Can snapshots contain data?

j

I've had success so far with the Compare engine, but not the DataCompare engine.

When I try to programmatically take a snapshot of a database that has data by RegisterForDataCompare() and then SaveToFolder(), only the schema scripts are created, no inserts.

What step am I missing?

Thanks,

J

simon.jackson

Snapshots can currently only contain schema information. You can use the compare to backup functionality of Data Compare to get similar behavior with data.

j

Thanks for your response.

So is there no easy way to do a datacompare with a source other than a real database?

I think a redgate backup could do this, but that seems like too complex a set of products for this project at least.

So is the recommended way to go to use the schema-only update as I already have working, and then augment that with an independent, hand-crafted script that ensures that the necessary data values are present in the few lookup tables?

Thanks,

J

simon.jackson

You can datacompare with a backup file, either a native one made with SQL Server or one made with Red Gate SQL Backup.

The currently supported way of combining data and schema is
- Compare with a SQL Compare snapshot or scripts folder in order to update the schema
then
- Date Compare with a SQL Server/Red Gate SQL Backup backup file in order to change the values in lookup tables etc.

This combination should allow you to create the scripts dynamically.