Appwrite Database Migration Tool

An appwrite database migration tool with the goal of making schema and data changes across environments easier and more predictable.

We strongly recommend reading through the entire README, paying close attention to Setting-up and Recommendations sections!

Setting Up

Common/Shared Steps

These steps only need to be made once*.

• Create a GitHub Repository to host your Appwrite functions.
  • You can use a repository you already own (e.g., myproject-functions).
• Create environment branches.
  • For example, the main branch can be assigned to production and development branch can be assigned to staging. This allows you to have multiple Appwrite projects, using a single functions repository containing multiple serverless entrypoints. Allowing you to effectively test a function in the staging project, before deploying the changes to the production project.

Environment Specific Steps

These steps need to be done per project that represents an application environment in which you want to use the Appwrite Database Migration Tool.

Functions

Appwrite serverless functions require access to the source code that they need to execute. The source is defined in Git repositories. Setups vary from team to team. Some choose to have one repository per serverless function (isolation), while others prefer a single repository with a single package.json for all functions (agility, low maintenance cost), others still, prefer a Monorepository structure with all functions in a single repository but each with its own package.json (agility, isolation, with higher upfront setup cost). No matter the strategy you must associate the source repository with Appwrite serverless functions.

• Appwrite Functions Docs.
• Appwrite Functions Video Series (~50m).

MigrationsCreateCollection

Description

Creates a collection (defaults to Migration) which acts as the source of truth for migrations that have been applied or not.

Create an Appwrite Function called MigrationsCreateCollection with the body below. The function should point at the branch that contains the source for the "environment". E.g.: Point at the development branch on the staging project and point to main in the production project.

import { migrationsCreateCollection } from '@franciscokloganb/appwrite-database-migration-tool'

export default async function(ctx) {
  await migrationsCreateCollection({
    log: ctx.log,
    error: ctx.error,
  })

  return ctx.res.empty();
}

MigrationsRunSequence

Retrieves all migrations, picks the pending (unapplied) migration (if exists) and executes the up method.

Create an Appwrite Function called MigrationsRunSequence with the body below. The function should point at the branch that contains the source for the "environment".

• We recommend increase the maximum timeout for this function to 15m in the function settings.

• Ensure the migration files created in the future are included in the final function bundle.

  • An example on what this means is given on FAQ section.

  import { migrationsRunSequence } from '@franciscokloganb/appwrite-database-migration-tool'
  
  export default async function(ctx) {
    await migrationsRunSequence({
      log: ctx.log,
      error: ctx.error,
    })
  
    return ctx.res.empty();
  }

MigrationsOneDown

Retrieves all migrations, picks the last applied migration (if exists) and executes the down method.

Create an Appwrite Function called MigrationsOneDown with the body below. The function should point at the branch that contains the source for the "environment".

• We recommend increase the maximum timeout for this function to 15m in the function settings.

• Ensure the migration files created in the future are included in the final function bundle.

  • An example on what this means is given on FAQ section.

  import { migrationsRunSequence } from '@franciscokloganb/appwrite-database-migration-tool'
  
  export default async function(ctx) {
    await migrationsRunSequence({
      log: ctx.log,
      error: ctx.error,
    })
  
    return ctx.res.empty();
  }

Functions (Optional)

The functions below are optional. They exist for convinience. When used, they should be created following similar strategies to the one outlined in previous Functions section.

MigrationCreateDatabase

Creates a Database with name and id matching the environment variable MIGRATIONS_DATABASE_ID, in the default case it will create a database called Public. If you already have a Database and you prefer to manage the Migrations collection in it, you do not need this function.

import { migrationsCreateDatabase } from '@franciscokloganb/appwrite-database-migration-tool'

export default async function(ctx) {
  await migrationsCreateDatabase({
    log: ctx.log,
    error: ctx.error,
  })

  return ctx.res.empty();
}

MigrationResetDatabase

Retrieves all collections which exist in the database associated with the environment variable MIGRATIONS_DATABASE_ID and then deletes them. The closest SQL analogy for this serverless function is DROP TABLE IF EXISTS. We recommend not setting this one up in your production project.

import { migrationsResetDatabase } from '@franciscokloganb/appwrite-database-migration-tool'

export default async function(ctx) {
  await migrationsResetDatabase({
    log: ctx.log,
    error: ctx.error,
  })

  return ctx.res.empty();
}

Function Environment Variables

All functions that you just created require access to the environment variables below. You can set them globally in your Appwrite project settings or scope them to each function. If you opted for the scoped approach ensure the values match across functions. Also, ensure the config does not change over time if you run the runMigrationSequence at least once. The code is not adapted for configuration changes. While they are possible, we do not recommend doing them, unless you have a good reason and planned a transition. This includes updating environment variables, build paths, function names, or repository changes. Mistakes can leave your application in inconsistent states.

