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SQL projects tools

Tooling for SQL projects is available in several development environments and command line interfaces. The primary tools for SQL projects are the SqlPackage command line utility, SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) in Visual Studio, and the SQL Database Projects extension for Visual Studio Code.

Tools included in this article:

Graphical tools

These tools provide a graphical interface for SQL projects, a T-SQL editor, and a build and publish process.

SQL Database Projects extension is an extension for Visual Studio Code. This extension provides a graphical interface for SQL projects, a T-SQL editor, and a build and publish process.

Database DevOps in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) provides a graphical interface for SQL projects, a T-SQL editor, and a build and publish process.

SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) is a Visual Studio component that provides a graphical interface for SQL projects. SSDT provides a visual designer for tables, a T-SQL editor, and a build and publish process.

Feature set comparison

Feature VS Code SSMS SSDT (VS2022-2026) SDK-style SSDT, preview (VS2022)
Create new empty project Yes Yes Yes Yes
Create new project from existing database Yes Yes Yes Yes
Open existing Microsoft.Build.Sql projects Yes Yes No Yes
Open original-style (SSDT) projects Yes No Yes No
Solution management and operations No Yes Yes Yes
Project run build Yes Yes Yes Yes
Publish project to existing server Yes Yes Yes Yes
Publish project to a local development instance Yes1 Yes2 Yes3 Yes3
Publish options/properties Yes No Yes Yes
Target platform can be updated Yes Yes Yes Yes
SQLCMD variables Yes Yes Yes Yes
Project references Yes Yes Yes Yes
DACPAC references Yes Yes Yes Yes
Package references Yes Yes No No
Publish profile creation Yes Yes Yes Yes
SQL files can be added by placing in project folder Yes Yes No Yes
SQL files can be excluded from build Yes Yes Yes No
Pre-deployment and post-deployment scripts Yes Yes Yes Yes
New object templates Yes4 Yes4 Yes Yes4
Project files can be organized into folders Yes Yes Yes Yes
Schema comparison project to database Yes No Yes Yes
Schema comparison database to project Yes No Yes No
Graphical table designer No No Yes Yes
Code analysis - enable/disable rules GUI Yes Yes Yes No
Project properties - build output settings No No Yes Yes
Project properties - database settings GUI No No Yes No
Project run code analysis Yes Yes Yes No
Object renaming and refactoring No No Yes No
Intellisense provided in database files from project model No No Yes No
  1. Local development instance is a SQL Server container.
  2. Any pre-installed Microsoft SQL database can be used as a local development instance.
  3. Local development instance is a SQL Server LocalDB instance.
  4. Limited subset of templates available

Command line tools

SqlPackage is the primary command line utility for the DacFx library, enabling automation of the database development tasks such as deploying a .dacpac to a database or extracting the objects of a database to a SQL project or .dacpac.

Custom console applications can be built using the DacFx .NET library to automate database development tasks. The Microsoft.SqlServer.Dac namespace contains classes for creating, deploying, and extracting database objects and is foundational to the rest of the DacFx library.

CI/CD pipelines can be built with command line execution or with tasks specific to .dacpac and SQL projects deployment. The GitHub sql-action and SqlAzureDacpacDeployment in Azure DevOps are examples of tasks that use SqlPackage underneath a management layer to facilitate deploying database changes.

Conversion tools

The process of converting an existing SQL project to an SDK-style project is done by manually editing the .sqlproj file to include the new SDK-style project format. Before beginning the process, it's recommended to both back up the project file and archive a .dacpac of the project. By comparing a "before" and "after" .dacpac built from the project, you can ensure that the conversion process has correctly completed.

Project/solution management

Multiple SQL projects (and other projects) can be logically grouped together in a solution file. The solution file is a container for one or more projects and is used to manage the projects as a group, including the build action. Large solutions can be broken down into smaller solutions to improve performance and manageability, or dynamically generated for the appropriate task at hand. The slngen solution file generator is available for Microsoft.Build.Sql projects and can be used to create a solution file for a set of projects programmatically and on-demand.

Roadmap

A quarterly roadmap for SQL projects related capabilities is available at https://aka.ms/sqlprojects-roadmap. Customer feedback heavily influences the roadmap, which incorporates both modernizing the capabilities of Microsoft.Build.Sql projects and improvements to the tooling surfaces associated with SQL projects.

Third-party tools

There are third-party tools available that provide functionality related to SQL projects and database deployment. Some tools are open source, such as dbatools.

Developers have shared their projects utilizing extensibility points around SQL projects, including code analysis rules and customizing deployment plans. Some of these projects are: