SQL Server Data Tools for SQL Server 2014 is available

We’d like to announce the availability of the latest March 2014 release of SSDT with support for SQL Server 2014 databases. This version is fully compatible with SQL Server 2014.

This update is now available for Visual Studio 2012 and 2013. For Visual Studio 2012 use the “SQL –> Check for Updates” tool inside Visual Studio or download via the download link below. For Visual Studio 2013 download check the Visual Studio update channel (Tools –> Extensions and Updates –> Updates) for this update.

Please note that this release is for the SQL Server database tooling in Visual Studio, not for SSDT-BI. SSDT-BI is a distinct toolset from SSDT or the SQL Server database tooling in Visual Studio and an update for this product will be released at a later date.

Get it here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/hh297027

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If you have any questions or feedback, please visit our forum or Microsoft Connect page
We look forward to hearing from you.

 

What’s New

The most important new feature is support for SQL Server 2014. We also have a number of new features for users of any SQL Server release, including Windows Azure SQL Database, plus plenty of bug fixes for issues raised by customers.

Filtering Data

When choosing to “View Data” on a table in SQL Server Object Explorer it can sometimes be hard to locate specific information. The Filter and Sort Dialog Box lets you:

· Hide columns you don't want to see.

· Filter on column values.

· Add an alias for a column.

· Sort on one or more columns.

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Custom Static Code Analysis rules

You can now write custom rules to detect problems not covered by the built-in validation and static code analysis rules provided in database tooling. We will be adding an updated walkthrough to our help documentation and have updated our samples project. The samples project includes the code from the walkthrough plus some additional sample rules that may prove useful.

Azure Integration

Support for discovering and navigating to Windows Azure SQL Database nodes was included in Visual Studio 2013 at release. For those of you not familiar with this, the current implementation takes the pain out of discovering and adding Azure databases into the SQL Server Object Explorer:

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With this feature you no longer need to figure out the server name for your database or configure a firewall rule for your machine in the Azure Management Portal. This simplifies keeping your Windows Azure SQL Databases in sync with your development environment.

In this release you can navigate straight from Visual Studio to your database in the Management Portal:

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Transact-SQL Editor

The Connection menu option now has suboptions for Disconnect All Queries and Change Connection. This makes the editor more consistent with the experience in SQL Server Management Studio.

Change Connection lets you change the Transact-SQL connection to a different server in a single step. Previously you had disconnect and then connect to the new server.

Disconnect All Queries allows you to disconnect all open Transact-SQL query windows.

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Data Compare

Saving Data Compare settings is now supported. Clicking save will create a .dcmp file with the required connection information and name.

Changes to Database Tools Extensibility

New Extension Installation Directory

With the new release of SQL Server Data Tools the core DacFx components are now installed directly inside Visual Studio. This has the benefit of supporting multiple Visual Studio versions (e.g. VS 2010, 2012 and 2013) side by side on the same machine without requiring every version to be compatible with the same DacFx binaries.

This does have an effect on any extensions such as Build/Deployment contributors you may have written. These should now be installed in the <Visual Studio Install Dir>\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\SQLDB\DAC\120\Extensions directory. You may also need to recompile your extensions against the latest version of DacFx as the major version has been incremented, and this may break binary compatibility.

There will be a new help topic “How to: Install and Manage Feature Extensions” covering installation of all supported extension types that covers this topic.