SQL Development made Easy

ApexSQL has brought up a comprehensive suite of seven utility tools bundled

into a package for SQL developers. These tools provide developers with

functionality to perform tasks like comparison, synchronization, scripting,

auditing, editing and documentation of the database and its objects on SQL

Server. ApexSQL has priced the suite at about fifty percent of the combined cost

of the bundled tools. The ApexSQL Developer Studio is meant for enterprises as

well as individual developers who want to make their work faster, convenient and

productive on SQL Server.

You can download the entire package from apexsql.com. We have provided

ApexSQL Developer Studio with this month's PCQ Xtreme DVD. All of the tools are

included in a single download and installation. The installer needs .NET

framework installed and is compatible with SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005 and

SQL Server 7.0. The OS platform could be Windows 2000, Server 2003, XP or even

Vista. All tools in ApexSQL Developer Studio are licensed per developer making

it easy to procure a license of ApexSQL Developer Studio for each member of your

SQL Developer team.

Using ApexSQL



Before using any of these tools it is necessary to have a connection with

the SQL Server database. The connection wizard for each tool is easy to use and

gives options for selecting the server instance, the authentication method and

the database for the selection.

For an SQL developer, writing queries, functions, views or triggers for a

database is a hectic task, 'ApexSQL Edit' is meant to make the task easier.

Select fields and generate triggers for them. The left pane provides various auditing, reporting and application tools

Once

connecting ApexSQL Edit to the database we get to the main application window

that has the main query editor panel. Through this editor panel the queries for

the tables or functions, views etc for the database can be written, the results

of which are viewed under the Results tab. The option of Visual Query is handy

in making queries faster and easily, just selecting the tables and then the

fields upon which the query has to run we were able to make a Select query on 3

tables with ease. The Object Explorer panel features multiple tabs, each having

information about the currently selected object. ApexSQL Code, is a utility tool

for code generation. Developers can use this tool to automate the code

generation for data access layer code and for stored procedures. Select the data

objects in the schema explorer and then right click to select 'Generate Code' to

create the code for those objects. Through Template Wizard you can create the

templates for SQL, VB.NET or C# based code pattern. This allows for

interoperability of the database code among different applications.

Another important utility is of auditing the SQL Server that is provided by

'ApexSQL Audit'. Through the 'Create Triggers' button under Auditing tool bar

you can create the trigger for the selected table and its fields for keeping

track of insert, update or delete commands being executed on them. Through the

Reporting option report generation can also be done of the audited data and that

can be exported to Excel or in CSV format.

Other tools



The package includes some other tools that can be used by developers as

well as DBAs. 'ApexSQL Clean' is one such tool for developers that can be

used to view relationships among various data objects of a schema. Through

the 'Dependency Viewer' under the Functions tab, we can view the

dependencies of various data objects in a graphical representation. Whereas

'ApexSQL Diff' is a utility that is useful to compare two databases of an

SQL Server. This tool shows the structural differences in tables,

procedures, functions, etc and also the data differences. The

Synchronization Wizard helps in synchronizing the two compared databases for

structure and data.

Sometimes it's handy to have a documentation of the database for reference to

view the tables and its dependencies, or for knowing the structure of a table.

'ApexSQL Doc' makes this possible. This utility creates complete customized

documentation in HTML help (CHM) format or plain HTML page format. The last

utility is 'ApexSQL Script.' Through this we can create script for the schema.

On the main application window, select the database and then its tables,

procedures or triggers. Then through Script Wizard we can create the script for

the selected data objects. The script can be generated for the schema structure

as well as for the tables data. These scripts can be used to export the schema

or few table structures to other servers.

The template code for a procedure can be edited and the resultant query can be seen in Results tab	The result of comparison between databases is shown highlighted. The lower bar shows the differences amongst DB objects

Conclusion



Although it takes a while to get familiarized with the customization of

scripts and triggers, ApexSQL Developer Studio can be a handy tool for an SQL

developer by minimizing his coding task. And even though it is expensive, it

comes with full support and maintenance facilities options by ApexSQL.