Two different VSDB Projects for DBCreation and Population?

Question

I've just stated developing with vsdb, and while it seems to be functional, it seems like it introduces unnecessary restrictions.

Effectively what I'd LIKE to do is use it to manage database creation, as well as upgrades etc. In creating, nothing special, just a if db not exists create db, and add a couple logins.

I'd like to push out the changes to tables/views/sprocs/funcs etc... but it seems like it wants me to make this two projects... which is fine... but seems like unnecessary complexity.

I guess my question is to be able to point this .dbschema at a server and have it create database if needed as well as populate the database with schema and data.

Is this really going to require of me 2 projects for each database I want to automate the deployment of?

Answer 1

Can you provide more detail on why you ran into needing 2 projects?

I'm managing a "2 database" deployment and use 4 projects, but not for the same reasons.

1. Server project - for Logins
2. A stub project for DB-A because some of it's items are referenced by DB-B.
3. DB-B's project
4. DB-A's project

If I only had one of the databases without the cross-database links, and didn't need to manage server-level items also in the project, it would only require one project.