SoftTree SQL Assistant v5.2 (maintenance release) - What's New

November 15, 2010

New Features and Major Changes

1. New Schedule feature for scheduling runs of SQL code on single and multiple database systems using sequential and concurrent parallel runs.
2. Completely rebuilt and greatly enhanced Database Code Refactoring engine now supporting the following smart-refactoring methods: Rename Table or View; Rename Table or View Column; Rename Procedure or Function; Rename Procedure or Function Parameter; Rename Local Variable; Add Table Column; Drop Table Column; Add Procedure or Function Parameter; Drop Procedure or Function Parameter; Drop Procedure or Function; Drop Table or View; Extract View; Extract Procedure; Qualify Object Names.
3. Database refactoring coverage expanded from 3 to 8 different database system types.
4. Lots of enhancements in database refactoring methods, including updating Oracle synonyms when renaming based objects; column renaming in 'return table' in table functions in SQL Server, and many others.
5. Code formatter and beautifier now supports space alignment for assignment operators.
6. Code dependencies engine now supports analysis of code dependencies for procedure and function parameters.
7. Code execution facility now reports specific compilation error details when executing code in Oracle targets.
8. Support added for new PostgreSQL 9.0 database server.
9. Column hints on mouse-over and super-fast column scope data previews on Ctrl+click.
10. Intellisense for SET statement in SQL Server, Sybase ASE, MySQL.
11. Support for new data types introduced in SQL Server 2008 R2.
12. Hot-track for script variables, hints and 1-click jump to declarations.
13. 1 key-press highlighting of the current statement.
14. Intelligent on-the-spot web searching for solutions helping to solve specific database, syntax, and compilation errors.

Miscellaneous

15. Many other minor enhancements and usability changes.

 

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SoftTree SQL Assistant v5.1 (maintenance release) - What's New

August 17, 2010

New and Updated Add-ons and Plug-ins

1. New Visual Studio 2010 native add-on
2. New MySQL Workbench plug-in
3. New IBM Data Studio plug-in
4. Support for latest versions of Toad, PL/SQL Developer, UltraEdit, Notepad++

Connectivity Enhancements

5. Support for ADO.NET 4
6. Support for MySQL ODBC drivers from 5.1.x code branch
7. Support for large text value data types, such as Oracle clobs and longs, DB2 blobs, MySQL texts, SQL Server texts, and all types of varchar(max)/nvarchar(max)

SQL Intellisense Enhancements

8. Highlighting of matching Column/Value pairs in INSERT type queries, prompts for values
9. New option for controlling number of auto-expanded levels in JOIN suggestions
10. Support for multiple foreign keys between the same pair of tables in JOIN suggestions
11. SQL Server - support for Windows user logins not associated with any schema
12. Enhanced code generation for UPDATE and INSERT statements containing references to system generated values

Miscellaneous

13. SQL Reference - enhanced in-place code entry using placeholders
14. Code compare - updated interface, new advanced text comparison algorithms supporting fine-grade difference highlighting within matching lines; navigation maps; additional customization options
15. Code formatting - support for decimal numbers in scientific notation
16. Data retrieval - support for long text values and their enhanced display in result sets, including multi-line text values
17. Auto-closure of displayed prompts after use of Ctrl+V shortcut
18. Fast reloading of SQL Assistant in target editors after settings changes; faster loading on startup
19. Over 100 bug fixes and minor improvements

 

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SoftTree SQL Assistant v5.0 (major release) - What's New

March 22, 2010

New Code Analysis and Refactoring Functions - smart object, column, and parameter renaming methods; smart code extraction methods; advanced code dependencies analysis

1. Graphical analysis of dependencies for objects (tables, views, procedures, functions), table and view columns, procedure and function parameters.
2. Code refactoring - Extract View definition from procedural code - 3 clicks method for conversion of a block of code to a view - customizable templates.
3. Code refactoring - Extract sub procedure definition from procedural code - 3 clicks method for conversion of a block of code to a stored procedure or function - customizable templates.
4. Code refactoring - Rename procedure/function in database including automatic discovery of dependencies, code preview before updating, including all dependencies.
5. Code refactoring - Rename table/view in database including automatic discovery of dependencies, code preview before updating, including all dependencies.
6. Code refactoring - Rename table/view column view in database including automatic discovery of dependencies, code preview before updating, including all dependencies.
7. Code refactoring - Rename procedure/function parameter in database including automatic discovery of dependencies, code preview before updating, including all dependencies.
8. Code refactoring - rename local variable - rename local variables in procedures and functions (standalone code loaded in the editor or part of a large script).
9. Syntax checker improvements - highlighting for unused variables.

