Or should I say is finally available. Anyhow here it is; the public first and last public CTP of the Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals first Service Release.

What is in it?

  • 3+4 part name resolution through a new feature called "database references"
  • File groups and files are now part of the project settings and can e fully parameterize then to fit your deployment needs (this replaces the need for the storage deployment script)
  • SQLCMD variable support; this is enable through a new project property page for creating and editing variables that you can then use inside your scripts. Variables are stored inside the project file and can be mapped to MSBuild properties.

Besides this we now support SQL Server 2005 SP2 and we support running on Windows Vista. We fixed some parser and interpreter bugs that caused you to get faulty errors and warnings. This service release also includes the hotfix we released earlier this year which addressed the source code control performance problem.

Important notes:

  • This service release will upgrade your project file (.dbproj) when you first open your project after installing the service release. It will create a backup copy first.
  • This patch can be applied to both the retail and the trail edition of Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals.
  • Since the service release is a so called patch installer, you need to have the RTM version installed.
    • If you have the hotfix installed (KB933015), you do not have to do anything, just install the this patch
    • If you were one of the lucky ones that was asked to test drive the private CTP of this service release, you have to uninstall that one first.
  • The installer does require that Visual Studio 2005 SP1 has been installed first
  • This CTP only supports the English version of Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals; the final release will support all 9 languages.

Where can I get this:

You can provide feedback through our MSDN forum or through Microsoft Connect.

Thanks,
-GertD
"DataDude" Software Architect