alembic migration error flask

Question

I am making a test blog using the guide found here. It's pretty comprehensive. However, I'm having trouble with the alembic migrations. I can erase all the versions, and spin up a new database with all of the columns just fine. But, when I add a new column I have problems. Here is the code in my models.py:

models.py

....
class Person(db.Model):
    __tablename__ = 'person'
    id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
    email = db.Column(db.String(100), unique=True)
    pwdhash = db.Column(db.String(100))
    name = db.Column(db.String(100), unique=True)

    def __init__(self, email, name, password):
        self.email = email
        self.name = name.title()
        self.set_password(password)

    def __repr__(self):
        return '<User %r>' % (self.name)

    def set_password(self, password):
        self.pwdhash = generate_password_hash(password)

    def check_password(self, password):
        return check_password_hash(self.pwdhash, password)

    @classmethod
    def all(cls):
        return Person.query.all()

class Category(db.Model):
    __tablename__ = 'category'
    id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
    name = db.Column(db.String(100), unique=True)
    description = db.Column(db.Text)

    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.name

class Article(db.Model):
    __tablename__ = 'articles'
    id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
    title = db.Column(db.String(100))
    body = db.Column(db.Text)
    created = db.Column(db.DateTime, default=datetime.datetime.now)
    category_name = db.Column(db.String(10), db.ForeignKey(Category.name))
    category = db.relationship(Category)
    person_name = db.Column(db.String(100), db.ForeignKey(Person.name, onupdate="CASCADE", ondelete="CASCADE"))
    person = db.relationship(Person)

    @property
    def slug(self):
        return urlify(self.title)

    @classmethod
    def all(cls):
        return Article.query.order_by(desc(Article.created)).all()

    @classmethod
    def find_by_category(cls, category):
        return Article.query.filter(Article.category_name == category).all()

It's all pretty standard. However, if I was to add a random column to my People table, like this:

class Person(db.Model):
    ....
    random_column = db.Column(db.Integer())

then run a python manage.py db migrate (which works fine) then run a python manage.py db upgrade then I get the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 7, in <module>
    manager.run()
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/flask_script/__init__.py", line 397, in run
    result = self.handle(sys.argv[0], sys.argv[1:])
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/flask_script/__init__.py", line 376, in handle
    return handle(app, *positional_args, **kwargs)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/flask_script/commands.py", line 145, in handle
    return self.run(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/flask_migrate/__init__.py", line 82, in upgrade
    command.upgrade(config, revision, sql = sql, tag = tag)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/alembic/command.py", line 124, in upgrade
    script.run_env()
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/alembic/script.py", line 199, in run_env
    util.load_python_file(self.dir, 'env.py')
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/alembic/util.py", line 198, in load_python_file
    module = load_module(module_id, path)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/alembic/compat.py", line 55, in load_module
    mod = imp.load_source(module_id, path, fp)
  File "migrations/env.py", line 72, in <module>
    run_migrations_online()
  File "migrations/env.py", line 65, in run_migrations_online
    context.run_migrations()
  File "<string>", line 7, in run_migrations
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/alembic/environment.py", line 652, in run_migrations
    self.get_context().run_migrations(**kw)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/alembic/migration.py", line 225, in run_migrations
    change(**kw)
  File "migrations/versions/4171a9f6ed2a_.py", line 19, in upgrade
    op.drop_index('category_name_key', 'category')
  File "<string>", line 7, in drop_index
  File "<string>", line 1, in <lambda>
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/alembic/util.py", line 293, in go
    return fn(*arg, **kw)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/alembic/operations.py", line 716, in drop_index
    self._index(name, table_name, ['x'], schema=schema)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/alembic/ddl/impl.py", line 164, in drop_index
    self._exec(schema.DropIndex(index))
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/alembic/ddl/impl.py", line 76, in _exec
    conn.execute(construct, *multiparams, **params)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 662, in execute
    params)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 720, in _execute_ddl
    compiled
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 874, in _execute_context
    context)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 1024, in _handle_dbapi_exception
    exc_info
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/util/compat.py", line 196, in raise_from_cause
    reraise(type(exception), exception, tb=exc_tb)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 867, in _execute_context
    context)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/default.py", line 324, in do_execute
    cursor.execute(statement, parameters)
sqlalchemy.exc.InternalError: (InternalError) cannot drop index category_name_key because constraint category_name_key on table category requires it
HINT:  You can drop constraint category_name_key on table category instead.
 '\nDROP INDEX category_name_key' {}

It doesn't even mention the name of the column I created in the stacktrace, so that leads me to believe that something is wrong with the other tables. It mentions the dropping of an index, but I'm not doing anything like that in the migration, just adding a column to the People table. Is it something in alembic that I don't understand?

Like I said it works perfectly find when I spin up a brand new database and load in the configuration. It's only when I make a change and try to migrate that alembic throws me these errors. Does anyone have any idea why this is happening?

EDIT

Just in case people need to see my config.py file:

config.py

import os
basedir = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))

#-----Config the app
SECRET_KEY = 'my_key'
CSRF_ENABLED = True

#-----Config Database
SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = 'postgresql://username:changeme@localhost/test'
SQLALCHEMY_COMMIT_ON_TEARDOWN = True
SQLALCHEMY_MIGRATE_REPO = os.path.join(basedir, 'db_repository')

#-----Config Upload folder
UPLOAD_FOLDER = os.path.realpath('./snb/static') + '/uploads'

Answer 1

I followed the link to the doc on Flask-Migrate to see how it's using alembic, and it says:

The migrate command adds a new migration script. You should review it and edit it to be accurate, as Alembic cannot detect all changes that you make to your models. In particular it does not detect indexes, so those need to be added manually to the script.

Flask-Migrate uses a feature of alembic called "autogenerate", where it tries to compare the state of your database with your models and automatically create a diff.

We use Alembic directly, and I found autogenerate really convenient, but I have to edit it by hand a lot, especially when you're dealing with indexes and constraints.

So my solution would be to do what it says and edit the migration file by hand and remove the lines you don't want or are spurious.