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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-13T06:47:59+00:00

I’ve recently asked a question about how suitable a DVCS is for the corporate

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I’ve recently asked a question about how suitable a DVCS is for the corporate environment, and that has sparked another question for me.

One of the plus sides to a DVCS seems to be that you can easily branch and try out new things. My problem starts when I begin to think about database changes. I’ve always found it tricky to get a DB into a VCS and it just sounds like it’s going to be even harder with a DVCS.

So, whats the best way to work with databases and a DVCS?

EDIT: I’ve started looking into Migrator.NET. What do people think of projects like this for easily moving between versions specificaly with experimental branches in your DVCS?

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  1. Editorial Team

    I think the best way to deal with this issue is to work with DB Schemas, not the databases themselves. In this case, each developer would have their own database to develop against.

    Here are some of the options available:

    • Migrations framework within Ruby on Rails.
    • South for Django, in addition to the schema being defined in the model classes themselves.
    • Visual Studio 2008 Team System Database Edition for .NET: You define the schema and the tool can do a diff on schema and data to generate scripts to go between different versions of the database.

    These may give you some inspiration on how to deal with putting a database in version control. Another benefit that comes when you deal schemas is that you can more readily implement TDD and Continuous Integration (CI). Your TDD/CI environment would be able to build up a new version of the database and then run tests against the newly generated environment.

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