I am attempting to gain some knowledge and use cases on SSDT Database development and deployments and strugling with some deployment issues.
Specifically when using nested views. For some unknown reason when attempting to deploy / publish the files in the project to a local / live db it seems to mess up the references in the views.
In this project i have the following views (example):
View1
View2
View3
View1 references View2 and View3 is referencing View1.
Building the project works fine. hoewever when i try to publish the database either by generating a dacpac by snapshot and publish it to the database or let Visual Studio generate an update script after (or not) comparing schemas i end up with an update script which tries to create the views in what seems to be the logical order in which they are stored in the project.
In this case View1 -> View2 -> View3. This means the publish fails because of reference issues. It can't create a view if the referenced view does not exist.
I have tried several options by adding the dacpac as reference in the project in various ways (same database, Same Server different Database w/ w/o database parameter) but in many cases i end up with a sql71561 / SQL71508 error which was another PITA to solve.
Online i can't find any good sources which explains how to work around this issue or which explains how this works properly.
Hopefully i can get some help here. If you need extra input from my side or want me to try something let me know.
Issue has been resolved by new insights. When trying to build the demo code to share with SO community i accidentally found the solution because i needed to clean up sensitive data(model) parts. Please let me elaborate on what was the issue.
The solution can be divided into two solutions:
Configuration of Database Project / Solution
the way references work
I'll share some insights on the both matters.
Configuration of Database Project / Solution
The Visual Studio solution contained a single project in which all views were placed. The actual tables and other database items were separated in different Solutions / Project.
Solution1
Project1
View1
View2
View3
Solution2
Project1
Tables
Security
Schemas
Etc...
The views itself contained three-part identifiers [Database].[Schema].[Table/View]. This was both on the items inside the project (views) and on the items outside the project (tables etc.).
By just using that one separate Project with just the views led to missing references. It was not able to find the other views nor the tables (further see references).
One solution to this issue was making sure both the views and the tables refenced are in the same Solution / Project. Even with using three-part identifiers Visual Studio ignores these because of the existence of all items in the same project / solution. It will detect the dependencies this way.
the way references work
The other way to solve it was using references the right way in visual studio. which is the second possible solution.
Considering the earlier example where the views were in a different solution as the other elements led to missing references. However adding a dacpac as a database reference with the setting Same Database led to conflicting references and SQL71508 element already exists in the model. This is true because it exists in the references dacpac and we try to create a new view with the same name referencing itself in the dacpac. This is because it sees the three-part reference as a variable for the dacpac.
When using the dacpac setting for same Server, Different Database it resolves the mixed up references because it sees the three-part identifiers as an external reference and thinks that you creating a local copy of a view which is looking at the external dacpac. in other words it will not detect the nested view because it thinks you referencing a separate database not inside the project.
When building the project this will not lead to errors and deployment will work. however since it thinks you are referencing an external data source (in the form of a dacpac) it does not see the reference to the other local views.
The solution to this (atleast this worked for us) is to use two-part identifiers in our views when we need a local reference to the other views. This way it will look at other files inside the project instead of the referenced dacpac.
Since it will detect the reference to the other local views it will build correctly and detect the dependancies in the views inside the local project. It will then create a good build order for all views.
I guess you could also assign a different Variable name to the referenced Dacpac, use three-part-identifiers all the way but change the ones in the external dacpac to use the newly assigned variable name. We have not tested this (but i will when i get back home tonight).
So in all this was a good learning experience in how Database references work inside Database projects when using partial projects or when you have split up the database into several projects / solutions. Now to understand this Pandora's black box and convert them into a future-proof solution :)
Related
I have a fairly complex setup with eight databases on a server each referencing each other (about every database referencing each other), giving way to quite a complex web. The design is far from ideal, but unfortunately this is something we have to work with.
We need to create a SSDT solution to facilitate CI/CD
The whole project needs to be deployed from scratch on a new instance and I am trying to get my head around this, as I have limited SSDT knowledge for a project this scale.
The approaches I consider are as follows:
1) Split objects into shared objects, and reference the shared objects. This seems to be a nightmare to implement, as we would require different layers because of the complex web of references. (shared object referencing other shared objects). Also how do we deploy such a project on a blank server?
2) Create stubs for each object in a project being referenced by other objects, and make a database reference to these. This seems to be the easiest option, although it seems that if the object the stub is based on gets changed, the stubs also needs to be maintained otherwise the project will break. Is this the right assumption?
3) Only create stubs for projects required to compile (eg. tables referenced by views in other databases), and ignore warning references. I am leaning towards this route as the stubs will be much smaller and project easier to maintain, but I hate to ignore referencewarnings..
If we deploy using the stubs option, do we need to deploy the stubs first and then delete them after successful deployment?
Another (more straightforward question). What is the best way to deploy logins, users and object permissions ?
Thanks for replying.
The question is too broad but these are few suggestions:
You can't do anything with circular reference. There are some ways to workaround it but all of them are "hacky" and most probably will introduce more problems than to solve your problem. So try to move objects in so manner that there is only one way dependency;
Use synonyms for ALL cross database objects, so there supposed to be no straight reference outside database;
I agree with Peter Schott that it is better to ignore logins and users for now as handling them in SSDT is a bit of pain and you need to have good expertise on SSDT to make it working properly.
