# Active Orient and Rails
The usage of Orientdb via ActiveOrient in Rails requires just a few steps.
Based on a Rails 5 installation
```ruby
rvm install 2.4
rvm use 2.4
gem install bundler
gem install nokogiri
gem install rails
rails -v # Rails 5.0.1
```
create your working directory and initialize the system
```ruby
mkdir rails_project; cd rails_project
rails new -OCT .
```
This initializes a Rails-Stack, without active-record, action-cable and the test-suite.
(We will use rspec later)
This can be checked by inspecting «/config/application.rb «
```ruby
rails s puma
```
should work at this stage.
## Modify the Gemfile
Inform rails to use orientdb and active-orient
```
echo " gem 'active-orient' , :path => '/home/your_cloned_active_orient_path/activeorient' " >> Gemfile
# or
echo " gem 'active-orient' , :git => 'https://github.com/topofocus/active-orient.git' " >> Gemfile
```
Run the bundler
```
bundle install & bundle update
```
## Copy Initializer and Configuration Files
change to the base-dir of the gem
--> bundle show active-orient
then copy
* rails/activeorient.rb to config/initializers in the rails-project dir
* rails/connect.yml to config in the rails project
* rails/config.yml to config in the rails project
and modify the yml-files accordingly.
(Depending on your settings, you might have to adjust tab-levels)
The database is present in the rails console, and
```ruby
rails c
puts ActiveOrient:show_classes
V.count
V.first
E.count
```
should display details.
**Notice** The spring-facility is running in the background. Stop the server prior reloading
the console ( ./bin/spring stop ).
## Model-files
The final step is to generate Model-Files.
In «/config/config.yml» the «:model_dir»-var points to
the location of the model-files. The default is 'lib/orient'. Change to your needs.
Don't use the app directory, as its autoloaded too early.
Upon startup, present model-classes are destroyed and overridden by present files in the autoload directory.
After envoking the rails console, the logfile displays sucessfully loaded and missing files, ie.
```
14.01.(08:28:45) INFO->ModelClass#RequireModelFile:..:model-file not present: /home/topo/workspace/orient-rails/lib/orient/followed_by.rb
14.01.(08:28:45) INFO->ModelClass#RequireModelFile:..:/home/topo/workspace/orient-rails/lib/orient/v.rb sucessfully loaded
```
## Model-file Example
To query the GratefulDeadConcerts Database, «v.rb» hosts the essential model methods.
As always, use «def self.{method}« for class methods and simply «def {method}» for methods working on the record level.
```
1 class V
2 def self.artists **attributes
3 names 'artist', **attributes
4 end
5
6 def self.songs **attributes
7 names 'song', **attributes
8 end
9
10 def self.types
11 oo = OrientSupport::OrientQuery
12 this_query = oo.new distinct: [:type, :a ] # --> "select distinct( type ) as a "
13 query_database( this_query ).a # returns an array of types, i.e. ["artist", "song"]
14 end
15 private
16 def self.names type, sort: :asc, limit: 20, skip: 0
17 puts "in names"
18 oo = OrientSupport::OrientQuery
19 query_database oo.new( where: {type: type },
20 order: { name: sort } ,
21 limit: limit ,
22 skip: skip )
23 end
24 end
```
Now
```ruby
V.types
V.artists limit: 15, skip: 34, sort: :desc
```
queries the database, fetches 15 artists.
## Routing
for now, restful routing has some restrictions.
Rails-routing is depending on the "id"-attribute. Even if this is remapped to rid, the ressources-entries in "config/routes.rb" have to be modified by
```ruiby
resources :{controller}, id: /[^\/]+/
```
this enables the usage of id: "xx:yy"
In the controller the record is fetched as usual:
```ruby
def show
@{your coice} = {ActiveOrient-Model-Class}.autoload_object params[:id]
end
```