User profile for Dan J Archer

I've been granting free time extensions to those who've private messaged me. If you'd like one, please feel free to do so. All the best, Dan / comments

I've been granting free time extensions to those who've private messaged me. If you'd like one, please feel free to do so. All the best, Dan

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Hello all, Some good points well made there. If any of our beta users would like to extend their trial, please private message me on this board and I will reply to arrange this for you. Regards, Dan Dan J Archer SQL Dependency Tracker Project Lead Red Gate Software / comments

Hello all, Some good points well made there. If any of our beta users would like to extend their trial, please private message me on this board and I will reply to arrange this for you. Regards, Da...

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Dear dwainew, Thanks for your feedback. May I ask if you think the beta should have no time limit? If so, given that Red Gate betas generally support quite a significant amount of functionality, what would be the driving incentive to buy the full version when it comes out? If you have any suggestions in this arena I'll see that they're considered for future betas with which I'm involved. Regards, Dan Dan J Archer SQL Dependency Tracker Project Lead / comments

Dear dwainew, Thanks for your feedback. May I ask if you think the beta should have no time limit? If so, given that Red Gate betas generally support quite a significant amount of functionality, wh...

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Dear carlao, Thanks for those, very useful reports. To your point 1, SQL Dependency Tracker does attempt to find all your SQL servers by the same diverse means as used in eg. SQL Compare and SQL Data Compare v5. If you use those products, could you let me know if you can see servers in those but not in SQL Dependency Tracker? Regarding the odd label text, this has now been fixed thanks to your bringing it up. We now display a caption of "Searching..." whilst the preparation stage is in place. Normally this stage executes so quickly that the label's internal name wouldn't have been displayed, but obviously under some conditions it could end up that way. Thanks for the report. Regarding the background, I've taken a note and if we have time we'll add an option to hide the grid background. The layout issue is rather interesting. When you create a new project, do the objects initially get laid out in a sensible fashion, or do they just end up eg. in the top left corner? Could you also check that the Visual J# runtime is still installed (under Add/Remove Programs); if this is removed post install the layout will not function. All the best, Dan Dan J Archer SQL Dependency Viewer Project Lead / comments

Dear carlao, Thanks for those, very useful reports. To your point 1, SQL Dependency Tracker does attempt to find all your SQL servers by the same diverse means as used in eg. SQL Compare and SQL Da...

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Dear lfagetti, Thanks for those. They're all good suggestions. I'm afraid SQL Dependency Tracker 2.0 won't include support for automation, a command line or an API. But, as they saying goes, never say never... The user can register additional databases in the Add Objects to Project dialog (by selecting "Add instance" at the end of the list). You may have found this already of course. Regarding your last point, this dialog has been the matter of much internal design and debate, and it may well get another revision before we release. I can't promise anything though. Thanks again, and all the best, Dan / comments

Dear lfagetti, Thanks for those. They're all good suggestions. I'm afraid SQL Dependency Tracker 2.0 won't include support for automation, a command line or an API. But, as they saying goes, never ...

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In the final version you can right click any object and, if we have it, view the source SQL. For SQL2005 SPs using strong encryption, and for SPs in .NET assemblies, this won't show you much. However, in other cases you should be able to see the declaration and indeed source code. Hope this helps, Cheers, Dan / comments

In the final version you can right click any object and, if we have it, view the source SQL. For SQL2005 SPs using strong encryption, and for SPs in .NET assemblies, this won't show you much. Howev...

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Hi PDinCA, The line-and-blob (no, we don't have a better term internally either) is used to indicate that the object in question has dependcies which are not on the diagram. Objects which have such can be right clicked and then you can generally select eg. "Add->Objects the selection Uses". It is rather like the UML interface symbol isn't it? Our internal usability trials have already suggested that this could use a revision, which we'll do if we have time before release. Hope that's of help. Cheers, Dan / comments

Hi PDinCA, The line-and-blob (no, we don't have a better term internally either) is used to indicate that the object in question has dependcies which are not on the diagram. Objects which have such...

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Just a quick update: after looking into these memory issues, we're pretty sure we've traced the problem to the Orthogonal layout. With large graphs (more than a few hundred objects), Orthogonal's memory consumption gets disproportionately vast. Also Orthogonal isn't much use for very large graphs; as can be seen from one of the screenshots on this forum, there's so much connection routing going on and a few pinprick clusters of nodes. So for the final release we're only enabling Orthogonal layout for graphs of 500 objects or less. This is a bit of a workaround, but should avoid anyone suddenly losing a gig of memory for no readily apparent reason. Thanks for the feedback, this one was a good one to track down. Cheers, Dan / comments

Just a quick update: after looking into these memory issues, we're pretty sure we've traced the problem to the Orthogonal layout. With large graphs (more than a few hundred objects), Orthogonal's m...

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Dear PDinCA, Thanks for your feedback, and for giving such detailed object counts. If I understand correctly, your database has ~1643 objects, all of which were on the diagram. If you use SQL Compare, can I ask what the memory usage typically is in that application for the same database? Some of the performance problems you've had will be gone for the final release. The beta has known issues working with a large number of selected objects. This has already been fixed for the final release. Performance wise, the application is intended to perform well with up to 500 objects on the diagram at one time. It has no hard limit, but isn't optimised for thousands of objects on the diagram. If your system can take it, then no problem, but some systems won't be able to. As alphadog mentions, for impact analysis the best approach is to start with a small number of objects and add to the diagram as required, rather than starting with the entire database on the diagram and then remove objects which aren't required. Sadly we have limited time available to work on SQL Dependency Tracker, and as such some features didn't make the cut. Printing was one of those. The primary output envisaged from SQL Dependency Tracker is the diagram, though we do support XML reporting. The diagram is anticipated to be used eg. word processors or presentation applications for illustrations, and so printing wasn't high on our feature list, as those applications already provide it. But with enough demand, a future version of SQL Dependency Tracker may support such features. Also our users are already finding rather cunning solutions of their own (such as pasting into Excel, which seems good at printing large metafiles). I'm afraid there won't be a CTP version of SQL Dependency Tracker. The next version we release will be the 2.0 final release. Thanks and all the best, Dan Dan J Archer SQL Dependency Tracker Project Lead / comments

Dear PDinCA, Thanks for your feedback, and for giving such detailed object counts. If I understand correctly, your database has ~1643 objects, all of which were on the diagram. If you use SQL Compa...

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Hmm, that does make SQL Dependency Tracker look like a bit of a memory hog doesn't it! I'll ask someone to investigate this. No promises as that size of diagram is beyond the intended scope of this release, but that does seem just a tad OTT... Re Excel, yes that one surprised the heck out of me too. Credit to sonrisante for finding that one ( http://www.red-gate.com/messageboard/vi ... php?t=2088 ) As far as a release date goes, you should be seeing the full version of SQL Dependency Tracker before the end of May - sorry I can't be more precise. I'll post a more concrete date as soon as I have one. Cheers, Dan / comments

Hmm, that does make SQL Dependency Tracker look like a bit of a memory hog doesn't it! I'll ask someone to investigate this. No promises as that size of diagram is beyond the intended scope of this...

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Dan J Archer

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