Note: This article was originally published in 2011. Some steps, commands, or software versions may have changed. Check the current .Net documentation for the latest information.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • Visual Studio or .NET CLI installed
  • .NET Framework or .NET Core SDK
  • Basic C# programming knowledge

A question on many development projects that use a database is how to share that database with the entire development team and keep up a centralized, version controlled version of the schema which can be easily shared, deployed and maintained. Visual Studio 2010 steps up to the challenge with the database projects. You can easily import existing databases and put them on source control using Visual Studio. To learn more about this please visit the MSDN site: (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa833194\(v=VS.100\).aspx).   You can read more about suggested processes on (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa833404.aspx).

Summary

You’ve successfully learned maintain a centralized repository of the db schema and have it under source control. If you run into any issues, double-check the prerequisites and ensure your .Net environment is properly configured.