1.2 - May 31st, 2012

Today I have the pleasure of announcing that ReadyRoll now supports SQL Server 2012!

There is a slight catch, however: in order to take full advantage of the breadth of functionality offered by the latest version of the RDBMS, you will need to first install SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). The good news is this a free download available through the Web Platform installer http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/hh297027

Note that you can still use ReadyRoll with the legacy “DataDude” style SQL Server projects (which are built-in to Visual Studio 2010); you just won’t be able to utilise the latest features of SQL 2012 in your projects. The SSDT-based environment is where the majority of new features of ReadyRoll will be targeted, so do recommend installing SSDT if you haven’t already done so.

New features

SQL Server Data Tools support introduced. ReadyRoll now leverages the improved development environment provided by SSDT, including:

• SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB - A lightweight version of SQL Server Express that makes local database development simpler (for more information, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh510202.aspx)
• Online editing of your database within Visual Studio: no need to switch to SQL Server Management Studio to modify your database objects

** Note that Visual Studio 2010 is still a pre-requisite for the SSDT sub-project type: ie ReadyRoll does not yet support the Integrated Shell distribution of SSDT.

SQL Server 2012 support introduced. Currently includes the following all new object types/properties:

• FileTables
• Columnstore indexes
• Poison message handling attribute for queues
• Geometry and Geography auto grid tessellation scheme for spatial indexes
• Encrypted object support
• T-SQL enhancements such as Window Functions

Bug fixes / minor enhancements

• Addressed memory leak that occurred incrementally through repeated cycles of the project workflow (i.e compare -> sync -> build -> deploy)
• Applies to SSDT only: Improved reporting of errors that occur during build or deployment. All errors now appear within the “Errors” list in Visual Studio (rather than just the Output window).
• Improved performance of the IDE during synchronization (previously the Visual Studio IDE would pause for a long period of time after importing a large number of database objects)
• Build behaviour changed: if the build fails due to a deployment or sync error, the build script is now available in the \bin\ project sub-directory for debugging
• Build-time validation for three-part object references introduced, ensuring that cross-database modification does not occur during build/deployment
• Build-time validation for the “USE [DatabaseName]” statement introduced, ensuring that a literal referring back to the current database project is not used
• Fixed bug in reporting to the ‘General’ build pane: no longer causes an exception if the IDE has not yet initialized the window
• Fixed bug in script generation which occurs when the object difference is first previewed prior to synchronization
• Fixed bug in Database to Project synchronization, which causes newly generated project files to automatically open in the IDE if they are already referenced from the project
• Fixed bug in project synchronization: ReadyRoll no longer displays a “Script is not transactional” error for CREATE/ALTER/DROP LOGIN statements
• Fixed bug that causes ReadyRoll to crash if a Solution Folder is present added to the solution
• Fixed bug in sync script preview window: backslash and curly-brace characters now display correctly in the displayed SQL script
• Fixed bug in opening of the Project Designer where a solution containing multiple ReadyRoll database projects is used (in some cases this was opening the wrong project’s settings)
• Included an example of how to implement the ‘AfterDatabaseSync’ target in the ReadyRoll Project file (.dbproj/.sqlproj)