NAME

App::JESP - Just Enough SQL Patches

SYNOPSIS

Use the command line utility:

jesp

Or use from your own program (in Perl):

my $jesp = App::JESP->new({
    interactive => 0, # No ANSI color
    home        => 'path/to/jesphome',
    dsn         => ...,
    username    => ...,
    password    => ...
});

$jesp->install();
$jesp->deploy();

CONFIGURATION

All JESP configuration must live in a JESP home directory.

This home directory must contain a plan.json file, containing the patching plan for your DB. See plan.json section below for the format of this file.

plan.json

This file MUST live in your JESP home directory. It has to contain a json datastructure like this:

{
  "patches": [
      { "id":"foobar_sql",        "sql":  "CREATE TABLE foobar(id INT PRIMARY KEY)"},
      { "id":"foobar_rel",        "file": "patches/morefoobar.sql" }
      { "id":"foobar_abs",        "file": "/absolute/path/to/patches/evenmore.sql" },
      { "id":"a_backfill_script", "file": "path/to/executable/file.sh" },
  ],
}

Patches MUST have a unique id in all the plan, and they can either contain raw SQL (sql key), or point to a file (absolute, or relative to the JESP home) containing the SQL.

The id is a VARCHAR(512). While it doesn't indicate any ordering, a simple and useful way to keep the IDs unique is to provide a date/timestamp (of when the patch was authored) plus a free form description of the change.

The JSON file is parsed with the relaxed flag, which means it can contain trailing commas (and # comments). The trailing commas are particularly useful, since commit diffs and merge conflicts will be contained to the new line that was added.

You are encouraged to look in https://github.com/jeteve/App-JESP/tree/master/t for examples.

PATCH TYPES

sql

Simply add the SQL statement to execute in your patch structure:

{
  "patches": [
      ...
      { "id":"2017-11-02: create table foobar", "sql": "CREATE TABLE foobar(id INT PRIMARY KEY)"}
      ...
}

This is convenient for very short SQL statment.

sql files

Point to a file that contains SQL statement(s) to be executed. The filename can be either absolute or relative to the directory that contains the plan.

{
  "patches": [
       ...
      { "id":"2017-11-08: (rel) more foobar", "file": "patches/morefoobar.sql" }
      { "id":"2017-11-12: (abs) even more", "file": "/absolute/path/to/patches/evenmore.sql" },
       ...
  ]
}

The directory structure is free, but of course you are encouraged to keep it clean.

script files (Unix only)

Point to an EXECUTABLE file. (absolute or relative to the plan directory):

{
  "patches": [
      ...
      { "id":"a_backfill_script", "file": "path/to/executable/file.sh" }
      ...
  ]
}

See APP::JESP::Driver#apply_script to see what environment the script is being run in. Note that the script needs to be executable by the current user to be detected as a script.

COMPATIBILITY

Compatibility of the meta-schema with SQLite, MySQL and PostgreSQL is guaranteed through automated testing. To see which versions are actually tested, look at the CI build: https://travis-ci.org/jeteve/App-JESP/

DRIVERS

This comes with the following built-in drivers:

SQLite

Just in case. Note that your patches will be executed in the same connection this uses to manage the metadata.

mysql

This will use the `mysql` executable on the disk (will look for it in PATH) to execute your patches, exactly like you would do on the command line.

Pg

This will use a new connection to the Database to execute the patches. This is to allow you using BEGIN ; COMMIT; to make your patch transactional without colliding with the Meta data management transaction.

Your own driver

Should you want to write your own driver, simply extend App::JESP::Driver and implement any method you like (most likely you will want apply_sql).

To use your driver, simply give its class to the constuctor:

my $jesp = App::JESP->new({ .., driver_class => 'My::App::JESP::Driver::SpecialDB' });

Or if you prefer to build an instance yourself:

my $jesp;
$jesp = App::JESP->new({ .., driver => My::App::JESP::Driver::SpecialDB->new({ jesp => $jesp,  ... ) });

MOTIVATIONS & DESIGN

Over the years as a developer, I have used at least three ways of managing SQL patches. The ad-hoc way with a hand-rolled system which is painful to re-implement, the DBIx::Class::Migration way which I didn't like at all, and more recently App::Sqitch which I sort of like.

All these systems somehow just manage to do the job, but unless they are very complicated (there are no limits to hand-rolled complications..) they all fail to provide a sensible way for a team of developers to work on database schema changes at the same time.

So I decided the world needs yet another SQL patch management system that does what my team and I really really want.

Here are some design principles this package is attempting to implement:

• Write your own SQL

  No funny SQL generated from code here. By nature, any ORM will always lag behind its target DBs' features. This means that counting on software to generate SQL statement from your ORM classes will always prevent you from truly using the full power of your DB of choice.

  With App::JESP, you have to write your own SQL for your DB, and this is a good thing.

• No version numbers

  App::JESP simply keeps track of which ones of your named patches are applied to the DB. Your DB version is just that: The subset of patches that were applied to it. This participates in allowing several developers to work on different parts of the DB in parallel.

• No fuss patch ordering

  The order in which patches are applied is important. But it is not important to the point of enforcing exactly the same order on every DB the patches are deployed to. App::JESP applies the named patches in the order it finds them in the plan, only taking into account the ones that have not been applied yet. This allows developer to work on their development DB and easily merge patches from other developers.

• JSON Based

  This is the 21st century, and I feel like I shouldn't invent my own file format. This uses JSON like everything else.

• Simple but complex things allowed.

  You will find no complex feature in App::JESP, and we pledge to keep the meta schema simple, to allow for easy repairs if things go wrong.

• Programmable

  It's great to have a convenient command line tool to work and deploy patches, but maybe your development process, or your code layout is a bit different. If you use App::JESP from Perl, it should be easy to embed and run it yourself.

• What about reverting?

  Your live DB is not the place to test your changes. Your DB at Version N should be compatible with Code at Version N-1. You are responsible for testing that.

  We'll probably implement reverting in the future, but for now we assume you know what you're doing when you patch your DB.

METHODS

install

Installs or upgrades the JESP meta tables in the database. This is idempotent. Note that the JESP meta table(s) will be all prefixed by **$this-**prefix()>.

Returns true on success. Will die on error.

Usage:

$this->install();

status

Returns the list of App::JESP::Patch with their application Datetime if this is known. This will ALSO return the orphans (patches that are recorded as applied but not in the plan).

Usage:

my $status = $this->status();

$status is like:
   {
      plan_patches => [ list of App::JESP::Patch ],
      plan_orphans => [ list of orphan patch IDs ]
   };

deploy

Deploys the unapplied patches from the plan in the database and record the new DB state in the meta schema. Dies if the meta schema is not installed (see install method).

Returns the number of patches applied.

Usage:

print "Applied ".$this->deploy()." patches";

Options:

• patches [ 'patch_one' , 'patch_two' ]

  Specify the patches to apply. This is useful in combination with force (to force a data producing patch to run for instance), or with logonly.

• force 1|0

  Force patches applications, regardless of the fact they have been applied already or not. Note that it does not mean it's ok for the patches to fail. Any failing patch will still terminate the deploy method. This is particularly useful in combination with the 'patches' option where you can choose which patch to apply. Defaults to 0.

• logonly 1|0

  Only record the application of patches in the metadata, without effectively applying them.

DEVELOPMENT

COPYRIGHT

This software is released under the Artistic Licence by Jerome Eteve. Copyright 2016. A copy of this licence is enclosed in this package.