SQL Server Data Tools 16.3 Release

The SQL Server Data Tools team is pleased to announce an update for SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) is now available. The SSDT 16.3 release introduces new Tabular Model Explorer, enhancements for Always Encrypted experience with new key management dialogs and various bug fixes.

Get it here: Download SSDT GA 16.3 for Visual Studio 2015 and Visual Studio 2013

This release will be available through Visual Studio Extensions and Updates notification soon.

Download Data-Tier Application Framework (August 2016)

  • The version number is 13.0.3411.1
  • Note: from next month this will use the same version number as SSDT, in this release it is still tagged as August 2016.

What’s new in SSDT?

Release Versioning & Numbering

Releases are now tagged numerically rather than by month. This aligns with the new SSMS policy and simplifies cases where we have multiple releases or hotfixes in a month. This release is 16.3 which means the third update after RTM release. Any hotfix will be 16.3.1 and so on, with our next update (planned for next month) being 16.4.

Analysis Services - Tabular Model Explorer

Tabular Model Explorer lets you conveniently navigate through the various metadata objects in a model, such as data sources, tables, measures, and relationships. It is implemented as a separate tools window that you can display by opening the View menu in Visual Studio, pointing to Other Windows, and then clicking Tabular Model Explorer. The Tabular Model Explorer appears by default in the Solution Explorer area on a separate tab. Tabular Model Explorer organizes the metadata objects in a tree structure that closely resembles the schema of a tabular 1200 model and many more new features. Try the new Tabular Model Explorer in SSDT August update today!

Database Tools - Always Encrypted easy provisioning for Column Master Key and Column Encryption Key Always Encrypted is a highly anticipated security feature in Azure SQL Database and SQL Server 2016. Always Encrypted allows clients to encrypt sensitive data inside client applications and never reveal the encryption keys to the Database Engine (SQL Database or SQL Server), significantly enhancing security.

What's in this release

This release provides new Always Encrypted Key management dialogs to easily add Column Master Key or Column Encryption Key to your database project or a live database in SQL Server Object Explorer. This release supports certificates in Windows Certificate Store. In the upcoming releases, Azure Key Vault and CNG Providers will be supported.

Limitations:

  • While creating Column Master Key or Column Encryption Key, you may experience that the changes are not reflected on SQL Server Object Explorer immediately after clicking Update Database. To workaround, refresh the database node in SQL Server Object Explorer.

  • If you try to encrypt a column in a table with data from SQL Server Object Explorer, you may experience a failure. This feature is currently supported only in SSDT database project and SSMS. The support for SQL Server Object Explorer will be enabled in a later release.

Fixed / Improved this month

Database Tools

SSDT: Connect bug 1898001 Fixed a column description issue with 128 character limitation
SSDT: Fixed an issue where publishing a database from VS did not apply DatabaseServiceObjective property in the publish profile xml
SSDT: Connect bug 2900167 Fixed a unit test issue for incorrectly leaving temp files
SSDT: Fixed an issue where Retention Period combo box on Database Settings is truncated
SSDT: Fixed an issue for the missing verification of empty old password on SQL CLR project properties while changing the password
DACFx: Fixed an issue about DACFx compatibility level is not updated for SqlAzureV12 error
DACFx: Fixed an issue where IsAutoGeneratedHistoryTable property is incorrectly excluded from model comparison

Analysis Services & Reporting Services

SSDT: Fixed an issue that Tabular model cannot be saved when the server connection is lost
SSDT: Fixed an issue that SSDT becomes unresponsive due to a possible infinite loop issue in AS
SSDT: Fixed a DAX expression issue that caused inconsistent behaviors based on how you commit the expression
SSDT: Fixed a VS crash issue when creating KPIs
SSDT: Fixed an issue that generated invalid reports for SQL Server 2008 R2, 2012 and 2014
SSDT: Fixed a Hierarchy order issue that caused an infinite loop error for .dwpro project
SSDT: Fixed a RS RDL issue where downgrading RDL required a full rebuild which caused user's confusion
SSDT: Fixed a KPI issue where Hide From Client Tools had no effect

Tip

To prevent an accidental data loss, deployment that requires data motion on a table with Row Level Security is blocked by default. To override the default behavior, use  SqlPackage.exe with option /p:AllowUnsafeRowLevelSecurityDataMovement=true.

Contact us:

If you have any question or feedback, please ping @sqldatatools on twitter, visit our forum and for bugs please create bug reports on our Microsoft Connect page. We are fully committed to improve the SSDT experience and look forward to hearing from you!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 16, 2016
    Hi Eric,The UI bug whereby the screen jumps around when selecting objects on packages that are larger than the viewing area is still present. This was mentioned in the comments on the last update as well and makes it unusable for any large package.Is there a fix planned / coming for this?
  • Anonymous
    August 17, 2016
    Hi Eric, Just to mention that the Run64BitRuntime SSIS configuration property still isn't persisting across reloading the solution. Also would you consider writing a blog on how we can reduce SSIS memory usage within VS? We have a package which cannot be completely run in VS because devenv memory usage rises to over 2.something gigs and VS crashes with an OOM. We have to run the package in parts, but that is less than ideal. Plus, is there any roadmap of planned enhancements to SSIS?
  • Anonymous
    August 17, 2016
    Please please please please tell us when you will finally address the IGNORECOLUMNORDER feature request...?Some people call it a bug... however lot of people are timed out using ssdt deployment because it's not able to ignore table's column order.See:https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/Feedback/Details/1221587https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/de-DE/edb3abc9-e221-4e5b-b4af-c958dbe1c330/schema-comparisons-ignore-column-order?forum=ssdt&prof=required
    • Anonymous
      September 06, 2016
    • 1 for this.
    • Anonymous
      September 16, 2016
      +500 for this. The inability to ignore column order is a huge problem. DBA resources are now required for simple schema changes to prevent hours of downtime instead of no downtime because the scripts being generated can't be used.
  • Anonymous
    August 17, 2016
    I totally agree with you Lawrage.That's the huge problem for me for a while , So annoying!!!
  • Anonymous
    August 21, 2016
    Is the html 5 format planned for the LocalReport? That would be awesome.
  • Anonymous
    September 06, 2016
    When do you think the community will be able to see the backlog? It would be great if we can vote on what feel is most important.
  • Anonymous
    September 13, 2016
    The link still takes me to the July release page?
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