Streamlining Database Projects in Visual Studio 2010: Features and Limitations
This presentation by Anthony Brown delves into the capabilities of database projects in Visual Studio 2010. It covers what database projects are, how they function, and their advantages over traditional change scripts. Key discussions include offline development of database objects, validation at design time, the generation of deployment scripts, and comparison tools. Learn about the structure of database projects, handling of permissions, extensibility features, and limitations such as support for replication and temporary tables. Gain insights into best practices for managing database objects effectively.
Streamlining Database Projects in Visual Studio 2010: Features and Limitations
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Presentation Transcript
Database projects in visual studio 2010 Anthony Brown anthony@found-it.net http://www.sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/antxxxx
Agenda • What are they? • How they work • What else you can do • Limitations
What are they for • Offline development of database objects • Manage database objects in source control • Validation at design time, not deploy • Allow easy creation of databases in a consistent state
Before database projects • Created a change script which was run against all environments • Had to maintain change script for each change and run in specific order • Had to know state of target server to work out which scripts to run, or create complex scripts
Before database projects if not exists (select null from sys.tables where name = 'ErrorLog' and schema_id = schema_id('dbo')) begin CREATE TABLE [dbo].[ErrorLog] ( [ErrorLogID] INT IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL, [ErrorTime] DATETIME NOT NULL, [UserName] [sysname] NOT NULL, [ErrorNumber] INT NOT NULL, [ErrorSeverity] INT NULL, [ErrorState] INT NULL, [ErrorProcedure] NVARCHAR (126) NULL, [ErrorLine] INT NULL, [ErrorMessage] NVARCHAR (4000) NOT NULL ); end go if not exists (select null from sys.columns where name = 'newcolumn' and OBJECT_NAME(object_id) = 'ErrorLog') begin alter table ErrorLog add newcolumnint null end
With database projects • Change script generated at deploy time based on compiled project and state of target database • Do not need to know state of target database before deploy
With database projects THE PROJECT IS THE TRUTH
Structure • All database objects are stored in a project • All objects are defined fully • Server projects for server level objects (logins, endpoints etc) • Database projects for database level objects (tables, stored procedures, users etc)
Import schema • Can import whole database only into blank project • Can import script into existing database project
Build • Validates all objects • Doesn’t need a database connection • Creates compiled dbschema file
Schema compare • Gui method of comparing project and target server • Not available in professional
Deploy • Used to generate sql file that will make the target database the same as the project • Optionally runs the sql file against the target database • Can be run from • Visual studio • Msbuild/team build • Vsdbcmd • API
Permissions • Managed in an xml file • Validated to ensure object and user/role exists in project • Might need to define login for user in server project • Not very user friendly • Can import from a script
What else they can do • References (dbschema, xsd, clr) • Static code analysis • Database unit tests & data generation (execute only in professional) • Refactor (execute only in professional) • Extensibility
New in 2010 • Code snippets • Intellisense • Integrated debugger • Extensibility
Not supported - 1 • Sql agent jobs • Replication • Replicated tables schema modification (can workaround by setting VerifyDeployment=false) • For replication on stored procedures
Not supported - 2 • Change data capture (change tracking supported in 2010) • Reference data • Circular cross database references
Not supported - 3 • Session/global temporary table • With check/with no check on constraints • Non sql server linked servers • Create resource pool • Create workload group • Create full text stoplist • Reporting services • Integration services • Analysis services • Table – lock escalation • Index options – maxdop, drop_existing, sort_in_tempdb
Further reading • http://vsdatabaseguide.codeplex.com/ • http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vstsdb/threads