Rails - Aug 2006 - accessing a model from a migration

Hello again!

ok, i have some initial migration code which sets up my apps schema. i have a
few tables that get initialized with data in this migration where i have the
table data in yaml format in test/fixtures. i use db:fixtures:load
FIXTURES=countries,provstates,employees to initialize these tables.. 

here''s the wrinkle: employees when it gets loaded should only contain
the admin
account (so i can access the app after running the migration).. however
employees.yml also contains some other accounts of various priveleges for
testing purposes. what i want to do is load the fixture into the db, but delete
all the records except for the admin account.. if i do:

  cmd = ''rake db:fixtures:load
FIXTURES=countries,provstates,employees''
  system cmd 
  Employee.delete_all "username != ''admin''"

I get an error on the line that uses the Employee model. i tried a few diff
variations of require''ing the model, but haven''t had any
luck..

my short term solution was to just have the admin account in the fixture, but
now when i want to test i don''t have those other accounts to test
with..

i''m pretty sure i could use ActiveRecord::Base to do this with a little
bit of
digging, but if i could use the model directly it would be much simpler..

thanks a bunch !

stuart

google search "rails using models in migrations"

1st hit: http://rails.techno-weenie.net/tip/2006/2/23/ 
safely_using_models_in_migrations

Not trying to be snarky Stuart, it''s just that we don''t always
realize the power of the tools we have at hand. It''s sometimes easier  
to ask - but the community benefits as a whole when we''re all more  
powerful information users. (something about "teaching to fish")

cheers,
Jodi

On 16-Aug-06, at 10:49 AM, Stuart Wade wrote:
> Hello again!
>
> ok, i have some initial migration code which sets up my apps  
> schema. i have a
> few tables that get initialized with data in this migration where i  
> have the
> table data in yaml format in test/fixtures. i use db:fixtures:load
> FIXTURES=countries,provstates,employees to initialize these tables..
>
> here''s the wrinkle: employees when it gets loaded should only  
> contain the admin
> account (so i can access the app after running the migration)..  
> however
> employees.yml also contains some other accounts of various  
> priveleges for
> testing purposes. what i want to do is load the fixture into the  
> db, but delete
> all the records except for the admin account.. if i do:
>
>   cmd = ''rake db:fixtures:load  
> FIXTURES=countries,provstates,employees''
>   system cmd
>   Employee.delete_all "username != ''admin''"
>
> I get an error on the line that uses the Employee model. i tried a  
> few diff
> variations of require''ing the model, but haven''t had any
luck..
>
> my short term solution was to just have the admin account in the  
> fixture, but
> now when i want to test i don''t have those other accounts to test
> with..
>
> i''m pretty sure i could use ActiveRecord::Base to do this with a  
> little bit of
> digging, but if i could use the model directly it would be much  
> simpler..
>
> thanks a bunch !
>
> stuart
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

Jodi: no offense taken. thanks for the link BTW
Stuart