VSDB uses the the ($DefaultDataPath) SQLCMD variable to represent the location where you would place your data and log file of your database. The deployment engine sets the value of SQLCMD variable by querying SQL Server using the following query: 1: DECLARE @ value nvarchar(512), 2: @rc int...

Now that SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP is available, I found some time to install it and test the existing Visual Studio 2008 Team System Database Edition GDR R2 release with it. The only thing that is really different from a SQL Server point of view besides two changes to the SQL parser, is that the...

Visual Studio makes it relatively easy to hook in to pre and post build events, by using the Project properties tab named Build Events. However when using Database Projects (.dbproj) you more often need to do something at deployment time. The good news is that the standard MSBuild framework, already...

Pre-deployment script do not change the outcome of deployments! The above statements is something that most users do not realize when using pre-deployment scripts. Since the pre-deployment script is included in to the deployment script, it therefore by definition runs after the comparison the the source...

Last week, September 10, I was invited by the New England SQL Server User Group to present about my favorite topic “ Declarative Database Development ”. I posted the slides of the presentation at DBProj.com . GertD @ www.DBProj.com

The DevConnections conference organization (Tech Conferences Inc.), just released the latest issue of the magazine accompanying the conferences, named: MyDevConnections . In this edition (volume 2, issue 1) you will find an article that I wrote about “Declarative Database Development – Define What You...

This post announces the availability of a small helper utility that will allow you to maintain your database.sqlcmdvars files from a command line tool. Description: What is the scenario? If you are using vsdbcmd.exe to deploy your schema, you include the Database.sqlcmdvars, however vsdbcmd.exe does...

We frequently get asked how to identify the version a user is running with, so here is the list of Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition releases. The information is retrieved using Help => About Microsoft Visual Studio inside the Visual Studio shell (devenv.exe). Alternatively you can copy...

Quick one based on a forum question where somebody asked how to detect if VSDBCMD.EXE failed or succeeded inside a batch file. VSDBCMD.EXE does not return a very elaborate amount of information, there are just two return values 0 and 1, where zero indicates success and 1 failure. So in order to test...

I am receiving the following question a lot: How do I propagate MSBuild properties to SQLCMD variables. In order to make the Visual Studio 2008 Team System Database Edition GDR release use the data from an MSBuild property inside a SQLCMD variable you need to do three things: Add the variable to the...

Based on a customer request I created a .dbschema file which contains the definitions of all the extended stored procedures used by SQL LiteSpeed 5.0 that live inside the master database. Since schema import does not import the definition of extended stored procedures, the user could no resolve the reference...

Yesterday, March 25th, the development team released an RC of the upcoming QFE of the Visual Studio 2008 Team System Database Edition GDR bits. I was surprised to read the new naming “ Visual Studio 2008 Database Edition GDR v2 RC1 ”. Anyhow what is in a name? It is about the content if you would ask...

It was great to be able to meet many new users of the Database Edition product at the SQL Connection Spring 2009 conference this week. Thank you for attending the sessions. There were lots of great questions, critical feedback and input for new features and improvements, they are all noted! As promised...

Next week I will be presenting at SQL Connections in Orlando where I will be covering some fun topics on DataDude and general SQL Server. Here is the list. SQL Connections Spring 2009 (Orlando, FL) SDB413: Automating Database Deployment Do you have a need to automate the deployment of your database schema...

If you are running in to the following problem when creating unit tests when using database projects, there now is a fix! Consider the following scenario, you have you database project (.dbproj) open and requesting the creation of a Database Unit Test by right clicking on for example a stored procedure...

  Is your Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR installation confused? Does your menu suffer from multiple instance disorder? Here is what you can do about it. Make sure that Visual Studio (devenv.exe) is closed. Start an elevated command prompt. Run the following two commands: "...

The Visual Studio Team System Database Edition team has created a new blog site to keep you informed and update about the latest developments. Please check out: http://blogs.msdn.com/vstsdb Thanks, -GertD

Some of you already know or noticed through sites like LinkedIn or Facebook that per the beginning of this month I started in a new role inside Microsoft. I moved in to an Software Architect role, working on the new Directory Services stack. Hence I needed a new place to publish my DataDude contributions...

Genevieve, tester on the “DataDude” team, has created a new Data Generator which allows you to populate a random set of sparse columns through the use of an XML column set column. She posted it on the VS Code Gallery, http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/columnsetgenerator . -GertD PS: Dank je wel Genevieve...

Today we released the last language, Russian, of the planned localized versions of Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR. This brings the total count to 10 (including English). You can download the Russian edition of the GDR from the following location: http://download.microsoft.com/download...

One of the small, but hard to discover new features in the GDR release is the ability to suppress warnings at the file level. Just to be very clear, this is suppression of build level warnings, not of static code analysis or deployment warnings! Imagine you have a procedure that references a temp table...

Yesterday we released two more languages of the Visual Studio 2008 Team System Database Edition GDR release, Simplified Chinese and French in addition to the six languages we released on December 19th 2008. Chinese (Simplified) (zh-CN) http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/2/2/2223ECF9-7485-4A0B-8928...

One of the new features in the GDR release is that you can create your own T-SQL Static Code Analysis rules. This post will guide you through creating your first rule.   Step 1: Create a new Class Library project Inside Visual Studio 2008 create a new "Class Library" project, you can use...

We just released a new set off VPC's for Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite (including TFS) which now have the Visual Studio 2008 Team System Database Edition GDR bits installed. These VPC's provide an easy way to test out the GDR release. There is a Virtual PC and Hyper-V based image. For details check out...

In the GDR you will mainly find large improvements, but it is not everything is better. One area where we regressed functionality is the deployment of comments inside T-SQL procedures, triggers,  functions etc. With the move to a true and only model based system, objects that are stored in dbo.syscomments...