I was browsing the local bookstore, and came across " Rails for Java Developers" <http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/fr_r4j/>\.
I'll have to take another look, but in the intro they did a "migration" and basically created an interactive database, one flat table, in just like two pages of not particularly dense instructions. It was approximately five command.
Guess I'll have to refer to the book. I just haven't seen anything like that elsewhere, and liked the way it gives something to bite into.
-Thufir