There is no single, correct approach to developing and testing your SQL batches and routines. It depends on the requirement. For simple tasks, like modifying and testing a view or stored procedure, SQL Compare and SQL Data Generator, combined, provide a useful, lightweight development harness. Read more
Phil Factor demonstrates a cunning way to test stored procedures or functions, such as after refactoring, by storing the 'before' and 'after' results in views and then using SQL Data Compare to spot any discrepancies. Read more
Phil Factor demonstrates how to use SQL Clone to create 'disposable' SQL Server databases, for development and testing work. You can spin up a clone, use it to unit test your code, messing up the clone in the process, then reset the clone in seconds, ready for the next test. Read more
Phil Factor reviews the various types of database test that need to run during development work, what sort of test data they require, and the challenges with managing this data, and in keeping the test cell stocked with the correct database, and data, in a way that allows rapid cycles of database testing. Read more
Whenever you’re ready to refresh a test cell with the latest database version, you need a safe way to drop the current set of clones, and the parent image, without losing any unsaved work. Phil Factor provides a PowerShell script that automates this process so it runs in the time it takes to grab a coffee, after which can quickly deploy the new clones. Read more
Demonstrating how to use PowerShell automation to create a suite of clones, for testing or development work, with the ability to revert a clone to its original state, instantly, ready for the next set of tests to begin.
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Phil Factor shows how a set of Redgate tools can be used together, via PowerShell, to build a database from object-level source, stock it with data, document it, and then provision any number of test and development servers. Before tearing down and rebuilding a database to a new version, we take care to save any DDL changes made to the existing copy. Read more
Phil Factor explains how SQL Clone works, and its multiple benefits when used in daily development and testing work, as well as for other tasks such as training staff to use a new application. Read more
Phil Factor demonstrates how to export data from a database, as JSON files, validate it using JSON Schema, then build a fresh development copy of the database using SQL Change Automation, and import all the test data from the JSON files. Read more
How to use SQL Data Generator, and PowerShell to obfuscate personal data (names), while retaining the same distribution of data, so that the test database behaves like the original. Read more
How to automatically build multiple test databases, from source control, and then fill them with standard test data sets, using SQL Change Automation, BCP and some PowerShell magic. Read more
Steve Jones show how a team might use SQL Provision to build consistent, compliant, useful databases, on demand, for development and test environments. Read more
Starting from a database view, as the basis for a typical sales reports, Phil factor shows how to generate a data-masked version of this report, which the Tax Men can safely pore over. Read more
Phil Factor shows how to use the "Script As Insert" feature in SQL Prompt to refactor a table of "input and expected output" values into a simple test harness for stored procedures and functions. Read more
Generating realistic test data is a challenging task, made even more complex if you need to generate that data in different formats, for the different database technologies in use within your organization. Dave Poole proposes a solution that uses SQL Data Generator as a ‘data generation and translation’ tool. Read more
Phil Factor shows how to use SQL Data Generator to produce as much pseudonymized data as you are likely to need for your testing, and then convert it to JSON so that you can also use it to test your MongoDB and Azure Cosmos databases, or to test out a new web service. Read more
Richard Macaskill describes a lightweight copy-and-generate approach for making a sanitized database build available to development teams, using SQL Clone, SQL Change Automation and SQL Data Generator. Read more
This article offers a build-and-fill method for development databases, where each developer will subsequently want to alter the data or metadata in his or her copy of the database. Read more
Phil Factor provides a simple PowerShell script that you can use to automate data provisioning for test databases, during the database development cycle. Read more
To get the best results, you need to provide SQL Data Generator with some hints on how the data ought to look. Phil Factor nudges it towards realistic text data. Read more
Tony Davis takes a first look at SQL Data Generator, a tool that gives developers and testers a simple way to generate realistic test data in reasonable volumes, and therefore a way perform stress and load testing during development and testing. Read more
With basic grasp of regex expressions, a tool like SQL Data Generator can generate test data with addresses that are realistic for your part of the world. Read more
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