Yii Native Migration vs Graphical DB Modelling Tool?

Hi folks

New to Yii, and making strategic decisions about how to manage our database development.

The native migration library in Yii looks quite powerful, but our schema is fairly complex (100+ tables) and it would be easier to develop and manage in a visual data modelling tool with good schema synchronization.

For open sourced extensions the migrations are clearly the way to go, but this is for an in-house project and I’m leaning towards the graphical approach. But I don’t know the framework very well, so are there any potential disadvantages I’m overlooking?

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

I use migrations extensively.

It allows me to develop/maintain my applications in an iterative way.

It fits perfect into a source control scenario too.

The point you make about source control is a good one. I guess the advantage is the ability to keep code and database in synch if you need to switch branches? Until recently I’ve been using my own steam-driven framework which didn’t have migrations, so I’m trying to get my head around the possibilities. Can you give any practical tips?