Creating Custom Templates

SQL Server Management Studio comes with templates for many common tasks, but the real power of templates lies in the ability to create a custom template for a complex script that you must create frequently. In this practice you will create a simple script with few parameters, but templates are useful for long, repetitive scripts, too.

Using Custom Templates

To create a custom template

1. In Template Explorer, expand SQL Server Templates, right-click Stored Procedure, point to New, and then click Folder.

2. Type Custom as the name of your new template folder, and then press ENTER.

3. Right-click Custom, point to New, and then click Template.

4. Type WorkOrdersProc as the name of your new template, and then press Enter.

5. Right-click WorkOrdersProc, and then click Edit.

6. In the Connect to Database Engine dialog box, verify the connection information and then click Connect.

7. In Query Editor, type the following script to create a stored procedure that looks up orders for a particular part, in this case the Blade. (You can cut and paste the code from the Tutorial window.)

   USE AdventureWorks;
   GO
   IF EXISTS (
   SELECT * 
      FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES 
      WHERE SPECIFIC_NAME = 'WorkOrdersForBlade')
      DROP PROCEDURE dbo.WorkOrdersForBlade
   GO
   CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.WorkOrdersForBlade
   AS
   SELECT Name, WorkOrderID 
   FROM Production.WorkOrder AS WO
   JOIN Production.Product AS Prod
   ON WO.ProductID = Prod.ProductID
   WHERE Name = 'Blade';
   GO
   

8. Press F5 to execute this script, creating the WorkOrdersForBlade procedure.

9. In Object Explorer, right-click your server, and then click New Query. A new Query Editor window opens.

10. In Query Editor, type EXECUTE dbo.WorkOrdersForBlade, and then press F5 to execute the query. Confirm that the Results pane returns a list of work orders for blades.

11. Edit the template script (the script in step 7), replacing the product name Blade with the parameter <product_name, nvarchar(50), name>, in four places.

    Note

    Parameters require three elements: the name of the parameter that you want to replace, the data type of the parameter, and a default value for the parameter.

12. Now the script should look like:

    USE AdventureWorks
    GO
    IF EXISTS (
    SELECT * 
       FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES 
       WHERE SPECIFIC_NAME = 'WorkOrdersFor<product_name, nvarchar(50), name>')
       DROP PROCEDURE dbo.WorkOrdersFor<product_name, nvarchar(50), name>
    GO
    CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.WorkOrdersFor<product_name, nvarchar(50), name>
    AS
    SELECT Name, WorkOrderID 
    FROM Production.WorkOrder AS WO
    JOIN Production.Product AS Prod
    ON WO.ProductID = Prod.ProductID
    WHERE Name = '<product_name, nvarchar(50), name>';
    GO
    

13. On the File menu, click Save WorkOrdersProc.sql to save your template.

To test the custom template

1. In Template Explorer, expand Stored Procedure, expand Custom, and then double-click WorkOrderProc.

2. In the Connect to Database Engine dialog box, complete the connection information and then click Connect. A new Query Editor window opens, containing the contents of the WorkOrderProc template.

3. On the Query menu, click Specify Values for Template Parameters.

4. In the Replace Template Parameters dialog box, for the product_name value, type FreeWheel (overwriting the default contents), and then click OK to close the Replace Template Parameters dialog box and modify the script in the Query Editor.

5. Press F5 to execute the query, creating the procedure.

Next Task in Lesson

Saving Scripts as Projects and Solutions