I am working on a Yii framework based app where I have to test the app on my local machine and then when ready move the changes to the production server.
the app will be developed as people are using it and ask for new features. So when I make changes to my DB schema on the test machine I have to apply these to the schema of the production DB without destroying data there.
is there a recommended and convenient way to deal with this? syncing source code is less of an issue, i am using svn and can do svn export ; rsync …
MySQLWorkbench can be helpful for syncing db schema as well as other database design tasks.
Yii does support Migrations (since v1.1.6), although it can be more trouble than it’s worth depending on how often you make changes and how collaborative your project is.
Another approach I’ve used is to keep a log of update statements in svn and basically handled the migrations manually.
The best approach is going to depend on the cost/benefits to your particular project/workflow.