News Update(11-November-2004)

More attention for Buddy!

I'm almost ashamed to admit it's been over a year since I last updated this page. Despite this, I'm pleased to say there's been a bit of action in the world of SqlBuddy, and the project is no where near dead.

I've recently been approached by Caz Software (http://www.caz.com.au) who were looking to offer a modified version of SqlBuddy to their customers. Caz Software will be making bug fixes and adding some features to SqlBuddy, all of which will be committed back into the open source code base.

In fact, they have already been busy fixing minor bugs and making small improvements here and there. you can get these by checking out the latest code from CVS. Otherwise, you'll have to wait a month or so before the next release.

Of course, one great benefit of all this is that Caz are a professional commercial software development company, who will be exposing Buddy to a wide range of end users and consequently introducing bug fixes, enhancements and ensuring the stability and longivity of the project. Fantastico!

News Update (02-Oct-2003)

Buddy Lives!

I must appologise for the lack of progress on Buddy recently. THE PROJECT HAS NOT DIED!. Unfortunately summer got the better of me I'm afraid (and Jon, by the looks of things!). I decided to spend more time outside enjoying the sunshine, travelling, enjoying the company of my new gal, learning to drive, you get the idea.... Anyway, if you're really interested in me, which I'm sure you're not, then goto my home page!

PostgreSQL Version

Ahh, another thing that is worth mentioning. I have started looking into a new multi-db version of Buddy, that currently supports Postgres 7.3, SqlServer 2000, and Microsoft Access 2000 (kinda). I haven't made it OpenSource yet becuase I wanted to see if I could get it going. So far it's a faster and leaner the SqlBuddy "original". but there are nowhere near as many features yet.... If anyone is interested in this project let me know, I can happily send out a binary for you to play with. Eventually, I hope it will supercede this Alpha version of Buddy available here.

New Developer On Board

I'd like to welcome Thomas Hansen to the team. Thomas is a strong c# developer from Oslo, who is given some good contributions toward Buddy already!

NEW 0.69 Alpha Released! (28-Sep-2003)

(screenshots, release notes)

We've recently picked up Buddy development again to refine features and iron out some bugs. Admittedly, our new team member Thomas has sparked off a new wave of enthusiasm for myself, so hopefully there will be some more releases soon! This release has focused on further removing SQLDMO dependencies, tidying up annoying bugs, and refining some of the database-specific commands such as Backup/Restore database.

Recent Features include...

• Table Report - Quickly bring printable info about a table
• Tabbed Windows - VS.NET style editor windows
• User Functions - see what user functions are in your databases
• Stop Button - allowing you to stop execution of an SQL statement (finally!)
• System Functions - displayed in database explorer. This is quite handy.
• Sql Editor - We're now using the great editor for SharpDevelop, with good syntax highlighting and nice line numbering.
• Database Explorer - allowing you to navigate the database structure, open tables etc.
• Schema Report - just a taster, but gives a useful HTML report on database schema.
• Connection Profiles - manage your connection preferences in our profiles section.
• Help Pages- We've started the help section. There's only a little at the moment, sorry! ok, but we know it's got a way to go yet.
• VS.NET Style menus - Thanks to Crownwood and their amazing graphics library, we've got some new menus in place. We hope you'll agree their very nice, and don't seem to suffer from the bugs we found in .NET menus.
• Schema Helper - helps you work with the schema as you write SQL statements by suggesting fields for tables, stored procedures and functions.
• Statement History - the developer can keep a history of statements they type in a session. They can use the back button to view previous statements and the results they yeilded
• Schema Inspector - allows the developer to examine the schema he is querying. This will soon show columns for a table, parameters for a procedure, sample data, indexes etc.
• Copy as HTML/XML - Query results can quickly be copied as XML or HTML, to paste into your favourite editors.
• Updateable Grid - developers can chose to edit results in the grid

This is YOUR software!

We want to make SqlBuddy into something good. To do that we need harsh critisism. If you want anything doing on SqlBuddy then please let us know. Please try and think your ideas through before submitting them, and don't be afraid to offer any kind of suggestions. I'm quite happy to hear any of the following:

• Your code smells - you can improve it by doing x,y and z
• SqlBuddy is too slow in xyz area
• SqlBuddy needs an 'xyz' feature
• Can you change feature 'xyz' so that it does 'xyz'

Bring it on!