Can anybody please clarify the difference between build, publish, deploy, and compare+update in SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) 2012 ?
SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) is a modern development tool for building SQL Server relational databases, databases in Azure SQL, Analysis Services (AS) data models, Integration Services (IS) packages, and Reporting Services (RS) reports.
Database deployment automation is the practice of including databases in the DevOps process and automating it for the whole pipeline to run more smoothly. With organizations needing to do better and deliver faster than ever, deployment automation has become key to having a competitive advantage.
Microsoft's SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) is a Visual Studio development solution for developing SQL Server relational databases. SSDT is a broader term that includes more than simply new database tools. It's essentially a repackaging of the Business Intelligence Developer Studio (BIDS) product from Visual Studio 2008.
Build - builds a dacpac file and verifies that everything will work. This means that all references resolve, there are no obvious syntax errors, missing or extra commas, and so on. Generally a successful build means that your database project will work. This should also refresh your local "debug" instance to have a copy of your database against which you can work.
Publish - This is the act of either creating a script or pushing the project to a database. You'll use this if you want to see a script of all of the changes with the "Generate Script" option or to just automatically update the database.
Deploy - I don't think this term is used with SSDT SQL Projects, but it should correspond to the Publish command.
Compare + Update - I think this is only available in your SQL Schema compare command from within the project. It will let you compare a project/database to another project/database. Useful if you want to see all schema changes for the choices you made in the schema compare options.
I did a series on SSDT on my blog that may be useful to you: http://schottsql.blogspot.com/search/label/SSDT
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