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Phil Factor
Phil Factor

Phil Factor (real name withheld to protect the guilty), aka Database Mole, has 30 years of experience with database-intensive applications. Despite having once been shouted at by a furious Bill Gates at an exhibition in the early 1980s, he has remained resolutely anonymous throughout his career. He is a regular contributor to <strong><a href="http://www.simple-talk.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Simple Talk</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://www.sqlservercentral.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SQLServerCentral</a></strong>.

Phil Factor

Phil Factor

12 September 2024

Phil Factor

Phil Factor

12 September 2024

Forks in Flyway Database Development Work

Database forking allows teams to multi-task, working on different strands of development in parallel. It also allows them to manage several 'variants' of a production database, such as for SaaS applications with client-specific schema requirements. This article explains how Flyway supports and simplifies database forking, via use of Flyway's locations,… Read more
Phil Factor

Phil Factor

20 August 2024

Phil Factor

Phil Factor

20 August 2024

Flyway’s Repair Command Explained Simply

The Repair command allows Flyway migrations to recommence on a database, following one or more validation errors. It modifies various details recorded in the schema history table, for applied migrations, to make them consistent with the data and metadata of the current set of Flyway migration files. This article explains… Read more
Phil Factor

Phil Factor

6 August 2024

Phil Factor

Phil Factor

6 August 2024

Find the Version of a Flyway-managed Database

Maintaining a version of a database opens a lot of possibilities, especially if an automated process can easily grab the current version, at runtime. You might, for example, have a routine that is only appropriate after a particular version. It is also very handy to be able to associate entries… Read more
Phil Factor

Phil Factor

30 July 2024

Phil Factor

Phil Factor

30 July 2024

Getting Started with TOML Configuration in Flyway

This article discusses Flyway's transition from CONF to TOML configuration files. It highlights the advantages of TOML, such as improved readability, flexibility in managing complex database configurations, and support for specifying multiple database environments. It also discusses a few of the differences to be aware of when switching existing Flyway… Read more
Phil Factor

Phil Factor

25 July 2024

Phil Factor

Phil Factor

25 July 2024

Using Bash with Flyway

If you're using a Linux-based operating system, Bash is the obvious choice of scripting language for Flyway. This article demos the basics of dealing with credentials in team-based database development, when using 'traditional' flyway.conf files, and how to save and parse the JSON output of Flyway commands, for example to… Read more
Phil Factor

Phil Factor

24 June 2024

Phil Factor

Phil Factor

24 June 2024

Data Masking in Principle

This is the first of two articles to describe the principles and practicalities of masking data in databases. It explains why an organization sometimes needs masked data, the various forms of masked data we can use, the sort of data that needs to be masked, and the potential pitfalls. Read more
Phil Factor

Phil Factor

24 June 2024

Phil Factor

Phil Factor

24 June 2024

Data Masking in Practice

This article takes a strategic look at common data masking and anonymization techniques, and the challenges inherent in protecting certain types of sensitive and personal data, while ensuring that it still looks like the real data, and retains its referential integrity, and distribution characteristics. It also explains, briefly, with references,… Read more

data protection and privacy

Phil Factor

Phil Factor

22 May 2024

Phil Factor

Phil Factor

22 May 2024

Flyway’s Validate Command Explained Simply

The Validate command aims to ensure that Flyway can reliably reproduce an existing version of a database from the source migration scripts by warning you if files are retrospectively added, removed or altered that would prevent it from doing so. Validation errors are Flyway's warning that "the source for this… Read more
Phil Factor

Phil Factor

13 May 2024

Phil Factor

Phil Factor

13 May 2024

Flyway’s Clean Command Explained Simply

The Clean command resets a database to its initial state, before any Flyway migrations were applied. In other words, it empties the database. This can be useful for any development task that requires that you recreate the database structure, or for tearing down a test harness. It also allows you… Read more