Using Schema Compare in Visual Studio 2012

Schema Compare is an integrated tool that is included with the Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio (ODT). It is used to visually inspect the differences between a source and a target schema and to generate a diff script that modifies the target schema to make it identical to the source. The source and target schemas can reside on the same database or on two different databases.

Developers will typically evolve their development schema as they work on their .NET application, for example creating or modifying tables or stored procedures that are used by their .NET application. During development, they can use the Schema Compare tool to visually inspect what changes have been made thus far, and when development has completed, they can use the tool to generate the deployment scripts for synchronizing the development and production schemas.

This OBE walks through a general use case scenario of a .NET developer. It consists of the following steps:

1. Start with a development schema identical to the production schema. We will create two schemas named DEVELOPMENT and PRODUCTION and they will both contain a portion of the HR schema.
2. With the progress of the .NET application, the development schema evolves to meet the needs of the application
3. During development, use the Schema Compare tool to compare the development versus production schemas and view the differences
4. On the completion of the development, use the Schema Compare tool to compare the development versus production schemas and generate the diff scripts and rollback scripts
5. Deploy the diff script to bring the production database up to the required version of development schema
6. Apply the rollback script to roll back the changes made to the production database.

We will use the Schema Compare tool to identify, synchronize and rollback the differences in the created instances.

Duration: 45 minutes

This content is intended for the following job role(s): Application Developer

Release Date: 16-SEP-2013