rake_helper

A set of common helper methods to DRY up Rails rake tasks

Installation

Add to your project's Gemfile:

gem 'rake_helper'

Run:

bundle install

Include in your project's Rakefile:

include RakeHelper

Usage

Logging Messages

These output a timestamped puts statement in the terminal for the benefit of the person running the rake task, but also log a message in the Rails log in case it is missed in a long stream of output.

There are 3 predefined methods which prepend a standardized keyword:

start

Logs as type :info

start('Updating user records')
# => 2016-08-07 13:02:51 -0400 START: Updating user records

finish

Logs as type :info

finish('Updating user records')
# => 2016-08-07 13:04:28 -0400 FINISH: Updating user records

failure

Logs as type :error

failure("Updating user records: #{e}")
# => 2016-08-07 13:03:16 -0400 FAILURE: Updating user records: SomeError

The standard logger severities can also be called directly as methods with a single message parameter:

• warn
• unknown
• info
• fatal
• debug
• error

For example:

info('Useful information')
# => 2016-08-07 13:03:16 -0400 Useful information

Running SQL Statements

The run_sql method will execute one or more SQL statements and return the results as an Array. The first param is required and should be a valid SQL string. The string can include several statements separated by semicolons. You can pass an action option which should be any valid ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::DatabaseStatements method name as a symbol.

:update example

sql = <<-SQL
  UPDATE users SET activated = 1 WHERE created_at > 2016-01-01;
  UPDATE businesses SET name = 'Widgets Inc' WHERE id = 22; 
SQL

run_sql(sql)

# OR capturing the record count for each query:

results = run_sql(sql, action: :update)
info("User count: #{results.first}, Business count: #{results.last}")
# => 2016-08-07 13:11:45 -0400 "User count: 10, Business count: 1"

:select_value example

sql = <<-SQL
  SELECT id FROM users WHERE email = 'bob@example.com'; 
SQL

results = run_sql(sql, action: :select_value)
info("Bob's ID: #{results.first}")
# => 2016-08-07 13:11:45 -0400 "Bob's ID: 15"

:delete example

sql = <<-SQL
  DELETE FROM users WHERE created_at < 2016-01-01 AND activated = 0; 
SQL

run_sql(sql)

# OR capturing the record count for each query:

results = run_sql(sql, action: :delete)
info("Num users deleted: #{results.first}")
# => 2016-08-07 13:11:45 -0400 "Num users deleted: 52" 

Full Example

Rake File

# lib/tasks/update_locales.rake

desc 'Update US locales to en-US'
task update_locales: :environment do
  message = 'Updating US locales'
  start(message)

  sql = <<-SQL
    UPDATE users SET locale = 'en-US' WHERE locale IS NULL OR locale = 'en';
    UPDATE countries SET locale = 'en-US' where code = 'US';
  SQL

  begin
    run_sql(sql)
    finish(message)
  rescue Exception => e
    failure(e)
  end
end

Successful Run

$ bundle exec rake update_locales
2016-08-07 13:57:56 -0400 START: Updating US locales
2016-08-07 13:57:56 -0400 FINISH: Updating US locales

Failed Run

$ bundle exec rake update_locales
2016-08-07 14:07:50 -0400 START: Updating US locales
2016-08-07 14:07:50 -0400 FAILURE: ActiveRecord::ConnectionTimeoutError