Working with VS2013 and doing my first database project solution. I have three existing databases on the same server. Quotes, Quoting and QuotingUi. Each have a few stored procedures that reference one of the other databases. This is done with database.schema.table (Quotes.dbo.Mytable) syntax and works well in SSMS and all production situations. QuotingUi has a number of views that pull data from Quoting using the same syntax. SPs and EF models have no problem with this.
I have created an empty solution and then added each database to the solution as a project by right clicking on the database in the SQL Object Explorer and Create New Database. Once all three projects are created the solution builds. I do however have warnings on Quotes and Quoting (sps only) that references cannot be resolved to the other database. In QuotingUi I have not only warnings about the sp references but errors (red squigglies) on all the views.
I have tried adding the other projects to each project both as projects (seems it only wants dlls) or databases or both, then rebuild, then close and reopen solution etc. I have set a build dependency for QuoutingUi for the other two projects and a build order that builds them first. No joy.
Have begun Deborah Kurata Pluralsight Course but I do not believe she covers this scenario.
Suggestions welcome.
It sounds like you're still using the existing three part name (e.g. [SameServerDb].[dbo].[Table2]) in your stored procedures and views. You should update it to use the SQLCMD variable name for the reference instead. SQLCMD variables are used so that you could change the referenced database name at deployment time.
This is covered in the help documentation, but here's an example for you. In this case I added a reference to "SameServerDb" as shown below:
Note the "Database Variable" name is $(SameServerDb). Now I just change any reference from [SameServerDb] to [$(SameServerDb)]:
CREATE VIEW [dbo].[View2]
AS SELECT * FROM [$(SameServerDb)].[dbo].[Table2]
For all database projects in your solution, add all their referenced databases: In Solution Explorer window, right click References -> Add database reference, and select the other project. Repeat for all referenced projects. Also, make sure you rebuild all projects.
You can also suppress certain warnings:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/9b698de1-9f6d-4e51-8c73-93c57355e768/treat-specific-warning-as-error?forum=ssdt
I am working on bringing an application comprised of several SqlServer databases into a source control system. I've come up with a solution using several project files, each representing one of the databases, but in order for it to compile, the database project references need to be defined for several database projects, or I get errors regarding missing dependencies and the like. With the references set up, the solution compiles ok.
However, with the solution publishing, I will need to publish the referenced database projects first if I don't want to get 'Invalid object name' script publishing errors on their referencing projects. I would like to have this configured and be able to publish by just clicking on the 'publish solution' button. Is there a way to define 'publication dependencies', similar to the compilation dependencies, that will allow me to do this?
I had something like this - had to turn off transactions (so I wouldn't roll back), then publish several times. In my instance, I only had one DB that required that, but I had to:
Publish DB A
Publish DBs B/C/D/E
Re-publish DB A to catch the rest of the objects.
I had a special Publish profile set up that did not use transactions just for this purpose. Other than that, you're probably going to have to keep some sort of track about dependencies if you create a lot of new objects that depend on other databases.
I have not come across any publication dependencies so far, but it would be helpful to have something like that to avoid these sorts of issues.
We have two databases, A and B. A contains tables that should also be deployed to B; however, A should always be considered as the master of those tables. We don't want to duplicate the schema object scripts. We do not want to simply reference A's table from B - they need to be separate, duplicated tables.
As far as I can see, there are two ways to achieve this:
Partial projects: export the shared schema objects to a partial project (.files) file, and import it into the B's database project
Adding shared schema object files to the B's database project as links.
These both have the disadvantage that you need to explicitly specify files - you cannot specify a folder, meaning that any time a schema object that needs sharing is added to A's database project, then either the partial project export would need to be run again, or the new file added as a link to B's project.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of these techniques? Are there any better ways of achieving this that I may have missed? Thanks.
Partial Projects are not supported in the VS2012 RC release, which makes me think that I shouldn't use them. Furthermore, it appears that Composite Projects within SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) may be the long term solution.
I've discovered that it is possible to link to entire folders by editing the dbproj file manually. For example:
<Build Include="..\SourceDatabase\Schema Objects\Tables\*.sql">
<SubType>Code</SubType>
<Link>Schema Objects\Tables\%(FileName).sql</Link>
</Build>
This works quite nicely, so it will be our preferred solution until we evaluate SSDT. The main drawback that I've found with it so far is that it will include all files in the source database's folders, including those that are not included in the source database project.
I'm creating a build script for a database and building the views in alphabetical order. An issue I've run into is that a view is created before a view that is referenced in the definition. The referenced view is created later in the script. Is there a command I can use that would create a view without validating, i.e. ignore the dependencies?
Note: Stored Procedures have the concept of "deferred name resolution" but I don't see a way of using this for views.
To add to #Joe Stefanelli's comment, there are many ways to script SQL objects in the correct order of dependency.
Listing the dependency order from the SSMS UI.
Use sp_depends to find dependency order, or using built-in dependency info tables.
Generate the script using the SSMS Tasks -> Generate Scripts... wizard, which can actually be automated using tools like Scriptio or built-in .NET SMO Library.
Another poor man's solution is just to run the script as many times as you have layers of dependencies. Existing objects would be ignored, and each execution would create more objects that depend on earlier-created objects. I would not recommend this solution if at all possible to find something more direct, as mentioned in the list above.