Migrations

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Rails migrations allow you to alter your database in a structured and organized way. Instead of altering your database using a Data Definition Language (the most familiar being SQL), you'll write Ruby code that Active Record will translate into the proper DDL commands. There are a few benefits to handling schema changes this way:

• Ruby-fied schema changes via Rails migrations are database independent: They aren't written in the DDL of your database, so if you use SQLite now, and need to transition to Postgres later, you don't have to change any Ruby code. Active Record will switch to the appropriate DDL for you.

• You don't send your team SQL commands to run: You send them the migrations, which are ordered chronologically. They only have to update to the latest source code and run one command (in the command line, in the Rails root:

  rake db:migrate

  This simple command:

  • Keeps track of all migrations (changes to the database schema for the next time you deploy.
  • Keeps everyone's db/schema.db up-to-date (file path relative to the Rails root).

• Since migrations are tracked chronologically, when you're ready to update your production code, running rake db:migrate will run all the migrations in the same order they were run on the development server: leaving you with an up-to-date database. Try saying that five times fast.

The only step left for you take care of is to update the Model class associated with the changes you made to the schema (making sure you follow the Migration Naming Convention.

Click here to learn about writing a Rails migration.