At the office, we extensively use VS2010 SQL Server 2008 Database Projects and SQL Server 2008 Server Projects  in our Visual Studio 2010 solutions. With Visual Studio 2012, those types of projects are replaced by the  SQL Server Database Project  using the SSDT (SQL Server Data Tools) technology.

I started investigating the shift from Visual Studio 2010 to Visual Studio 2012 and specifically what needs to be done concerning those database projects in terms of painless migration, continuous integration and standalone deployment.

I will write my findings in a series of 4 short articles:

• Part 1 will be about the database projects migration process and the cleaning up that ensues
• Part 2 will be about creating SQL Server 2008 Server Projects equivalents with the new SSDT project type
• Part 3 will introduce a replacement to the vsdbcmd.exe command used for deployment in our continuous integration process
• Part 4 will explain how to create standalone packages of SSDT projects for deployment on non accessible servers (such as a production server)