Last week, Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR was released to the developer public. I haven't had a lot of time to evaluate it, but my initial impression is positive.
Of course, I had similar feelings about the VSTS 2005 edition of "Data Dude", but my initial excitement quickly turned to disappointment when I realized it just wasn't going to work for us. I couldn't really blame the product...let's just say our db schema is rather sadistic. The SQL parser didn't stand a chance and died in a flurry of spurious error messages.
The parser in the new version is obviously much improved. Once I got the projects/references set up, I was only left with a manageable number of legitimate errors. On top of that, they've managed to remove the dependency on the "Design DB", which makes the product feel a lot less cumbersome. Add to that a lot of other compelling improvements (including basic code analysis and refactoring tools), and I'm a happy customer.
I can't say that all is roses, yet. When I attempt to "deploy" my changes, targeting the original database, the generated script file is blank. The deployment process generates a ton of warnings, but no errors. Curiously, if I instead do a "schema compare" between the project and the aforementioned database, it works.
Data Dude : Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR - RTM
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Hi, I'm considering using VSTS DE at our company. We also have a pretty sadistic db schema that we want to move away from, and I wonder if this tool would help. I've been stalking it for years but I haven't heard many people getting excited about it. Have you been using it? What are your impressions?
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