Recently, we have released new versions of our free SSMS/VS add-ins where we introduced some new features and improved add-ins usability. We’ve also managed to fix some annoying performance and functionality issues reported by our users
Improved SSMS and VS startup performance
We’ve fixed the issues where Visual Studio and/or SQL server Management Studio had long start-up times and/or felt sluggish. Start-up times are significantly improved in the newer versions as demonstrated below:
Host menu integration
As it can be seen from the above image, when installed, our old add-ins, when all installed together, displaced almost all of the free menu bar space. With the integration of all ApexSQL add-ins menus under the unique ApexSQL menu, we managed to fix this
We’ve covered this in our troubleshooting article ApexSQL Add-ins “crowding” menus in SSMS and VS
Fixed performance issues in ApexSQL Complete
After we’ve received some bug reports from our users that ApexSQL Complete has a performance issue when they work with large scripts in SSMS or VS, we’ve focused our efforts to identify this issue. We’ve determined that ApexSQL Complete’s Syntax highlighting feature, responsible for real-time detection of syntax errors in scripts, is the cause of the problem.
Based on our initial analysis, we decided to allow for an option to enable/disable this feature and, additionally, the feature is disabled by default upon the add-in installation. Introducing this option also provided a workaround to the known issue described in Troubleshooting articles Memory usage of SQL Server Management Studio and Visual Studio spikes with ApexSQL Complete and CPU usage spikes while using ApexSQL Complete
New ApexSQL Complete features
The Insert snippet feature allows you to insert a new snippet from a text selection using the context menu directly from the query editor
Now you just have to select the snippet from the hint list and it will be inserted in your script
You can also create a new script using the Create snippet feature. Just select the part of the text you want to create the snippet from and select the Complete create snippet command. In the Create new snippet dialog, just enter the snippet name and description, press OK and your snippet will be saved
The newly introduced variable $SELECTION$ allows the text selected in the query editor to be wrapped with the snippet text in two mouse clicks. Just select the text in your query and insert the snippet with $SELECTION$ variable; snippet will replace your selected text while it will be inserted instead of the $SELECTION$ variable
Known issues fixed in ApexSQL add-ins
In ApexSQL Complete 2013 we’ve fixed 111 known issues
We have identified and corrected 38 false positive errors reported by the Check syntax feature, meaning that the error reporting precision is improved significantly
We’ve also successfully fixed a persistent issue discovered in all three free add-ins and described in the Troubleshooting article Value does not fall within the expected range: MicrosoftVisualStudio.CommandBars
October 3, 2013
