gistfile1.txt

I recently had to populate/seed a database for a project of mine. This was crucial for several reasons. First, we wouldn’t have to go inside console and create our own data. Second, we have an easier time testing models. Third, when working with various features (such as RailsAdmin) we have a sense of what the final product will look like.

In this case, I decided to create a rake task titled db:populate. First I reset the database. Then I ran simple loops creating records after records of models. One big question is how do you create unique entries? For example, if I created 100 users I want each one to have a different name.

This is where Faker comes in. With Faker, I can simply call a method provided by the gem that will randomly select a name from their array. For example,

  Faker::Name.first_name

will return a random first name.

  Faker::Internet.email

will return a random email address.

  Faker::Address.state

will return a random US state.

There is plenty more methods to choose from, you can get company names, lorem paragraphs, and much more. If you want to find out more about what a rake task looks like using Faker, check out the code below.

  require 'faker'
  
  namespace :db do
    desc "Fill database with sample data"
  
    task :populate => :environment do
      # This line below is commented out because Heroku sucks
      Rake::Task['db:reset'].invoke
      
      10.times do
        user = User.new
       
        user.name = Faker::Name.name
        
        user.save
      end
    end
  end


For more info on Faker,

https://github.com/stympy/faker