Database Designer for Visual Studio?

Question

I am working on a database project and the entire team is working within Visual Studio. I created a database project, and I suppose I was hoping that I could utilize UML diagramming (or something along the lines of MySQL Workbench ) so that I could "design" my database, and then auto-generate scripts. Unfortunately, at least from my cursory search, such a tool does not appear to exist within Visual Studio (I am using 2008 Professional).

Is there something within VS that I am missing? If so, could you please point me to it? Otherwise, what suggestions do you have for creating a database. I would like to be able to easily allow other developers to quickly create the database as well as put the files into source control . I'm envisioning designing the database via UML, and then, from there, everything is generated for me.

Thanks for any advice.

Answer 1

Also, in VS 2008 Professional, there is a "Database Project" that you can make use of. It's sole purpose is to store database scripts that you can then put under source control. You can either write the scripts yourself, or use the designer. If using the designer, after you create and save the table, you can right-click on it in the Server Explorer and choose "Generate Create Script".

http://blog.reamped.net/post/2008/05/Using-Database-Projects-for-Visual-Studio.aspx

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=31764

Answer 2

Visual Studio 2008 Team System database edition seems to do what you want. here is the link

Answer 3

I am using 2008 Professional

Actually, database projects should not be available to you. At least, I do not see any SQL2005 or SQL 2008 projects in my VS 2008 Pro. You'd need the VS Database Edition or Team Suite for that functionality. Even so, it doesn't offer any graphical tools as far as I know. You can add database elements as script files and have it generate a deployment script for you.

You could also play with the Entity Framework 4 (requires VS 2010). There you have a graphical designer which will afterward generate a script for you.

Alternatively, you could try the Sybase PowerDesigner . Also a very powerful piece of software.