Rails 2.0 apps without a database

If you are interested in spinning up a Rails app without a database, it is a little trickier in 2.0 than in previous versions. Do the following:


rails nodbspike
script/generate controller hello


This sets up a basic Rails app with a controller. Modify app/controllers/hello_controller.rb to include the following:


def index
  render :text => "Hello, world!"
end


You now have a basic controller set up. Let’s tell Rails not to use ActiveRecord. We do that by opening up config/environment.rb and adding the following line:

config.frameworks -= [ :active_record ]

So far, this is how you’d do this in Rails 1.x. However, in 2.0 they introduced a new file which will also try to use ActiveRecord. So open up the config/initializers/new_rails_defaults.rb file and comment out the two ActiveRecord lines.

You should now be able to fire up script/server, browse to http://localhost:3000/hello and code away!