XML FeedsI wrote a blog post 437 days ago asking you the reader if you would be interested in a FxCop tool for SQL Server. That post can be found here: SQLCop, FxCop For SQL Server, Would You Be Interested in This?. Today I am pleased to announce that the first version of this tool is available. The tool is free and will remain free, we will never charge for it.
The tool is only 412 kb to download and no installer is needed. The reason we didn't do an add in in SSMS is because we wanted people to be able to run it it by itself. The tool was tested on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 (64 and 32 bit)
A big thanks to George Mastros for coding this tool, you can also thank him on twitter here: http://twitter.com/gmmastros
The tool will not modify any of your database, it will only check and if it finds issues it will list the objects if possible. It will also show you a blog post or wiki article explaining why something is a problem and how to remedy it.
To run the tool you just download it from the download link at the SQLCop homepage here: http://sqlcop.lessthandot.com/index.php
After that you run the tool, you will get the following login screen.
Enter the server name, database name and credentials (or windows authentication)
After that you will see a screen similar to the one on the bottom. From the left side tree menu expand the node that you are interested in. When you click on an item the right part of the screen will show an html page showing you why the issue might be problematic and how to remedy it. Just remember that these issues might not be issues for you, maybe some of these objects are not used anymore but people are scared to drop them because they might break things down the road. So use your best judgement!
Here is a video of the tool in action so that you can see how it works before you install it
More info about this tool can be found here, including where to post questions if you have any problems: http://sqlcop.lessthandot.com/index.php
You can also leave a comment here but we prefer you do it in the SQLCop help forum because the format is better suited for questions and answers
Denis has been working with SQL Server since version 6.5. Although he worked as an ASP/JSP/ColdFusion developer before the dot com bust, he has been working exclusively as a database developer/architect since 2002. In addition to English, Denis is also fluent in Croatian and Dutch, but he can curse in many other languages and dialects (just ask the SQL optimizer) He lives in Princeton, NJ with his wife and three kids.
Did we mention it was free? 
Added the part that it is free 
Works well - thanks for that! I do notice that in multiple places are the words "Stub" instead of "No issues found". 
Hi, thanks for the tool and especially for the explanations about each item and how we can detect by code. 
Looks interesting. But the video is missing audio (tried both IE and Chrome). Also, the download link doesn't work. 
Seems to blow up if you are connecting to a SQL2008 R2 server. Subscript out of range
Came here to report the same issue as Chuck. Crashes when connecting to SQL 2008. 
How is this tool different from Microsoft Best practices analyser? 
Doesn't seem to work on case sensitive databases. In the column name check for example it looks in Information_Schema.Columns where is should be doing a select from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS. 
Thanks for bringing this to our attention Paul. We've already been notified of this problem and we are currently working on a solution. 
Looks like a nice tool. Too bad it requires a DB connection to run. It would be great if it could run against a sql file.
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