New DataFaucet ORM Build - Oct 13

I just pushed a new release of the DataFaucet core up to the RIAForge server. This release adds a columnMap CFC to resolve some previous issues with the new active-record features for stripping underscores from column names. In the long run I've come to think these features aren't really worth the amount of complexity and/or maintenance involved in adding them.

This release also includes the addition of a schemaExport CFC for exporting the table definitions from your existing database to the XML format used for creating new tables in another database. While this may be useful in copying tables from one database to another, the primary reason for adding this feature is to allow for the schema-diff tool which now powers the active record install method. What this means is that an active record object which could previously install its own database tables can now add new columns to existing tables using the same install() method. The install method exports the existing schema from the database and then uses XSLT to perform a diff between the installed schema in the database and the schema declared in the active record object. Any new tables or columns declared will be added while leaving the existing tables and columns in place. This will make writing software upgrades much easier. :)

Support for foreign keys is still limited but I expect it will be improved in a later version. Right now foreign keys can be added when adding a new column, but if you need to drop them or add them to existing columns, you'll have to perform those operations manually with a separate DDL packet.

The new schemaExport features also still need to be documented. I usually try and add some documentation whenever I add a new feature, but haven't gotten to doing that for this one yet.