Understanding the Target screen
Last updated
Last updated
The Target screen presents a complete and accurate representation of the target database state after translation. It reflects how the database would appear once all source objects have been processed and translated by SQL Tran’s engine. This powerful translation process occurs in real time—any change to a source or target object is immediately reflected in the Target screen, enabling interactive inspection of the final target structure.
Unlike the Workspace screen, which displays the relationship between source and translated target code side-by-side, the Target screen is focused solely on the resulting target database. It provides visibility into all target database objects, including those that are split or newly created from a single source object. This makes the Target screen essential for analyzing the projected target environment.
The screen layout is similar to the Workspace screen, with a header, objects tree, code pane, Actions dropdown, and a collapsible side panel. Some UI elements are hidden by default and appear only after a target database object is selected.
At the top of the screen, the header pane displays the name of the current project. When a target database object is selected, the pane additionally shows:
The object’s name
Its complexity level
Its lifecycle status, including Parsing, Analysis, and Creation indicators.
The objects tree is located on the left side and is visually similar to the one on the Workspace screen, but here it exclusively shows target objects and is displayed without a tab. It lists all target database objects grouped by type:
Tables
Views
Procedures
Functions
Each group is expandable, indicated by an arrow (e.g., > Tables), and displays a count of successfully processed objects (e.g., > Procedures (9 of 9)).
When a target database object is selected, its SQL code appears in the central code pane, enabling detailed review of the target representation.
In the central part of the screen is the code pane, where the translated SQL code for the selected target object is displayed.
This pane shows how the source SQL has been adapted for the target system (e.g., Microsoft Fabric Warehouse), incorporating necessary transformations and emulations.
You can select target objects from the objects tree to view their SQL, or navigate via:
"Go to definition" – Place the cursor on an object and press F12, or hold CTRL and click the name.
Find object by name – Press CTRL + K to open a search dialog with real-time filtering.
The code editor includes real-time validation powered by SQL Tran’s static analysis and data lineage engine. Errors are underlined, with syntax errors shown in red and unresolved references shown in orange, and are also reported in the code pane’s header.
On the right side of the code pane is the Actions dropdown, which provides tools for managing target objects:
Override – Allows editing of the target object’s SQL. Overridden objects are marked with a Target overridden label and a pen icon in the tree.
Revert to original – Restores the original translation, available after an override is applied.
Create in staging – Creates the object and its dependencies in the staging environment. Available after configuring database connections.
Create in production – Same as above, but targets the production environment.
Show differences – Displays diffs between this object and its version in the staging database.
Ignore this object – Excludes the object from processing. Ignored objects appear with a strikethrough and a comment in the code pane. You can unignore an object by selecting the Unignore this object option from the right-click context menu. This option is initially unavailable and becomes available once the object is marked as ignored.
All of these options are also accessible by right-clicking an object in the objects tree to open the context menu.
The side panel is docked on the right side and initially collapsed to preserve space. It includes the following sections:
Analysis
Code
Clicking a section opens the corresponding tab. The panel can be collapsed again by clicking its arrow.
As SQL Tran translates the source database, it builds a complete semantic model of object dependencies and relationships. The Analysis tab shows this static analysis information for the selected target object, grouped as:
Depends on – Objects that the selected object depends on.
Referenced by – Objects that reference the selected object.
Broken references – Unresolved or missing references.
The Code tab presents a semantic model of the selected object’s SQL code. It offers two views:
Statements view – Shows a structured list of SQL statements. The header displays the number of statements and the total lines of code (LoC). Selecting a statement highlights the corresponding portion of code in the source editor.
Nodes view – Displays a detailed tree of SQL language elements. The header includes node count and the total lines of code (LoC). Selecting a node highlights the related code in the source editor.
The header of the Code tab includes expand and collapse buttons, shown as icons. These allow you to expand or collapse all nodes in the current hierarchical view at once. You can also expand or collapse individual nodes by clicking them directly.
