SSDT and Visual Studio versions

Hello all, there have been some questions around our support for various Visual Studio versions and the update mechanism for them.  I hope this will help clarify some of the questions:

Visual Studio 2013 - VS 2013 now has SQL Server tooling built in and shipped as part of the core product.  Database Projects, SQL tools (such as schema compare & data compare), and the online experiences through SSOX are all included with the RTM version.  We have full project and SSOX support in VS Express for Web and Express for Windows Desktop, so we have discontinued our stand-alone integrated shell offering.  We have a component update feed that will use VS Update to push notification to users.  To manually check for updates, go to the Tools > Extensions and Updates... menu to open the dialog.  We will continue to post announcements on our blog and forum that a release is available and what is included in that update.

Visual Studio 2012 - We still will be supporting the standalone integrated shell offering as well as updates for Professional, Premium, and Ultimate.  Since some Visual Studio features are using our APIs in the express SKU, our updates will also apply to VS Express for Web and Express for Windows Desktop even if our full project system isn't available.  Updates to VS 2012 will be offered on our MSDN page and to check for updates, users can still check our update feed by going to the SQL > Check for Updates menu to open the dialog.

Visual Studio 2010 - Since the release of Visual Studio 2013, we are no longer offering updates for SSDT on the Visual Studio 2010 shell.  To get updates, users will need to move to VS 2012 or VS 2013.  Our current plan is to support two shell versions at a time. 

SQL Studio Data Tools - BI is a separate product that releases on a different cadence and offers different Visual Studio support.  The Business Intelligence blogs are located at https://blogs.msdn.com/b/business-intelligence/.  SSDT-BI for VS 2012 is located at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36843.

 

Thanks!

Jill