#django

So I lost 14 days of work. How do I NOT do that next time...

if south messes up - what do I do after 6 months?

losse all 6 months?

at the cost of altering a fucking table!

xeberdee: What particular problem are you worried about?

As a general principle, develop your migrations on a machine where you are working on a copy of the database

Test your migrations several times

Have a proper release procedure

I have all the migrations from development

Then deploy to staging, and then deploy to production

they just don't work

I don't know what that means.

Define "don't work"

The cost (and risk) of having migrations is far lower than the cost (and risk) of not having them.

work = function, don't = opposite of does

4:40am. Think it might be time I turn in

I don't think I can explain any clearer

"it doesn't work" is an unhelpful sob story.

CapnKernel: Thanks for your help btw.

Please read the South documentation so you understand the problem that South tries to solve, and the way in which it goes about solving it.

You're very welcome.

I don't think django is for me

Perhaps so

If you're looking for something a little lighter, you might consider Flask

I did everything by the book.

Including read it?

I read the docs, not all south - but

The first half is ok

you honestly think it's possible to develop a site with reading ?? honestly

My honest answer is that it takes reading, practice, listening and reflection. There's no royal road.

Please do have a look at Flask, as it's also Python, but quite a bit lighter weight than Django

btw, what do you use for version control?

you mean git

git's one way, yes

I use it.

Some people have multiple deployments of their website and don't even have version control. Wow.

as far as I can see it will be beneficial later, but for now - it's just me

You don't have to use South

If you think you're fine without it, then that's ok.

I don't know how to do it without south - just trash the database and start from scratch every time. I thought the idea was that I could, kkep the data in the db - but now I have to trash it.

I don't think you have to trash anything

to implement the new functions

At least South isn't forcing you to trash it.

Hell, none of us trash our databases!

no - but I can't get it to work

Well, we can help you with that.

You might be throwing the baby out with the bathwater

it won't migrate, and it seems I have to go back to initial

The fact is that database schemas, and the interpretation of the data in our databases, changes over time. South helps keep those changes consistent across deployments, and gives us control about when those changes happen.

When you talk in broad terms (for example, "it doesn't work"), it doesn't give us the info we need to help you.

CapnKernel: I just gave you 4 hours worth :)

By "it won't migrate", do you mean the message that your categories table already exists?

CapnKernel: yes - that's my simple explanation. I have no other method

Now, you showed me that migration. Can you share it again with me?

If I knew how to explain it 'correctly' then I could probably fix it.

When I ABC it DEFs is enough.

For example, "when I try to run the migration, I get the following error message"

You shared that with me before, can you show me again please?

Is it this one? http://dpaste.com/3J9CD51

xeberdee: And is this the migration? http://dpaste.com/1VCKGHQ

CapnKernel: I'm confused now..

CapnKernel: it's in the history, but I can't get this mac to show the history in irssi

Is this the message you're getting? http://dpaste.com/3J9CD51

CapnKernel: If it's easy for you to browse back, then I gave you a list with 1 -2 and the traceback

"FATAL ERROR - The following SQL query failed: CREATE TABLE "Boo_app_category"

that's 0001 and 0002 migration

I have them here. Just want to take it one step at a time

CapnKernel: yes - south tries to create it, but it exists

xeberdee: When you try a migration now, what migration is South attempting to run?

I just want to confirm we're talking about the same migration, and the same error

I'll walk you through it.

CapnKernel: none.. I faked all of them

So you have created entries in south_migrationhistory for all the migrations?

CapnKernel: I'm in the process of rebuilding the database as it was

It helps me help you if you answer the questions I ask.

CapnKernel: yes I did

Ok.

So what happens now when you run ./manage.py migrate?

Do you get an error message?

CapnKernel: just a sec

Ok

When you say "I faked all of them", how many do you think that would be?

Previously South thought there were 7 migrations it hadn't run: http://dpaste.com/2DMKNTC

CapnKernel: yes

7 faked migrations, eh?

(Just checking)

xeberdee: Please, answer the questions. I'd like to help you, but my time is limited.

xeberdee: There?

CapnKernel: yes sorry - http://dpaste.com/1BH63PY

CapnKernel: this is after I used all the migration history from development

I see.

Before I asked you what happens when you run ./manage.py migrate

Do you get an error message?

CapnKernel: relation Boo_app_category already exists

CapnKernel: So the result is the same

Ok.

Did you write these migrations?

CapnKernel: If I do it by the book and use the entire site history