Since posting the first code sample on how to leverage the Visual Studio Database Deployment API , I have had a number of folks contact me and ask how to do the same, but also comprehend the database references, options set in the project, refactor log...

I had planned to update my previous database continuous integration post with what is new in 2010, but have not had any time to do so yet. Many customers ask me for the same. I shared my 2010 walkthroughs and samples with Steven, Sr. Technical Writer...

Shameless cross. FREEWARE Version of Toad Extension for Visual Studio now available

In Visual Studio 2010 we have enabled a number of new extensibility points as detailed in my earlier post . In this post we will take a look at creating a deployment contributor . This deployment contributor is a deployment executor. Essentially what...

In Visual Studio 2010, Database Edition or DBPro Projects (.dbproj) have replaced the old Database Projects (.dbp) from previous versions of Visual Studio. Database Projects (.dbproj) are available in Professional, Premium, and Ultimate versions of Visual...

I often get questions from developers wanting to modify the deployment engine’s behavior in some way. These questions are typically motivated by the need to accommodate a specific requirement for a given environment or to support automation in some fashion...

During the 2010 product cycle I collaborated with Xerox Services frequently as a part of Microsoft’s TAP Program. The TAP program allows organizations to participate in the product cycle by getting access to software throughout product lifecycle at prerelease...

Targeting a dbschema model file for deployment Since releasing GDR we have had customer's ask for the ability to target a dbschema file through vsdbcmd . We were able to add this for the 2010 release. The primary use of this is to diff 2 dbschema files...

Cross Post of : Release Candidate of Database Projects availble and GDR Power Tools update http://blogs.msdn.com/vstsdb/archive/2010/03/02/rc-of-database-projects-availble-and-gdr-power-tools-update.aspx

Been putting off evaluating Visual Studio 2010? New VMs are available to download that includes Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 Ultimate and Team Foundation Server 2010. It’s now easier than ever to evaluate Beta 2. They come in 3 flavors: · Visual Studio 2010...

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is available! For those of you who are MSDN subscribers you can download it today through MSDN subscriber’s page. For everyone else you will have access to it on Wednesday. Visual Studio Database Edition features are now in Visual...

VSTS:DB does not support self-referencing 3 part names. It does support external 3 and 4 part references. For folks wondering what the difference is it is basically the use of fully qualified 3 part names identifiers for all objects in your programmability...

The GDR R2 has a limitation that it uses the same product id for all localized versions of the product. This prevents you from installing more than one localized version of the product. If you have a need to install multiple language versions of GDR R2...

A colleague published a new white paper on composite and partial database projects. If you want to understand the difference or see how these project types are used check this out: Collaborative Development with Team System 2008 Database Edition http...

A customer asked me the other day how they could deploy Composite Projects as a part of a Database Unit Test run. They are using the Composite Project to segment their Database Projects into 2 projects for maintainability and deployment reasons. 1 schema...

Isn’t it funny how a simple word like Beer can grab your attention? In this post we will look at migrating The Beer House (TBH) sample application database to be managed by VSTS:DB. For those in the NW you may have seen this previously as I have presented...

This post finishes off a 2 part post . Sorry about the delay getting this second part out. I went on a vacation back in May and I am just now getting caught up. In Part 1 we reviewed how to use the pre and post deployment scripts to manage data motion...

For database application developers working on data driven applications their reference data is as important and meaningful as the database schema itself. In fact, the database schema is incomplete when the reference data is absent. When I say reference...

Continuing with the VSTS: DB Best Practices post series, let’s take a look at managing data motion in your deployments. This will be Part 1 of a 2 part post. In the first post we will take a look at managing data motion necessary to make table schema...

In the March edition of MSDN we provided an overview of Server Projects and how to reference the master.dbschema file to resolve references to system objects. If you have a project that references the master.dbschema file, you may have noticed it takes...

Up to the release of Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR a design database was used to store and validate the database project's schema model. The design database was dynamically created when you opened a database project (.dbroj). The...

We are receiving reports from customers that they are encountering a deployment failure of their database projects using the GDR release. This issue typically occurs when the project is copied to a new location on disk or when the solution configuration...

Jamie Laflen and I wrote an article for this month's issue of MSDN magazine . The article briefly introduces most of the new features of the VSTSDB GDR release. The article covers the following features: Offline Schema Development Product Architectural...

Continuing with the Best Practices post series, let's take a look at Offline Schema Development to set the stage for future topics. This posting is for DBAs and Database Application Developers that are not using the VSTSDB or have just started using VSTSDB...

The Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR introduced a new model based architecture that removes the product's dependency on a design db. In previous versions of the product a local instance of the SQL Server was required. This local SQL...