Reviews
Review: Speed SQL IDE Pro
Speed SQL IDE Pro 1.5
Imceda
Burlington, Massachusetts
(781) 229-6300
www.imceda.com
Back in January I reviewed mssalXpress, an IDE for working with
Microsoft SQL Server. Since then, then product has been revised a couple
of times, and it's been acquired by Imceda and renamed. I figured it was
about time to give the latest version a spin on my computer.
Installation is a breeze; you run one setup to build a SQL Server
database that's used by Speed SQL IDE Pro, and another setup to actually
put the IDE bits on your computer. The database is used to store things
like code snippets and version history, so the tool can avoid cluttering
up your production databases.
The idea of Speed SQL Pro is to be able to do all of your database
development from a single interface, from the simple to complex. So
there are user interfaces for things like designing tables, nicely
tabbed to let you look at columns, relationships, indexes, and so on.
But there's a lot more as well.
For instance, you can put SQL Server objects under source code control
here. If you're actively doing development, this is a big win; you can
save versions of a single object rather than having to back up the
entire database. Source control is completely integrated to the IDE, and
works with Visual SourceSafe or other systems that implement the SCC
API.
You also get an MDI editor for SQL statements here. In addition to
the color-coding that you're used to from Query Analyzer, it adds a
bunch of other goodies. My pick of the litter is "verify", which
verifies syntax, executes a SQL statement, shows you the results - and
then rolls back any data changes. That's an excellent tool for
developing tricky statements. You also get IntelliSense-like name
completion, as well as the ability to insert code templates and snippets
easily. Of course you can maintain your own additions to the library of
snippets.
Another nice touch is an integrated code repository. You can use this to
store your own AutoCorrect entry (a boon to those of us who make the
same typing mistakes over and over again), new object templates, and
code snippets. Code snippets are bits of T-SQL that you'd like to reuse
- perhaps a common header, or the skeleton of the way you like to write
cursor code. Of course you can use these in any object easily after
storing them.
Speed SQL IDE Pro is updated frequently; new versions have been
appearing about every two weeks, with new functionality showing up all
the time. You can download a 30-day evaluation version if you'd like to
take a look.