With the upcoming release of SQL Server 2012, SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) – Code-Named Juneau, brings about an increased development ability for T-SQL and Entity-Framework based .Net projects. SSDT is available for download. There are some pre-requisites that you will need to follow before installing this free add-on.
SSDT is a package combination of BIDS and Visual studio development tools. It all runs seamlessly under VS2010 and there is no tabbing backwards and forwards between the various tools.
Have a look at this presentation by Mark Wilson-Thomas & Bill Gibson at Tech-Ed North America 2011.
The look and feel of this is very similar to what you would expect in SSMS. The advantage of this is the combination of the developer tools which have been in Visual Studio for quite a while and most developers are used to working in, to make the development much simpler with only having to use 1 tool. When working against your model to produce your changes, validation is occurring all the time and will generate errors for any change that you may be undertaking, giving you the ability to simply see what is effected and make the changes appropriately. The generated scripts are even simpler to use and create your scripts to put into source control prior to generating your production ready scripts to be supplied to your production support DBA’s.
If you are a database developer then I suggest that you get your hands on this free download and have a play as you will definitely like the look and feel and will make your development time quicker and easier with being able to perform everything in 1 tool.
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