diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 9d099ab14adfb26fee47858b20e8e4387bf3dc6d..476b371063446e2cf4f6cbdcaab42c34705cd57b 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -17,9 +17,7 @@ end
 desc "Run Jasmine specs for comments backend"
 task :jasmine do
   # Initialize database with test data
-  test_db = "comments_test"
-  system("mysql #{test_db} < comments/sql/schema.sql")
-  system("mysql #{test_db} < comments/sql/test_data.sql")
+  system("cd comments/; node load_test_db.js")
 
   # run jasmine tests against that database
   system("node comments/node_modules/jasmine-node/lib/jasmine-node/cli.js comments/spec/")
diff --git a/comments/load_test_db.js b/comments/load_test_db.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ba1980336a1ea05d95f2f516341f01f07d317476
--- /dev/null
+++ b/comments/load_test_db.js
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+var config = require("./config.js");
+var exec = require('child_process').exec;
+
+// Load database connection config
+var db = config.testDb.database;
+var user = config.testDb.user ? " -u "+config.testDb.user : "";
+var pass = config.testDb.password ? " -p"+config.testDb.password : "";
+var cmd = "mysql " + db + user + pass;
+
+// Initialize database with test data
+exec(cmd+" < sql/schema.sql", function(err){
+    if (err) console.log(err);
+    exec(cmd+" < sql/test_data.sql", function(err){
+        if (err) console.log(err);
+    });
+});