Advanced Code Entry Automation - updated code snippets engine, programmable code snippets using SQL language

10. Support for user-defined interactive prompts. See new $PROMPT$ macro .
11. User-defined programmable macros using SQL code. See new $$..$$ and accompanying macros $CURRENT_NAME$, $CURRENT_SEL$, etc... .
12. Removed certain limitations on the use of functionally similar macros in the same snippet code. For example, $COLUMNS$  and $COLUMNS_KEYS$ macros can be now used in the same code snippet.

Improved SQL Intellisense and Code Formatting

13. Improved keyword prompts - preferred keywords and SQL constructs displayed on top of the keyword prompts. You can now customize preferred keywords list to match your preferences.
14. Column popups after ORDER BY and GROUP BY keywords are now feature checkboxes. Multiple columns can be picked at once.
15. While-you-type and standalone code formatters support new formatting options allowing simultaneous use of different cases for keywords and for system functions, for example uppercasing keywords and using mixed or lower case for system functions.
16. New options for handling name delimiters. "Always Add Delimiters" option supports new mode "Only if name = keyword (limited)" You can now customize list of keywords that you also use as object and column names, and which you don't want SQL Assistant to treat as keywords, for example, the default configuration includes ID and Name, names, you can add your own.
17. "Show Keys and Indexed Columns" is preset for all assistance types by default. Primary keys, foreign keys, and indexed columns are displayed by default in column popups and mouse-over hints.
18. Mouse-over hints for table and view columns display hyperlinks for sample data preview and for DDL code view for views. .
19. Mouse-over hints for procedure and function parameters display hyperlinks for procedure/function DDL code view.
20. Improved display of column name popups for PostgreSQL. The popups now indicate auto-generated values and indexed columns.
21. Improved recognition of auto-generated values in various SQL statements. For example, SQL Assistant does not insert references to "timestamp" columns in SQL server when generating code for table INSERT and UPDATE statements.
22. Improved control of column name popups. You can now configure additional symbols that trigger automatic column name popups, for example, you may add <, <>, >, BETWEEN and other symbols to trigger automatic column popup display.
23. SQL Intellisense implemented for CREATE INDEX statement.
24. SQL Intellisense implemented for CREATE OR REPLACE AND COMPILE JAVA SOURCE.
25. Preset code formatting rule added for Oracle VARRAY.
26. Preset code formatting rule added for DEFAULT VALUES in INSERT/UPDATE statements in Transact-SQL.
27. Database name and schema name completion is now supported after Ctrl+Space. That is handy if you work with long names and need to type them often.
28. Behavior change for query suggestions based on code entry history. To avoid accidental insertion of historical queries into the code, historical items are not pre-selected automatically. .
29. Added new option for controlling alias generation. You can now specify name prefixes that you want SQL Assistant to ignore.

Database Code Unit Testing Framework

30. New complete database code unit testing framework supports interactive and automated database code unit testing; allows quick bulk setup of unit tests for multiple database projects.

New Add-ons

31. Add-ons for Delphi with built-in SQL Editor. Add-ons are available for all Delphi Windows versions from Delphi 2005 to Delphi 2010;.
32. Experimental support for pre-release version of Visual Studio 2010 ( limited testing performed on Windows XP and Vista).

Data Import/Export/Generation

33. New test data generator for quickly populating tables and schemas with realistic test data. Supports updates of multiple tables in one project.
34. Enhanced scripting and exporting table data now this feature supports exporting data from multiple tables and views, as well as from multiple schemas.

Miscellaneous

35. Syntax Check Results and Messages panes support copying and saving messages.
36. New user-friendly interface for protecting from run-away queries and results.
37. Added handling for XML windows in SQL Server Management Studio. SQL Intellisense is disabled in XML windows.
38. Improved SEH (Structure Exception Handler) for better code quality and support.
39. Added new API functions, including new function for off-line code formatting, with support for multiple files.

A number of other minor improvements

 

Changes in Other Versions

See What's New page for details on new features added in SQL Assistant versions 2.x - 4.x.