scaffold in rails 2.0 - more info required

Hi Guys, this is my first time posting a question in this group... so you guessed right, i'm a noob (although I have programmed a bit in other languages - mostly Java)...

anyway, it goes back to that classic first problem about the scaffold in rails 2.0 where everybody does this tutorial and it screws them up because it's different than in rails 1.x ... well I pretty much got my head around that one, and it's sorted... but now I'd like to know more...

every single solution I've read tells me to use:

"script/generate scaffold Book title:string description:text",

and then migrate...to create the model, controller, and database pretty much all at once ...

but the problem I have is that I can't find a reference that shows me definitively how to handle the data types: e.g. how do I set a field to 'NOT NULL' from the scaffold command... how does it handle other data types such as integers and dates... and what other options does it provide (e.g. can you name your controller)??...

What i'd really like to know is how much control does it give you, particularly over your database, and how precise can you be with the scaffold command alone... does it usually require editing of the database afterwards??... I really just need a reference...

any info, or links to relevant info appreciated...

much thanks and apologies for my noobness :slight_smile:

Paul

every single solution I've read tells me to use:

"script/generate scaffold Book title:string description:text",

and then migrate...to create the model, controller, and database pretty much all at once ...

but the problem I have is that I can't find a reference that shows me definitively how to handle the data types: e.g. how do I set a field to 'NOT NULL' from the scaffold command... how does it handle other data types such as integers and dates... and what other options does it provide (e.g. can you name your controller)??...

scaffold allows you to pick the datatype but that's pretty much it. For anything else, edit the migration file (before you run rake db:migrate). if you run the scaffold generator with no arguments it should print out a usage summary

Fred

Yeah, what Fred said...

Just look at the generator as a secretary who can type all the "vanilla" code for you, then edit the migration to add the specifics...

I need longtext for my notes fields, but the scaffold just uses text... so I always edit the migrations after they're generated.

But listing your fields on the generate command does get those fields auto-populated into the views, letting the "secretary" do more of your typing for you (One of these days I need to revamp the generator to output haml for me, then I'll be really happy).