dbForge Studio: Complete SQL Server Workflow in One Tool

In this video, we will introduce you to Devart's dbForge Studio for SQL Server, a powerful and comprehensive database management tool for SQL Server. You will get an overview of the key features and functionalities of the tool, and understand how it can help you streamline your database management tasks.

Website: https://www.devart.com/dbforge/sql/studio/editions.html
Promo code: 10SQLTREVOIRWILLIAMS
Product: dbForge Studio for SQL Server
Discount: 10%
Validity: 3 months

From advanced SQL editing and debugging to data management and performance tuning, dbForge Studio has everything you need to manage your SQL Server databases with ease. Whether you are a database administrator, developer, or analyst, this tool will make your life easier and improve your workflow.

So join me as I take a closer look at dbForge Studio for SQL Server, and discover why it's the perfect choice for all your database management needs

00:00 - 00:17 - Introduction
00:18 - 01:56 - About DevArt
01:57 - 04:19 - User Interface
04:20 - 05:11 - Retrieving Data
05:12 - 09:26 - Productivity Improvements
09:27 - 11:36 - Copy Database
11:37 - 13:22 - Schema Compare
13:23 - 13:57 - Display
13:58 - 15:28 - Scripting
15:29 - 17:07 - Data Comparison
17:08 - 19:10 - Schema Comparison
19:11 - 20:47 - New Table
20:48 - 22:09 - Conclusion

___________________________________________________________________

I am a Software Engineer and Instructor. I can provide professional development services or private code coaching sessions to help you to accomplish your professional or personal IT goals.

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Website: https://www.trevoirwilliams.com/
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Closed Caption:

