SQL Server Data Tools 16.5 Release

The SQL Server Data Tools team is pleased to announce an update for SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) is now available. The SSDT 16.5 release adds a number of improvements to the connection experience, SqlPackage and DacFx API support for generating a deployment report and scripts during publish, and as usual a number of bug fixes across the tool.

Get it here:

Download SSDT GA 16.5 for Visual Studio 2015 and Visual Studio 2013

• The version number for GA in Visual Studio 2015 is 14.0.61021.0 (Direct link: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/mt186501)
• The version number for GA in Visual Studio 2013 is 12.0.61021.0 (Direct link: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/dn864412)

This release will be available through Visual Studio Extensions and Updates notification soon.

Download Data-Tier Application Framework 16.5

• The version number is 13.0.3485.1
• You can also install as a nuget package, e.g. for use in Powershell or your own app integration scenarios:
  • x64 package is here
  • x86 package is here

What’s new in SSDT?

Database Tools

Connection Improvements

Managing your server and database connections is even easier than before.

• The new search box in the Browse tab helps you filter your Local servers, Network servers and Azure SQL Databases. This is very useful if (like us) you have a large number of servers or databases appearing in these lists.
• The History tab has right-click menu options to pin / unpin favorites, and a new option to remove connections from the History.

SqlPackage and DacFx API Improvements

Using SqlPackage.exe and the DacFx APIs you can now generate a deployment report, deployment script, and publish to a database all in one action. This is a timesaver for anyone who likes to keep a report of what was published during a deployment. Another benefit is that for Azure scenarios, separate scripts for the master database and the deploy target database are created. Up to now a single script was created which was not useful for repeated deployments.

For SqlPackage’s Publish and Script actions, two new arguments have been added.

• DeployScriptPath (shortname: dsp). This is an optional path to write the deployment script to. For Azure deployment, if there were TSQL commands to create of modify the DB a master script will be written to the same path but with “Filename_Master.sql” as the output file name.
• DeployReportPath (shortname: drp). This is an optional path to write the deployment report to.

Note that for the Script action, either the existing Output Path arguments or the new script/report-specific arguments should be used, but not both.

Sample usage:

In DacFx, two new APIs have been added: DacServices.Publish() and DacServices.Script(). These also support performing publish + script + report actions in a single operation. Sample usage:

DacServices service = new DacServices(connectionString);
using(DacPackage package = DacPackage.Load(@"C:\My\db.dacpac")) {
var options = new PublishOptions() {
    GenerateDeploymentScript = true, // Should a deployment script be created?
    GenerateDeploymentReport = true, // Should an xml deploy report be created?
    DatabaseScriptPath = @"C:\My\OutputScript.sql", // optional path to save script to
    MasterDbScriptPath = @"C:\My\OutputScript_Master.sql", // optional path to save master script to
    DeployOptions = new DacDeployOptions()
};

// Call publish and receive deployment script & report in the results
PublishResult result = service.Publish(package, "TargetDb", options);
Console.WriteLine(result.DatabaseScript);
Console.WriteLine(result.MasterDbScript);
Console.WriteLine(result.DeploymentReport);

// Call script and receive deployment script & report in results
result = service.Script(package, "TargetDb", options);
Console.WriteLine(result.DatabaseScript);
Console.WriteLine(result.MasterDbScript);
Console.WriteLine(result.DeploymentReport);

Analysis Services & Reporting Services

SSAS tabular designer DAX parser has improved performance when working with large DAX expressions.

For more information, please read this Analysis Services blog post.

Fixed / Improved this month

Database Tools

Analysis Services & Reporting Services

Integration Service

­­­Contact us:

If you have any question or feedback, please ping @sqldatatools on twitter, visit our forum and for bugs please create bug reports on our Microsoft Connect page. We are fully committed to improve the SSDT experience and look forward to hearing from you!