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Scripting

Scripting in SMO is controlled by the Scripter object and its child objects, or the Script method on individual objects. The Scripter object controls the mapping out of dependency relationships for objects on an instance of Microsoft SQL Server.

Advanced scripting by using the Scripter object and its child objects is a three phase process:

  1. Discovery

  2. List generation

  3. Script generation

The discovery phase uses the DependencyWalker object. Given an URN list of objects, the DiscoverDependencies method of the DependencyWalker object returns a DependencyTree object for the objects in the URN list. The Boolean fParents parameter is used to select whether the parents or the children of the specified object are to be discovered. The dependency tree can be modified at this stage.

In the list generation phase, the tree is passed in and the resulting list is returned. This object list is in scripting order and can be manipulated.

The list generation phases use the WalkDependencies method to return a DependencyTree. The DependencyTree can be modified at this stage.

In the third and final phase, a script is generated with the specified list and scripting options. The result is returned as a StringCollection system object. In this phase the dependent object names are then extracted from the Items collection of the DependencyTree object and properties such as NumberOfSiblings and FirstChild.

Example

To use any code example that is provided, you will have to choose the programming environment, the programming template, and the programming language in which to create your application. For more information, see How to: Create a Visual Basic SMO Project in Visual Studio .NET or How to: Create a Visual C# SMO Project in Visual Studio .NET.

This code example requires an Imports statement for the System.Collections.Specialized namespace. Insert this with the other Imports statements, before any declarations in the application.

Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo
Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Common
Imports System.Collections.Specialized

Scripting Out the Dependencies for a Database in Visual Basic

This code example shows how to discover the dependencies and iterate through the list to display the results.

' compile with: 
' /r:Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo.dll 
' /r:Microsoft.SqlServer.ConnectionInfo.dll 
' /r:Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Sdk.Sfc.dll 

Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo
Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Sdk.Sfc

Public Class A
   Public Shared Sub Main()
      ' database name
      Dim dbName As [String] = "AdventureWorksLT2008R2"   ' database name

      ' Connect to the local, default instance of SQL Server. 
      Dim srv As New Server()

      ' Reference the database.  
      Dim db As Database = srv.Databases(dbName)

      ' Define a Scripter object and set the required scripting options. 
      Dim scrp As New Scripter(srv)
      scrp.Options.ScriptDrops = False
      scrp.Options.WithDependencies = True
      scrp.Options.Indexes = True   ' To include indexes
      scrp.Options.DriAllConstraints = True   ' to include referential constraints in the script

      ' Iterate through the tables in database and script each one. Display the script.
      For Each tb As Table In db.Tables
         ' check if the table is not a system table
         If tb.IsSystemObject = False Then
            Console.WriteLine("-- Scripting for table " + tb.Name)

            ' Generating script for table tb
            Dim sc As System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection = scrp.Script(New Urn() {tb.Urn})
            For Each st As String In sc
               Console.WriteLine(st)
            Next
            Console.WriteLine("--")
         End If
      Next
   End Sub
End Class

Scripting Out the Dependencies for a Database in Visual C#

This code example shows how to discover the dependencies and iterate through the list to display the results.

// compile with: 
// /r:Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo.dll 
// /r:Microsoft.SqlServer.ConnectionInfo.dll 
// /r:Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Sdk.Sfc.dll 

using System;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Sdk.Sfc;

 
public class A {
   public static void Main() { 
      String dbName = "AdventureWorksLT2008R2"; // database name

      // Connect to the local, default instance of SQL Server. 
      Server srv = new Server();

      // Reference the database.  
      Database db = srv.Databases[dbName];

      // Define a Scripter object and set the required scripting options. 
      Scripter scrp = new Scripter(srv);
      scrp.Options.ScriptDrops = false;
      scrp.Options.WithDependencies = true;
      scrp.Options.Indexes = true;   // To include indexes
      scrp.Options.DriAllConstraints = true;   // to include referential constraints in the script
             
      // Iterate through the tables in database and script each one. Display the script.   
      foreach (Table tb in db.Tables) { 
         // check if the table is not a system table
         if (tb.IsSystemObject == false) {
            Console.WriteLine("-- Scripting for table " + tb.Name);

            // Generating script for table tb
            System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection sc = scrp.Script(new Urn[]{tb.Urn});
            foreach (string st in sc) {
               Console.WriteLine(st);
            }
            Console.WriteLine("--");
         }
      } 
   }
}

Scripting Out the Dependencies for a Database in PowerShell

This code example shows how to discover the dependencies and iterate through the list to display the results.

# Set the path context to the local, default instance of SQL Server.
CD \sql\localhost\default

# Create a Scripter object and set the required scripting options.
$scrp = New-Object -TypeName Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.SMO.Scripter -ArgumentList (Get-Item .)
$scrp.Options.ScriptDrops = $false
$scrp.Options.WithDependencies = $true
$scrp.Options.IncludeIfNotExists = $true

# Set the path context to the tables in AdventureWorks2008.

CD Databases\AdventureWorks2008R2\Tables

foreach ($Item in Get-ChildItem)
 {  
 $scrp.Script($Item)
 }