We start by looking at what the default output looks like.
jleal@ubuntu-ruby:~/swapme$ ruby script/console
Loading development environment (Rails 2.3.2)
>> User.find(:first, :select => "id, email, created_at, updated_at")
=> #<User id: 1, email: "sell@gmail.com", created_at: "2010-03-29 04:51:37",
updated_at: "2010-03-29 04:51:37">
Now lets see if we can improve things a bit. In order to accomplish this we're going to do the following things:
- Install and enable the 'hirb' ruby gem.
- Redirect the ActiveRecord logging to display on the console.
Hirb gem
Hirb is described on github as:
Hirb provides a mini view framework for console applications and uses it to improve irb’s default inspect output.
Hirb presents outputs for several objects much prettier than their default. You can even use hirb to create custom outputs for those objects hirb has not defined.First we install the gem.
jleal@ubuntu-ruby:~$ sudo gem install hirb Successfully installed hirb-0.3.1 1 gem installed
Next we load the gem in the console.
jleal@ubuntu-ruby:~/swapme$ ruby script/console Loading development environment (Rails 2.3.2) >> require 'hirb' => [] >> Hirb.enable => true >>
Our output looks allot nicer.
>> User.find(:first, :select => "id, email, created_at, updated_at") +----+---------------------------+-------------------------+--------------+ | id | email | created_at | updated_at | +----+---------------------------+-------------------------+--------------+ | 1 | sell@gmail.com | 2010-03-29 04:51:37 UTC | 2010-03-29 04:51:37 UTC | +----+---------------------------+-------------------------+--------------+ 1 row in set >>
Redirecting ActiveRecord Logging.
Finally, we'll redirect ActiveRecord logging to display on the console. This is done with one line of code. Remember to reload so it takes effect.
>> ActiveRecord::Base.logger = Logger.new(STDOUT) => #<Logger:0xb6fb2b04 @formatter=nil, @level=0, @default_formatter=#<Logger::Formatter:0xb6fb2adc @datetime_format=nil>, @progname=nil, @logdev=#<Logger::LogDevice:0xb6fb2ab4 @mutex=#<Logger::LogDevice::LogDeviceMutex:0xb6fb2a8c @mon_waiting_queue=[], @mon_entering_queue=[], @mon_count=0, @mon_owner=nil>, @dev=#<IO:0xb7807570>, @shift_size=nil, @shift_age=nil, @filename=nil>> >> reload! Reloading... => true
Now let's see how things look.
>> User.find(:first, :select => "id, email, created_at, updated_at") User Load (15.7ms) SELECT id, email, created_at, updated_at FROM "users" LIMIT 1 +----+---------------------------+-------------------------+--------------+ | id | email | created_at | updated_at | +----+---------------------------+-------------------------+--------------+ | 1 | sell@gmail.com | 2010-03-29 04:51:37 UTC | 2010-03-29 04:51:37 UTC | +----+---------------------------+-------------------------+--------------+ 1 row in set
Very nice. We now have a more readable output plus we can see the actual SQL that was generated.
Hope you enjoyed this!
