How Tarantino Can Sort Out Your Database

Introduction

One problem that I have met with Continuous Integration is that the code is really well looked after but if your project uses a database then there is really no common way to version your database. Some choose to write custom tools to do the job of creating scripts to put into your version control software of choice and untill recently that is what I did as well. Then I found the Tarantino project.

What is the Tarantino Project?

Well Tarantino is a framework that allows the developer to script an existing database and have developers work on their own local copy of the database. The developers can then check-in their local changes to source control and the Continuous Integration process can migrate the changes to the build and the test server automatically.

The Database Manager

The Database Manager (DBM) allows the developers to sync their local database with the latest version. After checking out the latest code the developer points the DBM at the database updated scripts folder and the DBM runs all the new scripts against the developers local database copy. The DBM can create, update or drop and recreate a database in seconds. All the changes are tracked in the source control and unwanted changes can be rolled back to any point.

In the next post I will look at the Nant task that comes with Tarantino and how to integrate it in to your CI process.