Red Gate has added support for eight source control systems - Vault Standard, Vault Professional, Kiln (Hg), Mercurial (Hg), Git, Perforce, CVS and Bazaar - to SQL Source Control, the company's unique tool for controlling all database elements from within SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). As a result, developers are now able to bring their database development in line with their application development processes no matter what source control system they use. Previous versions provided support for Team Foundation Server (TFS) and Subversion (SVN).
SQL Source Control 2.1 allows developers to source control their schema and static data directly from their databases within SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). "It links to existing source control systems (Bazaar, CVS, Git, Mercurial, Perforce, Subversion, Team Foundation Server, Vault, Vault Pro, and more) so developers don't need to change the way they work or learn a new source control system. SQL Source Control provides a history of changes to the database schema and static data to allow developers to see who changed what, when, and why," Stephanie Herr, Red Gate's SQL Tools development manager, tells 5 Minute Briefing. Since all the previous versions are in source control, it's a great way to get back to a previous state of the database or a previous version of a specific database object, if needed, notes Herr.
Another scenario where SQL Source Control is useful, she adds, is when a user makes a very complicated change to a stored procedure. In such a situation, they might be working on it for a while and realize they went down the wrong path. Now, they can right-click on the stored procedure in SSMS' Object Explorer and say "undo" to get back to the known good state of the stored procedure so they can start again.
Developers can also use SQL Source Conrol 2.1 to track databases against a specific bug I.D. or work item so they can see what changes were needed to fix a certain issue or complete a given task. It can also help them track what version of the database gets deployed to different environments (test/production). "It's essential in ‘agile' development environments that use Automated Builds or Continuous Integration so that you can automate database deployments, both the schema and static data," says Herr.
Visit the Red Gate website and use a new evaluation repository to start trying out SQL Source Control 2.1 in less than 5 minutes.