The answer came back on the mailing list that it's basically a do-it-yourself situation, so to save others the hassle if they end up having to do this too:
Create a .rake file under lib/tasks, called something like test_db_setup.rake:
require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../../test/database_dumper'
# Custom logic that runs before the test suite begins
# This just clones the development database schema to the test database
# Note that each test does a lightweight teardown of just truncating all tables
namespace :db do
namespace :test do
desc "Reset the test database to match the development schema"
task :prepare do
Rake::Task['db:schema:clone'].invoke
end
end
namespace :schema do
desc "Literally dump the database schema into db/schema/**/*.sql"
task :dump => :environment do
DatabaseDumper.dump_schema(:directory => "#{Rails.root}/db/schema", :env => Rails.env)
end
desc "Clones the development schema into the test database"
task :clone => [:dump, :environment] do
DatabaseDumper.import_schema(:directory => "#{Rails.root}/db/schema", :env => "test")
end
end
end
task 'test:prepare' => 'db:test:prepare'
This uses the :test:prepare hook that Rails provides, which runs just before the test suite begins. It copies the schema from your development database into .sql files under db/schema/ (one per table/view), then it imports those .sql files into your test database.
You'll need the utility class I wrote for this to work (currently it's written for MySQL >= 5.0.1. You'll have to adjust the logic if you need a different database.
# Utility class for dumping and importing the database schema
class DatabaseDumper
def self.dump_schema(options = {})
options[:directory] ||= "#{Rails.root}/db/schema"
options[:env] ||= Rails.env
schema_dir = options[:directory]
clean_sql_directory(schema_dir)
Rails::DataMapper.configuration.repositories[options[:env]].each do |repository, config|
repository_dir = "#{schema_dir}/#{repository}"
adapter = DataMapper.setup(repository, config)
perform_schema_dump(adapter, repository_dir)
end
end
def self.import_schema(options = {})
options[:directory] ||= "#{Rails.root}/db/schema"
options[:env] ||= "test"
schema_dir = options[:directory]
Rails::DataMapper.configuration.repositories[options[:env]].each do |repository, config|
repository_dir = "#{schema_dir}/#{repository}"
adapter = DataMapper.setup(repository, config)
perform_schema_import(adapter, repository_dir)
end
end
private
def self.clean_sql_directory(path)
Dir.mkdir(path) unless Dir.exists?(path)
Dir.glob("#{path}/**/*.sql").each do |file|
File.delete(file)
end
end
def self.perform_schema_dump(adapter, path)
Dir.mkdir(path) unless Dir.exists?(path)
adapter.select("SHOW FULL TABLES").each do |row|
name = row.values.first
type = row.values.last
sql_dir = "#{path}/#{directory_name_for_table_type(type)}"
Dir.mkdir(sql_dir) unless Dir.exists?(sql_dir)
schema_info = adapter.select("SHOW CREATE TABLE #{name}").first
sql = schema_info.values.last
f = File.open("#{sql_dir}/#{name}.sql", "w+")
f << sql << "\n"
f.close
end
end
def self.directory_name_for_table_type(type)
case type
when "VIEW"
"views"
when "BASE TABLE"
"tables"
else
raise "Unknown table type #{type}"
end
end
def self.perform_schema_import(adapter, path)
tables_dir = "#{path}/tables"
views_dir = "#{path}/views"
{ "TABLE" => tables_dir, "VIEW" => views_dir }.each do |type, sql_dir|
Dir.glob("#{sql_dir}/*.sql").each do |file|
name = File.basename(file, ".sql")
drop_sql = "DROP #{type} IF EXISTS `#{name}`"
create_sql = File.open(file, "r").read
adapter.execute(drop_sql)
adapter.execute(create_sql)
end
end
end
end
This will also leave the .sql files in your schema directory, so you can browse them if you want a reference.
Now this will only wipe your database (by installing a fresh schema) as the test suite starts up. It won't wipe the tests between test methods. For that you'll want to use DatabaseCleaner. Put it in your test_helper.rb:
require 'database_cleaner'
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation, {:except => %w(auctionindexview helpindexview)}
class ActiveSupport::TestCase
setup :setup_database
teardown :clean_database
private
def setup_database
DatabaseCleaner.start
end
def clean_database
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
end
Now you should be good to go. Your schema will be fresh when you start running the tests, you'll have a copy of your SQL in the db/schema directory, and your data will be wiped between test methods. A word of warning if you're enticed by the transaction strategy of DatabaseCleaner... this is rarely a safe strategy to use in MySQL, since none of the MySQL table types currently support nested transactions, so your application logic will likely break the teardown. Truncate is still fast, and much safer.