# Required
APPWRITE_FUNCTION_PROJECT_ID=<your-appwrite-project-id>
# Required
APPWRITE_API_KEY=<your-appwrite-api-key>
# Required
APPWRITE_ENDPOINT=<your-appwrite-endpoint>
# Defaults to 'Public'
MIGRATIONS_DATABASE_ID=<database-id>
# Defaults to 'Migrations'
MIGRATIONS_COLLECTION_ID=<collection-id>
# Defaults to 'Migrations'
MIGRATIONS_COLLECTION_NAME=<collection-name>
# Defaults to './migrations'
MIGRATIONS_HOME_FOLDER=<relative-path-to-folder-where-runner-finds-your-migrations>

Finalize ADMT Setup

• Execute MigrationsCreateCollection once and only once per environment/project.
  • We do prevent duplicate creations. 😇
  • Check that the Migrations collection was created with at least the following attributes (the $id attribute is not explicitly visible on the GUI):
    • applied: Boolean
    • name: String
    • timestamp: Integer

Create Your First Migration

• Use our codegen tool to create a new Migration JavaScript file. We give you type annotations through JSDocs (works just like TypeScript) without needing you to do transpilation steps.

  • The codegen tool is Node and Bun compatible.
  • Your description will be converted to PascalCase.
    • Whitespaces are not allowed.

  # E.g.: npx admt new-migration --outpath ./functions/database/migrations --descriptor CreateProductsCollection
  npx admt new-migration --outpath <relative-path> --descriptor <migration-summary>

• Use the databaseService parameter of up and down to write your migration.

  • The databaseService is a subclass instance of Databases from node-appwrite.
  • The subclass provides some utility methods and properties on top of the normal Databases.

• Once you are done, deploy push your changes through the environment pipelines.

  • E.g.: Push to staging execute the MigrationsRunSequence function on Appwrite UI. Verify all is good. Finally push to production and run the sequence there.

Usage, Rules, Recommendations and, FAQ

Rules

• Migrations must complete within Appwrite Cloud defined timeout for the function (default is 15s).
  • Longer migrations should be run from local maching, by exporting variables in your .env.local for example.
• Never change the file name of a migration file.
• Never change the class name of a migration class.
• Always use codegen tools to create new migration files or other supported operations.

Recommendations

Migrations in Appwrite

Whether you are applying changes to your Appwrite database through their GUI (website), the Appwrite CLI, or using this package (ADMT), your changes are not guaranteed to be immediate. Your request for changes are "Eventually Consistent". For example, when you ask Appwrite to create a new attribute on a collection, that request goes to the queue. Eventually, a Worker picks up the request and commits your change requests to your database. Meaning that changes are not immediate and can (possibly?) occur out of order.

What are the implications for you as a developer?

Again, with an example. Assume you add an attribute bar to some existing collection. Shortly after. you try to create a document with data { "bar": "hello" }. While the request may succeed, there is a chance you get an error informing that the format of the document is invalid and that bar does not exist on collection Foo when you executethe statement. This can happen with any other operation. Not just attributes and documents. Thus, to mitigate this issue, you should use the poll function exported by this package whenever you need to perform dependant and sequential operations in short time spans:

await db.createStringAttribute('[DATABASE_ID]', '[COLLECTION_ID]', 'bar', 32, true)

// ❌ Bad code - Document creation may fail. Your request for attribute creation may still be queued.
await dbService.createDocument(
  '[DATABASE_ID]',
  '[COLLECTION_ID]',
  '[DOCUMENT_ID]',
  { "bar": "hello" },
)

// ✅ Better code - Document creation unlikely to fail. You give time for Appwrite to work on your request (if needed).
const [_, e] = await poll({
  fetcher: () =>
    db.getCollection('[DATABASE_ID]', '[COLLECTION_ID]'),
  isReady: ({ attributes }) =>
    attributes.some(({ key, status }) => key === 'bar' && status === 'available'),
});

if (e) {
  log(`Migration timed out. Unable to create '[DATABASE_ID]' documents.`)

  throw e
}

await dbService.createDocument(
  '[DATABASE_ID]',
  '[COLLECTION_ID]',
  '[DOCUMENT_ID]',
  { "bar": "hello" },
)

The poll function runs the fetcher you provide up to six times applying an exponential backoff per try (0ms, 5000ms, 10000ms, 20000ms, 40000ms, 80000ms). Whenever the fetcher resolves, it calls the is isReady method you provided. In turn, if isReady returns true, the poll function resolves and returns the fetcher resolved data and a null error. It is safe to call the next operations in your flow. Otherwise, poll returns null data and an array of error explaining what went wrong. Particularly, the last error in the array will always be a generic Error indicating a "max retries reached" message. If there was at least one fetcher rejection, the original error(s) will be included on the errors array, in order of occurrence, before the generic error. Rejections from fetcher and isReady "failures" are ignored if at least one fetcher calls succeeds. The poll function never returns two non-null values at the same time!

