deb-alembic/docs/build/api/operations.rst

The Operations Object

Within migration scripts, actual database migration operations are handled via an instance of .Operations. The .Operations class lists out available migration operations that are linked to a .MigrationContext, which communicates instructions originated by the .Operations object into SQL that is sent to a database or SQL output stream.

Most methods on the .Operations class are generated dynamically using a "plugin" system, described in the next section operation_plugins. Additionally, when Alembic migration scripts actually run, the methods on the current .Operations object are proxied out to the alembic.op module, so that they are available using module-style access.

For an overview of how to use an .Operations object directly in programs, as well as for reference to the standard operation methods as well as "batch" methods, see ops.

Operation Plugins

The Operations object is extensible using a plugin system. This system allows one to add new op.<some_operation> methods at runtime. The steps to use this system are to first create a subclass of .MigrateOperation, register it using the .Operations.register_operation class decorator, then build a default "implementation" function which is established using the .Operations.implementation_for decorator.

0.8.0 - the .Operations class is now an open namespace that is extensible via the creation of new .MigrateOperation subclasses.

Below we illustrate a very simple operation CreateSequenceOp which will implement a new method op.create_sequence() for use in migration scripts:

from alembic.operations import Operations, MigrateOperation

@Operations.register_operation("create_sequence")
class CreateSequenceOp(MigrateOperation):
    """Create a SEQUENCE."""

    def __init__(self, sequence_name, **kw):
        self.sequence_name = sequence_name
        self.kw = kw

    @classmethod
    def create_sequence(cls, operations, sequence_name, **kw):
        """Issue a "CREATE SEQUENCE" instruction."""

        op = CreateSequenceOp(sequence_name, **kw)
        return operations.invoke(op)

Above, the CreateSequenceOp class represents a new operation that will be available as op.create_sequence(). The reason the operation is represented as a stateful class is so that an operation and a specific set of arguments can be represented generically; the state can then correspond to different kinds of operations, such as invoking the instruction against a database, or autogenerating Python code for the operation into a script.

In order to establish the migrate-script behavior of the new operation, we use the .Operations.implementation_for decorator:

@Operations.implementation_for(CreateSequenceOp)
def create_sequence(operations, operation):
    operations.execute("CREATE SEQUENCE %s" % operation.sequence_name)

Above, we use the simplest possible technique of invoking our DDL, which is just to call .Operations.execute with literal SQL. If this is all a custom operation needs, then this is fine. However, options for more comprehensive support include building out a custom SQL construct, as documented at sqlalchemy.ext.compiler_toplevel.

With the above two steps, a migration script can now use a new method op.create_sequence() that will proxy to our object as a classmethod:

def upgrade():
    op.create_sequence("my_sequence")

The registration of new operations only needs to occur in time for the env.py script to invoke .MigrationContext.run_migrations; within the module level of the env.py script is sufficient.

0.8 - the migration operations available via the .Operations class as well as the alembic.op namespace is now extensible using a plugin system.

Built-in Operation Objects

The migration operations present on .Operations are themselves delivered via operation objects that represent an operation and its arguments. All operations descend from the .MigrateOperation class, and are registered with the .Operations class using the .Operations.register_operation class decorator. The .MigrateOperation objects also serve as the basis for how the autogenerate system renders new migration scripts.

operation_plugins

customizing_revision

The built-in operation objects are listed below.

alembic.operations.ops