What’s new in ApexSQL Data Diff 2013

ApexSQL Data Diff 2013 is being prepared for release. In this article, we will describe some enhancements, changes, and fixes

Windows Azure SQL Server

ApexSQL Data Diff 2013 will be able to compare and synchronize Windows Azure SQL Server databases. In the Datasource parameters for Windows Azure SQL Server (server and database names, user and password could be set the same way as for live database datasource):

‘Check for Row existence with IF NOT EXIST before INSERT’ option

A new option ‘Check for Row existence with IF NOT EXIST before INSERT’ has been added. It adds a check for row existence before an INSERT is implemented which ApexSQL Data Diff helps to avoid errors, if a row with the same key already exists in the table

Example:
In the synchronization script for inserting row into table [Person].[ContactType] with key ContactTypeID ApexSQL Data Diff will add the following check for row existence:

IF NOT (EXISTS(SELECT * FROM [Person].[ContactType] WHERE [ContactTypeID]=1))
INSERT INTO [Person].[ContactType] ([ContactTypeID], [Name], [ModifiedDate]) 
VALUES (1, N'Accounting Manager', '19980601 00:00:00.000')

Community, Developer and Professional versions

ApexSQL Data Diff 2013 now has three versions – Community, Developer, and Professional

The Professional version supports all features of the product

The Developer version has the following limitations:

• Backup datasources are not supported
• Command line interface (CLI) is not supported
• Additional scripts functionality is not supported for execution of synchronization script

The free Community version has the same limitations as the Developer version, but can be used only for comparison and synchronization of Windows Azure SQL Server and SQL Server Express databases

The product version is indicated in the lower right corner of the Main form and in the About form:

Fixes

In ApexSQL Data Diff 2013 we’ve fixed a variety of defects including the following:

1. In some cases after synchronization or refreshing grid the difference grid becomes unresponsive and has red ‘x’. Also ‘System.NullReferenceException’ is encountered
2. ‘The ALTER TABLE statement conflicted with the FOREIGN KEY constraint’ error is generated while synchronization if table with data is synchronized and it has references to another table (which is unchecked for sync) and ‘Disable foreign keys and triggers’ option is ON
3. Fixed error when HTML report contains incorrect ‘Rows equal’ and ‘Rows not equal’ values
4. In the previous version the “System.ArgumentException – Unknown TypeCode value” error may be encountered after generating synchronization script