Phil Factor, Author at Redgate

Posts by

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 Simple Talk and SQLServerCentral.

Data Container Revisions, Resets and Graduations

Redgate Test Data Manager allows developers to save each new version of a database as a data container revision. After making local development changes to the container, or running tests, they can instantly reset it to its starting revision. They can also load any previous revision and can even 'graduate' a revision to an... Read more

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 in an event log... Read more

Connecting Easily to Data Containers from Database Tools and IDEs

Data containers can be created, destroyed and reset remarkably quickly, making them very effective for test-driven database development. Each time we reset a data container, it will have the same host, but both the port and password will be different. This article demonstrates how we can use simple PowerShell automation to smooth the process... Read more

Using TOML Configuration Files with 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 projects to the new... Read more

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 retrieve the current schema... Read more

Running Database Tasks and Tests on Clones in Redgate Test Data Manager

This article demonstrates how to adapt your current database development and testing regimes to use clones (data containers) in Redgate Test Data Manager. It demonstrates how to handle dynamic connection details and how to get from the containers the connection and database information that your development tasks and tests need to function correctly. Read more

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

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, the tools that one... Read more

Getting Started with Cloning in Redgate Test Data Manager

This article takes a 'first look' at database cloning in Redgate Test Data Manager, explaining what it does and its advantages in team-based, test-driven database development. It will get you set up with the cloning CLI and then demos the basics of defining and creating images, and then creating and destroying database containers (clones)... Read more

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Posts by

Phil Factor