Monday, January 30, 2006

No MySQL forum category for migration from PostgreSQL to MySQL?

I never realized it until now, but there is no specific forum category for migration from PostgreSQL to MySQL at http://forums.mysql.com/ (only one for Other Migration).

Unfortunately, there might still be more people who migrate from MySQL to PostgreSQL than the other way around, but it should be one of MySQL's big goals to change that - and I believe that this is a realistic goal. The lack of a specific forum category has the potential to make people believe that this is meant to be too unrealistic - so I think, there should be one.

I also recently filed a feature request for MySQL MigrationToolkit to add functionality for migration from PostgreSQL to MySQL (http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=16508). I know that it's no easy task to provide good migration functionality - but there's probably not much time to waste.

Another idea for a forum category may be to ask people what they miss about MySQL and why people migrate away from MySQL or choose another database system to migrate to than MySQL. Of course, not that many people who don't choose MySQL will come their to report about their reasons, but maybe some people will do - and their opinions could be very valuable for MySQL to find out, what the most important things are that are necessary to attract those potential users and customers.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...


I never realized it until now, but there is no specific forum category for migration from PostgreSQL to MySQL at http://forums.mysql.com/

I beg to differ - please check this forum :)

Markus Popp said...

I could have bet that this forum category was not there when I wrote this article?!

However, at least it's good that it's there.

Frank said...

MySQL should focus on developing as many migration tools to ease the pain of migrations. After all that would result in more people using MySQL (without the extra pain that comes with migration).

Frank

Frank said...

Markus,

I just found out about the winners (I guess I was sleeping).

Congrats man on winning the MySQL 5 grand prize. Your efforts certainly deserve more recognition but an iPod Nano and a dinner with MySQL team is definitely a start.

Keep up the good work :)

Frank

Markus Popp said...

Hey, thanks a lot :-)!

You share my mind - I also believe that migration to MySQL should be made as easy as possible.

Anonymous said...

if you use some PostgreSQL features (PL/pgSQL, constraints, triggers, ..) than migration is very dificult (now, maybe situation will be different in others years) . PL/pgSQL language is near to Oracle, and MySQL language to TSQL. Maybe migration from MS SQL can be more natural. There is very similar behave with returnig multirecordset, atc. But it's similar, migrating from Oracle to Postgres is divicult if you use packages. The problem is quality of implementation of stored procedures in MySQL. It's full of bugs for normal person.

Markus Popp said...

I haven't discovered that MySQL's stored procedure implementation is full of bugs. If you know concretely about bugs, please report them to give MySQL a chance to fix them.

However, MySQL SPs still lack of important features like e.g. error handling. I hope that the functionality will be enhanced. I know that MySQL plans to implement more languages for SPs - then it might also be a good choice to implement SP languages that are as far as possible compatible to other products to ease the migration process.

Anonymous said...

Download Project Management System developed in PHP,MySQL from http://phpfunda.blogspot.com/2007/09/project-management-system-in-php-mysql.html

Unknown said...

I use data loader for migrating almost any data, it helps me to convert MSSQL to MYSQL, MS access to MSSQL, mysql, csv loader, foxpro and MSSQL to MS access, MYSQl, CSV, foxpro etc. In my view this is a best Data Migration Tool


Download Free:http://www.dbload.com