Application Migrations

Installation and Uninstallation

In order to track which migrations have been ran, cfmigrations needs to install a tracking mechanism. For database migrations this creates a table in your database called cfmigrations by default. You can do this by calling the install() method or by running the migrate install command from commandbox-migrations.

If you find a need to, you can uninstall the migrations tracker by calling the uninstall() method or by running migrate uninstall from commandbox-migrations. Running this method will rollback all ran migrations before removing the migrations tracker.

Configuration

The module is configured by default with a single migration service that interact with your database, optionally using qb. Multiple migration services with different managers may also be configured. The default manager for the cfmigrations is QBMigrationManager, but you may use others, such as those included with the cbmongodb and cbelasticsearch modules or roll your own.

The default configuration for the module settings are:

moduleSettings = {
    "cfmigrations" : {
        "managers" : {
            "default" : {
                // The manager handling and executing the migration files
                "manager" : "cfmigrations.models.QBMigrationManager",
                // The directory containing the migration files
                "migrationsDirectory" : "/resources/database/migrations",
                // The directory containing any seeds, if applicable
                "seedsDirectory" : "/resources/database/seeds",
                // A comma-delimited list of environments which are allowed to run seeds
                "seedEnvironments" : "development",
                "properties" : {
                    "defaultGrammar" : "BaseGrammar@qb"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

With this configuration, the default migration manager may be retrieved via WireBox at migrationService:default.

Here is an example of a multi-manager migrations system. Each separate manager will require their own configuration properties.

moduleSettings = {
    "cfmigrations": {
        "managers": {
            "db1": {
                "manager": "cfmigrations.models.QBMigrationManager",
                "migrationsDirectory": "/resources/database/db1/migrations",
                "seedsDirectory": "/resources/database/db1/seeds",
                "properties": {
                    "defaultGrammar": "MySQLGrammar@qb",
                    "datasource": "db1",
                    "useTransactions": "false",    
                }
            },
            "db2": {
                "manager": "cfmigrations.models.QBMigrationManager",
                "migrationsDirectory": "/resources/database/db2/migrations",
                "seedsDirectory": "/resources/database/db2/seeds",
                "properties": {
                    "defaultGrammar": "PostgresGrammar@qb",
                    "datasource": "db2",
                    "useTransactions": "true"    
                }
            },
            "elasticsearch": {
                "manager": "cbelasticearch.models.migrations.Manager",
                "migrationsDirectory": "/resources/elasticsearch/migrations"
            }
        }
    }
};

With this configuration the individual migration managers would be retreived as such:

  • db1 - getInstance( "migrationService:db1" )

  • db2 - getInstance( "migrationService:db2" )

  • elasticsearch - getInstance( "migrationService:elasticsearch" )

Migration Files

A migration file is a component with two methods up and down. The function up should define how to apply the migration. The function down should define how to undo the change down in up. For QBMigrationManager migrations (which is the default), the up and down functions are passed an instance of SchemaBuilder@qb and QueryBuilder@qb as arguments. To learn more about the functionality and benefits of SchemaBuilder, QueryBuilder, and qb, please read the QB documentation here. In brief, qb offers a fluent, expressive syntax that can be compiled to many different database grammars, providing both readability and flexibility.

Here's the same example as above using qb's SchemaBuilder:

component {

    function up( schema, qb ) {
    	schema.create( "users", function( t ) {
            t.increments( "id" );
            t.string( "email" );
            t.string( "password" );
        } );
    }

    function down( schema, qb ) {
        schema.drop( "users" );
    }

}

Migration files need to follow a specific naming convention — YYYY_MM_DD_HHMISS_[describe_your_changes_here].cfc. This is how cfmigrations knows in what order to run your migrations. Generating these files is made easier with the migrate create command from commandbox-migrations.

Using the injected qb instance, you can insert or update required data for your application. If you want to create test data for your application, take a look at seeders below instead.

There is no limit to what you can do in a migration. It is recommended that you separate changes to different tables to separate migration files to keep things readable.

Running Migrations

There are a few methods for working with migrations. (Each of these methods has a related command in commandbox-migrations.)

These methods can be run by injecting MigrationService@cfmigrations - for example: getInstance( "MigrationService@cfmigrations" ).runAllMigrations( "up" ) will run all migrations.

runNextMigration

Run the next available migration in the desired direction.

runAllMigrations

Run all available migrations in the desired direction.

reset

Returns the database to an empty state by dropping all objects.

findAll

Returns an array of all migrations:

[{
	fileName = "2019_12_18_195831_create-users-table.cfc",
	componentName = "2019_12_18_195831_create-users-table",
	absolutePath = "/var/www/html/app/resources/migrations/2019_12_18_195831_create-users-table.cfc",
	componentPath = "/app/resources/migrations/2019_12_18_195831_create-users-table.cfc",
	timestamp = 123455555,
	migrated = false,
	canMigrateUp = true,
	canMigrateDown = false,
	migratedDate = "2019-03-22"
}]

hasMigrationsToRun

Returns true if there are available migrations which can be run in the provided order.

Seeders

Seeding your database is an optional step that allows you to add data to your database in mass. It is usually used in development to create a populated environment for testing. Seeders should not be used for data required to run your application or to migrate data between columns. Seeders should be seen as entirely optional. If a seeder is never ran, your application should still work.

Seeders can be ran by calling the seed method on a MigrationService. It takes an optional seedName string to only run a specific seeder. Additionally, you can run all your seeders when migrating your database by passing seed = true to the up method.

By default, seeders can only be ran in development environments. This can be configured on each manager by setting a seedEnvironments key to either a list or array of allowed environments to run in.

A seeder is a cfc file with a single required method - run. For the QBMigrationManager, it is passed a QueryBuilder instance and a MockData instance, useful for creating fake data to insert into your database. (Other Migration Managers will have other arguments passed. Please refer to the documentation for your specific manager.)

component {

    function run( qb, mockdata ) {
        qb.table( "users" ).insert(
            mockdata.mock(
                $num = 25,
                "firstName": "firstName",
                "lastName": "lastName",
                "email": "email",
                "password": "string-secure"
            )
        );
    }

}

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