Rails Rake: How to pass in arguments to a task with :environment

Question

So I am able to pass in arguments as follows

desc "Testing args"
task: :hello, :user, :message do |t, args|
  args.with_defaults(:message => "Thanks for logging on")
  puts "Hello #{args[:user]}. #{:message}"
end

I am also able to load the current environment for a Rails application

desc "Testing environment"
task: :hello => :environment do 
  puts "Hello #{User.first.name}."
end

What I would like to do is be able to have variables and environment

desc "Testing environment and variables"
task: :hello => :environment, :message do |t, args|
  args.with_defaults(:message => "Thanks for logging on")
  puts "Hello #{User.first.name}. #{:message}"
end

But that is not a valid task call. Does anyone know how I can achieve this?

Answer 1

Take a look at this article by Jay Fields: http://blog.jayfields.com/2006/10/rake-tasks-with-parameters.html

Answer 2

When you pass in arguments to rake tasks, you can require the environment using the :needs option. For example:

desc "Testing environment and variables"
task :hello, :message, :needs => :environment do |t, args|
  args.with_defaults(:message => "Thanks for logging on")
  puts "Hello #{User.first.name}. #{:message}"
end

Answer 3

http://rake.rubyforge.org/files/doc/rakefile%5Frdoc.html

Answer 4

Just for completeness, here the example from the docs mentioned above:

   task :name, [:first_name, :last_name] => [:pre_name] do |t, args|
     args.with_defaults(:first_name => "John", :last_name => "Dough")
     puts "First name is #{args.first_name}"
     puts "Last  name is #{args.last_name}"
   end

Notes:

• You may omit the #with_defaults call, obviously.
• You have to use an Array for your arguments, even if there is only one.
• The prerequisites do not need to be an Array.
• args is an instance of Rake::TaskArguments.
• t is an instance of Rake::Task.