Generate a model

Active Record is a feature of Rails that maps relational databases to Ruby code. It helps generate the structured query language (SQL) for interacting with the database like creating, updating, and deleting tables and records. Our application is using SQLite which is the default for Rails.

Let’s start by adding a database table to our Rails application to add products to our simple e-commerce store. Run the following command in the terminal:

$ bin/rails generate model Product name:string

This command tells Rails to generate a model named Product which has a name column and type of string in the database. Later on, you’ll learn how to add other column types.

You should see the following in your terminal:

      invoke  active_record
      create    db/migrate/20250526151900_create_products.rb
      create    app/models/product.rb
      invoke    test_unit
      create      test/models/product_test.rb
      create      test/fixtures/products.yml

This command does several things. It creates…

1. A migration in the db/migrate folder.
2. An Active Record model in app/models/product.rb.
3. Tests and test fixtures for this model.