Database in version control using Visual Studio 2010 Professional - visual-studio-2010

I've added a SQL Server 2008 database project to my Visual Studio 2010 Professional Edition solution in the hope that it might allow me to include my database in version control.
I can commit the schema files for each database object into version control, however these schema files all script objects as create rather than alter, so are not good for colleges getting my changes and updating their databases.
Is this a good way to get my database into source control?
And what would the workflow be for actually using it to update databases to a given revision without losing all the data associated with dropping and re-creating all the tables?
Update: on Premium and Ultimate versions, there is a schema compare tool which makes this easy. This does not exist on Professional. Is there any straightforward manual workaround?

I'm not sure if you can do this in VS 2010 Professional, but in VS 2010 Premium, you can do a schema comparison (Data -> Schema Compare -> New Schema Comparison) between your project and database, and update changes in either direction.
When going from project to database, VS generates a script that copies existing data into a temporary table before dropping the existing one.

The database project has a deploy step (which is present in my Professional copy of VS2010) that will generate a sql script with your sql objects in it.
The key thing here is if you r-click the project, properties, goto deploy and change target database settings to a specific database, when you deploy it will generate a change script for that specific database so it matches the objects in the project (and in theory keep existing data etc).
You can get it to either generate a sql script, or directly update the database. Generating a script is probably a better idea :)

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Oracle Developer Tools (ODT) with Visual Studio 2019

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I can do a schema compare with my local database, but there are a number of issues I have noticed which I can't have following through to deployment in test or production. I just wondered if I am doing something wrong or if these issues are limitation of the extension.
Using schema compare generated change scripts only ever drop and rebuild an existing table, never alter it. This obviously deletes all the data in the table too. How do I change this?
Whenever I do a database clean build I have to run the schema compare, or build script, multiple times as the tool doesn't order the build based on dependencies. Surely this is my setup as otherwise this is a HUGE oversight!
Any help welcome.

Visual Studio Project that execute an SQL script

I have this question... probably is similar to Executing scripts from a database project in visual studio
but i didn't understand the solution given.
So i made a Database Server 2008 project inside visual studio.
Just one table. When i press DEPLOY the database is created inside SQLServer2008 and the table is created.
Now what if i would like to give the project to someone who has SQLServer and he needs to recreate the database and the table in his computer?..
Apart form executing the query from Visual Studio is there any way to create an executable that automatically "deploy" from outside Visual Studio?..
Thanks,
There are different types of Database projects in Visual Studio. The old ones, which were not so feature rich. The 'Data Dude' ones that came with Visual Studio 2010 Team Database Edition and the most recent iteration that comes with the SQL Server Data Tools. All of these can be installed on top of the standard Visual Studio Professional and don't require additional licenses.
SQL Server Data Tools is the latest, and also the best integrated and most powerful variant of the bunch. It can also be used to compare existing schema's and generate upgrade scripts or automatically upgrade the schema in an existing database for you.
During build, a package will be created that holds all the schema information for your database. You can then use the command line tools provided by the SQL Server data tools or MSDeploy to deploy your compressed schema file to a new or an existing database.
This deployment mechanism can also upgrade existing schema if needed.

Reload database objects in a VS database project?

if I create a SQL Server 2008 Database Project in Visual Studio 2010, then I am able to right click the project and select Import Database Objects and Settings.... I can do that exactly one time (even if I get an error while importing). If I did it one time, the option is grayed-out.
But after I have imported my objects, I couldn't find a way to reload or refresh the objects. A good example would be, that I have a database project of a whole database and someone adds something to the database directly. Now I want to have new table (function, procedure, etc.) in my project, too.
There has to be a better way than copy&paste to add new existing database objects to my database project?
I found this question:
Script all SQL database objects into VS Database project
But I neither have a Schema Compare option, nor can I drag&drop files from the server explorer.
In Visual Studio you should see a menu choice that says Data. If you click on that, you should be able to run a Schema Compare. If you're not seeing that, then there's something wrong with your VS install or the project or maybe both.

How can I manage SQL Server jobs using a Database project

Does Visual Studio 2010 support managing SQL Server jobs in the Database Project?
I am working with a database project in Visual Studio 2010. I would like to manage my database scheduler job in my database project. It seems that I could not create any server object in the database project.
What we do at my company is:
Script out your jobs to be re-runnable (either drop/create or skip if exists)
Place the scripts in your Post-Deployment folder (and include the reference in your Script.PostDeployment.sql file as necessary)
No, you won't be able to do that. If you want to use Visual Studio to manage database projects you can use the database and server projects (what used to be called Data Dude).
You might also want to take a look at Red Gate SQL Connect. It works with databases and source control through Visual Studio.

Visual Studio 2010 - Database Projects (where are the project template for just script files?)

VS.NET 2010 removed the database project template that could be used for just script files
(that you right click on and execute on desired database).
I want to add a database project similar to the ones in VS.NET 2008? Can i do this?
I tried to use one of the new vs.net 2010 database projects however, in our environment we have multiple applications within the same database. We also have a lot of legacy stuff. In addition we have a lot of queries that cross databases (i.e. in the case of accessing data wharehouse tables). It sure seems that this scenario is hard to use with the new database projects. It seems this adds a lot of complexity to using the new db projects.
What sort of database project is best to be used for this scenario??

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