Note: poll accepts optional log/error functions for verbose debugging in your Appwrite console.

Migrations in General

• Avoid changing the contents of a migration that you have pushed to a production-like environment.
  • Unless you can confidently revert the database state (e.g.: staging) without affecting end-users.
• Provide a meaningful descriptions for your migration using the --descriptor flag.
  • Keep them short, like git commit messages.
• Follow the expand-and-contract pattern.
  • Read here.
• Follow the single-responsibility principle.
  • We do not have direct access to Appwrite's MariaDB instances, thus no real transaction mechanisms are used.
  • It's better to do incremental migrations then one migration that might leave your app in an inconsistent state. Plan your migrations!
• Avoid abstractions in your migration files. They are subject to change in the future. If you use them, ensure that whatever happens, the output of the migration up sequence is always the same. A change of output in a migration M may cause a migration M + x, x > 0, to no longer work as intended.
• Test your migration locally and your staging environment before releasing to production!
• Mistakes happen. If you pushed to production and applying 'down' is not possible, we recommend creating a new migration file to patch the issue.
  • If that is not possible, restore your database to a previous point-in-time (backup).

FAQ

1. How do I bundle my migrations in the final function bundle? a. Please note that currently Bun as an upstream issue with Axios, and fails to execute our functions due to missing http adapters. In the mean time I suggest you use plain .js files.

   a. You can track that issue here: oven-sh/bun#3371,

   How you bundle your migrations depends on your overall language choices and how you choose to set up your Appwrite Function source repository structure. My personal setup using a Bun based functions has the following Function Configurations. Please note that appwrite does not allow you to do newline with continuation markers \ like I did in the example below example (for readability purposes). It expects the entire command to be written in one line. The copy command will only work if the folder already exists in your remote repository.

   Entrypoint: ./dist/database/migrations-run-sequence.js
   Build Settings: \
     bun install --production \
     && bun build ./functions/database/migrations-run-sequence.ts --outdir ./dist/database \
     && mkdir ./dist/database/migrations \
     && cp -r ./functions/database/migrations ./dist/database/migrations ;
   

2. My migrations are not being found when I execute MigrationRunSequence.

   When Appwrite invokes a serverless function it automatically searches for your entrypoint starting at /usr/local/server/src/function/*. Our code on the other hand, uses current working directory to start searching for files. Appwrite serverless CWD is /usr/local/server/*, meaning you need to modify your MIGRATIONS_HOME_FOLDER to consider the src and function path segments if applicable.

3. I am getting scope errors when I execute the functions.

   When we create an Appwrite Server Client (node-appwrite SDK), we use the APPWRITE_API_KEY you provide to set it up. If you are getting scope errors, similar to these ones "Error: [email protected] (role: applications) missing scope (collections.read)", it's because you need to add more scopes to your APPWRITE_API_KEY. You can do that by accessing Project > Settings > API credentials > View API Keys > { Select API KEY } > Scopes; From here onwards, you need to add the scopes that are missing.

RFC

Improved fault tolerance (pseudo-transactional behaviour)

Currently, the MigrationRunSequence may fail while applying a user defined migration file. If the migration fails, the steps that were taken during that particular migration file, are not rolled back. Running the down method is an "OK" approach, but far from ideal, particularly on bigger migrations which involve modifying collection data rather than just creating/deleting fields.

Possible Solution

Implement a superset of commands around DatabaseService using a Memento pattern to try to mimic Transactions as much as possible. The solution involves retries with exponential backoff and would require some interesting API changes. This means that ADMT would no longer just expose Appwrite SDK Databases functionality, but would also have an API of commands that would intelligently know how to rollback themselves if all retries were expended and a given step failed.

Something like the pseudo-code below:

class SomeMigration {
  async up({ db, error, log, sequence }) {
    await sequence
      .addStep({
        action: 'create',
        type: 'document',
        args: {
          ...argsToPassToDatabasesCreateDocumentMethod
        }
      }).addStep({
        action: 'update',
        type: 'document',
        args: {
          ...argsToPassToDatabasesCreateDocumentMethod
        },
        onError: async ({ db }) => {
          await db.executeCustomRollbackActionForThisStep()
        }
      })

    // For each command that is successfully executed in the sequence queue
    // Push a record to an executed stack
    // If some command N + x, x > 0 fails
    // Pop from the executed stack and execute reverse of action
    //   e.g.: delete document when action was create document
    await sequence.build().run()
  }
}