From: Josh Cheek <josh.cheek@...>
Date: 2010-01-07T05:24:55+09:00
Subject: Re: Script to interact with a database

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On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 9:51 AM, Quee WM <qaiserwali@hotmail.com> wrote:

> I have an application in rails in which i am adding a new column in one
> of the tables. The value for the new column is a bit.ly link and I need
> to populate this for each record in the table approx. 250 rows will be
> affected.
>
> Q1: Can this be done outside the application? i.e. write a script that
> can interact with the db and then populate the appropriate column? And
> is this advisable?
>
> Q2: if the aforementioned idea is not a good way then what will be the
> best way to update the existing records as any code i will write will
> only be used to update the table once.
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>
>
I'd make a method in your model that gets the address, then have it get that
address upon creating a record. For all the records currently in there, just
go to the console, iterate through each, and invoke that method on them.

To make the method that updates it, you can use the api, or a gem:
http://code.google.com/p/bitly-api/wiki/ApiDocumentation
http://gemcutter.org/search?query=bit.ly

For a 1 time edit with 250 records, I'd use the console script/console , for
recurring edits, I'd create a rake task
http://railscasts.com/episodes/66-custom-rake-tasks

If you have a large number of records, you might need to do something
different, but I'm not sure how to handle that.

Sometimes, due to constraints within your app's model, you need to edit the
db directly, I use sequel pro http://www.sequelpro.com but this really
almost never occurs (or at least shouldn't).

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