This short guide describes how to get the Postgres version of the database up and running.

1. Create empty database

As mentioned in the project's preliminary notes we’re using PostgreSQL version 10.12 for this explorative pilot. In future a newer version should be considered. Once postgres is up and running, create an empty postgres database. Remember the name of this database as it will be needed in the next steps.

2. Adjust database connection settings

Now You need to tell openIMIS to use the newly created database. The easiest way to do this is to re-run the dev tools installation with the new parameters. Those parameters are at the top of the file. Assuming You’re running the database on the same machine as the program and assuming You’re using the default port and user, it should look something like this (note that in this example the database is named openimis):

Next You will need to edit the settings.py file of Your openIMIS installation. It should be located in <openIMIS base path>\openimis-be_py\openIMIS\openIMIS\
In this file, you need to import the appropriate driver for our new database. Add this line to all the import statements at the top:

If you have not yet installed psycopg2 or it is not ye part of the project’s requirements.txt, do so now. From a command line (preferably in Your openIMIS' virtual environment), run the following command:

In the Database section of the settings the following change to the database options.

Then, just below change the default settings (just in case). Only the ENGINE has been changed, as all other settings are loaded from variables:

At this point you could just use the SQL dump of all tables and views and functions that can be found in the data migration GitHub repo and be done with everything. If, instead, you want to get Django to create and manage tables, continue with the guide.

3. Manage (almost) all tables with Django

In every module except api_fhir (openimis-be-api_fhir_py) go through each table and in the subclass meta set managed to True and add all the missing colums to the tables (which have been commented out). The FHIR API has been exluded as another project is currently updating that module. There are only two exceptions: In the core module core_User_Groups (the class is named UserGroup) should still have managed set to False and in the claim module the table claim_ClaimAttachmentsCountView (the class is named ClaimAttachmentCount and defines a view, not a table) should also have managed set to false.

4. Create this table in the new databse

In order to get Django to make the migration, the table auth_group must exist in Your new database and have the two users user and spiderman. I don’t know why, but Django refuses to make the migrations unless this table exists. Just execute the following SQL query in your postgres database

5. Make the migration

Now make the migration. In Your <openIMIS base path>\openimis-be_py\openIMIS\ directory, run the following command from a command line:

Depending on Your system setup You may need to run python3 instead of python.

You can keep this command line window open as we need to run another command in the same directory later.

6. Delete the table created in step 3

Now, drop the table we have created (auth_group) so that Django actually applies the migration. Yes, Django wants this table to exist to make the migrations but needs it to be gone when applying the migration.

In your postgres Database, run the following query:

7. Adjust Migration Dependency

Django wants to run the migration for the policy module before the product module. This will lead to errors. In Your product module’s directory (where this module’s models.py file is located) there is a migrations folder. And in there is a file called 0001_initial.py. In that file Add the following lines at the top of the Migration class, just below initial = True:

A further note on this: Originally I had not realised that the commented out columns were still being used and I had made the initial migration without them (and updated the migration later). This step may need adjusting when all columns are present from the start but thankfully Django is very clear with its error messages and You should have no trouble finding out what module should run before another module. The basic idea remains the same and is easily adapted.

8. Apply the Migration

Now You can apply the migration. Go back to Your command line window from step 5. In the same directory run the following command:

The basic database structure of the openIMIS database should now exist in Your PostgreSQL database.

9. Add Missing Tables

Not all 84 database tables have Django definitions as of yet. The missing 20 tables can be added by running an sql script. The scripts are getting very long now, so I just added them as an attachment:

Open

Now that all tables are present, you can already migrate all the data from a SQL Server database over (e.g. the demo database). You can use the migration tool we created.

10 Views and Functions

Adding the 34 views and 23 functions of openIMIS is as simple as executing these prepared SQL queries. But first, You need to add a few SQL Server system functions that PostgreSQL does not have. I have prepared a file with functionality for the Year(), Quarter(), Month(), DateDiff(), DateName(), EOMonth(), and DateAdd() functions. Those functions have been used so often that it made sense to put the same functionality into PostgreSQL. But before writing new code that uses these functions, look at the script an notice that the syntax is slightly different (for performance reasons). DateDiff(“year”, date) for example is now DateDiff_Year(date). Anyway, here’s the script:

Open

Once this is done, you can add the views first, and the functions second (Some functions try to read from views so we have to respect the dependency). Here’s the scripts:

If you really want to, you can also add the three stored procedures that I managed to migrate in the time I had available. Those are the following three stored procedures: uspSSRSPolicyStatus, uspPolicyValue, uspGetPolicyPeriod. Here’s the script:

Open

Your database is now up and running.