Ruby on Rails is one of the most popular web development frameworks, known for its simplicity, efficiency, and strong community support. However, one of its default settings is to use SQLite as the database management system. While SQLite is a great choice for small-scale projects, it may not be the best option for larger and more complex applications. In this article, we will explore how to create a Ruby on Rails application using MySQL instead of SQLite.
First, let's understand why MySQL might be a better choice for your Rails application. SQLite is a lightweight, serverless database that is perfect for development and testing purposes. It doesn't require any installation or configuration, making it convenient for quick prototyping. However, it is not suitable for production environments as it lacks certain features that MySQL offers, such as concurrency and advanced data types. MySQL, on the other hand, is a robust and scalable relational database that can handle large amounts of data and multiple users simultaneously.
To start our project, we need to have MySQL installed on our system. If you haven't already, head over to the official MySQL website and download the latest version for your operating system. Once installed, we can create a new Rails application using the following command:
<code>rails new myapp -d mysql</code>
This will generate a new Rails project with MySQL as the default database. Next, we need to configure our database connection in the <code>config/database.yml</code> file. By default, Rails uses SQLite for development, test, and production environments. We need to change this to MySQL for all three environments. Here's how our <code>database.yml</code> file would look like:
<code>default: &default
adapter: mysql2
encoding: utf8
pool: <%= ENV.fetch("RAILS_MAX_THREADS") { 5 } %>
username: root
password: <your_mysql_password>
host: localhost
development:
<<: *default
database: myapp_development
test:
<<: *default
database: myapp_test
production:
<<: *default
database: myapp_production
username: myapp
password: <%= ENV['MYAPP_DATABASE_PASSWORD'] %></code>
We have defined the MySQL adapter, encoding, and pool size in the <code>default</code> section. In the development, test, and production sections, we have specified the database name and the corresponding username and password. Make sure to replace the values with your own MySQL credentials.
Next, we need to create the databases for our application. In the terminal, run the following command:
<code>rails db:create</code>
This will create the development and test databases for our application. To create the production database, we need to run the following command:
<code>rails db:create RAILS_ENV=production</code>
Now that our database is set up, we can start generating our models, controllers, and views. Let's say we want to create a simple blog application. We can generate a <code>Post</code> model using the following command:
<code>rails generate model Post title:string body:text</code>
This will create the <code>posts</code> table in our database with <code>title</code> and <code>body</code> columns. Next, we can generate a <code>Posts</code> controller using the following command:
<code>rails generate controller Posts index show new create edit update destroy</code>
This will create all the necessary actions and views for our blog posts. We can now start writing our code and use MySQL queries to manipulate data in our database. For example, to retrieve all the posts, we can use the following code in our <code>index</code> action:
<code>@posts = Post.all</code>
Similarly, to create a new post, we can use the following code in our <code>create</code> action:
<code>@post = Post.new(post_params)
if @post.save
redirect_to @post
else
render 'new'
end</code>
Don't forget to define the <code>post_params</code> method in your <code>PostsController</code> to permit the <code>title</code> and <code>body</code> attributes.
Once we have completed our application, we can deploy it to a production server. We need to make sure that the MySQL adapter is installed on the server and that the production database is configured correctly in the <code>database.yml</code> file. We also need to run the <code>rails db:migrate</code> command to create the tables in the production database.
In conclusion, while SQLite is a convenient option for quick prototyping, it may not be the best choice for production applications. By switching to MySQL, we can take advantage of its advanced features and scalability. With the steps outlined in this article, you can easily create a Ruby on Rails application using MySQL as the database management system. Happy coding!
