SpurData Blog

Have you ever been troubled by how terrible the "Import from Access" tools are in SQL Server? I can't even remember specifically how bad they are, I just remember the pain I felt the couple of times I tried. So I don't do it that way any more. I now just use this great tool from BullZip: Access to MSSQL. It works like you would expect, which is awesome. http://bullzip.com/products/a2s/info.php BullZip is one of my favorite companies because, like RedGate, they make simple tools that do their job well. Their PDF Printer goes on every machine I touch. It just works. Hope that helps, have a nice day.

I am a huge huge fan of Red Gate's SQL Source Control  and use it every day at work. On my side projects though I can't necessarily justify the $400 price tag (yet). So in the mean time, I am using the following somewhat painful process to source control my scripts against TFS. (Microsoft now has a hosted " Team Foundation Service " where you can host your code for free.) The current solution uses Visual Studio 2010, SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Management Studio, and WinMerge. Here's the process: Initial Load: In your TFS working folder, add a "DB" folder. For me this sits next to my Visual Studio Solution folder. Add the DB folder to Source Control. In SSMS, right-click on your database, choose Tasks > Generate Scripts and script out the entire database into your new DB folder. I create a file for each object. In Source Control, check all that in. You now have your database under version control, kinda. Add an additional sibling folder called DBC...