Rails RSpec with Multiple Databases

Question

I run a Rails app, and we\'re in the process of splitting out our signup process to a separate app. The signup app has its own separate database (for CMS and collecting prospect

Answer 1

We have a gem that is basically a collection of ActiveRecord models that connect to our legacy system. In our case we have all those models contained in a module from which all models related to the legacy database connects.

module Legacy
  class Base < ActiveRecord::Base
    establish_connection :legacy
  end

  class User < Base
  end
end

With this setup it makes it really easy to switch out the database connection. If you really go for that automated detection you can put logic in your base class to determine which database to use:

module Legacy
  class Base < ActiveRecord::Base
    if Rails.env == 'test'
      establish_connection :legacy_test
    else
      establish_connection :legacy
   end
end

Or simply tell your module which connection to use in your spec helper:

# spec/spec_helper.rb    
Legacy::Base.establish_connection(ActiveRecord::Base.configurations['legacy_test'])

Personally I would recommend the second option. Of course both solutions depend on namespaced models.

Peer