“Query Analyzer” for SimpleDB – Visual Studio 2008 Add-in that makes querying SimpleDB almost too easy?

Mindscape Blog - SimpleDB Management Tools Released

“With the present buzz around cloud computing, it’s proved a timely moment for Amazon’s SimpleDB database service to come out of beta. And since it’s free for low-volume usage there’s been a big uptick of interest in SimpleDB. However, although Amazon provide APIs and libraries for programming against SimpleDB, they don’t provide any off the shelf tools for quickly managing or viewing your SimpleDB data.

We’re therefore pleased to announce the release of SimpleDB Management Tools, a Visual Studio add-in that you can use to manage your Amazon SimpleDB domains and data from within VS2008.

Using SimpleDB Management Tools, you can create and delete domains, view the contents of your domains, run queries and edit and save data, using the kind of visual interface familiar from traditional databases such as SQL Server or MySQL. SimpleDB Management Tools installs itself as a data provider in Server Explorer, from where you can navigate your domains and launch query windows …

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There’s a free version of SimpleDB Management Tools available. The free version only allows you to view or edit the first 20 results of a query, but is otherwise fully functional and is not time-restricted. Please note that you’ll need Visual Studio 2008 Standard edition or above. Purchasing a license is inexpensive at only $29 per seat and is available immediately …”

Why too easy? Because now they’ve made me really want to play with SimpleDB! Grrr! It’s not like I don’t have enough “Greg Project’s” already!  LOL

What caught me eye was the interface. There just something about writing SQL statements… Yeah I know, I need help. I also liked the price point. Both that there’s a free (limited) one and that the commercial version is $29. $29 is nice price point for something like this. Not too cheap, yet still affordable for hobbyist dev (or Pro who has to justify this to his DFO, his Domestic Financial Officer… ;)

BTW, if you’re interested in this, then you might want to check out their LightSpeed product. This is their ORM product (for which they are also offering a Free Express version) which has, or will have in the very near future, native support for SimpleDB. Yep, a Cloud enabled ORM… How cool is that?

Thanks to John-Daniel for the heads up.

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Amazon's new SimpleDB Service