When you install the database projects template of SSDT you get SQL Server Object Explorer (SSOX) installed as well. SSOX is a pane within Visual Studio and is the main enabler of the Connected Development experience that the SSDT team have attempted to provide. SSOX provides some really cool capabilities that are not in SQL Server Management ...

Yesterday I attended SQL Saturday 194 in Exeter for which many people deserve credit but especially the organisers Jonathan Allen & Annette Allen and the sponsors Fusion-IO, Confio Software, Nexus, Big Bang Data Company, Purple Frog Systems, Redgate, idera, Pluralsight, Jurys Inn Exeter & Wrox.  I gave a ...

SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) is released on a very regular cadence (note that I’m talking about the database projects part of SSDT, this is nothing to do with SSIS/SSAS/SSRS). Since the first release in March 2012 there have been releases in September 2012, November 2012, & December 2012. I personally have found it difficult to keep track of ...

My recent article Get to Know SQL Server 2012's SQL Server Data Tools prompted two questions to come to me via email and in the interests of sharing knowledge via search engines I thought I would answer them here rather than by simply replying by email (I hate that so much useful information gets trapped inside closed inboxes). Question: How ...

I recently wrote an article on SQL Server Data Tools for SQL Server Magazine and it has now been published online at Get to Know SQL Server 2012's SQL Server Data Tools. In the article I offer my thoughts and opinions on SQL Server Data Tools as it exists in SQL Server 2012. Note that the article refers to SSDT database projects only, there ...

If you don’t follow the SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) blog then you may not know that two days ago an updated version of SSDT was released (and by SSDT I mean the database projects, not the SSIS/SSRS/SSAS stuff) along with a new version of the SSDT Power Tools. This release incorporates a an updated version of the SQL Server Data Tier Application ...

On my current project we are using SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) to manage our database schema and one of the tasks we need to do often is insert data into that schema once deployed; the typical method employed to do this is to leverage Post-Deployment scripts and that is exactly what we are doing. Our requirement is a little different though, our ...

I’ve just discovered a new, somewhat hidden, feature in SSDT that I didn’t know about and figured it would be worth highlighting here because I’ll bet not many others know it either; the feature is called Smart Defaults. It gets around the problem of adding a NOT NULLable column to an existing table that has got data in it – previous to SSDT you ...

This is a short note for anyone that may be interested in redistributing sqlpackage.exe. If this isn’t you then no need to keep reading. Ostensibly this is here for anyone that bingles for this information. sqlpackage.exe is a command-line that ships with SQL Server Development Tools (SSDT) in SQL Server 2012 and its main purpose (amongst other ...

I have been using SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) both at work and on some hobby projects for quite a few weeks now and of all the new features I have to say the one that I am appreciating the most is Publish Profile files. I have been searching around on MSDN for an article that explains Publish Profile files but it seems no such article exists so ...