SSDT: Tips, Tricks, and Gotchas

I wanted to add a short post to make sure I highlight some things that will trip people up or otherwise cause issues.   When setting trigger order for triggers on a table, you could run into

SSDT: SQL Project Snapshots

SSDT allows for snapshots to be taken of the project at any point. Just right-click the project name and select the option to “Snapshot Project”. This builds a dacpac file into a folder within the project called

SSDT: Publishing Your Project

Build the project In order to successfully publish your project, it must first be able to build successfully. Start by building your project. Right-click the project and select “Build”. If the build is successful, the project can

SSDT: Errors and Warnings

SSDT includes an Errors and Warnings window that is well worth your attention. Ideally, your project should have no errors or warnings.   However, sometimes coding errors slip in to your project or you get warnings that

SSDT: Updating a Project Manually

Sometimes it’s necessary to modify the project manually. The change might require specific tweaking to include just a couple of new lines in a stored procedure or function. It might be just adding a column to a

SSDT: Updating a Project by Importing Scripts

Sometimes your developers will work on new SQL Objects and give you scripts to alter or create objects. SQL Projects support importing those scripts into your project. Start by choosing the Import Script option. Find your script

SSDT: Updating by Using Schema Compare

Sometimes changes are made to a shared database that need to be brought into your SQL Project and there are no saved change scripts for those changes. Other times you may just want to see what will

SSDT: Pre and Post Deploy Scripts

At some point, you will likely need to release changes that contain more than just schema changes. You may need to update data in a table, remove data that could cause a problem, or insert some data

SSDT: External Database References

If your database references other databases, you’ll need a *.dacpac file for each external database referenced in your code. For example, if you reference AdventureWorksDW2008 from Adventureworks2008, you’ll need to add that as a database reference.  

SSDT: SQL Project Options

To set the properties for your SQL Project, right-click the Project and select Properties. You’ll see a window containing several tabs to define your project.   Project Settings Here you can set your normal target platform (SQL