Microsoft Fabric Updates Blog

SQL Projects support for Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric

We are excited to announce the support of Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse in the SQL Database Projects extension available inside of Azure Data Studio and Visual Studio Code!

SQL Database Projects is an extension to design, edit, and publish schemas for SQL databases from a source-controlled environment. A SQL project is a local representation of SQL objects that comprise the schema for a single database, such as tables, stored procedures, or functions. 

With this release, we have introduced a new supported target platform in the SQL database projects extension: Synapse Data Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric.

Why it matters:

SQL database projects support for Fabric Warehouse enables T-SQL analytics engineering by introducing capabilities like:

  • Source control integration – Database code is treated as real code and can be stored in source control systems like Git. Use SQL database projects to keep track of changes, perform code reviews, and maintain version history of code.
  • Database testing – Database projects support the addition of “unit tests” to validate the functionality and integrity of databases. These can be added to new or existing test projects.
  • Schema validation – The “build” operation available in SQL database projects can be used to compile and validate T-SQL code inside of the project.

By using SQL database projects, developers can streamline their workflow, collaborate effectively with team members, and ensure the integrity and consistency of their database-related work.

With SQL database projects:

  • A startup company that needs to introduce new time-sensitive or real-time changes to manage their marketing, distribution, and product strategies can use SQL projects to quickly deploy updates to their backend systems. Using SQL projects, they can easily create dev/test environments from their production systems to build, validate, publish, and revert their changes in an agile fashion.
  • A health care organization that needs to closely monitor and govern PII, PCI, PFI, and other classifications of data sensitivity can use SQL projects to track the incremental changes introduced in each deployment to adhere to HIPPA regulations. Using SQL projects, an organization can validate privacy, transactions, security, and enforcement rules with the use of unit or integration tests while promoting changes to their production backend systems.
  • A consulting company that needs to closely monitor “who did what” to their production systems can use SQL projects to audit the changes made by individuals or teams as part of their internal control review. Using SQL projects, they can use the native source control management capabilities to regulate how changes are being introduced to their product systems.

So, what’s new?

With this update, in the SQL database projects extension – available inside of Azure Data Studio or Visual Studio Code – you can now:

  1. Create a project – extract the contents of a Fabric Warehouse directly into a database project
  2. New target platform – change the target platform of an existing database project to Fabric Warehouse
  3. Publish a project – publish the contents of your database project directly to a new Fabric Warehouse

How can I get started?

  1. Download Azure Data Studio or Visual Studio Code.
  2. Navigate to the extensions marketplace and search for “SQL Database Projects” (v1.3.1). Click “install”.
  3. A tab on the left navigation pane for “Database Projects” will appear to get started.
  4. Navigate to the “Database Projects” tab and click “+”.
  5. Create a new database project and select “Synapse Data Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric” as your target platform.
  6. Start developing your warehouse schemas with T-SQL scripts!

Coming soon:

  • Warehouse support for SQLPackage
  • Migration guidance from dedicated SQL pools
  • Deployment Pipelines
  • Git integration

Stay tuned to the blog for updates!

Explore further:

Have any questions? Feel free to leave comments on this blog!

Here’s a tutorial to get started with SQL database projects: Getting started with the SQL Database Projects extension – Azure Data Studio | Microsoft Learn

Have any feedback or ideas to improve this experience? Post your thoughts to Ideas (microsoft.com). Thanks for reading!

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