Phil Factor shares a handy keyboard shortcut diagram that reveals some of the most useful of Prompt's keyboard shortcuts, and a wallchart showing every piece of Prompt functionality, what it does, where to find it in the various menus, and of course its keyboard shortcut. Read more
You want to use SQL Compare or SQL Change Automation (SCA) to create or update a database, and at the same time ensure that its data is as you expect. You want to avoid running any additional PowerShell scripting every time you do it, and you want to keep everything in source control, including the data. You just want to keep everything simple. Phil Factor demonstrates how it's done, by generating MERGE scripts from a stored procedure. Read more
Giorgi Abashidze explains how his team use SQL Compare Command line to automate database deployments for their customers, without having access to the real staging or production databases, merely by using our development database contained under TFS Source Control. Read more
Should you always use EXISTS rather than COUNT when checking for the existence of any correlating rows that match your criteria? Does the former really offer "superior performance and readability". Louis Davidson investigates. Read more
Tony Davis reviews the major new features of SQL Prompt 10, included improved 'ranking' of its code auto-completion suggestions, tab history improvements to make it easier to find 'lost' code, and auto-fixing of code that breaks code analysis rules. Read more
Phil Factor describes how custom pre- and post-deployment scripts work, when doing state-based database deployments with SQL Compare or SQL Change Automation, and how you might use them to, for example, add a version number to the target database, specify its database settings, or stuff data into some tables. Read more
Phil Factor demonstrates some simple examples of how to use SQL Clone's PowerShell library to pass objects between cmdlets, and simplify common tasks, such as creating and deploying clones from various images. He then documents the objects and cmdlets, and illustrates their inputs and outputs. Read more
If you are evaluating a tool such as a text editor or spreadsheet, it is easy: you just install it, you run it, you decide whether you need it. Job done. However, a similar 'unboxing' or 'unwrapping' of SQL Clone, and installing across a network, is not so quick and easy. Phil Factor's solution is to install and run a complete installation of SQL Clone on a single box. This allows you to try everything out, creating images and deploying clones, while isolated from the network. It can then be extended across a network, subsequently, when it's been fully tested. Read more