Dropping Articles (Replication) Can it be done

Could any of you kind Gentlemen/Ladies tell me :-
Is there a way to drop Articles within a Publication without having to kill the Subscription ?
SQL Server 2000 SP3
Merge Publication of Articles Include Views,Stored Procedures & Tables
Many Thanks
GWYou can not drop any articles or columns if the publication has any subscriptions. You must first drop the subscription(s).|||Thanks For Trying JS but

I don't want to kill the Subscription as it means halting Production

and

you can drop columns in SQL 2k without dropping the Subscription

GW|||-IF- you have replication setup using stored procedures and not verb based, you can be vewwy sneaky and blank out the code within the sprocs and recompile them.

wahh-lahh

this, effectively does the same thing- (and works)

cheers,

isaac|||Lol Thanks Isaac

I don't know what verb based replication is but hear whot u r saying about modifying the SP's

In this case I will drop the subscriptions

Maybe next time delve into the SP's

Thanks

GW|||I thought you'd like that little trick :)

when you're creating the publication, you have the option of doing verb based or sproc based replication.

verb based just means that the distributor is issuing INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE commands directly against the server, instead of proxying them through stored procedures.

I prefer the sproc route because it gives you a lot of flexibility without having to rely on MS's row-based filtering stuff in the wizards.

I also heartily recommend using the "script to sql" option in the right-click context menu of the publication entry within e-mangler (and i mean that lovingly).

After you observe the code, you'll find that replication is much simpler than what the manuals make it out to be (which is usually the case).

at any rate, I can now recreate my publication from scratch pointed to a separate distributor, and setup 5 separate push-subscriptions in about 30 seconds through ISQL. This also allows you to keep your production config and setup scripts checked nicely into VSS where it belongs! ;)

good luck,

-isaac|||I will look further into the verb based stuff when the time comes.

I agree the SQL Scripting Option is a bonus in many situations & I use it all the time !

All Hail the Learning Curve

Thanks again M8y