I want to add a field to an existing mapped class, how would I update the sql table automatically. Does sqlalchemy provide a method to update the database with a new column, if a field is added to the class.
Run flask db migrate , to generate a migration. The migration script will only have the new column in it. Run flask db upgrade to apply the new migration to your database. At this point your database should have the new column, and you can continue working.
Update table elements in SQLAlchemy. Get the books to table from the Metadata object initialized while connecting to the database. Pass the update query to the execute() function and get all the results using fetchall() function. Use a for loop to iterate through the results.
Sometimes Migrate is too much work - you just want to column automatically added when you run your changed code. So here is a function that does that.
Caveats: it pokes around in the SQLAlchemy internals and tends to require small changes every time SQLAlchemy undergoes a major revision. (There's probably a much better way of doing this - I am not a SQLAlchemy expert). It also doesn't handle constraints.
import logging
import re
import sqlalchemy
from sqlalchemy import MetaData, Table, exceptions
import sqlalchemy.engine.ddl
_new_sa_ddl = sqlalchemy.__version__.startswith('0.7')
def create_and_upgrade(engine, metadata):
"""For each table in metadata, if it is not in the database then create it.
If it is in the database then add any missing columns and warn about any columns
whose spec has changed"""
db_metadata = MetaData()
db_metadata.bind = engine
for model_table in metadata.sorted_tables:
try:
db_table = Table(model_table.name, db_metadata, autoload=True)
except exceptions.NoSuchTableError:
logging.info('Creating table %s' % model_table.name)
model_table.create(bind=engine)
else:
if _new_sa_ddl:
ddl_c = engine.dialect.ddl_compiler(engine.dialect, None)
else:
# 0.6
ddl_c = engine.dialect.ddl_compiler(engine.dialect, db_table)
# else:
# 0.5
# ddl_c = engine.dialect.schemagenerator(engine.dialect, engine.contextual_connect())
logging.debug('Table %s already exists. Checking for missing columns' % model_table.name)
model_columns = _column_names(model_table)
db_columns = _column_names(db_table)
to_create = model_columns - db_columns
to_remove = db_columns - model_columns
to_check = db_columns.intersection(model_columns)
for c in to_create:
model_column = getattr(model_table.c, c)
logging.info('Adding column %s.%s' % (model_table.name, model_column.name))
assert not model_column.constraints, \
'Arrrgh! I cannot automatically add columns with constraints to the database'\
'Please consider fixing me if you care!'
model_col_spec = ddl_c.get_column_specification(model_column)
sql = 'ALTER TABLE %s ADD %s' % (model_table.name, model_col_spec)
engine.execute(sql)
# It's difficult to reliably determine if the model has changed
# a column definition. E.g. the default precision of columns
# is None, which means the database decides. Therefore when I look at the model
# it may give the SQL for the column as INTEGER but when I look at the database
# I have a definite precision, therefore the returned type is INTEGER(11)
for c in to_check:
model_column = model_table.c[c]
db_column = db_table.c[c]
x = model_column == db_column
logging.debug('Checking column %s.%s' % (model_table.name, model_column.name))
model_col_spec = ddl_c.get_column_specification(model_column)
db_col_spec = ddl_c.get_column_specification(db_column)
model_col_spec = re.sub('[(][\d ,]+[)]', '', model_col_spec)
db_col_spec = re.sub('[(][\d ,]+[)]', '', db_col_spec)
db_col_spec = db_col_spec.replace('DECIMAL', 'NUMERIC')
db_col_spec = db_col_spec.replace('TINYINT', 'BOOL')
if model_col_spec != db_col_spec:
logging.warning('Column %s.%s has specification %r in the model but %r in the database' %
(model_table.name, model_column.name, model_col_spec, db_col_spec))
if model_column.constraints or db_column.constraints:
# TODO, check constraints
logging.debug('Column constraints not checked. I am too dumb')
for c in to_remove:
model_column = getattr(db_table.c, c)
logging.warning('Column %s.%s in the database is not in the model' % (model_table.name, model_column.name))
def _column_names(table):
# Autoloaded columns return unicode column names - make sure we treat all are equal
return set((unicode(i.name) for i in table.c))
SQLAlchemy itself doesn't support automatic updates of schema, but there is a third party SQLAlchemy Migrate tool to automate migrations. Look though "Database schema versioning workflow" chapter to see how it works.
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