Sqlite3 to PostgreSQL on Rails App

Switching project database from Sqlite3 to PostgreSQL

To deploy your Ruby on Rails Application to Heroku, you need one of three database management PostgreSQL, Redis or Apache Kafka, in this blog, we will go through how to switch the project database from SQLite3 to PostgreSQL.

Installing PostgreSQL

First, you need to make sure that PostgreSQL is installed and running in your machine, you can use this link to download it. and follow up on this video to install it.

Updating Gemfile

Remove or comment the Sqlite gem

and you’ll need to replace it with

Re-install your dependencies by running

bundle install

Update config/database.yml file

Your file looks should like this:

Change this file to look like this:

Note that the database name is your project name adding _development, in my this it’s your_project_name_development. And for the test is your_project_name_test, you also may add your Mac name to the username.

Create and Migrate

To create the database in your project sample run the below code in your terminal

rake db:setup

This will create the database and then migrate the table by running

rails db:migrate

You may check to ensure that everything is set up correctly by running the rails server.

rails server

At this point, your App will be running but no data in it, if you want to copy the data from the previous database (SQLite) to the new Database (Postgres). there are a few ways. below are some helpful links to do this migration

Migrate your data from SQLite to PostgreSQL

What is the best way to copy my SQLite database to PostgreSQL so I can deploy it to Heroku?

Happy coding !!!