Managing incremental schema updates in sqlite - sqlite

I'm using SQLite for a few small projects and I've run into an issue today that is easily solved using other SQL databases but apparently it's a major stumbling block here.
Typically, we manage schema updates using a separate file for each update...
setup.001.sql
setup.002.sql
...
setup.011.sql
etc.
Through the use of various if statements, we can check if certain schema updates need to be performed within the SQL scripts themselves such that it's simply a matter of executing each script in order to bring any version of the database to the current version.
So I've found a couple of issues with this in SQLite:
There does not appear to be an if statement
There does not appear to be a clean way to retrieve PRAGMA user_version into a local variable for checking
How then, does one execute updates dependent on this information internally within a SQL Script? I do not want to have to code a separate update script in another language just to be able to run these scripts conditionally. This seems like a pretty basic need for any database provider.

SQLite is an embedded database; it is designed to be used together with a 'real' programming language. You have to put the logic into your own application.
The output of PRAGMA user_version can be read like the output of any other query.

Related

Execute Flyway calback and report it inhistory table

I use flyway 8.5.0 and I want that my beforeMigrate or my afterMigrate sql is reported in the history table. Is this feaseable? or is there any config to setup this?
Then an other question: my repetable only runs when they change (checksum) but for my understanding the repetible sql should run every time. not so?
The beforeMigrate and afterMigrate SQL wont appear in your history table. If you look at the tutorial example for callbacks you can see that beforeMigrate can be called before the schema history table is created which would cause issues if it was trying to add itself to it. Additionally, I'm assuming these will be mostly static executions and would not really be part of the version history.
https://flywaydb.org/documentation/tutorials/callbacks
For repeatable, no they are only applied when the checksum has changed.
Repeatable migrations are very useful for managing database objects whose definition can then simply be maintained in a single file in version control. Instead of being run just once, they are (re-)applied every time their checksum changes.
https://flywaydb.org/documentation/tutorials/repeatable

Migration Script Precedence

I'm investigating how Flyaway works to see if it's suitable for our upgrade and migration needs.
Can somebody tell me if Flyaway automatically handles precedence so that for example, if a table has a trigger, it creates the table before attempting to create the trigger, or is the user responsible to manually creating and ordering the actual SQL Statements required in each schema update?
The latter - Flyway does not keep knowledge of the dependencies between database objects (as it's a very large and gnarly problem, and it's highly db-dependent). Which database do you use? A tool like Redgate Schema Compare will generate the script with all the correct dependency orderings for you.

Loading reference data tables using Flyway

Our application has a number of tables containing reference data. We have been using the traditional Flyway approach of creating delta files for each change in data but with frequent changes its a bit hard to manage this way. It would be easier to have a script with a truncate followed by inserts to reload the table from scratch and when data changes the developer would edit this file as needed.
Is there a clean way to accomplish this in Flyway without generating checksum errors? Hopefully without creating a new version of the load script each time a change is needed.
Have you tried adding your reference data as a beforeMigrate callback script?
"Using the default settings, Flyway looks in its default locations (/sql) for the Command-line tool) for SQL files like beforeMigrate.sql, beforeEachMigrate.sql, afterEachMigrate.sql"

Flyway usage: what exactly is the migration concept?

I looked at the Flyway samples and documentation and tried to understand if it is useful in my environment.
The following conceptual detail is unclear to me: How does Flyway manage the changes between database versions? It obviously does NOT compare database life-instances (see answer here:Can Flyway find out and generate migration files from datamodel?)
In detail my setup looks like this:
I create SQL create and insert scripts when coding (automatically and manually). This means every version of my database is represented by a number of insert/create statements.
In my world I execute these scripts through a database tool (sqlplus from Oracle). Each run would setup the database _from_scratch_ (!).
Can I put these very same scripts 1 to 1 inside the "migration" path of Flyway? What happens if the target database is way older than the last "migration step" I did (or flyway did not yet exist when it was installed)?
Update:
I got some input from another Flyway user:
It seems like each "migration" (version of the database) has to be hand-written SQL/Java code and contains only "updates" from the previous "migration" of database.
If this is true, I wonder how this can be used with traditional coding technics: in my world SQL statements are generated automatically and contain all database init/create statements, not just "updates" to some previous version. If my SQL code generator could do that, then I wouldn't even need a tool like Flyway :-).
Your question about "how to handle a DB that has a longer history than there are migration scripts?" You need to create a V1_ migration/sql script that matches/recreates your latest DB schema. Something that can take a blank DB to what you have today. Create/generate that sql script using your existing DB tools and then put it in flyways migration directory. (And test V1 by using flyway against a clean DB and see if you get what you expect.) http://flywaydb.org/documentation/existing.html
After that point in time, all later versions must be added in as you work. When you decide you need a new table, in your dev environment, write a new V*_.sql that modifies your schema to the way you need it.
This blog goes over this situation for a Spring/SQL application. https://blog.synyx.de/2012/10/database-migration-using-flyway-and-spring-and-existing-data/

Backing and restoring SQL Server data to changed database structure

The scenario is this. I have a SQL Server database online that I am demoing an application. During development, I have added extra fields, modified field types, changed keys and added some new tables locally.
What's the best way for me to update the online database with the new structure and not lose the data? The database is a SQL Server 2005 one.
Download a trial of Red Gate SQL Compare, compare your two servers and you are done. If you do this often, it is well worth the $400, or get one of their bundles for a better bang for the buck.
And I do not work for Red Gate, just a happy customer!
Write update scripts to modify your live database structure to the new structure, as well as inserting any data which is required.
You may find it necessary to use temporary tables to do this.
It's probably best if you test this process on a test environment, before running the scripts on the live environment.
Depending on what exactly you've done you may be able to get away with alter statements, though from the sounds of it (removing keys and whatnot) you're doing some heavy lifting that may make that a less-than-ideal solution. You should probably look into creating a maintenance plan or, better yet, a SQL Server Integration Services project in Visual Studio. You should be able to migrate the data in the existing database to a new one using those tools.
This probably isn't of huge help retrospectively, but I always script all structural DB changes to my development database and then using a version number to determine the current version of the DB I can run the required scripts on the live DB, hence bringing it back in line at the same time as the new code is uploaded.
This also works for any content changes, for instance if the change in the underlying structure has an effect on the conent stored you can also write scripts to migrate the data accordingly.
Make a copy of the existing database to copy from.
Make another copy and alter it to your new schema. save DDL for reuse.
Write queries that copy data from #1 to #2. Save the queries for reuse.
Check the results.
Repeat until done.

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