foreign
thanks for joining me in this video I'm
Trevor Williams and today we're going to
be exploring the DB Forge studio for SQL
Server created by devart
[Music]
now our journey starts off on their
website which can be found at devart.com
that's Dev as in Van
art.com and devart was founded in 1997
and it is currently one of the leading
providers in database management
software and general Solutions you can
read up on them you can go to their blog
you can go to their company and
everything so they resolve database
development issues faster and if you
know anything about database development
and especially deployments you know how
scary it can be when you have to make
changes to your database and there are
certain operations that we're just never
comfortable doing no matter how many
times you do them right so their tools
are found to be very useful in helping
to abstract away a lot of that fear and
a lot of the potential for human error
as well so if you scroll down you see
some of their products so if you're more
of an oracle person we have DB Ford
studio for my SQL we have the complete
SQL and we have db4 studio for SQL
Server so this is the one that we're
going to be focusing on and if you click
on it you'll see that they will actually
give you the ability to download it you
can buy it and they do have editions of
course there are paid editions and
different licensing you have the express
Edition which is free for download but
all of these editions will give you a 90
a 30-day trial sorry if you really want
to test it out now I have already
downloaded and installed this
application so I'm just going to jump
over to that
now after you've downloaded it and it
may take some time to download you
realize it's a heavy bit of software and
it's not heavy for no reason it has all
of the capabilities of the traditionally
used SQL Server management studio built
into it so everything that you get with
the Microsoft ssms is built into this
studio as well and then there's some so
you know you'll always find third-party
tools that do a little bit of a few
things a bit better than the default
software would right so this is
definitely one of those situations
however if you already have experience
with ssms then you will feel at home
given the general layout of this user
interface and even the terminology
everything is quite familiar you know
that we can start a new query we can
start a new connection which is probably
where we all start you'll see that a lot
of the icons are very similar to what
we're used to in the ssms
so you know it's easy to kind of make
that transition between the ssms life
and the db4 studio life right so we can
start off by asking or creating rather a
new connection and of course you just
put in your server the authentication
type and whatever credentials you need
to once again just like you would in
ssms I already have two connections I
have one to localhost and one to my SQL
Express so when I expand them of course
you'll see the database is listed out
once again Everything feels very natural
very familiar you'll see that the tables
are listed out here the few things that
you may need to get used to would be
like when you right click you can create
a new table from there you can edit
table you can retrieve data usually in
ssms you would see something like edit
top 200 or select top 1000 so you know
if you're looking for those kinds of
terms you may not see them readily But
ultimately you can and accomplish a lot
of the same things out of the box you
can export data you can import data so
in ssms you kind of have to jump through
additional Hoops like you have to go to
tasks and then go and import or export
so even if you're a beginner
and you you know you need to do these
things but you're not sure where to find
them you see that they're presented to
you in a far more obvious manner
so let us look at retrieving data so I'm
just going to right click and say
retrieve data and then it's just going
to open the same kind of query window
that we're used to and show me all the
data in a tabular form from here I can
right click I can copy with headers I
can copy data as and I probably have the
same actually the same form as I would
have in ssms you can export the data
differently right so you can export the
data in different formats here uh what
was the other one I just saw you can
also generate script as they can do all
of those things so what I realized is
that they're they're kind of packing a
lot of the other functions into places
where you wouldn't normally see them in
ssms
um your results and whether that's a
good thing or a bad thing personally I
don't mind it all right so generally
speaking if you are transitioning from
ssms to this tool then you shouldn't
have a hard time readjusting now now I
want to kind of focus on some of the
things that I appreciate while I'm in
this environment that you probably don't
necessarily get in ssms now then the
autocomplete is one such thing so if I
remove this categories and start typing
again let autocomplete appear it's going
to show me a lot more details about this
table up front and this can be very
useful when you're dealing with bigger
databases and you want to see what the
columns of the table are while you're
writing the query
um me right here I just get a nice snap
shot and I know that there and there's
an estimate of eight rows in that table
I mean those bits of information can go
far away in helping you to be more
productive and just the same way if I
start instead of listing all the columns
I actually do I remove the star and I
did control space look at that it's
showing me all of the columns that I can
just now click and it will just select
them all for me right and then I can
move on so right they're actually
reduced some of the time I would spend
retrofitting this query to only select
some of the columns and especially if I
had like joins and other tables involved
um we can all testify it or irritating
it is to try and remember all the
different tables and columns
Etc that made it much easier for me and
then I can just execute and you see it's
nice and easy
now another thing that I think boosts
productivity is the ability to Auto
format this query so some of us are
sticklers for indentation and layout and
so on and that's fine but then we spend
a lot of time either formatting the
query properly the first time or
reformatting it after we get it right
so what we can do here is right click go
to format and then you'll see one that
you have access to different uh format
profiles right so usually ssms will
