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Upgrading to the builtin backend

As of migrations 4.3 there is a new migrations backend that uses CakePHP’s database abstractions and ORM. In 4.4, the builtin backend became the default backend. Longer term this will allow for phinx to be removed as a dependency. This greatly reduces the dependency footprint of migrations.

What is the same?

Your migrations shouldn’t have to change much to adapt to the new backend. The migrations backend implements all of the phinx interfaces and can run migrations based on phinx classes. If your migrations don’t work in a way that could be addressed by the changes outlined below, please open an issue, as we’d like to maintain as much compatibility as we can.

What is different?

If your migrations are using the AdapterInterface to fetch rows or update rows you will need to update your code. If you use Adapter::query() to execute queries, the return of this method is now Cake\Database\StatementInterface instead. This impacts fetchAll(), and fetch():

// This
$stmt = $this->getAdapter()->query('SELECT * FROM articles');
$rows = $stmt->fetchAll();

// Now needs to be
$stmt = $this->getAdapter()->query('SELECT * FROM articles');
$rows = $stmt->fetchAll('assoc');

Similar changes are for fetching a single row:

// This
$stmt = $this->getAdapter()->query('SELECT * FROM articles');
$rows = $stmt->fetch();

// Now needs to be
$stmt = $this->getAdapter()->query('SELECT * FROM articles');
$rows = $stmt->fetch('assoc');

Problems with the new backend?

The new backend is enabled by default. If your migrations contain errors when run with the builtin backend, please open an issue. You can also switch back to the phinx backend through application configuration. Add the following to your config/app.php:

return [
    // Other configuration.
    'Migrations' => ['backend' => 'phinx'],
];