msbuild schema compare - Empty target

Question

I am looking at using MSBUILD from a command line to run the schema compare (*.scmp)

Within the solution we have several databases and the team aren't always that great at remembering to check changes (stor procs, tables etc..) into the solution. Although Visual studio can show the comparison, I can't find a way of exporting the list of errors, for me to chase the team about. Screen shots seem to be the only way.

I thought That I would see if there were any tools in order to produce a list of differences. I came across an example on the following:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ssdt/archive/2014/07/15/msbuild-support-for-schema-compare-is-available.aspx

I saw this example:

C:\SampleProject > msbuild /t:SqlSchemaCompare /p:SqlScmpFilePath="d:\sc.scmp" /p:target="d:\target.dacpac" /p:TextOutput="d:\1.out" /p:Deploy="true

However I can't get it to work. When I run the equivalent against my particular set up I get:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v12.0\SSDT\Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.SqlTasks.targets(843,5): SchemaCompare error : The tar get participant is invalid or empty. at Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.Tasks.Sql.SqlSchemaCompareTask.Execute() [C:\TFS\Argon_Main Solution_Latest R elease\Source\Blah\SomeData.DataDatabase.sqlproj]

Has anyone got any ideas?

Cheers

Answer 1

I ran across this issue the other day. Turns out the problem was i needed to use the VisualStudioVersion command line argument.

msbuild /t:SqlSchemaCompare /p:VisualStudioVersion=14.0 /p:SqlScmpFilePath="MySchemaCompare.scmp" /p:target="MyConnectionString" /p:TextOutput="..\output.out"

Your Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.SqlTasks.targets file should be located at C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\{Your VS Version}\SSDT

Answer 2

I realize it's been a while since this was asked, but I'll answer anyway.

Firstly, it's unclear to me what you're trying to compare exactly. Do you want to compare two versions of the project to see the differences, or are you comparing a project to a database?

One thing I noticed is that you're specifying the target twice in the command line. Firstly, the .scmp file referenced via the SqlScmpFilePath parameter contains a source and target. Secondly, the target parameter also defines a target. The target parameter will override whatever is in the .scmp file.

Maybe this is intentional, though, if your .scmp file has the right source but you want to specify the target in the .dacpac file.

The .dacpac file can be found in the bin\Debug or bin\Release folder of your SSDT project after a build. For your command to work, you'll need to make sure "d:\target.dacpac" exists and is such a file.

The .scmp file is created by doing a Schema Compare in Visual Studio and then saving the comparison window after selecting the source and target. For your command to work, you'll need to make sure that "d:\sc.scmp" exists and is such a file.

Please let me know if this helps.