Refreshing project metadata

In certain scenarios, SQL Tran may display outdated information about the state of objects in the source and target staging databases. This typically occurs when metadata has not been refreshed after setting up database connections, or when changes are made directly to the staging databases outside of SQL Tran.

For example, earlier in this training, our demo project appeared to show that objects existed only in the target staging database. In reality, the source staging database already contained those objects, but SQL Tran had not yet refreshed its metadata and therefore did not recognize them.

To bring SQL Tran up to date, you can initiate a metadata refresh. This process re-queries both staging environments and updates SQL Tran’s internal model of the project’s schema, dependencies, and object status.

In this page, we’ll walk through how to perform a metadata refresh using the Actions menu on the Overview screen.

1. Go to the Overview screen

Open the Overview screen by selecting it from the left sidebar.

2. Open the Actions menu

From the Overview screen, expand the Actions menu using its dropdown control.

3. Begin the metadata refresh operation

From the Actions menu, click Refresh metadata.

This triggers SQL Tran to retrieve updated metadata from both the source and target staging databases. As part of the operation, it refreshes the lifecycle status of each object in the current project, updates object dependencies and relationships, and recalculates overall project statistics and metadata.

4. Confirm the action

When the confirmation dialog titled Refresh metadata appears, click the Refresh button to proceed with the operation.

5. Wait for the operation to complete

During execution, a waiting message is displayed.

Once the process completes, the Overview screen will reappear. A success message stating Refresh metadata has successfully completed. will appear in the bottom right corner of the screen.

6. Evaluating source schema

Previously, SQL Tran indicated that the project’s objects existed only in the target staging database. In reality, the same objects were also present in the source staging database, but SQL Tran had not yet been made aware of this.

Now that the metadata has been refreshed, SQL Tran has synchronized its internal state with the actual contents of both staging databases.

In the next section, we will revisit the Workspace screen to confirm that the object existence indicators now correctly reflect the state of both environments.