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What's New in Visual Database Tools 

Visual Database Tools are the tools that help you create databases, maintain databases, and design the data manipulation portions of your Visual Studio database applications.

Menu Structure

Many of the menu items have been restructured to streamline access to the Visual Database Tools.

Connections

  • The new process for connecting to a database streamlines the creation of a database connection. You choose what type of database management system you are connecting to, and Visual Database Tools chooses the most likely provider as the default. You can still choose an alternative from a list of all applicable providers.

  • You can now connect to a SQL Server database file from within the Visual Studio environment. To make a connection and choose Microsoft SQL Server Database File from the Choose Data Source dialog box.

For more information see Database Connections.

Server Explorer

For connections to Microsoft SQL Server databases you can change the range of objects you view in Server Explorer. You can see the:

  • Classic view, which is the same as in previous versions.

  • Object view, which shows each object with its subordinate objects such as triggers, stored procedures, and indexes.

  • Schema view, which offers nodes for some standard schemas, such as owner, access administrator, and data reader.

For more information on customizing the data view, see Working with Views.

Properties Windows

Properties for database objects are now shown in a docked pane named Properties Window. To see an object's properties, click on it in one of the designer panes or in Server Explorer. For more information, see Properties in Visual Database Tools.

Database Diagram Designer

Database Diagram Designer's new Setup feature provides greater security by allowing only members of the db_owner role to initiate the feature for a new user. In addition, diagrams can be viewed only by the creator of the diagram or the members of db_owner. For more information, see How to: Set Up Database Diagram Designer.

Table Designer

Table Designer now provides more convenient access to the properties of a column of a table under design through the Column Properties tab, a second pane that opens when you open a table's definition. For more information see Designing Tables.

Query & View Designer

In addition to minor changes to the grid, SQL pane, and Diagram pane, there have been more substantive changes to the results pane. For example:

  • With the optimistic concurrency control, it is easier than ever to allow multiple users to access a database at once and then resolve conflicts quickly and easily.

  • Navigation can now be conducted from a navigation bar at the bottom of the Results pane.

  • Union queries can now be displayed in the diagram pane.

The Query and View Designer has been updated to support new features of Microsoft SQL Server 2005, including:

  • Synonyms can be used as you would a table

  • Optional From clause in Update and Delete queries

  • User-defined aggregate queries

  • User-defined types can now return data in the form of strings

  • Common table expressions

For more information on using these features refer to msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp.

See Also

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