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visual-studiovisual-studio-2017sql-server-data-toolsschema-compare

Ignore "Source schema drift detected" Error, Continue With Update

I have a SQL Project in Visual Studio 2017 and I'm using SSDT to update my project from a SQL Database, looks like this:

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Often the database I'm using as my source is changing(often in small and irrelevant ways), when this occurs I cannot update my project, I get the "commonly" "experienced":

Source schema drift detected. Press Compare to refresh.

However in my case this error is legitimate, I just don't care, I would like to update my target anyways. Is there a way to ignore this message and have Visual Studio update my project irregardless of the schema drift?

Solution

  • The way I've got around this is to do a SSDT project snapshot before updating the project, which will be saved as a DACPAC. After updating the project I do a schema compare between the SSDT project and the DACPAC file. That picks up only the changes that have been made to the project. Then, rather than clicking the Update button on the schema compare, which won't work if the target is a DACPAC, I click the Generate Script button. I can then run the generated script against the target database.

    NOTE: The generated script will use the name of the DACPAC file as the database name at the head of the file. Change it to the correct name of the database before running the script.

    By the way, If you forget to take a snapshot of the SSDT project before making changes (which I do occasionally) it's not a problem as long as the SSDT project is in source control. Just commit your changes then check out the last commit before your changes before taking the project snapshot. Then check out your latest commit again and do the schema compare between the changed SSDT project and the saved snapshot DACPAC.