Generate .yml fixtures from database tables

Hello Guys,

          Wondering about how to create fixtures from tables? Here is the simple task which generate .yml from database tables.

namespace :db do
  desc 'Generate .yml test fixtures from an existing database'
  task :generate_fixtures => :environment do
    sql = "Select * From %s"
    skip_tables = ["schema_migrations"]
    ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection
    tables = ActiveRecord::Base.connection.tables - skip_tables
    tables.each do |table_name|
      count = "0000"
      File.open("#{RAILS_ROOT}/db/fixtures/#{table_name}.yml", 'w') do |file|
        table_content = ActiveRecord::Base.connection.select_all(sql % table_name)
        file.write table_content.inject({}) { |hash, record|
          hash["#{table_name}_#{count.succ!}"] = record
          hash
        }.to_yaml
      end
    end
  end
end

When you invoke above task using rake db:generate_fixtures --trace. It generates all the fixtures of your database tables under db/fixtures folder of your rails application.

For more information follow http://ar.rubyonrails.org/classes/Fixtures.html

create_fixtures(fixtures_directory, table_names, class_names = {}) is the inbuilt method available to create fixtures for testing.