New feature candidate: SQL Tab Magic available in BETA

[Luke Jefferson]

Hello!

Here at Red Gate we’ve been working on a new feature for the next major release of SQL Prompt. It’s called SQL Tab Magic, and it improves tab management in SQL Server Management Studio. We think it's awesome. We hope you do too!

Try it out and let us know what you think, either by responding directly to Theo (theo.spears@red-gate.com) or by using the Send Feedback feature in the SQL Tab Magic toolbar.

You can learn more, and download the early access preview here.

All the best,

The SQL Prompt Team

[tdewitt@directtechnology.]

I was running the EAP on this product. Yesterday, I had a loss of power shutdown on my laptop which of course did an untimely end to my SQL Server SSMS session. At the time I had between 5 and 10 tabs open when the loss of power occured.

Today when I restarted my computer and then started SSMS, SQL Tab Magic attempted to restore my open tabs.

The process not only reload the tabs that were open, but proceeded to attempt open every tab that had been open previously in multiple sessions. SSMS finally crash around 180 tabs. Several additional attempts to restart SSMS resulted in the same results. I finally started removing add-in's until I hit SQL Tab Magic and the problem went away.

I was then able to open SSMS properly, shut it down, re-install SQL Tab Magic and everything appears to be working properly.

[nmg196]

I can't see how you even use this product. After installation I can find no new menu items or toolbar buttons etc. When does it appear?

Not sure why I'm actually asking here as it seems redgate never respond to forum posts looking at the dates above.

[rbennet8]

I have experienced the same issue after installing tab magic. It goes into a query opening frenzy until SSMS stops working. It shows a new window saying corrupt memory, but you cannot enter any information or send the message. I used task manager to kill SSMS. I even tried to remove all ~xxx.sql files from my temp folder, but I got the same result. I unistalled tab magic and SSMS starts just fine. Let me know when you get this fixed so I can install it again. I like the concept of what this app will provide.

[jwestpfahl]

Yes - this is a very annoying bug and a major issue with Tab Magic.

Tab Magic creates a file called documents.db in the C:\Users\XXXX\AppData\Local\Red Gate\SQL Tab Magic folder. If you remove or rename the file, Tab Magic will successfully launch. Though you have lost the history and all the old tabs.

Note that this file can be opened by notepad and the SQL code is visible. So when I have the issue of opening SSMS, I just rename the file. That way if I really need the SQL code, I could just search the renamed file.

I wish Tab Magic had a feature to remove tabs from the history. After a period of several weeks and months, the closed tab history becomes way too cumbersome to use and search as a result.

[kondrich]

There is a new version of SQL Tab Magic from July, 3rd 2012 that will expire by the end of September 2012. It's unbelievable: This awesome piece of software will be in EAP for one year soon.
Is there a release planned or is it considered beta forever?

Btw, this newest version is still not compatible with SSMS 2012.
_________________
Regards, Klaus

[David Atkinson]

It's work that we'd love to do, but the difficulty we're having is earmarking the required engineering resource to tackle the work. We're keen to ensure that the current version remains available in 'early access' so long as it hasn't beeen released as a commercial product or as part of SQL Prompt.

David Atkinson
Product Manager
Red Gate

[kondrich]

David,

thank you for your reply. When could we see (at least) a SSMS 2012 compatible version? That would be very helpful...
_________________
Regards, Klaus

[David Atkinson]

Again, I'm yet not in a position to answer this as we've not costed the work. Hopefully we'll do the estimation in the next few weeks and provided this isn't a "huge" piece of work, it could be included in our general maintenance work.

David

[PaulGoldstraw]

Is there any progress with this? I am also now using SQL Server 2012 and while I had the same problems others had (namely in the event of a crash, Tab Magic had a bit of a habit of reloading some tabs,but curiously not all, from as much as a few months prior), I do miss the functionality. It was useful to know when I closed SSMS I would get my tabs back, and if even more so, if I accidentally closed a tab, I could retrieve it.

[kondrich]

Does not seem to be so. Even current September beta does not work with SSMS 2012.
Btw, congrats on your beta anniversary, SQL Tab Magic!
_________________
Regards, Klaus

[Matt_B]

David,

Has there been any further improvement on this?

I had to upgrade to SSMS 2012 some months back to support 2012 servers, but I'm finding it quite unreliable and crashing too frequently and making me wish very much for Tab Magic.
After today's crash I'm going back to SMMS 2008 (primarily for Tab Magic) for normal use and will just use SSMS 2012 when I need to admin 2012 servers.

I'm really at the stage where I'd happily pay for the time saver Tab Magic can be.

[David Atkinson]

We're still not in a position to give an estimate. However, things should become clearer in the coming weeks.

Apologies for the non-committal response!

David

[kondrich]

David,

is there any news available? We would like to use SQL Tab Magic in SSMS 2012. In fact that's the main reason why our people still stick to SSMS 2008 R2.
_________________
Regards, Klaus

[mark_anderson_us]

Hi Guys

Had a crash and now when I launch SMSS (with tabmagic installed) it keep opening tabs forever. Tried uninstall and reinstall, no louck. SQL2008 R2

Any suggestions
Mark