Contracts

A contract defines the message types available in a Service Broker conversation and determines which participant is authorized to send each message type.

Database Explorer allows you to perform operations on contracts using the shortcut menu. Right-click a contract in Database Explorer to access commands for specific tasks, such as editing, deleting contracts, or generating scripts for them.

Create a contract

You can create a contract in SQL Editor in one of these ways:

• Code completion to write a script.
• SQL snippets to insert predefined or custom code.

Edit a contract

1. In Database Explorer, right-click the contract you want to edit and select Modify via SQL.

2. In a SQL document, update the ALTER AUTHORIZATION ON CONTRACT statement.

3. On the SQL toolbar, click Execute or press F5.

Delete a contract

1. In Database Explorer, right-click the contract you want to delete and select Delete, or press Delete.

2. Click Yes to confirm the deletion.

Note

You cannot undo the drop operation, as this action permanently deletes all its data and structure. It is recommended that you back up the database before deleting it.

Duplicate a contract

1. In Database Explorer, right-click a required contract and select Duplicate Object.

2. In the Duplicate Object dialog, configure the object settings:

• In Destination connection, select the target server.
• In Destination database, select the target database.
• In Destination schema, select the target schema.
• In New object name, specify the object name.
• Select Drop destination object to drop the destination object if it already exists.
• Optional: Select Script Changes, then select To New SQL Window to open the generated script in a new SQL document, or To Clipboard to copy it to the clipboard.

3. Click OK.

Generate a script for a contract

1. In Database Explorer, right-click a required contract and select Generate Script As, then select the statement type.

2. Select the output option:

• To New SQL Window – Opens the script in a new SQL document.
• To File – Generates the script to a .sql file.
• To Clipboard – Copies the script to the clipboard.

View contract properties

To view contract properties, in Database Explorer, right-click the contract or Contracts node and select Show Details.

Object Viewer opens, displaying detailed information about the contract.

Refresh the contract

To update the contract to reflect the latest changes, in Database Explorer, right-click the contract or Contracts node and select Refresh, or press F5.

Open the Properties window

To open the Properties window, in Database Explorer, right-click the contract and select Properties, or press F4.

Filter contracts

1. In Database Explorer, right-click the Contracts node and select Filter.

2. In the Filter Settings (Contracts) dialog, configure the filter parameters.

3. Click OK to apply the filter.

Note

When you open the Contracts node, the number of objects it contains appears in parentheses next to the node name. This number changes based on your filter settings.

Shortcut menu options for a specific contract

The following table describes the shortcut menu options, which appear when you right-click a specific contract in Database Explorer.

Name	Description
Modify via SQL	Opens the existing contract in a new SQL document containing an ALTER AUTHORIZATION ON CONTRACT statement to update it.
Source Control > Source Control Manager	Opens Source Control Manager, where you can track and manage changes to database schema and static data. When Source Control Manager is already open, this option refreshes it.
Source Control > Commit	Opens Source Control Manager with all local changes (if any) selected and ready to commit. When Source Control Manager is already open, this option refreshes it and selects all local database changes.
Source Control > Get Latest	Opens Source Control Manager with all remote changes (if any) selected, ready to pull using Get Latest. When Source Control Manager is already open, this option refreshes it and selects all remote database changes.
Duplicate Object	Opens the Duplicate Object dialog to duplicate the object.
Generate Script As	Generates a script of the selected object using the CREATE, DROP, DROP and CREATE, and ALTER statements. The script can be saved to a new SQL document or to a file, or copied to the clipboard.
Show Details	Opens Object Viewer to view object details.
Delete	Drops the selected object from the database. Shortcut: Delete
Refresh	Updates the object to reflect the latest changes. Shortcut: F5
Properties	Opens the Properties pane to view the object information. Shortcut: F4

Shortcut menu options for the Contracts node

The following table describes the shortcut menu options, which appear when you right-click the Contracts node in Database Explorer.

Name	Description
Source Control > Source Control Manager	Opens Source Control Manager, where you can track and manage changes to database schema and static data. When Source Control Manager is already open, this option refreshes it.
Source Control > Commit	Opens Source Control Manager with all local changes (if any) selected and ready to commit. When Source Control Manager is already open, this option refreshes it and selects all local database changes.
Source Control > Get Latest	Opens Source Control Manager with all remote changes (if any) selected, ready to pull using Get Latest. When Source Control Manager is already open, this option refreshes it and selects all remote database changes.
Filter	Opens the Filter Settings dialog to control which contracts should appear in Database Explorer.
Show Details	Opens Object Viewer to view object details.
Refresh	Updates the object to reflect the latest changes. Shortcut: F5

Note

The Source Control shortcut menu is available only after you link the corresponding database to a source-control system.

Bulk operations

In Database Explorer, hold down Ctrl and select multiple contracts. Then right-click the selection and select the required option.

The following table describes the shortcut menu options available for multiple contracts.

Name	Description
Source Control > Source Control Manager	Opens Source Control Manager, where you can track and manage changes to database schema and static data. When Source Control Manager is already open, this option refreshes it.
Source Control > Commit	Opens Source Control Manager with all local changes (if any) selected and ready to commit. When Source Control Manager is already open, this option refreshes it and selects all local database changes.
Source Control > Get Latest	Opens Source Control Manager with all remote changes (if any) selected, ready to pull using Get Latest. When Source Control Manager is already open, this option refreshes it and selects all remote database changes.
Source Control > Link/Unlink Static Data	Opes the Source Control Link Static Data dialog that displays the tables whose data you want to link.
Generate Script As	Generates scripts of the selected objects using the CREATE, DROP, DROP and CREATE, and ALTER statements. The scripts can be generated to a new SQL document or to a file, or copied to the clipboard.
Delete	Drops the selected contracts from the database. Shortcut: Delete