Changing a model's database connection

Micha�l wrote:

I want to be able to set those models to use a database on a different server. ... I've tried the following, but it doesn't seem to have any effect:

I do this for switching between a legacy db and a new db. It works fine. But I was doing it a slightly different way and it.

I think the simplest way is to define a new database in your config/database.yml file. You should be able to pass in all of the parameters inline too but that tends not to be DRY as you will almost certainly need to refer to it more than once. So having it in one place in the database.yml is nice and only once. Something like this:

myotherdb:   adapter: mysql   username: myusername   password: mypassword   database: myotherdatabase

Then to always use it for a model then refer to it by name using establish_connection. Like this:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base   establish_connection "myotherdb"   ... end

Since you only want to change to it sometimes dynamically depending upon what you are doing then you can call establish_connection inline and switch over from one db to the other. Since you are manually explicitly changing db's out from under activerecord then don't forget to switch back to the standard one afterward. Not doing that was a source of bugs in my own projects. The symptom was that sometimes, depending upon the program flow, it would end up talking to the wrong database.

def build_report   ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection("myotherdb") if ! ENV['RAILS_ENV'] == 'test'   ... do your other db stuff here ...   ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection(ENV["RAILS_ENV"]) if ! ENV['RAILS_ENV'] == 'test' end

Note the use of ENV["RAILS_ENV"] to select the right database when returning. That assumes that you are using the standard "production" and "development" names. Note the avoidance of this switch when running tests. Two gotchas that I tripped over when first setting this up.

Also, an unrelated side remark, ruby isn't python and you don't need to end lines with colons, as you had done in your example. :slight_smile:

Bob

P.S. Sorry if the thread of this message is broken. I had a personal snafu and needed to recreate the message from parts.

Micha l wrote: > I want to be able to set those models to use a database on a > different server. > ... > I've tried the following, but it doesn't seem to have any effect:

I do this for switching between a legacy db and a new db. It works fine. But I was doing it a slightly different way and it.

I think the simplest way is to define a new database in your config/database.yml file. You should be able to pass in all of the parameters inline too but that tends not to be DRY as you will almost certainly need to refer to it more than once. So having it in one place in the database.yml is nice and only once. Something like this:

myotherdb: adapter: mysql username: myusername password: mypassword database: myotherdatabase

Then to always use it for a model then refer to it by name using establish_connection. Like this:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base establish_connection "myotherdb" ... end

Since you only want to change to it sometimes dynamically depending upon what you are doing then you can call establish_connection inline and switch over from one db to the other. Since you are manually explicitly changing db's out from under activerecord then don't forget to switch back to the standard one afterward. Not doing that was a source of bugs in my own projects. The symptom was that sometimes, depending upon the program flow, it would end up talking to the wrong database.

def build_report ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection("myotherdb") if ! ENV['RAILS_ENV'] == 'test' ... do your other db stuff here ... ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection(ENV["RAILS_ENV"]) if ! ENV['RAILS_ENV'] == 'test' end

Note the use of ENV["RAILS_ENV"] to select the right database when returning. That assumes that you are using the standard "production" and "development" names. Note the avoidance of this switch when running tests. Two gotchas that I tripped over when first setting this up.

Thanks for the clarification. This is exactly what I've done, and it's working now. I was struggling because there was a rogue backgroundrb task running for reports generation that still had the primary server configured for its database connection.

Also, an unrelated side remark, ruby isn't python and you don't need to end lines with colons, as you had done in your example. :slight_smile:

I just noticed that :slight_smile: It's not in my code fortunately. That's what comes of trying to manage too many projects in different languages.

Thanks for all the help, guys.