[rspec-users] Loading (or stubbing) data before model loading

[Matt Wynne]

On 21 Jul 2009, at 20:58, Tom Stuart wrote:

> Hi,
>
> A Rails project I'm working on has, for better or worse, some data- 
> driven structure in its models: a few model classes need certain  
> values (e.g. some enumerations) to be available in the database at  
> load time in order for certain bits of metaprogramming to kick off  
> correctly. It would be possible to do this all lazily instead of  
> when the classes load, but in reality the database values are always  
> there and everything already works beautifully so it's hard to  
> justify putting in the effort required to be that lazy.
>
> The problem is that RSpec starts with an empty test database and I  
> can't see the best way or place to prepopulate it before the models  
> get loaded (i.e. when Rails bootstraps, since config.cache_classes =  
> true), ideally so that both rake spec and script/spec do the correct  
> setup in time. It would be incredibly convenient to be able to use  
> Fixtures.create_fixtures to do the loading so that the required data  
> can live in YAML fixtures, but maybe it's optimistic to try to do  
> that before Rails has loaded.
>
> Or maybe I'm just going about this completely the wrong way, and  
> someone has a clever idea about what the right way is? That would be  
> brilliant.

One challenge for you before we dig into how to solve it the way  
you've suggested: do you really need to keep these enumerables in the  
database, or could you keep them in code? That is, is there a valid  
use case where they will be altered at run-time, or do they change so  
seldom that it would be OK to have to release a new version of the  
code when they need to be changed?

I ask because these things tend to get a lot easier if you're not  
having to mess around with databases, so it's always worth pushing  
back on that one first.

cheers,
Matt Wynne

http://mattwynne.net
+447974 430184