How to handle updating JDO class definitions on Google App Engine

Question

I'm using the Google app engine and JDO. What is the best way to update a JDO class definition without having to wipe the data store contents first?

I'm not sure if this is specific to JDO on GAE, but I noticed that when I simply change the name of one of my persistent fields from svotes to votes, an exception is thrown (java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: svotes).

I expect once my site goes live I might want to make some changes to my JDO class definitions, such as adding a field or something. Any suggestions for how to update the data definitions without having to wipe the database?

Answer 1

Have you tried some of the methods mentioned here?

Answer 2

Apparently Google has a python related article about updating the schema: http://code.google.com/appengine/articles/update_schema.html. The guidelines can be applied to java too.