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ShiftSchema Features

  • Synchronizes Microsoft SQL Server databases with files on disk.
  • Monitors multiple databases for changes made by DDL scripts or SQL Server Management Studio.
  • Synchronizes both database structure and data.
  • Choose objects to exclude from synchronization.
  • Prevents your dev database getting out of sync by disallowing schema changes when ShiftSchema is not running.
  • Provides tools for integrating with build systems and continuous integration.
  • Generates DDL scripts for releasing changes to QA or Production environments.

Microsoft SQL Server Features

While ShiftSchema doesn't support the full range of SQL Server objects it does the most commonly used ones and, if there's something you need let us know and we'll make an effort to get it working for you.

Supported Features

  • Schemas
  • Tables - both structure and data.
  • Constraints - Primary Key, Unique, Foreign Key, Check and Default Constraints
  • Indexes
  • Stored Procedures
  • Functions
  • Views
  • Triggers - table level only, not database triggers.
  • Principals - Users, Roles and Permissions.
  • User Defined Types
  • Defaults - Automatic database change notifications only available in SQL Server 2008.
  • Rules - Automatic database change notifications only available in SQL Server 2008.
  • Synonyms
  • Extended Properties - Automatic database change notifications only available in SQL Server 2008.

Unsupported Features

  • Full-text indexes
  • XML Schemas
  • Assemblies
  • Service broker objects - Contracts, Message Types, Queues etc
  • Storage and partitioning
  • Aggregates
  • Master, asymmetric and symmetric keys
  • Certificates
  • Credentials
  • Statistics

Microsoft SQL Server 2005

ShiftSchema relies on DDL Triggers to receive notifications of changes you make in the database. With SQL Server 2005 there are some limitations to the DDL triggers that may cause your development database to get out of sync with your working copy:

  • sp_rename - In SQL Server 2005 the sp_rename stored procedure does not cause DDL events to be fired. This is not a problem if you are manually writing all DDL scripts but SQL Server Management Studio does make use of sp_rename. This issue has been fixed in SQL Server 2008.
  • Rules - SQL Server 2005 does not support DDL triggers for Rules. As Rules are deprecated you should consider replacing them with Check Constraints. SQL Server 2008 does support DDL Triggers for Rules.
  • Defaults - SQL Server 2005 does not support DDL triggers for Defaults. As Defaults are deprecated you should consider replacing them with Default Constraints. SQL Server 2008 does support DDL Triggers for Defaults.

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