Often when diving into a new codebase or set of codebases the data model is the best way to get a sense for what's going on. But if it's been around for a while there'll be quite a few models that are no longer in use, models that use STI, and if it's part of a larger system, models that read/write to a different database with establish_connection. I like to be able put all models in a big spreadsheet where I can 1. Sort by updated_at to see which ones are no longer in use, and 2. Order by name and read down through them one by one. This snippet, run from a rails command line, helps me do that.

Main Snippet

errors = []
models_and_databases = ActiveRecord::Base.descendants.map do |model|
  begin
    connection_spec = model.connection_pool.spec
    database_name = connection_spec.config[:database] || 'Unknown'
    table_name = model.table_name

    begin
      # Check if the model's table has an 'updated_at' column
      if model.column_names.include?('updated_at')
        # Fetch the latest updated_at value
        last_updated = model.order(updated_at: :desc).limit(1).pluck(:updated_at).first
      else
        last_updated = nil
      end
    rescue => e
      last_updated = nil
    end

    [model.name, { database: database_name, table: table_name, last_updated: last_updated }]
  rescue => e

    errors << "Error processing model: #{model.name}"
    errors << "Error message: #{e.message}"
    next
  end
end.compact.to_h

Print out the hash

models_and_databases.each do |model_name, details|
  puts "#{model_name}, #{details[:table]}, #{details[:database]}, #{details[:last_updated]}"
end;0

To add this to an airtable:

• Copy paste it into a new text file

• Do a find and replace for , - replace all occurences with the tab character.

• Copy and paste this into an airtable with the relevant 4 columns