One of the draw backs of SQL Server 2000 and 2005 is that although you can script individual objects (tables, stored procs etc.), you can’t script multiple objects in one go – well, not that I’m aware of anyway.

The Database Publishing Wizard (DPW) solves this issue by allowing you to:

• script all objects from a database in one go;
• script specific objects;
• script all data or data from specific tables;
• script to a specific database version;
• do most of the above from command line.

I now use this almost daily combined with .bat scripts or NAnt with CruiseControl to keep my development databases “clean” but also for deployment purposes.

Microsoft released a v1.1 of the DPW in 2007 which has some frustrating bugs at times and released a v1.2 and a v1.3 in 2008 which I believe is also installed as part of VWD 2008 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 – so you may already have it! These updated versions as far as I can tell simply provides support for the later SQL Server versions’ database object/data scripting.

So, I recommend reading the documentation for v1.1 as well as the known issues list too.

The odd thing about DPW is that Microsoft don’t seem to publicise it. Maybe they don’t want to have to support it? I only found v1.1 originally because I needed the functionality it offered. Apart from the v1.1 Codeplex home, the associated Microsoft page and the v1.2 direct file download I can’t see any info regarding the product at all. How strange …