SwitchPoint

Switching database connection between readonly one and writable one.

Maintenance notice

switch_point won't support upcoming ActiveRecord v6.1 or later. Developers should use the builtin multiple database feature introduced in ActiveRecord v6.0. https://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_multiple_databases.html Thus the supported ActiveRecord version is v3.2, v4.0, v4.1, v4.2, v5.0, v5.1, and v5.2.

switch_point won't accept any new features. Bug fixes might be accepted. If you'd like to add a new feature (and/or support ActiveRecord >= v6.1), feel free to fork switch_point gem.

Migration from switch_point to ActiveRecord multiple database feature

1. Upgrade your activerecord gem to v6.0
   • ActiveRecord v6.0 is the only series which supports both builtin multiple database feature and switch_point.
2. Change your application to use ActiveRecord multiple database feature
   • If you'd like to keep the number of connections during this step, it would require some tricks.
3. Remove switch_point gem from your Gemfile
4. Upgrade your activerecord gem to v6.1 or later

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'switch_point'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install switch_point

Usage

Suppose you have 4 databases: db-blog-master, db-blog-slave, db-comment-master and db-comment-slave. Article model and Category model are stored in db-blog-{master,slave} and Comment model is stored in db-comment-{master,slave}.

Configuration

In database.yml:

production_blog_master:
  adapter: mysql2
  username: blog_writable
  host: db-blog-master
production_blog_slave:
  adapter: mysql2
  username: blog_readonly
  host: db-blog-slave
production_comment_master:
    ...

In initializer:

SwitchPoint.configure do |config|
  config.define_switch_point :blog,
    readonly: :"#{Rails.env}_blog_slave",
    writable: :"#{Rails.env}_blog_master"
  config.define_switch_point :comment,
    readonly: :"#{Rails.env}_comment_slave",
    writable: :"#{Rails.env}_comment_master"
end

In models:

class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
  use_switch_point :blog
end

class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
  use_switch_point :blog
end

class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
  use_switch_point :comment
end

Switching connections

Article.with_readonly { Article.first } # Read from db-blog-slave
Category.with_readonly { Category.first } # Also read from db-blog-slave
Comment.with_readonly { Comment.first } # Read from db-comment-slave

Article.with_readonly do
  article = Article.first  # Read from db-blog-slave
  article.title = 'new title'
  Article.with_writable do
    article.save!  # Write to db-blog-master
    article.reload  # Read from db-blog-master
    Category.first  # Read from db-blog-master
  end
end

Note that Article and Category shares their connections.

Query cache

Model.cache and Model.uncached enables/disables query cache for both readonly connection and writable connection.

switch_point also provide a rack middleware SwitchPoint::QueryCache similar to ActiveRecord::QueryCache. It enables query cache for all models using switch_point.

# Replace ActiveRecord::QueryCache with SwitchPoint::QueryCache
config.middleware.swap ActiveRecord::QueryCache, SwitchPoint::QueryCache

# Enable query cache for :nanika1 only.
config.middleware.swap ActiveRecord::QueryCache, SwitchPoint::QueryCache, [:nanika1]

Notes

auto_writable

auto_writable is disabled by default.

When auto_writable is enabled, destructive queries is sent to writable connection even in readonly mode. But it does NOT work well on transactions.

Suppose after_save callback is set to User model. When User.create is called, it proceeds as follows.

1. BEGIN TRANSACTION is sent to READONLY connection.
2. switch_point switches the connection to WRITABLE.
3. INSERT statement is sent to WRITABLE connection.
4. switch_point reset the connection to READONLY.
5. after_save callback is called.
   • At this point, the connection is READONLY and in a transaction.
6. COMMIT TRANSACTION is sent to READONLY connection.

connection-related methods of model

Model has several connection-related methods: connection_handler, connection_pool, connected? and so on. Since only connection method is monkey-patched, other connection-related methods doesn't work properly. If you'd like to use those methods, send it to Model.switch_point_proxy.model_for_connection.

Internals

There's a proxy which holds two connections: readonly one and writable one. A proxy has a thread-local state indicating the current mode: readonly or writable.

Each ActiveRecord model refers to a proxy. ActiveRecord::Base.connection is hooked and delegated to the referred proxy.

When the writable connection is requested to execute destructive query, the readonly connection clears its query cache.

Special case: ActiveRecord::Base.connection

Basically, each connection managed by a proxy isn't shared between proxies. But there's one exception: ActiveRecord::Base.

If :writable key is omitted (e.g., Nanika1 model in spec/models), it uses ActiveRecord::Base.connection as writable one. When ActiveRecord::Base.connection is requested to execute destructive query, all readonly connections managed by a proxy which uses ActiveRecord::Base.connection as a writable connection clear query cache.

Contributing

1. Fork it ( https://github.com/eagletmt/switch_point/fork )
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create a new Pull Request