Getting Sql Server Data Tools to work with Visual Studio 2012 Express Release Candidate

Question

I'm struggling with migrating to Visual Studio 2012 Express Edition to handle a project that includes a database project with a .dbproj extension. This blog http://visualstudiomagazine.com/blogs/data-driver/2012/06/getting-visual-studio-2012-and-ssdt-to-work-together.aspx gives the impression that with a bit of work this is all basically manageable.

First you have to convert the .dbproj to a .sqlproj in Visual Studio 2010.

I managed to install Visual Studio 2010. This allowed me to convert the .dbproj to a .sqlproj. From there the idea is to install Sql Server Data Tools (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/tools.aspx) and open the sqlproj project in Visual Studio 2012, but I was unable to open the sqlproj in Visual Studio 2012.

I've tried the suggested repair from here http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ssdt/archive/2012/06/07/upgrade-issue-to-visual-studio-2012-rc.aspx and also the advice about repairing here http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ssdt/thread/c66c2296-c94e-4f21-993e-7d3090a596a5, but no matter what I do I can't create or open a sqlproj type project in Visual Studio Express 2012 RC for Web. Does anyone know how to resolve this?

UPDATE: This FAQ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/hh322942.aspx makes it clear that you have to work with an SQL Server Database Project in Visual Studio 2010 Shell not in Visual Studio 2010 or 2012 for Web.

My problem now is that I can create a completely new project by importing SQL scripts manually and going from there, but when I open up the .sqlproj file and try to work with that SQL Server Project I get a lot of spurious errors from Stored Procedures which are in fact perfectly valid.

Answer 1

I got a clear answer from Microsoft here http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ssdt/thread/c66c2296-c94e-4f21-993e-7d3090a596a5

Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web does not support the new Sql Server Data Tools. To work with a database project (converting from the old dbproj or creating a new project from scratch), you have to use Visual Studio 2010 Shell. The errors I got from Stored Procedures were caused because the sql scripts were not properly imported. The old dbproj had the sql scripts in arbitrary folders. The solution was to exclude all sql scripts from the project I had just converted from a dbproj, then re-import the sql scripts. When you do that, the project recognises them and doesn't raise errors.