INFO NEWS !!
features for users of any SQL Server release, including Windows Azure SQL Database, plus
plenty of bug fixes for issues raised by customers."
Among those other new features are: the extensibility of static code analysis; filter
capabilities in an editable data grid; the ability to save data compare settings to a file
(.dcmp); and more Transact-SQL Editor connection actions. Specifics include:
Code analysis has been improved by letting developers write custom rules to find issues
that might not be detected by the static code analysis rules and validation functionality
built into the database tooling.
Developers can now use a Filter and Sort Dialog Box to locate specific information that
might not be readily discoverable when using SQL Server Object Explorer to "View Data"
on a table. Cunnane said developers can now: hide specific columns from view; filer on
column values; add alias for a column; and sort on one or multiple columns.
The Transact-SQL editor has been improved by the addition of "Disconnect All Queries"
and "Change Connection" suboptions to the "Connection" menu option. The Disconnect
All Queries suboption lets developers immediately disconnect all open query windows,
while the Change Connection option can be used to switch to a different server
connection in one step, without having to disconnect first and then reconnect. "This
makes the editor more consistent with the experience in [SSMS]," Cunnane said.
Developers can now save Data Compare settings with one click, creating a .dcmp file to
store all the required data.
Free Tool: Entity Framework Power Tools
Regardless of what version of Entity Framework (EF) you're using, if you're doing code-first
development, you should be looking at Microsoft's Entity Framework Power Tools, even if
it is still in beta).
The beauty of code-first development is how easy it is to integrate your own code with the
code required by EF. The problem with code-first EF development is the drudgery required
to write all the code necessary to model your database. Power Tools goes a long way to
eliminating that drudgery by writing the repetitive code for you -- all you have to do is
install it through the Tools | Extension Manager menu choice.
To begin using the Power Tools, right-click on your project in Solution Explorer, select
Entity Framework | Reverse Engineer Code First and you'll get the standard dialog for
connecting to a database. Once you've connected to a database, Power Tools adds to your
project the code for a DbContext class, plus the code for an entity class for each table in
the database. Once you've generated that code, right-clicking on the file holding the