$ rope my_project

Then you edit config/environment.rb which contains the establish_connection call.

Then:

$ util/build model my_model

You can include your models in any report via
require "data/models"

When you generate reports or renderers, the tests are scaffolded for you.

Again, it's geared towards Ruport, but it comes in handy for some things. :)

If you get newgem to do some of this stuff, let us know!

[0] http://ruportbook.com/rope.html