The schema management tools are available in Premium and Ultimate but not Professional. Having used the 2008 tools on a previous project I can honestly say that its great until you need to worry about existing data (ie Until you've deployed into production once). After that it starts to get a little hairy as there are things the tool simply can't help you to do (complex migrations being one of them). Then the issue becomes how to integrate your custom scripts into the tool. If you are frequently deploying new versions this is ok but I've been in a situation where I needed the tool to do half of its job so I could apply my custom script and then I get it to run the other half. There's no easy way to do that so you end up going around the tool and making the custom scripts more complex. At that point your tool set is getting in the way and you should ditch it. I would like to work with a tool like http://github.com/schambers/fluentmigrator/ which would hide the SQL in a saner way.
On Fri, May 7, 2010 at 7:12 AM, Mark Ryall <mark.ry...@gmail.com> wrote: > Just out of curiosity - do people really prefer this approach to managing > database schema changes? > > I'd choose a migration approach every time (given the choice). Making > changes to a database and then using a tool to tell me what changes I made > just seems lame. You should know what changes you made - you were there at > the time making them. > > Is it a fear of writing sql or is there some other reason? > > I can understand how in some unfortunate situations (many projects all > simultaneously contributing changes to the same schema) it might be > justified but it'd never be my preference. > > It seems an unnecessarily awkward reliance on a tool that will never be > able to do everything you want (complex data migrations etc.). > > Mark. > > On Fri, May 7, 2010 at 5:34 AM, Grant Maw <grant....@gmail.com> wrote: > >> I primarily use the schema compare tools to keep all my database table, >> stored procs, functions and other objects together and in source control, >> but there are data generation plans and a bunch of other tools that means >> you rarely need to leave the IDE. The functionality and tooling is a lot >> richer than it was in previous versions. I'm still learning a lot of the >> features :) >> >> I am using VS2010 Ultimate, but from what I understand that database tools >> should now be available in most versions, though I could be wrong on that >> point. >> >> On 6 May 2010 11:34, Arjang Assadi <arjang.ass...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> Hi Grant, >>> >>> What database tools are you talking about? I was happy about stability >>> and new features in the editor, now I have to chase up the database >>> tools! any links about them? >>> >>> Mike, >>> For a look at good stuff in VS2010 check out >>> http://blogs.msdn.com/zainnab/default.aspx >>> >>> Regards >>> >>> Arjang >>> >>> >>> >>> On 6 May 2010 06:51, Grant Maw <grant....@gmail.com> wrote: >>> > "What is the *single* most exciting thing about it?" >>> > >>> > For me, it's the stability. I've been using it since it came out and >>> I've >>> > not yet been able to make it crash. Previous versions would crash >>> several >>> > times per day for me. >>> > >>> > Apart from that, the database tools are a big improvement over previous >>> > versions. >>> > >>> > This is, seriously, the BEST edition of VS that I have ever used. Lots >>> of >>> > little things all add up to make a great dev experience. Previous >>> versions >>> > were all like "death by a thousand cuts" because of all the little >>> > annoyances. Most of these have been removed. >>> > >>> > If you are able to, upgrade today. You'll thank yourself for it. If you >>> can >>> > add Resharper 5, even better. >>> > >>> > Grant >>> > >>> >> >> > -- Michael M. Minutillo Indiscriminate Information Sponge Blog: http://wolfbyte-net.blogspot.com
