Cross-database coding?

paschott

We have a multi-database system and one thing that both PromptSQL and SQLPrompt 2 seemed to support was loading up the other database objects as needed. Was this lost in SQL Prompt 3?

e.g. if I wanted to query Northwind objects from master, when I started typing:

select * from North - I would have Northwind appear, then .dbo. and tables in Northwind would start to appear.



This was a useful feature for me and I can't figure out if it's missing in v3 or if I don't know how to turn it on.

Thanks for your assistance.

-Peter Schott

Bart Read

Hi Peter,


Yeah, "cargo overboard" unfortunately, and it really wasn't a decision that gave me a great deal of comfort. *However*... given that we do like to hear user feedback, and with the amount of people that have quite justifiably beefed about this particular loss I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it make an appearance in the first point release. I don't have a timetable for that yet, but keep your ears to the ground.


Thanks,
Bart

Bart Read

Oh, I should probably say that it'll be optional as well, but switched on by default.
Thanks,
Bart

ClintCompton

Hey everyone,

We are in the same situation as Peter. The usefulness of picking the cross DB tables is crirical in our coding. I'm evaluating at the time and will wait to buy until this is included. (To give you ammo to get it in there - grin)

Thanks for the great product, but I'll wait with the former until this critical feature is there.

Also to amplify from another post in another thread, a really nice feature would be either an automatic refresh when tables and views are added (if were wishing - why not) or a refresh hotkey or button within the GUI to do the same.

Regards,

- Clint

Jo Pattyn

I would also like to see cross-database feature back. Most of my sql-statements use other databases.

bill.wehnert

We are migrating to a scenario where we will have a "reporting/processing" database that will be on a different physical server. If we could specify LinkedServer.Database to be cached, that would be a bonus.

Bart Read

Hi Bill,


I thought I should probably let you know that we won't be supporting linked servers in the next release because a linked server isn't necessarily an instance of SQL Server: it could be an Excel spreadsheet, or an Access database etc. Unfortunately our meta-data model in its current form just cannot cope with that at all. There are a number of other limitations with the meta-data model which mean that at some point, at least where SQL Prompt is concerned, it will be retired. I can tell you that this certainly won't happen before SQL Prompt 4, however when it does happen we'll also be trying to support linked servers since these are Microsoft's preferred method of executing cross-server queries from SQL Server 2005 onwards.

Now, having said that, if you're server is a SQL Server instance you'll be able to do the following:

SELECT * FROM {SQL Server instance name}.{database}.{schema}.{table}

But you do need to consider that this syntax, at least in a cross-server context, has now been deprecated which means that it will eventually be removed from a future version of SQL Server.

Finally I should say that we don't yet have any fixed plans or timescales for SQL Prompt 3.1 or any subsequent releases so I cannot with any certainty at this point tell you in which release this functionality will become available.

Hope that helps.


Many thanks,
Bart

rgribble

Can i just add my 2 cents to this topic as well in saying thta for us it is MISSION CRITICAL to be able to do cross database queries.

We also use the notation Database..Table rather than Database.dbo.Table and i would really like to see both forms of syntax supported

I am in a bit of strife as we purchased 25 licenses for our developers, for a tool which is pretty much useless foir the way we code our queries and stored procedures, since our system comprises of 5 or 6 separate, but intrinsically connected databases, and we ALWAYS use the Database..Table syntax

Please tell me this cross database support will be in version 3.1, and please tell me version 3.1 will be coming out soon!

rgribble

Anyconfirmation whether cross database support will definately be in the next point release. Bart, your earlier posts say "i wouldnt be surprised if it makes it" but i really need to know!

As mentioned, the 25 licenses of the tool we have are pretty much useless for us, unless we can do cross database queries.

Bart Read

Hi there,


SQL Prompt 3.1 will be out hopefully at the end of next week, or possibly early the week after. Unfortunately it won't feature cross-database support at this stage. In the end we had to decide that we needed to get a point release out more quickly to address the exceptions that some people had experienced that were stopping them using the product.

