Solution Explorer in SQL Server Management Studio

Solution Explorer in SQL Server Management Studio

• Lorenzom

  I've filed a defect report for this issue.
  
  Since SSMS projects aren't usable for you, you might consider using Visual Studio to manage your script projects. VS provides SQL editing and execution as well as source code control integration.  You could also use the VSS UI directly to maintain source code control. 
  
  

• Ankur Goel

  Jasper,
  
  Thanks for the tip. I already had tried it before the orginal post.
  
  I wish I had the time to modify it as it doesn't quite work for us:

  • It doesn't sort "Miscellaneous". We originally dumped our procs via Enterprise Manager which has a nice way of putting a type specific file extention (i.e. "prc" for proc, "udf" for user defined function). Now I gues MS has does away with all of that and the only thing that counts as a "Query" is the "SQL" extention.  Needlesstosay all of our stuff is under "Miscellaneous".
  • I have to checkout each project file in the solution in order for your solution to work. That's a real pain as often as I'd want to sort.  I've had to use projects to organize my work since you cannot create your own folders. That means I have a lot of projects.
  • This get's really messy in a multiple developer environment with having to check out the project file and all to do the sort. We've already gotten VSS/SSMS goofed up with multiple checkouts on the same project.

  I do approciate how quickly you put together you solution and made it available to everyone.  I just wish someone at MS with some common sense would have done a review of how SSMS handles solutions and projects. It's pretty obvoius that they are usless for any serious projects (where there's more than one developer involved). If only I had the time to have been part of the Beta...

  
  

• Peca55

  Sorry it's not much use to you, it is very much a hack and the real solution is for MS to add the functionality directly into SSMS. Hopefully in SP1
  Having said that, it wouldn't take much to sort the Miscellaneous folder as well but I can't see a way around the reload of the projects because SSMS detects the change to the project xml file.
  

  
  
  

• philippel

  Sorting SQL Project Files in SQL Server Management Studio
  http://www.sqldbatips.com/showarticle.asp ID=78
  
  Full source code is also available on the site if you want to alter the behaviour of it.
  
  

• Ajao

  Ken,

  I saw somebody posted some sort of hack to your message, but I couldn't see it. I'm pretty frustrated by the same problem, since I have a number of projects in my solution which have over 1000 files, so I badly need them sorted. Basically I remove all the files from the project periodically and add them (plus the new ones) back in. It only takes a minute or two.

  In case that's not clear,

  1) Select all the files in the project and choose Edit|Remove

  2) Project Add Existing Item and select all the files again from disk. After it tries to open the first few (10 ) where you press Cancel it churns along quite happily.

  They're now all sorted EXCEPT for the last one, which appears as the first one, an interesting feature.

  Dunno if this is any help. I guess you probably worked this out for yourself but decided it was too horrible.

  John

  
  

• Joltan

  Projects are not available in Management Studio Express.
  
  

• jandizon

  Steven,
  
  I am using SQL Server Management Studio Express Edition. I was going through the Books Online where they have referred to "Solution Explorer". But i am unable to find the option File > New > Project. Is there anything i need to install further such as Visual Studio for me to create Projects and see "Solution Explorer"
  
  Please let me know if i need to download and if its available as a free download or express edition.
  
  Thanks for your time.
  
  Regards,
  Vikram
  

• Josh K

  Steven,
  
  Thanks for the response & consideration. 
  
  While they are "under the hood" they might also consider adding the ability to add folders under a project and allow us to organize our work like we can in VS. Currently you have to create a new project in the SSMS solution if you want to organize your procs, etc.  In a perfect world the SSMS solution and the VS solution should be compatible so that you can go back & forth between the two tools and not have to maintain two different solutions. -- Scratch that: in a perfect world all of the features of SSMS would be rolled into VS.
  
  A couple of reasons why I don't want to use VS for managing projects (et al):
  
  1. VS's server explorer does not support drag & drop of schema.  SSMS does. The SQL builders in VS are not helpful for seasoned programmers and are not a substitute. 
  2. No context sensitive TSQL help in VS. Highlight TSQL language in a proc in SSMS and hit F1 and you get the syntax from books-on-line.  Do the same in VS and you get "how to use the text editor".  I guess the folks that did help didn't get the memo that SQL developers were supposed to get the same level of support in VS 2005 as other languages. That's probably also why TSQL isn't included in Help's language filter.
  3. Cannot script procs and other schema in VS.  I use SSMS's scripting capabilities a lot (right-click on a proc | script xxx to ...) VS doesn't have this feature.
  4. No admin tools for SQL Server in VS. I realize that VS is not a management tool for SQL server (nor IIS, MTS, etc.) but as a developer I find myself always reaching over the wall to do some admin releated work on the SQL server. It would be great if I didn't have to go to another tool to do it. #3 is realted to this fact.
  
  I do use VS for debugging since SSMS doesn't support debugging (let's see, we'll give them solutions & projects in SSMS but we'll hold back on making it a full-fledge development environment by witholding a debugger....)
  
  It just kills me that it appears MS's answer to their goal of making VS an environment for SQL developers equal to their language counterparts really "Nets" out to be "hey let's just add the CLR to SQL so they can use VS & all of our existing .NET stuff for development and then we don't have to add any compelling support for native TSQL development."
  
  Don't get me wrong -- I love SSMS over Query Anyalizer + Enterprise Manager. SSMS is a good tool; just short a few things from being a great tool (i.e. debugging and real solution management).
  
  Thanks again for your response.

  
  
• Solution Explorer in SQL Server Management Studio