By westsyde on

For the purpose of this post "mySQL" is the database type I refer too, though this problem does effect users of other types as well.

I am wondering if anyone here knows of some good software for merging changes that have taken place in a development environment and the production site, so that if minor and or major changes are made to the test site, while data only in general is entered into the production site, that the two seamlessly become one without loosing anything.

It is also quite important that any such software is usable by those with limited database/shell/development experience.

This issue appears to be a problem for many uses of Drupal and other CMS systems alike.

I have found DataSync at http://www.spectralcore.com/syncdatabase/ and other options as shown here http://www.spectralcore.com/order.php?product plus other options like K DataBase Magic found at http://www.databasemagic.net

The software options above appears to be what I need but I don't want to buy something that is not really suitable. I simply do not understand enough about this to know for sure, without asking for the help of others who have much more experience than I do with this sort of thing.

PS: I use Ubuntu not Windows so running on Ubuntu is important for me. Wine works for installing windows apps but can distort text content etc making things very hard to read. I am going to post this over on the Ubuntu forum as well, in the hope that there may be a .DEB package available for doing this.

Thanking in advance anyone who helps me and other in the Drupal community resolve this common and very important issue.