Table Documentation

The table documentation begins with a summary of the tables in the database, including row counts and disk consumption.

Figure 6

Each table's individual details, including column names, types, keys and permissions are detailed on their own pages.

Figure 7

The DDL script to recreate the table is also documented.

Figure 8

 

View Documentation

Views are documented similarly to tables, but without the summary section. Also included in the documentation for a particular view is a list of related objects, such as tables or other views queried.

Figure 9

 

Stored Procedure Documentation

The documentation for stored procedures includes input and output parameters, in addition to the SQL statement(s) and related objects.

Figure 10

 

User and Role Documentation

Users, roles and role memberships are also documented. 

Figure 11

 

Bonus Feature: Extended Property Editor

SLQ Server can store descriptive data for tables and table columns in the MS_Description extended property. You can manually set and query these properties with the sp_addextendedproperty stored procedure, and retrieve them with fn_listextendedproperty(). 

Extended properties can be very useful for documenting tables and columns, but can be tedious to create and edit. Dbdesc includes an extended properties editor, and extended properties will appear in the resulting documentation.

On the Objects tab is an Advanced button. Clicking this button opens a dialog where you can select the specific tables you want to document, as well as add extended properties to tables and columns.

Figure 12

 

In the example below we have added several extended properties to the Categories table and a couple of columns.

Figure 13

 

The table's extended property appears below the table name, and column descriptions appear in the Description column. This is a useful feature, and makes documentation both more helpful and easier.

Figure 14