Compare Schema

Topic updated 7-6-2007

Compare Schema is a Merge/Diff tool for the Datastore. It compares the metadata in the Datastore to the metadata of the database it is connected to in the Provider Tab. You can use Compare Schema to view schema differences and to merge them into an existing Datastore, updating its Datastore Entities. Compare Schema can only make changes in to Datastores, it will not change anything in databases it is connected to.

Compare Schema performs its comparison by the DbName property (see also: Name and DbName) of items in the Datastore. If the DbName property of items in the Datastore is changed, they cannot be compared anymore to the database objects they were based on.

Compare Options

The way Compare Schema get comparison results can be tweaked through its Options tab. The meaning of most options should be evident. The options are explained in the Compare Schema Options topic.

compareSchema

Compare Results

Differences found by Compare Schema are displayed in three different tabs.

Result (List of Differences): lists all differences.

Differences in Source: lists differences in the source database

Differences in Target: lists differences in the target Datastore

When database objects have a missing counterpart in the Datastore, they are only listed in the Differences in Target tab.

When items defined in the Datastore Entity Objects have no matching database objects, they are only listed in the Differences in Source tab.

Merging

Differences can be merged into the Datastore by clicking the Resolve Differences button. All differences are merged into the Datastore, except for those where the checkbox in the Ignore column is checked.

Right-click anywhere in the list of target differences to open a menu appearing in the top-left corner of the list, that has options to Ignore All and Ignore None. Ignore All can be useful if you have a long list of differences, but only want to merge a few of them into your Datastore.