4 ms·

Visualizing Rails Schemas with the RailRoady Gem

36 points by ar4420 13y ago

jabagonuts 13y ago
I just yesterday found the rails-erd gem to accomplish the same task. https://github.com/voormedia/rails-erd https://github.com/voormedia/rails-erd
arikrak 13y ago
Rubymine comes with such a feature built-in. However, I found that my model diagram was too complicated to really be useful.
TallboyOne 13y ago
I prefer rails-ERD. annotate_models is also great.
- jabagonuts 13y ago
  Instead of annotate models, I have a function in my .irbrc/.pryrc that will print out the columns for me when I'm in a rails console (I usually have one open almost all of the time). I prefer this to cluttering my model files. [6] pry(main)> c Account Columns for 'accounts' id :integer created_at :datetime updated_at :datetime address :string city :string state :string zip :string phone_number :string last_ip :string # Print formatted column names and type info for ActiveRecord models def fields(model) puts "Columns for '#{model.table_name}'" width = model.columns.inject(0) { |max_width, col| col.name.size > max_width ? col.name.size : max_width } _columns = model.columns.collect do |c| " %-#{width + 2}s :%s" % [c.name, c.type] end.join("\n") puts _columns end alias :c :fields
  - acconrad 13y ago
    Do you keep the rails console running constantly? It seems more inconvenient to start and stop the rails console than navigate files for your schema, which is also searchable by virtue of it being written down.
    - jabagonuts 13y ago
      Not really, it's just usually when I'm trying out different queries in the console that I have the, "oh crap, what did I name that column" moments. If I need to search for something in particular, I just search schema.rb.
thejosh 13y ago
If you use MySQL, planning with MySQL Workbench provides similar results to what was shown (table to table relations).
sergiotapia 13y ago
RubyMine has this features built in and provides nice tools to manipulate the end diagram.
Bjoern 13y ago
DataMapper has this as dm-visualizer as well in case you use that over AR in rails. https://github.com/postmodern/dm-visualizer https://github.com/postmodern/dm-visualizer
acconrad 13y ago
DbWrench for Mac along with PgAdmin is another good alternative for doing this with a Postgres database.
- petepete 13y ago
  pgModeler is also very good. http://www.pgmodeler.com.br/ http://www.pgmodeler.com.br/ https://github.com/pgmodeler/pgmodeler https://github.com/pgmodeler/pgmodeler
phillmv 13y ago
This is a side tangent but seeing graphviz being used here reminded me of this total boss ruby patch: http://cirw.in/blog/find-references http://cirw.in/blog/find-references I had spent a week slowly isolating this brutal memory leak until being able to see the whole ObjectSpace illuminated my problem.
mcmire 13y ago
The problem I have with these tools is that the diagram it produces is really not that great. I guess it tells you what models you have, the columns they have, and whether a model is tied to another one... but not much else. Here's the thing: I already know how many models I have (I just look in app/models) and which columns back them (I just look in db/schema). The thing I often want that 1) ActiveRecord doesn't give me and 2) I haven't seen in any tool yet is a diagram of the relationships. So I have two models, A and B, and A has many B. How do you diagram that? Typically I've seen arrows: B points to A, with the words "has many" written next to it. The thing is, if I have 30 models in my app, I'm not going to be able to read this at a glance. Words are too small. Diagrams are meant to be rough pictures. The way I visualize this in my head and consequently diagram this on a whiteboard is, multiple instances of B point back to A. It's easy. If you have a has_one instead, then only one B points back to A. Makes sense right? No one does this. I often wonder why.

36 points by ar4420 13y ago

I just yesterday found the rails-erd gem to accomplish the same task. https://github.com/voormedia/rails-erd https://github.com/voormedia/rails-erd

arikrak 13y ago

Rubymine comes with such a feature built-in. However, I found that my model diagram was too complicated to really be useful.

TallboyOne 13y ago

I prefer rails-ERD. annotate_models is also great.

jabagonuts 13y ago
Instead of annotate models, I have a function in my .irbrc/.pryrc that will print out the columns for me when I'm in a rails console (I usually have one open almost all of the time). I prefer this to cluttering my model files. [6] pry(main)> c Account Columns for 'accounts' id :integer created_at :datetime updated_at :datetime address :string city :string state :string zip :string phone_number :string last_ip :string # Print formatted column names and type info for ActiveRecord models def fields(model) puts "Columns for '#{model.table_name}'" width = model.columns.inject(0) { |max_width, col| col.name.size > max_width ? col.name.size : max_width } _columns = model.columns.collect do |c| " %-#{width + 2}s :%s" % [c.name, c.type] end.join("\n") puts _columns end alias :c :fields
- acconrad 13y ago
  Do you keep the rails console running constantly? It seems more inconvenient to start and stop the rails console than navigate files for your schema, which is also searchable by virtue of it being written down.
  - jabagonuts 13y ago
    Not really, it's just usually when I'm trying out different queries in the console that I have the, "oh crap, what did I name that column" moments. If I need to search for something in particular, I just search schema.rb.

thejosh 13y ago

If you use MySQL, planning with MySQL Workbench provides similar results to what was shown (table to table relations).

sergiotapia 13y ago

RubyMine has this features built in and provides nice tools to manipulate the end diagram.

Bjoern 13y ago

DataMapper has this as dm-visualizer as well in case you use that over AR in rails. https://github.com/postmodern/dm-visualizer https://github.com/postmodern/dm-visualizer

acconrad 13y ago

DbWrench for Mac along with PgAdmin is another good alternative for doing this with a Postgres database.

petepete 13y ago
pgModeler is also very good. http://www.pgmodeler.com.br/ http://www.pgmodeler.com.br/ https://github.com/pgmodeler/pgmodeler https://github.com/pgmodeler/pgmodeler

phillmv 13y ago

This is a side tangent but seeing graphviz being used here reminded me of this total boss ruby patch: http://cirw.in/blog/find-references http://cirw.in/blog/find-references I had spent a week slowly isolating this brutal memory leak until being able to see the whole ObjectSpace illuminated my problem.

mcmire 13y ago

The problem I have with these tools is that the diagram it produces is really not that great. I guess it tells you what models you have, the columns they have, and whether a model is tied to another one... but not much else. Here's the thing: I already know how many models I have (I just look in app/models) and which columns back them (I just look in db/schema). The thing I often want that 1) ActiveRecord doesn't give me and 2) I haven't seen in any tool yet is a diagram of the relationships. So I have two models, A and B, and A has many B. How do you diagram that? Typically I've seen arrows: B points to A, with the words "has many" written next to it. The thing is, if I have 30 models in my app, I'm not going to be able to read this at a glance. Words are too small. Diagrams are meant to be rough pictures. The way I visualize this in my head and consequently diagram this on a whiteboard is, multiple instances of B point back to A. It's easy. If you have a has_one instead, then only one B points back to A. Makes sense right? No one does this. I often wonder why.