Data Tools (SSDT)

Esat Erkec

SQL Unit Testing with SSDT (SQL Server Data Tools)

February 12, 2019 by

In this article, we will discuss the essentials of the SQL unit testing and then we will explore how to apply SQL unit testing methodology in Azure SQL Database with help of SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). In particular, this article will focus about unit test theory in terms of SQL Server database development aspect and illustrate SQL unit testing with a detailed example.

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Sifiso Ndlovu

The evolution of SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) for Business Intelligence development

March 9, 2017 by

By all accounts, the introduction of SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) in SQL Server 2012 was a watershed moment for many SQL Server developers. For better or for worse, SSDT as an IDE for business intelligence development changed – amongst other things – the way we deployed our SSIS packages (i.e. package vs project deployments), simplified Tabular Model development, and also introduced us to the SSISDB. Likewise the replacement of Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) with SSDT had its detractors who were noticeably not very happy that in addition to installing SQL Server 2012 you still had to do a separate download and installation of BI templates for SSDT (previously, BI templates in BIDS were available as soon as you installed SQL Server 2005/2008). Although SSDT-BI is still being offered as a separate installation, subsequent releases of SSDT have included several enhancements changes that should go a long way to winning the hearts of its critics. In this article we conduct a comparative analysis of all versions (up until 16.5) of SSDT and identify all the major improvements that have been introduced in the BI templates.

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Steve Simon

Reporting in SQL Server – Combine three reports into one using SQL Server Data Tools

August 4, 2016 by

Introduction

In our last “fireside chat” we discussed a few of the challenges that the HR Manager of a major hardware chain was experiencing. Mary Smith, the HR manager has since approached us to modify her existing reports to function more efficiently and effectively by utilizing her existing data, yet reduce the total number of reports.

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Régis Baccaro

Continuous Deployment using SQL Server Data Tools and Visual Studio Online

February 2, 2015 by

In the previous posts

Deployment to several databases using SQL Server Data Tools and TFS using a Custom Workflow file
Deployment to several databases using SQL Server Data Tools and Team foundation Server
Continuous integration with SQL Server Data Tools and Team Foundation Server

I have been mostly writing about the interaction between SQL Server Data Tools and Team Foundation Server. Microsoft provides a hosted version of Team Foundation Build Service called Visual Studio Online. The configuration and functionality is mostly the same than what I have previously been writing about but there are some specifics things that we need to be aware when using Visual Studio Online Build Service.

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Régis Baccaro

Deployment to several databases using SQL Server Data Tools and TFS using a Custom Workflow file

January 16, 2015 by

In the previous blog post : Deployment to several databases using SQL Server Data Tools and Team foundation Server I illustrated how it is possible to use TFS and a batch file to deploy a database to several SQL Server instances or to deploy several SQL Server databases to several instances. The main way to achieve that in the previous post was using a batch file. For more information about this technique please have a look at that blog post.

In this post on the other hand I will demonstrate how the same functionality can be achieved using a Windows Workflow Foundation file (xaml) deployment file and Team Foundation Server.

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Steve Simon

How to reduce the report complexity using the “Visibility” options in SQL Server Data Tools

December 11, 2014 by

Introduction

Far too often we encounter clients that are really too keen to establish all inclusive reports for decision making purposes. While this is super (in principle) oft times these folks will inform you that all the data that is within the tables should be present within the report, and this is not always feasible nor practical.

After much thought I came up with an alternative to permit these folks to have their ‘cake and eat it’ and yet not render a cluttered report.

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Régis Baccaro

Automating database tests with Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server

October 31, 2014 by

This is the third post in the series about database development and testing using SQL Server Data Tools and Team Foundation Server.

Post 1: Continuous Integration with SSDT and TFS

Post 2: Unit testing with SQL Server Data Tools

You can run test in Visual Studio to test the quality of your build. In VS 2012 and 2013 there are 5 kind of tests that are available for the user Read more »

Evan Barke

SQL Server Business Intelligence Features – SQL Server Data Tools – Business Intelligence

April 30, 2014 by

Introduction

In our previous article on the introduction to SQL Server business intelligence we covered the general structure of an enterprise business intelligence solution. The tools needed to build these solutions were briefly mentioned. The purpose of this article is to provide you with a deeper understanding into the creation of an ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) dataflow. To do this one needs to use SQL Server Data Tools – Business Intelligence (previously known as BIDS or Business Intelligence Development Studio). In this article we’ll take a look at the basic functionality of SQL Server Data Tools and how to use it to keep your data warehouse up to date. It’s worth noting that there are many different ways to go about building your ETL solution. This article gives sound advice and pointers as to how to approach the problem. Read more »