Export a CSV on a production Rails Server

rails_production_csv_export.rb

# When ran in the rails console, this code will create and place a 
# new csv file in the tmp directory of your rails app. Once done,
# simply exit the rails console and cd into the tmp directory, cat
# the file, and copy its content to a local file. There are probably
# better ways to do this but this does work. Be sure to clean up 
# after yourself by rm'ing the file when youre done with it.

require 'csv'

zoo = Zoo.find(id)
animals = zoo.animals

CSV.open("tmp/#{zoo.name}-animals-export.csv", "wb") do |csv|
  csv << ["Class", "Genus", "Name", "Age"]
  
  animals.each do |animal|
    csv << [
      animal.animal_class.name,
      animal.animal_genus.name,
      animal.name,
      animal.age,
    ]
  end
end