So I was updating another computer from Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 to RTM over Christmas and noticed something during the install process. You know, the install process, where they show pictures of people I never saw in my computer science classes, interviewed, or seen at any of development/industry events. Got to love marketing.
Back to what I saw though, the Sql Publishing Wizard. A quick Google search showed me this was previously an add in which has made it’s way into Visual Studio 2008 as a default component. You can download and read about it on CodePlex. From the home page on the CodePlex, the Sql Publishing wizard supports two modes of operation:
- It generates a single SQL script file which can be used to recreate a database when the only connectivity to a server is through a web-based control panel with a script execution window.
- It connects to a web service provided by your hoster and directly creates objects on a specified hosted database
I tested out the single SQL script mode on our new database, which is quite complex and has challenged other scripting tools. I am extremely happy to report, that the single generate script reproduced our database perfectly. What’s even better, is that it is an open source project, so you can make some changes, maybe add some schema object filters, or separate the objects into separate files.