It turns out that the work-around suggested below is completely redundant. It's a case of RTFM. See Quick tips about using rake to manage your database schema and fixture data for a concise guide to using rake for importing fixtures into a database.
Today I have been looking for a way to import Rails fixtures (yaml files) into a database. I would have used this plugin - Dump or Slurp YAML Reference Data (and Fixtures) - but the command to read the fixture back into the database doesn't work with Ruby 1.8.5 / Rails 1.1.6.
The idea
Instead I've applied a simple work-around that exploits the fact that the Rails testing framework will read the fixtures and populate the test database until a test completes. A dummy test that waits for user input is all that's required to populate the test database, at which point you can issue a single command-line database command to copy the database.
I wait for user input because I'm not sure whether the test teardown will clear the test database or not. If not, then the test_dummy method doesn't have to do anything!
The code
Create a file in the db directory, called populate_db.rb, containing the following code:
require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../test/test_helper'
class DummyTestToPopulateDB < Test::Unit::TestCase
fixtures :accounts
def test_dummy
puts 'Copied the test database (y/n)? '
begin
answer = gets
answer.chomp!
end until answer == 'y'
end
end
Change the list of fixtures to whatever fixtures you want in the database. e.g. fixtures :categories, :products, :categories_products.
Of course the file can go anywhere and be called whatever you'd like, but make sure you change the path of the require statement if you place it somewhere else.
Usage
Run the test with ruby db/populate_db.rb then, as it waits for you to type y, copy the test database to wherever you'd like. For example, to copy the (mysql) test database to the development database you could issue the following mysql command:
mysqldump -u[username] [appname]_test | mysql -u[username] [appname]_development
