rails 4.1.4 → 4.2.0

data/guides/source/active_record_postgresql.md

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+Active Record and PostgreSQL
+============================
+
+This guide covers PostgreSQL specific usage of Active Record.
+
+After reading this guide, you will know:
+
+* How to use PostgreSQL's datatypes.
+* How to use UUID primary keys.
+* How to implement full text search with PostgreSQL.
+* How to back your Active Record models with database views.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+In order to use the PostgreSQL adapter you need to have at least version 8.2
+installed. Older versions are not supported.
+
+To get started with PostgreSQL have a look at the
+[configuring Rails guide](configuring.html#configuring-a-postgresql-database).
+It describes how to properly setup Active Record for PostgreSQL.
+
+Datatypes
+---------
+
+PostgreSQL offers a number of specific datatypes. Following is a list of types,
+that are supported by the PostgreSQL adapter.
+
+### Bytea
+
+* [type definition](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/datatype-binary.html)
+* [functions and operators](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/functions-binarystring.html)
+
+```ruby
+# db/migrate/20140207133952_create_documents.rb
+create_table :documents do |t|
+  t.binary 'payload'
+end
+
+# app/models/document.rb
+class Document < ActiveRecord::Base
+end
+
+# Usage
+data = File.read(Rails.root + "tmp/output.pdf")
+Document.create payload: data
+```
+
+### Array
+
+* [type definition](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/arrays.html)
+* [functions and operators](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/functions-array.html)
+
+```ruby
+# db/migrate/20140207133952_create_books.rb
+create_table :books do |t|
+  t.string 'title'
+  t.string 'tags', array: true
+  t.integer 'ratings', array: true
+end
+add_index :books, :tags, using: 'gin'
+add_index :books, :ratings, using: 'gin'
+
+# app/models/book.rb
+class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
+end
+
+# Usage
+Book.create title: "Brave New World",
+            tags: ["fantasy", "fiction"],
+            ratings: [4, 5]
+
+## Books for a single tag
+Book.where("'fantasy' = ANY (tags)")
+
+## Books for multiple tags
+Book.where("tags @> ARRAY[?]::varchar[]", ["fantasy", "fiction"])
+
+## Books with 3 or more ratings
+Book.where("array_length(ratings, 1) >= 3")
+```
+
+### Hstore
+
+* [type definition](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/hstore.html)
+
+```ruby
+# db/migrate/20131009135255_create_profiles.rb
+ActiveRecord::Schema.define do
+  create_table :profiles do |t|
+    t.hstore 'settings'
+  end
+end
+
+# app/models/profile.rb
+class Profile < ActiveRecord::Base
+end
+
+# Usage
+Profile.create(settings: { "color" => "blue", "resolution" => "800x600" })
+
+profile = Profile.first
+profile.settings # => {"color"=>"blue", "resolution"=>"800x600"}
+
+profile.settings = {"color" => "yellow", "resolution" => "1280x1024"}
+profile.save!
+```
+
+### JSON
+
+* [type definition](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/datatype-json.html)
+* [functions and operators](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/functions-json.html)
+
+```ruby
+# db/migrate/20131220144913_create_events.rb
+create_table :events do |t|
+  t.json 'payload'
+end
+
+# app/models/event.rb
+class Event < ActiveRecord::Base
+end
+
+# Usage
+Event.create(payload: { kind: "user_renamed", change: ["jack", "john"]})
+
+event = Event.first
+event.payload # => {"kind"=>"user_renamed", "change"=>["jack", "john"]}
+
+## Query based on JSON document
+# The -> operator returns the original JSON type (which might be an object), whereas ->> returns text
+Event.where("payload->>'kind' = ?", "user_renamed")
+```
+
+### Range Types
+
+* [type definition](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/rangetypes.html)
+* [functions and operators](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/functions-range.html)
+
+This type is mapped to Ruby [`Range`](http://www.ruby-doc.org/core-2.1.1/Range.html) objects.
