Migration Builder: never google Rails migration syntax again

Do you remember off the top of your head the exact migration syntax for…

  • Changing the type of a column?
  • Adding an association with a foreign key?
  • Adding a unique index?

Me neither. There’s also a lot of other migration syntax I don’t remember.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were some kind of interactive tool that prompted you for database changes so you never had to google Rails migration syntax again?

Introducing: Migration Builder

Migration Builder is exactly that. It’s a command-line tool that prompts you for the change you want to make (add column, remove column, create table, drop table, etc.) so you yourself don’t have to remember (or look up) the Rails migration syntax.

It currently only exists in the proof-of-concept form demonstrated in the following video, but if enough people tell me that it looks like something they’d use, I’ll invest the effort into building a fully useful version.

If Migration Builder looks useful to you, please share this page or Twitter or share a link with someone you know who would also enjoy it.

I would also welcome suggestions, which you can send to me on Twitter or at jason@codewithjason.com.

Update: Migration Builder has gotten sufficient interest that I extracted it into a gem. You can find the repo here. It’s currently in a very rough state, so set your expectations accordingly.