Unable to Read Fabric Warehouse/Lakehouse DACPAC using Notepad or any Editor

[yashaswi_raj]

Hi ALL,

I was trying to build DACPAC using VS Code and then trying to read it by opening in Notepad but it is not opening properly/ or is in some encrypted format .

How can i read this DACPAC , please help.

[v-sshirivolu · Accepted solution]

Hi @yashaswi_raj ,
Thanks for reaching out to Community Forum.

This is expected behavior and not an issue with Microsoft Fabric. A DACPAC exported from a Fabric Warehouse or Lakehouse is not a plain text file, so opening it in Notepad will always look unreadable. In Fabric, a DACPAC represents a packaged database schema that is meant to be consumed by supported tools, not viewed directly as text. The correct way to inspect or work with it is to import it into a SQL Database Project (for example using Visual Studio or Azure Data Studio) or use SqlPackage to extract or deploy the schema. This confirms that the export itself is valid the limitation is simply that Notepad cannot interpret the DACPAC format.

Supporting Fabric documentation :

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/database/sql/overview

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/database/sql/sqlpackage

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/data-warehouse/develop-warehouse-project

Thank you.

[yashaswi_raj]

Hi @v-sshirivolu , thanks for the answer , can you tell why dacpac built for azure sql databases open in a notepad ? also can you recommend any industry standard approach for warehouse items deployment via azure devops

[v-sshirivolu]

Hi @yashaswi_raj ,

I would take a moment to thank @deborshi_nag , for actively participating in the community forum and for the solutions you’ve been sharing in the community forum. Your contributions make a real difference.
 

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions

[yashaswi_raj]

hi @v-sshirivolu , the solution looks overwhelming , can you tell me what at present is the industry accepted way of deploying the warehouse ?

[v-sshirivolu]

Hi @yashaswi_raj ,
The industry accepted approach is to deploy Fabric Warehouses using DACPAC based CI/CD pipelines, similar to how Azure SQL is deployed. The DACPAC is treated purely as a deployment artifact and isn't intended to be read or edited manually. Any schema comparison or incremental changes are handled using supported tools like SqlPackage or SQL Database Projects, rather than by inspecting the DACPAC file itself. This approach helps keep deployments consistent, supported, and repeatable across different environments.

[Srisakthi]

Hi @yashaswi_raj ,

For deploying Fabric warehouse using azure devops, you can leverage DACPAC option.

Please refer this article for more details 

https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Fabric-platform-Community-Blog/Lakehouse-and-Warehouse-Dep...

Regards,

Srisakthi

[deborshi_nag]

Hello @yashaswi_raj 

The Fabric CLI can be an excellent option for scaffolding and managing databases (warehouses), however schema deployment currently relies on SQL Projects + SqlPackage or Fabric Deployment Pipelines, optionally with bridge automation for complex, multi-item deployments.

The Bridge Solution is a temporary automation toolkit—often referred to as the Fabric Toolbox bridge—designed to fill in deployment gaps until Microsoft Fabric natively supports advanced warehouse and SQL‑endpoint deployments.

• Automates deployment of Fabric Warehouses and SQL Analytics Endpoints using DacFx (SqlPackage + build processes), including cross-item dependency resolution and metadata refresh for SQL endpoints.
• Focuses strictly on schema deployment; does not handle ELT processes or Lakehouse data hydration.

Supported Deployment Scenarios

1. Warehouse without dependencies

   • Extracts source DACPAC → creates SQL Project → builds → deploys to the target.

2. Warehouse with warehouse dependencies

   • Builds a dependency graph, sequences deployments correctly, resolves cross-warehouse references via SQLCMD variables, and validates connectivity.

3. Warehouse with SQL endpoint dependencies

   • Sequences deployments between warehouses and endpoints, resolves all cross-item references, and triggers metadata refreshes on SQL endpoints before deployment. 

4. SQL endpoint without dependencies

   • Refreshes metadata, extracts endpoint DACPAC, builds, and deploys. 

5. SQL endpoint with warehouse dependencies

   • Ensures warehouses are deployed first, resolves references, executes deployments in sequence with validation. 

6. SQL endpoints depending on other endpoints

   • Maps inter‑endpoint relationships, orders deployments, resolves cross references, and validates all objects.

Here's a link to the GitHub repo to the Fabric Toolbox

GitHub - microsoft/fabric-toolbox: Fabric toolbox is a repository of tools, accelerators, scripts, a...

Hope this helps, please appreciate by giving a Kudos or accepting as a Solution! 

[spencer_sa]

DACPAC, like many MS file formats (docx, pbix) is just a zip file wearing a wig.
You can either rename it to .zip and open it in Windows that way or find a program to open it.  If you need to do it programmatically, python will quite happily read zip files.

Alternatively, use the Extract function mentioned in the article to turn it all into a .sql file.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/tools/sql-database-projects/concepts/data-tier-applications/un...

If this helps, please Accept as Solution to help others to find it more easily.

[KevinChant]

This answers the original question.
I am curious though, why are you trying to read the dacpac instead of deploying it?

[yashaswi_raj]

want to deploy the warehouse components only but since it has to read the lakehouse dacpac when any warehouse item has a refrence to lakehouse table , so my team wanted to check once we setuo the cicd do we need to evertime reupload the latest dacpac for lakehouse by building in vs code , in this process can one see the difference in both the dacpacs.