Dennis Wagner-347763 (2/17/2011)
David, very nice! Of course, it all comes down to someone putting in the descriptions for each field or you just get a list of tables and columns.I'd be interested in knowing how many DBAs/Developers take the time to actually fill in the descriptions. It would also be very interesting to see how many do this for commercial systems where the client requests a data dictionary vs. internal systems that are only used in house.
This is my situation and struggle. Our database schema & objects are maintained in individual .sql files that go into TFS so figuring out a way to document the schema has been a challenge. Using sp_addExtendedProperty and sp_UpdateExtendedProperty system stored procedures to add commentary feels overly verbose and a lot of work, especially when the .sql source is hand crafted. I just don't see that being done. Plus, if you are looking at the .sql source they provide no assistance in understanding what a particular column is. Then throw in a need to potentially have internal facing descriptions & external (customer) facing descriptions.
In my research so far this has been the first useful article that I've come across. The documentation tools so are seem to be focused on getting data out of extended properties, not necessary making the population of those values practical.