Re: Data Migrations using yaml, what to do about large text fields

> I have a data in a FileMaker database that I migrate to my evolving
> rails app via migrations via yaml.
>
> This works great because I can change my application schema easily,
> and then output a matching
> yaml file to migrate the data.
>
> The problem that I am having now is that I want to add text fields to
> the application, but
> the large chunks of text make my yaml file fail during migration.
>
> I would like to keep a simple text format for my data. Then migrate
> the data in this format
> to my rails application.
>
> I have explored using xml, but it adds too much complexity.
>
> Have thought of some combination of yaml for the simple fields and
> then
> xml for the few fields that contain large text blobs.
>
> I suspect that other's have come across the same problem and may have
> some useful suggestions.

Escape the text blobs in the yaml.  Maybe turn them into base64 encoded 
strings.  Or for each text field write it out to a real text file (unique 
filename) and reference that in the yaml.  Not as elegant, but both should 
work.. and if this is motsly a one time thing, not too hackish :)