
>from a new DB schema..." error.  (Which makes sense to me now that I
>think about it.)
>
>Can anyone help me out and explain what the "expected" order of
>"generate foos" are when starting from a completely blank slate if
I
>want to do things the "rails"-way?  (I would prefer to use
migrations as
>opposed to creating the ddl manually, as long as that preference
isn''t
>at odds with normal rails practices)
>
>Also, am I correct that the only way to "back-out" a
script/generate foo
>is to rollback via version control?
>
>Thank you.
>
>--
>Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>_______________________________________________
>Rails mailing list
>Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
>http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
There are a few things about the generators that are a bit odd.  Here''s
the process I use.

1. generate the model.  this generates a migration file, which I then  
fill out with the appropriate fields and foreign keys.

2. rake migrate

3. generate the scaffold, ignore/delete any migration files it may create.

4. lather, rinse, repeat.

You can undo a ''script/generate foo'' with a
''script/destroy foo''.

_Kevin

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