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Is there a way to restore and use the old Tab History rather than the new SQL history?
DanMelson
Posts: 6 Bronze 3
in SQL Prompt
The new SQL history window is useless to me, i see no efficient way of searching and sorting the results, and the fact that it takes over the entire window is horrible. These are my opinions of course but I use SQL tool belt and SQL Prompt a lot and this has seriously impacted my production.
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Tab History has been replaced by SQL History from version 10.13 so there is not a way to go back to tab history.
What issues are you having in searching? You may need to use wildcards (*) when searching not whole words.
On the main page before searching grouping based on naming is useless because not everyone is saving every query with a logical name so we are accustomed to having SQLQuery##.sql as a name, so on any given day I may have 50 different queries that i've opened up and closed that all have SQLQuery1.sql as the "name" but they have nothing to do with each other so the History Grouping is a mis-mash of 50 different things and doesn't help us find anything. I've seen a lot of maybe you should use this or that, but I've dug through the limited documentation available and it's not helpful and not even you guys have updated quick reference to include the new History stuff https://assets.red-gate.com/products/sql-development/sql-prompt/assets/sql-prompt-quick-reference.pdf
I wrote a cursor query a few weeks ago and then used it for several days while I was troubleshooting and testing an issue. Now when I enter the keyword CURSOR into SQL History's search, it doesn't return any results at all. If I try to use a partial match with wildcards like *cur* it brings up completely unrelated queries that DO NOT have a match on *cur* for some reason. One query it brought up as a match for *cur* had highlighted "SELECT DISTINCT" as the matching section of the result, which doesn't even have all the letters, let alone in the right order.
I used to rely on Tab History heavily, and now its replacement is completely useless and I don't see how it could have been released in such a state.
I did take a closer look and can point out a couple of things that just don't make any sense whatsoever.
For instance, when opening the window initially you get the option to choose Fav, Open or closed queries, if you select closed queries then the next screen will be just that with a lot of options, from this screen it is impossible to get back to the opening screen. You have to close the window and reopen it. I know i can select opened or starred queries from this second page but it doesn't help, mostly because of the inability to to sort by date. There are some extra options for the including queries, like what server and Database that are a nice addition but the option to view query changes throughout a day are useless.
I just wish you gave us the option to use the new history or the old at our preference, that would be nice.
Thanks,
Dan
I'm glad others have already posted their frustration with the new SQL History which doesn't work as well as the old SQL History. Apart from the mismatches when looking by words and no sort when showing the results, I also saw that the default list displayed when opening SQL History is grouping the scripts by date but looks random, if I wrote a script at 9 or 10 pm, the next day those scripts appear under the Today group. Is it using UTC to group the scripts together?
As there are no older versions for version 10.x on this page: https://www.red-gate.com/products/old-versions, I'm stuck with the new SQL Prompt, which is not helping me when I need it.
Is there a way to go back or will these issues be addressed soon?
Regards,
Jorge
The latest 10.12 has a threading bug so you need to let it finish loading and type your search quick so it does not filter as you type (throws a semaphore exception but does not crash SSMS so you can just try again)
Try 10.12.4.29949 - Released on 21 September 2022 as this seems to not have that issue. Not sure which version start having that issue so a later one might be ok too. I am going to stick with this version for now.
All older versions are here:
https://documentation.red-gate.com/sp/release-notes-and-other-versions/sql-prompt-10-12-release-notes
I recomend downloading them soon - I wonder if they may eventually remove versions that contain unsupported features like Tab History
btw - I just posted a comment regarding issues I have with SQL History and sorting before finding this post
SQL History - Sorting? — Redgate forums (red-gate.com)
I figured that out when looking at Chocolatey packages which I use for installing other software, not SQL Prompt, and I saw it. I'm in 10.13.1.31417 which I remember worked ok for me back in December 2022.
I won't update it until I can see others confirming the recent changes in SQL History are addressed, when searching and sorting.
I agree with your comment in the other thread, this is becoming very frustrating although we can go back to older versions.
I really love the development community. I have been developing for over 30 years and the one thing I have always found truly inspiring is the community and how we always find was to overcome the little things that just annoy the heck out of you.
SQL Prompt 10.12 release notes - SQL Prompt 10 - Product Documentation (red-gate.com)
I recomend downloading them soon - I wonder if they may eventually remove versions that contain unsupported features like Tab History
btw - I just posted a comment regarding issues I have with SQL History and sorting before finding this post
SQL History - Sorting? — Redgate forums (red-gate.com)
SQL Prompt 10.12 release notes - SQL Prompt 10 - Product Documentation (red-gate.com)
I recomend downloading them soon - I wonder if they may eventually remove versions that contain unsupported features like Tab History
btw - I just posted a comment regarding issues I have with SQL History and sorting before finding this post
SQL History - Sorting? — Redgate forums (red-gate.com)
SQL Prompt 10.12 release notes - SQL Prompt 10 - Product Documentation (red-gate.com)
I recomend downloading them soon - I wonder if they may eventually remove versions that contain unsupported features like Tab History
btw - I just posted a comment regarding issues I have with SQL History and sorting before finding this post
SQL History - Sorting? — Redgate forums (red-gate.com)
I figured that out when looking at Chocolatey packages which I use for installing other software, not SQL Prompt, and I saw it. I'm in 10.13.1.31417 which I remember worked ok for me back in December 2022.
I won't update it until I can see others confirming the recent changes in SQL History are addressed, when searching and sorting.
I agree with your comment in the other thread, this is becoming very frustrating although we can go back to older versions.
I have spoken to the team regarding the searching and they are going to look into it.
Furthermore on the search window ( either from own search or selecting closed etc) you can go back to the previous SQL History window with the "X" in the top right.
Sure, change history is nice to have, but I would never trade it with the option of quickly finding that one tab among 20 others, that I recently had open.
Maybe I have just been ruined by the tight controls in the old Tab history. But I find myself constantly clicking "Advanced search" -> "queries" - > "the last week", in order to limit the search output and make it somewhat useable. Still, the top search result is usually some old and unrelated tab. I then reach for the arrow keys to quickly glance at the second result, but I have to select the result list first.
Another example: After opening the SQL History tab, why do I have to select the search field with the mouse before typing the search string?
@ATurner
I wish these UX kinks had been fixed before removing Tab History.
Is there any update on whether recent versions of SQL Prompt have fixed the issues we reported here regarding history and search results in SQL History?
I'm planning to migrate my computer to Windows 11 in the next couple of days, including upgrading to the latest version 19.x of SSMS, and I was wondering if now everything works as expected regarding those points. Maybe @ATurner can bring some light on those?
Thanks for your help!
However, if you used Tab History numerous times per day, for finding that tab you opened just 5 minutes ago, but now seems lost between 30 pinned and unpinned tabs, then you will still be very frustrated with the UX of SQL History.
The team are not looking to reimplement tab history. They are looking at making changes to the search currently. They are actively looking at the uservoice for changes to it so would recommend adding feedback there https://redgate.uservoice.com/forums/94413-sql-prompt
There is already a lot of this feedback there and I have already voted on what I think is important. I hope others are doing the same.
It there a publically available roadmap (list) of fixes and updates planned for SQL history so those of us who depend heavilvy on specific features of Tab History can look forward to and plan accordingly?
btw - when entering any items there, you can still only categoriize it as "Tab History" despite that feature being removed. There is no group for SQL History yet that I can see - unless I missed it??
Basically as far as I can see it SQL History is currently a massive downgrade from SQL Tab History with no redeeming features whatsoever.
Basically as far as I can see it SQL History is currently a massive downgrade from SQL Tab History with no redeeming features whatsoever.