Sql-server – SQL Server Designers, Failed Saves, and Generated Scripts

The 2012 Books Online topic "Get Information About a View" states that the permissions required for this specific task are:

• VIEW DEFINITION permission on the database; and
• SELECT permission on sys.sql_expression_dependencies

Note that database-level VIEW DEFINITION is required to allow the user to see information in sys.sql_expression_dependencies; object-level VIEW DEFINITION and SELECT on the DMV will not work (you will receive an empty result set).

Example:

USE Sandpit;
GO
CREATE VIEW dbo.V1 AS SELECT 1 AS const;
GO
CREATE VIEW dbo.V2 AS SELECT v.const FROM dbo.V1 AS v;
GO
CREATE USER Bob WITHOUT LOGIN;

-- These two permissions are not sufficent
GRANT VIEW DEFINITION ON OBJECT::V1 TO Bob;
GRANT VIEW DEFINITION ON OBJECT::V2 TO Bob;

-- This one permission is enough (covers the two above)
GRANT VIEW DEFINITION ON DATABASE::Sandpit TO Bob;

-- Also required
GRANT SELECT ON OBJECT::sys.sql_expression_dependencies TO Bob;
GO
EXECUTE AS USER = 'Bob';
GO
SELECT OBJECT_DEFINITION(OBJECT_ID(N'V1', N'V'));
SELECT OBJECT_DEFINITION(OBJECT_ID(N'V2', N'V'));

-- Show DMV info for the test views
SELECT
    referencing_object_name = OBJECT_NAME(sed.referencing_id),
    sed.referencing_class_desc,
    sed.is_schema_bound_reference,
    sed.referenced_class_desc,
    sed.referenced_schema_name,
    sed.referenced_entity_name
FROM sys.sql_expression_dependencies AS sed
WHERE
    sed.referenced_id = OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.V1', N'V');
GO
REVERT;
GO
DROP USER Bob;
DROP VIEW dbo.V1, dbo.V2;

Regarding sp_depends: that requires only membership of the public role but is deprecated:

This feature will be removed in a future version of Microsoft SQL Server. Avoid using this feature in new development work, and plan to modify applications that currently use this feature. Use sys.dm_sql_referencing_entities and sys.dm_sql_referenced_entities instead.

Ok, couple of things.

1. always use EXEC when executing stored procedures; the shorthand without EXEC only works when it is the first statement in the batch (and that will not be the case here).
2. always use semi-colon terminators - in this case they are useful in lieu of pretty carriage returns and indentation, but they are always wise to have.
3. always use QUOTENAME() instead of manually applying square brackets yourself. In this case you're probably safe, but there are cases where the manual approach will break.

4. you can test the PRINT output but it won't necessarily be complete if your total command is > 8k (see this tip for some alternative approaches).

   DECLARE @sql nvarchar(max) = N'';
   
   SELECT @sql += N'EXEC sys.sp_rename N''' 
       + QUOTENAME(s.name) + '.' + QUOTENAME(d.name) 
       + ''', N''DF_' + t.name + '_' + c.name + ''', ''OBJECT'';'
     FROM sys.tables AS t
     INNER JOIN sys.default_constraints AS d
        ON d.parent_object_id = t.object_id
     INNER JOIN sys.columns AS c
        ON c.object_id = t.object_id
       AND c.column_id = d.parent_column_id
     INNER JOIN sys.schemas AS s
        ON t.schema_id = s.schema_id
     WHERE d.NAME LIKE N'DF[_][_]%';
   
   PRINT @sql;
   -- EXEC sys.sp_executesql @sql;