This is a pain in the backside in many respects because there's obviously a significant level of overhead involved in creating any kind of release, and for this reason we had originally wanted to do a "big" 3.1 release in order to get the extra features, like cross-database support, in as soon as possible. But then, as I say, we saw that some users were experiencing problems that pretty much stopped them from being able to use the product with its existing functionality so we felt we needed to fix those issues first.

And so that was the intent: a fairly quick point release (after we'd all had a bit of a holiday at any rate). We weren't even intending to support SSMSEE for 3.1, but almost by accident stumbled on a way of doing so easily, and hence this is the only major feature addition.

What this means is that most of the stuff that was pitched for the original "big" 3.1 has now been added to a proposal for the next release, which will likely be badged as 3.5. At this point though I can't give out any fixed timescales for when that might become available since the project hasn't yet been approved (I'm waiting on one stakeholder to return from a well-earned holiday) so its exact scope isn't fixed.

I'm sorry to have to disappoint you for now. We have had a lot of requests for cross-database support so it's definitely going in there, but the question of when it will be publicly available is harder to answer.



Thanks,
Bart

rgribble

Bart,

I saw in another post that we are getting closer to having a beta verison of version 3.5 available

PLEASE tell me that cross database support is going to be in this release, and please tell me that our preferred syntax of database..tablename will be supported?!

Our 25 licenses already purchased continue to gather dust, as we simply cant use the tool effectively until it supports our coding conventions

Bart Read

Hi there,


No problem. We're supporting both cross-database queries and linked SQL Server instances in 3.5. I'm hoping we can get an early access release out by the end of the month, but no promises I'm afraid.

Hope that helps.


Thanks,
Bart

fei2010

Bart Read wrote:

Hi there,


No problem. We're supporting both cross-database queries and linked SQL Server instances in 3.5. I'm hoping we can get an early access release out by the end of the month, but no promises I'm afraid.

Hope that helps.


Thanks,
Bart

Any update? The cross-database will be great!!

Bart Read

Hi there,


Please see my comments here:

http://www.red-gate.com/MessageBoard/vi ... php?t=4605

Unless there's a total disaster we're looking at mid-next month for an RC. We had to can the EA release because of difficulties getting our toolbelt installer working satisfactorily, but we're on schedule. Apologies for the extra wait to get your hands on it though.


Thanks,
Bart

Bart Read

The SQL Prompt 3.5 release candidate, including support for cross-database coding and linked SQL Server instances, is now available for download:

http://www.red-gate.com/messageboard/vi ... php?t=5263


Thanks,
Bart

rgribble

Ive installed the 3.5RC and am happy to see the cross database working well for the most part. Im also happ ythat it supports Database..Table notation as well as Database.dbo.Table, as requested

However i do get a little annoyance here, as i like to have my candidate list pop up very quickly (currenty 50ms), and i also like "." to be a completion character. Thus when i try to do Database..Table, i usually end up with Database.<some user starting with "a">.Table. Would there be any way to have an option to add a single "." to the candidate list when listing roles/schemas/users? Or even an option to make dbo be the default (rather than selecting the first user alphabetically)?

To get around this ive stopped using . as a completion char, but this makes it different to visual studio intellisense and its hard to get used to!

fei2010

I have exactly same annoyance...

rgribble wrote:

Ive installed the 3.5RC and am happy to see the cross database working well for the most part. Im also happ ythat it supports Database..Table notation as well as Database.dbo.Table, as requested

However i do get a little annoyance here, as i like to have my candidate list pop up very quickly (currenty 50ms), and i also like "." to be a completion character. Thus when i try to do Database..Table, i usually end up with Database.<some user starting with "a">.Table. Would there be any way to have an option to add a single "." to the candidate list when listing roles/schemas/users? Or even an option to make dbo be the default (rather than selecting the first user alphabetically)?

To get around this ive stopped using . as a completion char, but this makes it different to visual studio intellisense and its hard to get used to!

Bart Read

OK thanks, we won't fix this for 3.5 because it's getting rather late and we've already done most of our testing so we're now only able to fix critical bugs, such as crashes and exceptions. However, this is certainly something we'd consider for the next patch release.

Given the way we normally work here that's likely to follow relatively quickly on the heels of 3.5 since this is basically a new major version even though we're calling it 3.5 rather than 4.


Thanks,
Bart