jilo-web/doc/database

Database migrations

This app ships with a lightweight SQL migration system to safely upgrade a running site when code changes require database changes.

Concepts

• Migrations live in doc/database/migrations/ and are plain .sql files.
• They are named in a sortable order, e.g. YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_description.sql.
• Applied migrations are tracked in a DB table called migrations.
• Use the CLI script scripts/migrate.php to inspect and apply migrations.

Usage

1. Show current status

php scripts/migrate.php status

2. Apply all pending migrations

php scripts/migrate.php up

3. Typical deployment steps

• Pull new code from git.
• Put the site in maintenance mode (recommended): php scripts/maintenance.php on "Upgrading database".
• Run php scripts/migrate.php status.
• If there are pending migrations, run php scripts/migrate.php up.
• Disable maintenance mode: php scripts/maintenance.php off.
• Clear opcache if applicable and resume traffic.

Maintenance mode

Enable maintenance mode to temporarily block non-admin traffic during upgrades. Superusers (user ID 1 or with superuser right) can still access the site.

Commands:

# Turn on with optional message
php scripts/maintenance.php on "Upgrading database"

# Turn off
php scripts/maintenance.php off

# Status
php scripts/maintenance.php status

Authoring new migrations

1. Create a new SQL file in doc/database/migrations/, e.g.:

doc/database/migrations/20250924_170001_add_user_meta_theme.sql

2. Write forward-only SQL. Avoid destructive changes unless absolutely necessary.

3. Prefer idempotent SQL. For MySQL 8.0+ you can use ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS. For older MySQL/MariaDB versions, either:

• Check existence in PHP and conditionally run DDL, or
• Write migrations that are safe to run once and tracked by the migrations table.

Notes

• The application checks for pending migrations at runtime and shows a warning banner but will not auto-apply changes.
• The migrations table is created automatically by the runner if missing.
• The runner executes each migration inside a single transaction (when supported by the storage engine for the statements used). If any statement fails, the migration batch is rolled back and no migration is marked as applied.

Example migration

This repo includes an example migration that adds a per-user theme column:

20250924_170001_add_user_meta_theme.sql

It adds user_meta.theme used to store each user's preferred theme.