How to use ruby-on-rails fixtures for setting up (external) data that does not belong to the rails app DB?

Per my requirements, I have created models for q开发者_运维技巧uerying external database (different from the one that the rails app uses) for some of the data.

I am trying to write tests around these models and want to separate the "sample test data" from the actual tests.

I thought I could put the data in a yml file and load it into a hash, but it did work out :(

• Added sample test data to a fixture file name 'external_database.yml'
• Put the below code in setup, in the test file

ext_data = YAML.load_file(Rails.root.to_s + "/test/fixtures/ext_data.yml")

• But I am stuck with the below error

1) Error: test_should_errorout_for_invalid_market_zip(ExtDBTest): ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid: Mysql::Error: Table 'rails_app_db.ext_data' doesn't exist: DELETE FROM ext_data

1. What is the best way to do what I want done?

I guess your problem is that the schema of that external database is not contained in your schema.rb-file and/or migrations. These are used to setup your test-database before you run the tests.

So the attempt is made to write those fixtures into non-existing tables - with the result you see above.

Multiple database-connections in unit tests are generally a pain. Consider creating an sqlite-file for the data of the external dependencies and configure your test-environment to use this file - or a copy of it, in case you need to mutate data.