always generate a query in a particular
way and like I said we would spend time
fixing it the way we want it but then
you do have some presets here so like
commas before yours would probably say
default by default that's fine but you
see you do have different formats so if
I choose indented and then I right click
again and then say format documents you
see now it's going to actually just
reorganize all of that for me using that
formatting so I find this to be a huge
Time Saver especially if you're somebody
who gets caught up on the actual
formatting of your queries this will
just you know bootstrap all of that for
you so that's a very good tool to have
in your toolbox now I'm going to move
away from these more rudimentary things
um with exploration I'm sure you'll find
a lot more tool tools and efficiencies
in this tool as you go along but I want
to kind of focus on one that can really
help you in a situation where you're
maintaining large databases you have to
manage changes in say Dev and production
you have to synchronize data all of
those things can be very nerve-wracking
experiences the general workflow for
that would be that you take a backup of
one of the databases and then you can
restore or you write custom scripts that
would affect the changes in the Target
database for instance putting in the new
columns or changing a data type Etc once
again if you do it in a test bit I'm
sure it's fine but there's still always
the risk of having human error so
dbforge actually gives us a database
well firstly let's look at the database
copy I find that to be an excellent like
easy to use tool right
um I'm not going to actually copy
because you can see here I have more
than enough databases but I'm going to
show you the capability so if you were
to copy a database you'd have to either
script it down generate all the scripts
and then change the name in description
and rerun it or you would create a
backup file and then restore the backup
on the new name with db4 studio if I
wanted to copy one of my databases I
could actually just right click it and
then go down to tools and then not to
sorry tasks and then I can just say copy
database so you see I can do all of the
same backup and restore and generate
scripts and everything but I can click
copy database copy database will then
ask me what is the connection of the
home database and where is the Target so
let's say I wanted to copy the current
copy of the production database down to
Dev sometimes you have to do a data
refresh or down to staging right so that
the testers the QA team can actually
simulate real live data that's in the
system a number of scenarios could be
behind why you'd want to do something
like this so I choose the source
connection and then I choose the target
Cloud connection which could be another
database
um incidentally I can't go from uh this
database to SQL Express so I can go from
the dev instance to the S Express
instance that's fine but I can also just
choose the same instance I can go from
Express to localhost however and then if
I go to next then it's going to say okay
which database so I did right click
Northwind specifically but I can choose
whichever one it's going to tell me that
it already exists at the destination so
it's right there doing a comparison and
letting me know hey be careful with this
one because it's already there right so
let me choose one that says Okay
um one from a pass project go to next
and then I can choose to rename it if I
want all right that's fine it's fresh on
the new server hit next and then verify
which account will be carrying out the
operation of course you need proper
permissions I need to sort out some
permissions
um on my machine there are certain
things that don't run as admin so this
won't actually work on my machine but
with the proper permissions that's all
you have to do to copy over a database
another very useful thing I'm just going
to close that wizard is the schema
compare now this is the real game
changer for me it is so easy to do that
it's not funny so if I right click the
database and then I go to tools you'll
see here that you have well I actually
have two you have schema comparison and
you have data comparison so I'm going to
do data comparison first so if I do data
comparison here I can say what is the
source what is the target I'm going to
choose SQL Express and I'm going to
compare the data between the two North
in databases I don't have any reason to
think that they're actually different so
right here once again you could say this
is probably uh one is like in a blue
green deployment right so you had the
green environment running for a while
new data got written to that database
now you need to see what's different
between the those the tools they can
migrate over to the blue database before
you swap I'm just giving you scenarios
here right so let's do this again so set
the source set the target we can go down
to options and then we can choose what
we want to set as defaults what we want
to set as the comparison
parameters right so you can go through
that list I won't change that because I
found the defaults to be quite fine but
of course your situation may be
different then for the mapping we're
going to go ahead and say that we want
to compare all the tables and all the
columns in those tables right now you'll
see here one object left unmapped when I
click that I actually created a new
table in the SQL Express development
environment earlier right so there they
can't compare that because that table
isn't present but it can look at the
existing tables and compare them and
then when we do the computer we get this
display now this display is showing us
to the left
um what is in the source and to the
right what is in the Target and then in
between it's showing us the difference
and what is identical so so far all the
tables only have identical figures and
there's no difference between what well
there's nothing that is only in source
and nothing that's only in Target now
let's throw a spanner in that let us
insert a new category right and you can
click on the different tables of course
and view right so I'm going to create a
new category so I'm just going to create
a new script
and I'm going to say insert into so you
can see here that my scripting practices
are bad but let's see what's in store
for us so if I just do tab oh look at
that it just generated all of that for
me so uh category name would be new
category
and the description here I'm just going
to say test and I will leave the image
null all right and then when I execute
this
