What do you use to explorer an MSSQL database?

2/21/2008 4:02:25 AM #

Try this.

www.sqlmanager.net/en/products/mssql/manager

The Lite version is freeware.

Kevin

2/21/2008 4:40:44 AM #

I use Toad, http://www.toadsoft.com, which also happens to be written in Delphi.

Justin

2/21/2008 5:10:08 AM #

Hi Kevin,
  Thanks for the link, I'm playing with it now. It looks very promising and of course it's written in Delphi which is great! If I can get by with the Lite version that would be great and the full version has a pretty steep price tag.

Steve Trefethen

2/21/2008 5:44:41 AM #

I actually do use SSMS but couple it with Visio, which has a great round-tripping engine.

I thought SSMS could show a table's structure without designing it, if you expand the table in the object explorer you can then open Columns and see column type, PK, FK and size, all in treeview.

If you expand the Keys node you can then also see at least some info about the FK, since it's usually named intelligently like "FK_Order_Details_Products" it's pretty easy to figure out what it's all about.

Love the favorites idea, that would save quite a bit of time if you could bookmark certain areas.  Agreed that a Copy command would be nice, though you can drag & drop from the Object Explorer into a query window, which is where I tend to live.

Also, one thing that I've done that is highly low-tech but worked amazingly well was exporting the entire DB to a single huge SQL script, then opening it in a syntax highlighting text editor that has bookmark support.  For just viewing the raw schema nothing beats that and you can in an instant determine what stored procs are using what tables just by doing a simple search, something I'm always struggling with.  For detective work like that UI's always just slow me down.

Shawn Oster

2/21/2008 6:47:18 AM #

Hey Shawn,
  Thanks for the comment. While you can see the columns in the tree you can't see anything more about them, type, size etc. As for keys, I find it lacking and that I frequently need/want more than just the name even though in some cases it may be clear. I too dump to .SQL files and search those via an editor but IMO, that only underscores the fact that the tool is lacking.

I can easily see having Google Desktop add-in that could provide the searching capabilities I'm looking for. Basically, I suppose it comes down to the fact that I've gotten so used to Googling things that to not be able to Google my DB has become a real pain point.

Steve Trefethen

2/21/2008 10:26:46 AM #

Actually you don't need to have the whole Delphi IDE installed. I put the these files on my USB stick: dbexplor.exe, bdertl100.bpl, dbrtl100.bpl, dbx.dbi, dbx100.bpl, rtl100.bpl, vcl100.bpl, vcldb100.bpl, vclx100.bpl and bring it with me.

It seems to work fine

I don't know the legalities of it though...

Lasse Hansen

2/21/2008 3:42:20 PM #

Lasse,
  While that's true to get those files you need a full license and I'm looking for something that I can share with the rest of my team at Falafel. Right now I'm testing the freeware version of SQLManager and it's excellent and solves a number of the issues mentioned above.

Steve Trefethen

2/21/2008 6:24:56 PM #

We must have slightly different versions of SMSS I'm thinking.  In mine I see column name, PK, type (as in nchar) and size (as in nchar(5)).  Here's what mine looks like:

http://enginefour.com/images/smss.png

Aside from that I'll have to give SQLManager a whirl, one of the things that makes me grumpy about SMSS Express is lack of DTS support, which is how I usually migrate MySql databases over to SQL Server.

Shawn Oster

2/21/2008 8:05:15 PM #

Hey Shawn,
  I'm wrong. The column types are there, my bad.

Steve Trefethen

2/22/2008 10:45:53 AM #

Hi Steve,

Visual Studio 2008 for DBA has a lot more features for that then the regular VS, I wil lshow you at the office.

Cheers
Lino

Lino Tadros

2/22/2008 5:35:01 PM #

I'm using EMS SQL MANAGER. It's great tool ! Intuitive like IBExpert for Firebird.

Fabricio K.

2/25/2008 7:32:02 AM #

Just another vote for EMS SQL Manager, or whatever it's branded as now. It's really good, pretty reliable, there are regular updates (at least one a year) and there is a similar tool for Interbase/Firebird (and also MySQL, though I've not used that).

Rob Uttley

2/25/2008 12:55:33 PM #

I suggest Database Workbench (www.upscene.com). It is also written in Delphi and contains many good features, specially for editing Stored Procedures.

Eduardo Mauro