Visual Studio - Publish dacpac as NuGet package in so other DB Projects can reference the DB

Actually, as you think, Database project does not support Nuget so far in VS due to some reasons.

In fact, it is really convenient to use nuget in database project. I agree with you on this point.

Nuget does make it easy to import a dacpac file into a project(if it can be done), just by adding these to the xxx.nuspec file:

<files>
<file src="xxx\xxx.dacpac" target="content">
</files>

Then it will import such file by nuget automatically in the new project.

And there is someone else who also wants this feature .

Suggestion

You can suggest a feature on our User Voice Forum to report your thought. And you can also share the link here and anyone who is interested in it including us will vote for you so that it will cause Microsoft to attach great importance.

The new Microsoft.Build.Sql SDK is available still in preview in May 2023. This SDK allows the SDK style .sqlproj to reference nuget packages for dacpac files. See docs for its functionality.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="Build">
  <Sdk Name="Microsoft.Build.Sql" Version="0.1.9-preview" />
  <PropertyGroup>
    <Name>Demo</Name>
    <DSP>Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.Sql.Sql160DatabaseSchemaProvider</DSP>
    <ModelCollation>1033, CI</ModelCollation>
    <ProjectGuid>{f4a1051f-6dd5-4701-bd74-180f9008a16c}</ProjectGuid>
    <TargetDatabaseSet>True</TargetDatabaseSet>
    <TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.7.2</TargetFrameworkVersion>
    <TargetFrameworkProfile />
    <ProjectVersion>4.1</ProjectVersion>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.SqlServer.Dacpacs" Version="160.0.0">
      <SuppressMissingDependenciesErrors>False</SuppressMissingDependenciesErrors>
      <DatabaseVariableLiteralValue>master</DatabaseVariableLiteralValue>
      <DacpacName>master</DacpacName>
    </PackageReference>
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

It restores this Microsoft.SqlServer.Dacpacs package from nuget. By inspecting this package, we can see the dacpacs are in tools folder.

To pack your own dacpac nuget, add a .nuspec file to root and include desired .dacpac into tools folder.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<package xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/packaging/2010/07/nuspec.xsd">
    <metadata>
        ...
    </metadata>
    <files>
        <file src="Public\*.dacpac" target="tools" />
    </files>
</package>