then the queries executed successfully
now this is one thing that I can say
ssms gives me a bit better feedback
because ssms would show you upfront hey
one raw affected two rules affected Etc
um actually I didn't even notice this so
I actually ran this more than once and
then when I did I retrieved data I ended
up with several new test categories
right so that's you know that's probably
one little bit of feedback right there
um you know give me a more obvious
feedback from a query like this anyhow
let us go through that
compare again so I'm just going to kind
of do it quickly these are the steps but
well let's just do it together again so
right click the database go to tools go
to new data comparison and I'm comparing
between SQL Express and my localhost
both have the Northwind database and
then I click compare
and then we see something very
interesting one it's now categorizing
the categories table
under the different section right
everything else is identical but no
categories is different and showing me
what is new to the left and where it's
not in the right okay and now I can
click this to synchronize data to the
Target database and look at this one
click open for internal Arrow yeah okay
let's look at the options and you can
choose to do a backup in the process it
will take a backup of your database when
it's attempting to do all of this and
you can run scripts in between and then
it will let you know of any foreign key
considerations so I'll just go ahead and
click synchronize and after doing that
it showed me a script where it did the
backup and everything and then it told
me that okay did the insert statements
for me and all of this went on fine I'll
just click execute
and everything was executed successfully
now if I go back to that comparison Tab
and refresh it's going to redo that data
comparison so I actually didn't have to
go through all the steps again like I
did earlier but the ultimate goal has
been accomplished now our data is
synchronized and that's how easy it is
to move data from one database to the
other so once again think about
synchronizing data between your
environments or even two different
databases that need to kind of be in
sync that's how easy it is
now the schema compare and with this I'm
going to close and leave you guys to go
ahead and download this and you can
check the in my description I do have a
promo code where you get 10 off so you
can check that out as well now tools
schema comparison
and then let us once again compare the
two Northwind databases on my two
instances and now this is very important
because the direction matters right I am
saying this is the source this is the
Target now what you're going to notice
is that I added the table no uh the new
table to my SQL Express and that is a
target which means that we want to move
the changes or the differences from the
source to the Target since new table is
on the target what it's going to suggest
after doing this compare is that I drop
the table on the target so that we can
be in sync that's not necessarily what
we want right or you know I'm just
pointing that out so that you can be
very deliberate in doing this right so
if it is that you wanted to synchronize
changes from
say staging you made some database
changes to the schema I know you need to
move those changes over to the
production database then of course your
source needs to be the one with the
actual change and then the target is the
one that doesn't have to change if it is
that the changes that you remove
something or something is now missing
between the two just bear that in mind
right so if I so that is the comparison
where I would have to remove new table
from the express but let me do that
comparison again
and I'm going to flip the script so this
time I'm going to say that my source is
the dev database for instance SQL
Express and then my localhost database
is the production so I have a new table
here and I want it in production now so
when I do the compare
it is going to run through the same
things
and then this time it's going to show me
that the update will actually create
this new table so the source object is
new table as with any other views stored
procedure anything that you would have
had on the development environment that
you need to know move the new
environment they will be listed here and
then I can simply click synchronize and
actually I think I just did something
the hard way if I okay so I can actually
just right click and say edit so you see
it's just a gift that keeps on giving I
just thought about it and it's there so
that's my but for missing it the first
time but I could actually just go to
edit comparison flip it around and then
just redo the compare without having to
go through the wizard from scratch
anyhow we're already here so forgive me
I'm going to go ahead and synchronize
objects and it gives us the same options
where it's going to backup the database
generate additional scripts if we need
it and I'm going to go ahead and click
synchronize it will generate that script
we can eyeball it to make sure that
there is nothing in there that's
dangerous and then we can click execute
and once that execution has been
completed then if I refresh both of my
database tables I should now see new
table right so this one for localhost
didn't have new table and the one for
SQL Express as soon as my eyes adjust
and I can see it there we go already had
new table
so that's how easy it is to migrate
schema changes from one database to
another so ultimately I like this tool
it's very very it's very efficient and
it does help with productivity and it's
easy to start using everything is
labeled well the layout is clean and
once again it's easy to kind of
transition from the ssms way of doing
things to the dev art way of doing
things but we're still doing the same
things and there are additional features
that you can take advantage of if you
use Source control management system you
can easily integrate this to Source
Control Management if you do unit
testing you can easily manage all of
your unit tests and run them for you you
can even bake the schema compare and the
deployments into your devops pipeline if
that's what you're doing so it is a very
powerful tool and I do recommend you get
it once again you can check in my
description for promo code so you can
get a discount with that said I'm done
one I thank you for sticking around with
me and experimenting with me I hope that
you found this video useful click
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let me know how you feel and I'll see
you in the next lesson