Table naming conventions

rubyonrails-talk
1

Folks,

I am new to rails. I have tried Google searches, checked the tips and doco and can't find the answer to a simple question.

I have a table called "Activity" that I want to rename so I can use RubyOnRails but I don't know whether the plural form should be "Activitys" or "Activities".

Can someone illuminate me on what to do?

regards Simon

2

Hello Simon,

I am new to rails. I have tried Google searches, checked the tips and doco and can't find the answer to a simple question.

I have a table called "Activity" that I want to rename so I can use RubyOnRails but I don't know whether the plural form should be "Activitys" or "Activities".

$ script/console Loading development environment.

"activity".pluralize

=> "activities"

so you can name your table 'activities' (downcased)

Note that if the pluralization didn't fit to you, you can change it with Inflector (see config/environment.rb explanations)

   -- Jean-François.

3

I am new to rails. I have tried Google searches, checked the tips and doco and can’t find the answer to a simple question.

I have a table called “Activity” that I want to rename so I can use RubyOnRails but I don’t know whether the plural form should be

“Activitys” or “Activities”.

Hey Simon! Check this out:

jeremy@ks editors $ ./script/console

Loading development environment.

“activity”.pluralize

=> “activities”

The Rails console is your new best friend. It’s just the Ruby interactive shell (irb) with your Rails app already all loaded up for you to play with interactively.

You can even create classes dynamically and see the results:

class Activity < ActiveRecord::Base; end

=> nil

Activity.table_name

=> “activities”

Activity.columns

=> [would have the columns here if I had an activities table]

Can someone illuminate me on what to do?

Take yourself out for a beer to celebrate your ./script/console discovery.

Best, jeremy

4

The pluraliser in rails will use activities as the plural version of activity.

There is some information on creating custom pluralisations here

http://blog.hasmanythrough.com/articles/2006/05/17/pluralizations

Hope that helps

5

To all who replied so promptly: thank you!

I see there are many RubyOnRails books out there.

I am not a database beginner (I have been using Oracle for nearly 20 years) though I am a Ruby novice. I know enough about web development to make a real pro wince! I am at home in most data modelling tools (but a UML novice). So, anyone recommend a book or books that will get me up and running fast I would be appreciative.

regards Simon

6

Hey Simon, I would highly recommend, at a minimum, getting a copy of the PDF both 'Programming Ruby' and 'Agile Web Development with Rails 2ed' from pragmaticprogrammer.com.

Good luck,

-Conrad

7

Thanks for the suggestions. Simon