A Review of SQL Refactor

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A Review of SQL Refactor

Dinesh Asanka

SSChampion

Points: 11058
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March 13, 2007 at 9:29 am

#90966

Comments posted here are about the content posted at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/dasanka/2923.asp

My Blog: http://dineshasanka.spaces.live.com/

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Vic Kirkpatrick-173212 SSCommitted Points: 1831 More actions · Answer 1

It's worth every penny. Heck, even just for having every database developers code be readable and in the same format / capitalization, etc.

DavidSimpson Hall of Fame Points: 3562 More actions · Answer 2

I've seen this tool by Red Gate but never really looked into it. Based on your article, I can definitely see some major benefits for using a tool like this. I'm a bit hesitant, though, when a review does not include any down sides to a tool. Seems that every tool I've ever used has some bad points... bugs, weird configuration, or odd way of handling a task. When a review only has good points it tends to sound more like a sales pitch rather then a review. But having never used SQL Refactor, I must concede that it really could be that great of a product.

You listed the single user license at $295 but Red Gates web site now lists it at $195... maybe they read the review and lowered their prices.

Thanks for the information... always good to learn about new products.

David

Donald Desnoyer SSC Journeyman Points: 86 More actions · Answer 3

I've used this tool and I would highly recommend it. Personally, I think Red-Gate makes excellent tools and their SQL Compare Suite has saved me a ton of time sync'g changes between test and production servers.

That being said, I agree with David about the sales pitch. Red-Gate owns SQLServerCentral.com so any "review" of a Red-Gate product could lead to a conflict of interest, regardless of who the reviewer is.

To my friends in the UK at Red-Gate I say: Keep up the excellent work, but avoid reviews of your products on this site.

Don

Dinesh Asanka SSChampion Points: 11058 More actions · Answer 4

Oh yes prices have changed. I wrote this review some times back, arround 2 months.

Downside of this tool, you can go to the red-gate site, there is a forum for this product. most users will put those issues there.

Personnaly, I had some issues earlier. But all of them were solved.

My Blog: http://dineshasanka.spaces.live.com/

Jonathan Watts SSC Rookie Points: 31 More actions · Answer 5

As Dinesh says a lot of SQL Refactor feedback can be found on the SQL Refactor forum.

The main issue we found with SQL Refactor was in relation to its compatibility with SQL Server 2005 SP2. Shortly after the 1.0 release we discovered that SQL Refactor would disable all of its menus if users had installed the CTP of SQL 2005 SP2 on their machines. Due to the severity of this issue we got a patch out there as soon as we could. And a few weeks ago we formally released SQL Refactor 1.1 which fixed a further 20 minor issues that users had been suffering from.

SQL Refactor does have a few limitations: some refactorings don't support cross database dependencies; it cannot rename service broker objects; and it cannot support every SQL style out there. However, we will work towards fixing these problems, adding new features like lowercase keywords in future releases.

SQL Refactor is available as a full 14 day trial. The best way to find out if it is right for you is to try it out. If you have problems or any feedback at all we would love to hear from you, either here, or on the SQL Refactor forum.

Jonathan Watts

Lead Tester for SQL Refactor

Red Gate Software