Working with CMS fixtures

Sofa allows you to build entire site using files instead of updating database via admin area. This significantly speeds up initial content population. Go to the initializer and set this to enable fixtures in development environment: config.enable_fixtures = Rails.env.development?. You may also change the folder that is used to store fixtures.

If you run rails generate cms you should find an example set of fixtures in /db/cms_fixtures.

When fixtures are enabled, database is updated with each request, but only if fixture file is newer than the database entry. Database is also purged of items that are not defined in fixtures. So be careful not to clear out your database by mistake.

Importing into Database

To load fixtures into the database just run this rake task: rake comfortable_mexican_sofa:fixtures:import FROM=example.local TO=example.com. from indicates folder the fixtures are in and to is the Site hostname you have defined in the database.

Exporting into Files

If you need to dump database contents into fixture files run: rake comfortable_mexican_sofa:fixtures:export FROM=example.com TO=example.local. This will create example.local folder and dump all content from example.com Site.

Using Fixtures in tests

All you need to do is create a rake task like this:

namespace :test do
  task :prepare do
    ENV['FROM'] = 'localhost'
    ENV['TO']   = 'test.host'
    Rake::Task['comfortable_mexican_sofa:fixtures:import'].invoke
  end
end

Now, when runnining rake or rake:test CMS fixtures will be loaded in.