+
+```ruby
+# db/migrate/20130923065404_create_events.rb
+create_table :events do |t|
+  t.daterange 'duration'
+end
+
+# app/models/event.rb
+class Event < ActiveRecord::Base
+end
+
+# Usage
+Event.create(duration: Date.new(2014, 2, 11)..Date.new(2014, 2, 12))
+
+event = Event.first
+event.duration # => Tue, 11 Feb 2014...Thu, 13 Feb 2014
+
+## All Events on a given date
+Event.where("duration @> ?::date", Date.new(2014, 2, 12))
+
+## Working with range bounds
+event = Event.
+  select("lower(duration) AS starts_at").
+  select("upper(duration) AS ends_at").first
+
+event.starts_at # => Tue, 11 Feb 2014
+event.ends_at # => Thu, 13 Feb 2014
+```
+
+### Composite Types
+
+* [type definition](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/rowtypes.html)
+
+Currently there is no special support for composite types. They are mapped to
+normal text columns:
+
+```sql
+CREATE TYPE full_address AS
+(
+  city VARCHAR(90),
+  street VARCHAR(90)
+);
+```
+
+```ruby
+# db/migrate/20140207133952_create_contacts.rb
+execute <<-SQL
+ CREATE TYPE full_address AS
+ (
+   city VARCHAR(90),
+   street VARCHAR(90)
+ );
+SQL
+create_table :contacts do |t|
+  t.column :address, :full_address
+end
+
+# app/models/contact.rb
+class Contact < ActiveRecord::Base
+end
+
+# Usage
+Contact.create address: "(Paris,Champs-Élysées)"
+contact = Contact.first
+contact.address # => "(Paris,Champs-Élysées)"
+contact.address = "(Paris,Rue Basse)"
+contact.save!
+```
+
+### Enumerated Types
+
+* [type definition](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/datatype-enum.html)
+
+Currently there is no special support for enumerated types. They are mapped as
+normal text columns:
+
+```ruby
+# db/migrate/20131220144913_create_articles.rb
+execute <<-SQL
+  CREATE TYPE article_status AS ENUM ('draft', 'published');
+SQL
+create_table :articles do |t|
+  t.column :status, :article_status
+end
+
+# app/models/article.rb
+class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
+end
+
+# Usage
+Article.create status: "draft"
+article = Article.first
+article.status # => "draft"
+
+article.status = "published"
+article.save!
+```
+
+### UUID
+
+* [type definition](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/datatype-uuid.html)
+* [generator functions](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/uuid-ossp.html)
+
+
+```ruby
+# db/migrate/20131220144913_create_revisions.rb
+create_table :revisions do |t|
+  t.column :identifier, :uuid
+end
+
+# app/models/revision.rb
+class Revision < ActiveRecord::Base
+end
+
+# Usage
+Revision.create identifier: "A0EEBC99-9C0B-4EF8-BB6D-6BB9BD380A11"
+
+revision = Revision.first
+revision.identifier # => "a0eebc99-9c0b-4ef8-bb6d-6bb9bd380a11"
+```
+
+### Bit String Types
+
+* [type definition](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/datatype-bit.html)
+* [functions and operators](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/functions-bitstring.html)
+
+```ruby
+# db/migrate/20131220144913_create_users.rb
+create_table :users, force: true do |t|
+  t.column :settings, "bit(8)"
+end
+
+# app/models/device.rb
+class User < ActiveRecord::Base
+end
+
+# Usage
+User.create settings: "01010011"
+user = User.first
+user.settings # => "01010011"
+user.settings = "0xAF"
+user.settings # => 10101111
+user.save!
+```
+
+### Network Address Types
+
+* [type definition](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/datatype-net-types.html)
+
+The types `inet` and `cidr` are mapped to Ruby
+[`IPAddr`](http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib-2.1.1/libdoc/ipaddr/rdoc/IPAddr.html)
+objects. The `macaddr` type is mapped to normal text.
