Composite Projects in DBPro

I know the name is supposed to be Visual Studio Team System Database Edition, but DBPro, like Data Dude, slides off the tongue and the other doesn’t. Anyway…

I’ve been working with CTP 17 since it came out this week. So far, knock wood, no issues. I was trying to work out how to get multi-platform security working in some manner other than post-deployment scripts. Everything I tried failed. I finally posted a question on the MS forum. It was suggested that I use composite projects… What?

A little research later and I’m off and running. Now, with the ability to chain projects together, you can provide two projects, one with all the structures, and the other with only specialized differences, such as you might find in a development server.

I built a copy of Adventureworks (I love having a free test database to play with) in one database project. I created a server project and added a couple of logins to it. I then created a second database project. To this new project I added references back to the other two. I added a few security changes, to reflect, for example, a dev deployment to a server that isn’t going to have the same settings on security as the production server.

Now when I run build, all three projects get built, if needed. Deploy launched all three and the final result showed the aggregation of the projects.

I’m loving this. The improvements this creates in terms of process for tear-down and rebuild of the database, as well as enabling a decent process around incremental builds too.  Now, if they would just release it already.

5 thoughts on “Composite Projects in DBPro

  • joetig

    I just upgraded to the latest GDR release and I can’t even build the MSDB project that I downloaded from codeplex. This release is so buggy. Do you have any ideas?

  • scarydba

    Did you upgrade to the RTM or the September version? I just saw that the RTM is available. I haven’t downloaded and installed the RTM yet. I didn’t have any troubles with the September CTP. Maybe the issue is with the project from codeplex. Where did you get it? Is it a Team System Database Edition database project or just a Visual Studio database project? They are two different things.

  • joetig

    I first upgraded to VS2008 Team System Dataabse Edition CTP17 and encountered problems with unresolved references. I uninstalled this release and followed the instructions to install the GDR release candidate. The MSDB project was downloaded from http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/dbpromsdbsamples. I opened the project file and I encountered 14 unresolved reference errors.
    What is the difference between a Team System Database Edition database project or just a Visual Studio database project and how can you tell the difference.

  • joetig

    It was originally a db proj created in VS2005 that when It was opended, the applications proceded to convert it. This had not happened previously using the data dude. Before installing CTP17, I used data dude and it worked perfectly. I was able to compare schemas between the project and the database and create builds with no problems. The only change was the installation of CTP17. I have tried unistalling and re-installing as per instruction on various links, but I still encounter the same issues. All the issues have been submitted to the team.

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