Your rails app has a special folder where you put "tasks" to be run. This folder is...

lib/tasks/

Most people have a task that they use to populate their database with "test data". This powerful feat can be accomplished with the simple command...

$  rake db:populate

But for it to work, you of course need to first define the task "db:populate". Here's a sample definition you're free to look over.


(lib/tasks/sample_data.rake)

namespace :db do
  desc "Fill database with sample data"
  task :populate => :environment do
    Rake::Task['db:reset'].invoke
    make_users
  end
end


def make_users
  admin = User.create!(:email => "[email protected]",
                       :password => "password",
                       :password_confirmation => "password")
  admin.toggle!(:admin)
  
  admin.persons.create(:first_name => "Firstname", :last_name => "LastName", :email => admin.email)
  

  
  99.times do |n|
    name = Faker::Name.name
    email = "example-#{n+1}@railstutorial.org"
    password = "password"
    User.create!(:email => email,
                 :password => password,
                 :password_confirmation => password).persons.create(:first_name => name, :last_name => name, :email => email)
   
    
  end
end

In that task, we first create an admin user, then we make 99 other users. It's very handy for testing with... As your application undergoes changes, you'll likely be watching this file closely and keeping it up to date as you're testing new functionality.

Never Forget

$  rake db:populate