+
+```ruby
+# db/migrate/20140508144913_create_devices.rb
+create_table(:devices, force: true) do |t|
+  t.inet 'ip'
+  t.cidr 'network'
+  t.macaddr 'address'
+end
+
+# app/models/device.rb
+class Device < ActiveRecord::Base
+end
+
+# Usage
+macbook = Device.create(ip: "192.168.1.12",
+                        network: "192.168.2.0/24",
+                        address: "32:01:16:6d:05:ef")
+
+macbook.ip
+# => #<IPAddr: IPv4:192.168.1.12/255.255.255.255>
+
+macbook.network
+# => #<IPAddr: IPv4:192.168.2.0/255.255.255.0>
+
+macbook.address
+# => "32:01:16:6d:05:ef"
+```
+
+### Geometric Types
+
+* [type definition](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/datatype-geometric.html)
+
+All geometric types, with the exception of `points` are mapped to normal text.
+A point is casted to an array containing `x` and `y` coordinates.
+
+
+UUID Primary Keys
+-----------------
+
+NOTE: you need to enable the `uuid-ossp` extension to generate UUIDs.
+
+```ruby
+# db/migrate/20131220144913_create_devices.rb
+enable_extension 'uuid-ossp' unless extension_enabled?('uuid-ossp')
+create_table :devices, id: :uuid, default: 'uuid_generate_v4()' do |t|
+  t.string :kind
+end
+
+# app/models/device.rb
+class Device < ActiveRecord::Base
+end
+
+# Usage
+device = Device.create
+device.id # => "814865cd-5a1d-4771-9306-4268f188fe9e"
+```
+
+Full Text Search
+----------------
+
+```ruby
+# db/migrate/20131220144913_create_documents.rb
+create_table :documents do |t|
+  t.string 'title'
+  t.string 'body'
+end
+
+execute "CREATE INDEX documents_idx ON documents USING gin(to_tsvector('english', title || ' ' || body));"
+
+# app/models/document.rb
+class Document < ActiveRecord::Base
+end
+
+# Usage
+Document.create(title: "Cats and Dogs", body: "are nice!")
+
+## all documents matching 'cat & dog'
+Document.where("to_tsvector('english', title || ' ' || body) @@ to_tsquery(?)",
+                 "cat & dog")
+```
+
+Database Views
+--------------
+
+* [view creation](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/sql-createview.html)
+
+Imagine you need to work with a legacy database containing the following table:
+
+```
+rails_pg_guide=# \d "TBL_ART"
+                                        Table "public.TBL_ART"
+   Column   |            Type             |                         Modifiers
+------------+-----------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------
+ INT_ID     | integer                     | not null default nextval('"TBL_ART_INT_ID_seq"'::regclass)
+ STR_TITLE  | character varying           |
+ STR_STAT   | character varying           | default 'draft'::character varying
+ DT_PUBL_AT | timestamp without time zone |
+ BL_ARCH    | boolean                     | default false
+Indexes:
+    "TBL_ART_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree ("INT_ID")
+```
+
+This table does not follow the Rails conventions at all.
+Because simple PostgreSQL views are updateable by default,
+we can wrap it as follows:
+
+```ruby
+# db/migrate/20131220144913_create_articles_view.rb
+execute <<-SQL
+CREATE VIEW articles AS
+  SELECT "INT_ID" AS id,
+         "STR_TITLE" AS title,
+         "STR_STAT" AS status,
+         "DT_PUBL_AT" AS published_at,
+         "BL_ARCH" AS archived
+  FROM "TBL_ART"
+  WHERE "BL_ARCH" = 'f'
+  SQL
+
+# app/models/article.rb
+class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
+  self.primary_key = "id"
+  def archive!
+    update_attribute :archived, true
+  end
+end
+
+# Usage
+first = Article.create! title: "Winter is coming",
+                        status: "published",
+                        published_at: 1.year.ago
+second = Article.create! title: "Brace yourself",
+                         status: "draft",
+                         published_at: 1.month.ago
+
+Article.count # => 1
+first.archive!
+Article.count # => 2
+```
+
+NOTE: This application only cares about non-archived `Articles`. A view also
+allows for conditions so we can exclude the archived `Articles` directly.