MSDKSQLDeploy FAQ

  • Question:Why did You select to use a simple text editor for deploy scripts

  • Answer:

    Main reson:

    To be able to have consistency with the database scripts, when You have lot of different version branches together with multiple customer specific functionality in Your version control system for database scripts it's easy to loose control.
    To get control You save the deploy script together with the database scripts in version control the simplest way. Then You always can manage them as a unit with standard methods.

    Simplicity:

    Everybody knows how to use an editor and MSDK_SQLDeploy can be configured to use Your favorite editor it's also easy to understand. You don't need to spend time on learning how to do it, just do it.

    Efficency:

    Sometimes when you want to do major changes to the deployscripts,the efficency doing this with an editor is hard to beat with a graphical interface.

    Documentation:

    It's easy to document the deploy scripts, with an editor this is done by adding comment lines directly in the deployscripts, and can be done anywhere in the deployscipts. The documentation is at Your fingertips all the time.

    Long time stability:

    MSDK_SQLDeploy is a critical tool, it needs to be operational at all times for a very long time. Text editors are usually very stable and they will exist for a very long time. We have experience from applications where customers spend lot of investments on developing and competence building for tools and later finds that the tool is discontinued and possibility to convert to another tool is extremly costly. We want to avoid that senario.

    Syntax check:

    We use syntax check for deploy scripts. You can always perform syntax check on a specific deploy script or all deployscripts to verify the syntax.