VS2008 DataSet Wizard doesn't match tables for updating

Question

Hi all, first question ever on this site.

I've been having a real stubborn problem using Visual Studio 2008 and I'm hoping someone has figured this out before.

I have 2 libraries and 1 project that use strongly typed datasets (MSSQL backend) that I generated using the "Configure DataSet with Wizard" option on in Data Sources. I've had them working just fine for awhile and I've written a lot of code in the non-designer file for the row classes. I've also specified a lot of custom queries using the dataset designer. This is all work I can't afford to loose.

I've recently made some changes to re-organize my libraries which included changing the names of the libraries themselves. I also changed the connection string to point to a different database which is a development copy (same exact schema).

Problem is now when I open up "Configure DataSet with Wizard" to pickup a new column I've added to one of the tables it no longer matches the tables correctly in the wizard. The wizard displays all of the tables in the database and none of them have check boxes next to them (ie: are not part of this dataset). Below those it shows all of the tables again but with red Xs and these are checked. Basically meaning that Visual Studio sees all of the tables it currently has in the DataSet and sees all of the tables in the database, but believes they are no longer the same and thus do not match!

I've had this same thing happen quite awhile back and I think I just re-built the xsd from scratch and manually copied the code over and then had to redefine all of the custom queries I built in the dataset designer. That's not a good solution.

I'm looking for 2 answers: 1. What causes this to happen and how to prevent it. 2. How do I fix this so that the wizard once again believes the tables in its xsd are the same tables that are in the database (yes, they have the exact same names still).

Thanks.

Answer 1

The dataset designer uses the default query (The first one with a check on it) to sync up the schema for each table. Whenever you go to edit the default query, VS will actually connect to your datasource and look for changes in the query. If new columns are added, they will show up as new columns for you to add to your table. Renamed columns show up as new, since VS doesn't have any way to know that you changed the name.

Answer 1. The XSD file contains the names of the database tables that it used to create the table originally. If you change the name of the table, the designer won't know which table to sync to.

Answer 2. You can edit the XML inside the XSD file. Do a "Find and Replace" inside the XSD file replacing the old tablename for the new tablename. Make sure you have a backup of the XSD file before you do. Be careful to only change instances of the old table name and not any other working XML.