getting started with liquibase - version reccomendation?

General Discussion
1

We are just beginning to use liquibase at my company, and I am very torn on what version to use. I see that 2.0 is very close to release, but I’m also wary of starting with something that isn’t done yet, especially if the documentation isn’t always in sync with the new version.

2

Steve, my company will soon start using a new patch and install framework that uses Liquibase.  I started out with 1.9.5, but switched to 2.0 for the following reasons:
a) 2.0 will get priority with bug fixes.
b) 2.0 will support liquibase formatted SQL, very useful if you have tons of existing SQL.
c) There are some differences in the Java API of 2.0, so I’d rather switch earlier than later.
d) While 2.0 is in the release candidate phase, the focus is on fixing bugs for the release.  So the more you use it now, the more likely you are to find bugs and assist in getting them fixed before 2.0 is released.
e) Nathan’s turnaround on bugs is usually 24 hours or less.  If you have a problem, it will get fixed soon.

3

Good points.  I would also recommend starting with 2.0.  From an end-user standpoint, most everything in the documentation should be forward compatible to 2.0 (see http://liquibase.org/v2_upgrade for exceptions).  As I get the docs up to date, there will be more options and features listed, but you can take advantage of that when it is documented.

By starting with 2.0, you will not have to worry about some of the conversion issues around checksum format changes between 1.9 and 2.0.  At this point, 2.0 probably has less bugs as well.

Nathan

4

Thanks! We had started with 1.9x, but I think I’ll start switching to 2.0

I am currently using liquibase through the maven plugin - is the 2.0 version available in any of the public repositories, or will I need to build that myself and install it in our local Nexus repo?

5

no it is available.  The artifactId is now liquibase-maven-plugin and the current version is 2.0-rc5

Nathan

6

Do 2.0-rc5 contain fixes for implementation lookups or is that only in 2.0-rc6? 

7

It should be good in RC5.  RC6 has bug fixes since then, but they should all be more minor.

Nathan