Coloring tabs by Group

WaldenL

SQL Prompt lets me set a color for a group in registered servers, but that doesn't color the tabs for servers in a group? Then what does it do? In options I've got an entry for "Group: Dev" and "Group: Production" with corresponding environments, but no tab colors. Am I doing something wrong? I know I can color individual servers, but I figured coloring the group would then automatically include servers added to the group later, no?
SQL Prompt: 7.0.0.62 on SSMS 13.0.900.73 (2016 CTP3)

Ali D

Hi WaldenL

Sorry to hear you’re having trouble with tab coloring. I think there might be some subtleties in this feature that’s catching you out.

In the Registered Servers window, when you right click on a group there are two menu entries:
Tab Color (Group)
Tab Color (Servers in Group)

It sounds like you’ve used Tab Color (Group) to set a color but this will only color a query window opened against the group itself. You can test this out by going to the Registered Servers window, right clicking on the group name and clicking New Query.

If you want to every server in a group to have a colored tab, you need to use Tab Color (Servers in Group) menu option to set the color.

Let me know how you get on.
Thanks
Ali

WaldenL

Yup, that seems to be the case, sorry for the confusion. Though as a product improvement I'd love to see the ability to color servers in a group by specifying the group, that was as new servers are added to the group they're automatically covered under that color scheme.

Ali D

Hi WaldenL

I’m glad to hear that’s got sorted out.

With regards to coloring newly added servers to that of their parent group: whilst this would be nice to have, it wouldn't be reliable because there’s nothing to stop the same server appearing in multiple groups. This means there’s no guaranteed way of resolving the “correct” group for a newly added server.

It’s possible to work around this limitation if your server groups have a naming scheme. For example, if your development servers all begin with “dev-”, you can create a coloring rule for servers named “dev-*”.

Thanks
Ali