Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition

 

Now that Visual Studio 2008 is available, the question arises what has changed for Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals in the 2008 edition?

Not much is the answer. Since our first release was done completely out-of-band while other teams were actively working on the Visual Studio 2008 release, our main goal was to integrate in to main Visual Studio 2008 (aka. Orcas) code base. However we did make some changes that you should be aware of. 

What changed:

• First of all we have a new name, the official new name is "Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition". This creates a new dilemma, what is the shortest way to indicate our product, because VSDE refers to the Visual Studio Team System Developer Edition. VSDB seems an appropriate alternative to use.
• No more additional setup. In Visual Studio Team System 2008, we are completely integrated in the standard setup, so no more additional downloads. All you have to do is to make sure the Team Database Edition option is checked.
  
• The Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition is based on the v1.0 functionality plus the Service Release 1 functionality; this means that database references, file groups and SQLCMD variables support is part of the standard product.
• We fixed 71 defects. 
  • Eight of the issues were reported through Microsoft Connect:
    • https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=276424
    • https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=279363
    • https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=288678
    • https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=295427
    • https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=295434
    • https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=295481
    • https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=296031
    • https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=296758
  • Besides that we fixed 13 other user reported defects. The remainder were internally found issues.
  • One of the main defects addressed in this release has to do with automatically updating the underlying schema model when changes are made to the underlying source code representation, outside the direct control of the project system. A common example is when you are performing a sync operation from source code control. I discussed the issue in an earlier blog name "External Changes". 
    This change adds a check box to the Tools->Options->Database Tools->Design-time Validation Database options page. By default the option will be checked indicating you want to automatically update the schema model when changes occur.
• Solution Explorer performance improvements, the Visual Studio Core team has been making some great improvements that will improve your overall performance, especially when your project has large number of objects stored under a single node instead Solution Explorer.

What did not change:

• The database project functionality is only available in two of the Visual Studio Team System SKU's
  • Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition
  • Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite (including the trial edition)
• The functionality that was made available through Power Tools for 2005, remains inside the Power Tools for the 2008 release, we are trying to release a new Power Tools release targeting 2008 later this month.

What is next?

Now that we are done with Visual Studio 2008, we are all working on our next big deliverable which is Visual Studio Team System Code Name "Rosario".

Thanks,
-GertD

Comments

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2007
  Any news on the tool to generate documentation for a database ? Thanks Nicolas

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2007
  Gert D announced Visual Studio 2008 Team System Database Edition on his blog today. There's more good

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2007
  With the release of Visual Studio 2008 comes the release of Visual Studio 2008 Team System Database Edition.

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2007
  Now that Visual Studio 2008 is available, the question arises what has changed for Visual Studio Team

• Anonymous
  November 22, 2007
  Q: Any news on the tool to generate documentation for a database ? A: I am working on this right now, we will first release the Power Tools for 2008 with equivalent functionality of the 2005 ones and then we will update them both at the same time.

• Anonymous
  November 25, 2007
  Sul blog ufficiale del team di sviluppo è possibile dare un'occhiata ai cambiamenti che vedremo nella

• Anonymous
  November 26, 2007
  A while back, Microsoft gave us the excellent Power Tools release for the database edition of VSTS 2005

• Anonymous
  December 05, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  December 10, 2007
  I have just gone through the process of having to build a stable Vista x64 OS on my new Lenovo T61p laptop

• Anonymous
  December 10, 2007
  I have just gone through the process of having to build a stable Vista x64 OS on my new Lenovo T61p laptop

• Anonymous
  December 11, 2007
  Nice work! Are the Power Tools compatible with VS2008?  I tried to install them with the VS2008 Team Suite Trial, but was given the following error message: "You must install Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals Service Release 1 (KB936612) before you can install the Power tools."

• Anonymous
  January 21, 2008
  Hello ! I wonder is there any way to automate the feature of "Schema Compare" of VSDB in VS2008? My particular goal is to compare on daily basis schema at development db server and schema in team foundation server and to apply change if needed and generate migration scripts as daily build. Regards, Alex

• Anonymous
  May 02, 2008
  A common question in my mind is how to correctly refer to the various editions of Team System in a short...

• Anonymous
  October 19, 2008
  Hello       i wanted to know whether i can call the schema comparison tool programmatically and get the out put in some kind of file which i can read ... this is because we do a lot of test automation and we would like to check whether the schema cofirms or not before we start our test automation suite

• Anonymous
  February 07, 2009
  [ Nacsa Sándor , 2009. február 8.] Ez a Team System változat az adatbázis változások kezeléséhez és teszteléséhez

• Anonymous
  June 14, 2009
  Labas dienas, Šoreiz ir stāsts par Visual Studio for DB Professionals un problēmu, ar kuru varētu

• Anonymous
  March 08, 2010
  Do we need the server part to run that version ? Thanks!