SQL Examiner Suite 2023 release notes

February 28, 2023

Counting from the first version released in 2005, this is our 10th anniversary major release.

Free upgrade for those who purchased the 2022 version

We have upgraded for free all our customers, who had previously purchased the 2022 version or had a not expired Priority Support and Upgrade Protection subscription as of the release date.

Support Timeframe

SQL Examiner Suite 2023 will be fully supported until the next major release and six months later, or until December 31, 2024, whichever is later. During this period, we guarantee that we will fix any bugs and issues, including possible compatibility issues with any further release of all supported on-premise and cloud databases. Also, we will do regular software updates and improvements.

SQL Examiner Suite 2022 will receive bug-fixes until December 31, 2023. After this date, support for SQL Examiner Suite 2022 will be completely discontinued.

System requirements

See the system requirements for the SQL Examiner Suite 2023 here.

SQL Examiner Suite 2023 highlights

After the major SQL Examiner Suite 2023 release, several feature updates have been added. The features added in the interim versions are listed in SQL Examiner Suite 2023.1 release notes, SQL Examiner Suite 2023.2 release notes, and SQL Examiner Suite 2023.3 release notes.

RDBMS support

As always, the new release adds support for new versions of supported database servers.

See the full list of supported comparison sources →

SQL Server

Added support for new features of SQL Server 2022, released November 16, 2022. We added support for:

Support for these features was not available as of the release date of SQL Examiner Suite 2023 and was added in SQL Examiner Suite 9.1.0.110 on April 17, 2023. See the SQL Examiner Suite 2023 changelog for details.

PostgreSQL

The SQL Examiner Suite 2022 has added support for PostgreSQL 13. Now we are taking it one step further and adding support for new features added in PostgreSQL 14 and 15, including:

  • Multirange types
  • COMPRESSION clause for table columns
  • OUT parameters in stored procedures
  • NULLS NOT DISTINCT clause in unique constraints and indexes
  • BEGIN ATOMIC clause in CREATE FUNCTION and CREATE PROCEDURE statements
  • Scale of a numeric value can be negative, or greater than its precision

In addition, we added support for previously unsupported features of earlier versions of PostgreSQL:

  • RULE objects
  • STORAGE (SET STORAGE in column definition) mode for columns
  • Statistics-gathering target (SET STATISTICS in column definition) for columns
  • Per-attribute options for table columns
  • Extensions. Although SQL Examiner cannot compare and synchronize extensions, the program compares the list of extensions and their versions and warns if source and target databases differ.

Support for PostgreSQL features was not available as of the release date of SQL Examiner Suite 2023 and was added in SQL Examiner Suite 9.2.0.121 on May 31, 2023. For detailed information, see the SQL Examiner Suite 2023 changelog. The last version is available free of charge to all users who already have SQL Examiner Suite 2023.

Oracle

We have supported Oracle 21c in the previous version of SQL Examiner Suite, but the new version adds support for:

  • Native JSON binary data type
  • Blockchain and Immutable Tables
  • Materialized views
  • Synonyms

Support for these features was not available as of the release date of SQL Examiner Suite 2023 and was added in SQL Examiner Suite 9.3.0.131 on July 17, 2023. For detailed information, see the SQL Examiner Suite 2023 changelog. The last version is available free of charge to all users who already have SQL Examiner Suite 2023.

Cross-platform schema comparison enhancements

The SQL Examiner already includes a limited ability of cross-platform schema comparison and synchronization of supported databases. I.e. SQL Server and Oracle, Oracle and PostgreSQL and so on. Previously, synchronization capabilities were limited primarily by the structure of tables. In the new version, we have added the ability to compare and synchronize views in cross-platform comparisons.

sqle-cross-plattform-view-comparison.png

Reworked error handling when synchronizing data

sqlde-synchronization-error-handling.png

In previous versions of SQL Data Examiner, if an error occurred during the synchronization, the program allowed either to rollback all the changes made, or not to rollback anything. In the new version, we have improved this mechanism and now the program:

  • Allows you to control the behavior when an error occurs: abort synchronization, go to the next table, or completely ignore the error. There previously was no option to skip the current table and go to the next one.
  • Allows you to manage the rollback of already migrated data in case of an error: roll back all changes, roll back changes only in the current table (during synchronization of which an error occurred), do not roll back the changes made at all.
  • Applies these settings independently, i.e. you can, for example, set up synchronization in such a way that all tables that can be transferred without errors are transferred, but if an error occurs during the data transfer, the target table will be returned to its original state.
  • Warns in advance if some changes cannot be rolled back on error (for example, when Use Bulk Load option is enabled)

In addition, now, when the SQL Data Examiner rolls back changes to a target database, the program additionally drops tables created during the synchronization process, drops target database if it was created during the synchronization, and so on.

Reworked data synchronization UI

We have improved the user interface of the synchronization process (both in the GUI and CLI versions) in order to make the process more visual.

sqlde-data-synchronization-ui-log.png

Transaction isolation level

Previously, when synchronizing data, the program did not allow you to specify the required TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL, but used the default (READ COMMITTED for SQL Server, Oracle and PostgreSQL; REPEATABLE READ for MySQL).

This worked well in most cases, but sometimes it is acceptable to specify a less strict TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL to speed up synchronization. We have added this feature in the new version.

sqlde-transaction-isolation-level.png

Speed up report generation

In the new SQL Data Examiner version, we have significantly speed up the creation of a difference report after comparing data, which is especially noticeable in the case of large amounts of data.

Git over SSH

Implemented the ability to connect to Git (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket etc.) via SSH without specifying a password.

UI improvements

Preparing for the release of the SQL Examiner Suite 2023, we began to refine the user interface to make it more convenient and more consistent. Above we mentioned the improvements to the data synchronization wizard that were made as part of this.

In addition, in the new version:

  • Added the ability to specify an arbitrary connection string when connecting to any supported database server. This allows, if necessary, to configure some fine connection settings that are not available in the GUI.
  • Streamlined the process of exporting data to CSV and scripting (i.e. exporting data as a sequence of INSERTs) data. Now it is not required to "compare" a source database from which you want to export data with an empty database beforehand.
  • Added an ability to filter records in the Different Records list and display only those which have differences in specified columns.

This work does not end with the release of the new version, we will continue it throughout 2023 with new software updates.

See the SQL Examiner Suite 2023 changelog for upcoming updates.

  • Product:  SQL Examiner, SQL Data Examiner
  • Edition:  All
  • Version:  2023
  • Published:  2023-01-31
  • Last Updated:  2023-07-18

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