SSDT (SQL Server Data Tools) September 2012 for VS2010/2012 now available

SQL Server Data Tools Team Blog - New SSDT Power Tools! Now for both Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Studio 2012

I’m pleased to announce the latest release of SSDT Power Tools! We continue to use power tools to get early versions of experiences or quick features to you and we’re always interested in hearing your feedback. This release of the tools (Version 1.3) builds on the previous release.

This release of the power tools is only compatible with the newest update for SQL Server Data Tools. First, get the SSDT – September 2012 update for Visual Studio 2010 or Visual Studio 2012 here:

SSDT for Visual Studio 2012: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/jj650015

SSDT for Visual Studio 2010: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/jj650014

For the first time, this power tools release provides a version of the power tools for Visual Studio 2012 in addition to the version for Visual Studio 2010. They are separate installs that you can grab here:

SSDT Power Tools for Visual Studio 2010

SSDT Power Tools for Visual Studio 2012

What’s new?

In this version, we added commands in SQL Server Object Explorer to create and deploy *.dacpacs (Data-tier Applications), the core artifact of the DAC Framework. You can find these commands by right-clicking on the Databases node or individual database nodes in SSOX. These commands also provide the ability to include data for a select set of tables in .dacpacs. Read on for details!

..."

SQL Server Data Tools Team Blog - Now available: SQL Server Data Tools - September 2012 update!

This release is the latest step in our team's continued commitment to delivering regular, frequent releases of SSDT to the web.

What’s New?

Visual Studio 2012

In keeping with our goal of supporting the most recent version of Visual Studio, this release of SSDT supports the Visual Studio 2012 shell.  SSDT - September 2012 contains several bug fixes to the SSDT version that shipped in Visual Studio 2012 and this release can be applied  as an update on top of Visual Studio 2012 Professional, Premium, and Ultimate Editions.  If one of these SKUs is not present on the box, running the SSDT installer for Visual Studio 2012 will lay down a standalone version of SSDT for the Visual Studio 2012 Integrated Shell.

Keep in mind that the underlying engine and functionality for SSDT - September 2012 is the same for both Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Studio 2012, so you don't need to upgrade to Visual Studio 2012 to use the latest version of SSDT.  If you wish to have both shells of SSDT in your environment, they can exist side by side and SSDT projects will successfully round-trip between both shells.

LocalDB Configuration Improvements

We received feedback that SSDT's policy of creating a new localdb instance for each SSDT solution was too verbose, so we created a single localdb instance called Projects to host all the project debug databases.  We've also enhanced SQL Server Object Explorer by surfacing the default localdb instance and enabling the deletion of localdb instances.

Support for ANSI_NULLS and QUOTED_IDENIFIER Properties

In previous releases, SSDT didn't support database objects with non-standard ANSI_NULLS or QUOTED_IDENTIFIER properties.  SSDT - September 2012 has enabled this scenario by adding support for ANSI_NULLS and QUOTED_IDENTIFIER properties on project and script files.

Updated Data-Tier Application Framework

SSDT - September 2012 includes the latest redist of SQL Server Data-Tier Application Framework (DACFx), which contains several feature enhancements and bug fixes.  Most notably, the updated DACFx version enables packaging and deploying data using SqlPackage.exe. You can learn more about the new DACFx release here.

Updated SSDT Power Tools

The September 2012 update is compatible with updated Power Tools that include new features and support for both Visual Studio 2012 and Visual Studio 2010 shells.

• SSDT Power Tools for Visual Studio 2012
• SSDT Power Tools for Visual Studio 2010

Bug fixes to customer-reported issues

This release includes many bug fixes for issues reported by customers using SSDT RTW or Visual Studio 2012 RTM.  Here are some of the most impactful bugs that this release addresses:

• Unable to override Publish Profile properties when using the msbuild command line
• Slow performance on "Add New Item" from SSDT project
• Absence of debugger functionality due to errors in assembly registration
• Publish fails with no message when "extended verification" is disabled
• SSDT overwrites Visual Studio shortcut on Windows8
• Steps to edit and save a Publish Profile editor aren't intuitive

..."

This is hopefully just the start of the VS 2012 Update wave. I think/hope we're going to be seeing more of these updates from more of the teams using VS in the coming months. I'm even going to bet that we're going to be seeing too many! That it's going to be so easy to update, that every team is going to be doing a bunch of updates and than a small cottage industry will arise to just help track and monitor them. Not that I'm complaining mind you. I'd much rather have updates more often than two-three year droughts...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
SQL Server 2012 RTM Day Download Link Round-up