Monday, June 19, 2006
Sundog Releases Early Access Database Migration Tool
byLast week, Sundog released a new software development tool that was derived from several years of integration development. This early release of the Sundog Database Refactoring Tool (SDRT) is primarily a java component library for developing database independent migration paths.
Most Web developers can attest to the pains they feel each time they release a new version of their site to production. Because database schemas have a tendency to change from revision to revision, the risk for messing up or losing critical customer data increases with each release.
The migration tool SDRT helps to ease that pain and mitigate risk by tracking the evolutionary change that occurs during the development life cycle. Developers record changes as XML markup with a unique identifier. The tool uses the XML transaction log to play the changes back from any revision state of the database.
Because the change log is text-based, it works well within a development team with multiple committers and even plays nice with one’s favorite IDE. Using standard revision control systems such as CVS, a release manager can also role back to previous states of database.
Sundog released the tool for early access and feedback in preparation for a more final release coming soon.
