DEVOPSdigest

Datical released Targeted Rollback capabilities for Liquibase, the rapidly growing open-source tool that helps application developers track, version and deploy database schema changes quickly and safely.

This powerful Liquibase Pro feature saves developers countless hours by allowing a more precise way to deliver innovative software much faster. Additionally, Datical recently released an all-in-one graphical installer feature available to the entire Liquibase community.

This announcement comes just two months after the completion of a Liquibase community survey, which found the feature that Liquibase users overwhelmingly wanted more than anything else was a better way to handle database schema rollbacks.

“Safely and predictably rolling back changes is a critical capability for the community of Liquibase users,” said Dion Cornett, President of Datical. “We appreciate the great feedback from the community, and with this release, we’re thrilled to respond to three-quarters of our community requesting more advanced rollback features. Community-driven innovation, such as Targeted Rollback, helps development teams innovate quickly.”

Targeted Rollback is available for users of Liquibase Pro, which includes an added level of expert support and new features to help developers and database administrators (DBAs) get the most out of Liquibase’s powerful schema change tracking, version control, and deployment capabilities.

The feature lets users precisely target and undo changes from anywhere within their history of changes (much like ‘git cherry-pick). Until now, development teams have been required to rollback database schemas changes in reverse sequence, which slows releases and frustrates developers. For instance, if the change a developer wishes to undo has been followed by 50 others, a developer using traditional rollback methods must first remove all 50 changes they actually want to keep (and therefore must re-deploy and re-populate all previous changes) to get to the one they wish to change. Targeted Rollback boosts developer productivity by empowering users to quickly and easily target a specific change, or set of changes, so they can take targeted action and remediate issues faster than ever.

Additionally, since these new capabilities are very powerful, Datical is also delivering a companion helper command that lets users inspect a Targeted Rollback’s SQL before executing it.

“In addition to providing an advanced feature like Targeted Rollback, we also wanted to provide the Liquibase community with an installer that makes it much easier to get Liquibase up and running quickly,” said Mario Champion, Product Manager of Liquibase. “We are genuinely committed to making Liquibase the best track, version and deploy tool for database schema changes and this effort reflects that commitment.”

Additionally, Datical has launched a virtual community meetup. Each month, Liquibase community members from around the world are invited to see the latest Liquibase innovations in action, exchange ideas, ask questions and hear the status of community pull requests from the product managers and software engineers supporting Liquibase.