Thread

Good day everyone,

i have a general question and would like to know how some of you handle database differences?
I mean i have a development server and a live server. In the past i was the only developer who start to develop new areas on my dev system and integrated also some new entries for existing channels etc. and than pushed it on the live server.

The first question is how you handle this annoying task to have both systems in sync?
I did it normally that way. Saved the actual live version and database, deleted everything and pushed my dev version on the live server.
The only thing i saved and migrate into the dev database where some of the member logging data and some search parameters.
But this task takes also a lot minutes hours, deleting everything, compare databases, a long upload run which also is never stable via ftp transmit, but it was better at the last time.

The second question is, how you compare the different channel entries between your dev and live system.
I have now more members also in the live version who updates different categories of the live system.
Now i’m not able to push the database from dev to live anymore, because the dev and live version is out of sync.

Would be interesting how you handle that with ee. Maybe there is good plugin especially for that task, but i thing i have to write some migration scripts which i think i’m not able to do very easily. I would be thankful for any of your ideas and shares of your way to handle this task.

Best

Peter

Hello Peter,

Thank you for posting your question here on the ExpressionEngine forums. This is an excellent question. Unfortunately I do not have a good answer.

Version control, like Git, is how must keep up with multiple environments, but keeping the DB in sync automatically is a bit of bear. I am not aware of any way to do this. Export and import is how I see it usually handled.

I can move this over to the Community Help Forum where I am sure you will get some more input. What do you think?

Please let me know if there is anything else I can help with.

Cheers,

Not the same but I thought I’d add in a link to my post as well because this is all about how to use the latest technology and techniques with EE.

http://ellislab.com/forums/viewthread/216854/

I still haven’t found a good solution to the above. I have everything external and manageable apart from the the DB. Clients assume if you have a development server and they add content; the code and content will go across to live.

Personally I keep notes of CP changes and Addons I install during development of an existing site and then apply those when going live. Not ideal as pure code can go live via GIT in seconds and if anything goes wrong easily rolled back but manual adjustments have the potential to go very wrong.

MySQL does have the ability to track changes but I’ve not used it. Might be a great Addon in there somewhere!

DevDemons new Updater along with DataGrab to move content might be a good combo. It’s on my list to test.
http://www.devdemon.com/updater/
http://brandnewbox.co.uk/products/details/datagrab