I’m developing a web based thin-client application for the company at the moment that uses MS SQL Server (the free MSDE version) as a backend. It uses MS SQL Server because it’s based on the Time Tracker starter kit from ASP.net. I’m hoping to port the back end to MySQL at some point to get around the hard limit MS have put on the MSDE version of the server, but that’s another issue.
Having battled my way around the net to try and find something useful in administering the SQL Server I had settled on a combination of ASP.net’s Web Matrix and Microsoft SQL Web Data Administrator.
Even combining two tools there was a large area of the general database administration that had to be done by hand using the web admin tool, one of which included adding columns to a table and adding, removing and general tinkering with foreign keys and cascading deletes.
My main problem however was the absolutely dire slowness of the web admin tool, in which I was running all my hand written sql queries. So I looked for a better solution. A better solution that was also free.
At this point I stumbled upon the EMS MS SQL Manager Lite software.
Considering it’s Freeware it has a plethora of powerful features which happily made the web administrator and the web matrix tools obsolete. With a little playing around you can easily find your way to all of the available tools and they deliver instant gratification. In fact, I’ve been using it constantly for about a day and a half now in tandem with Dreamweaver MX for the actual coding and it’s easily trippled my productivity on this project. I’m finding it hard to find fault with it and, considering my extremely cynnical view on most software, that is quite a surprise.
I’m almost tempted to buy the Pro version so I can get the extra features. While not strictly nessecary, they would be quite helpful. I just need to see if I can get my boss to squeeze it into the budget. ;)