Working with Azure Data Studio — Part 1
Azure Data Studio is a platform tool that can be used across different databases by data professionals on premises and on cloud data platforms.
I currently use Azure Data Studio to edit and execute SQL queries. I am enabling easy switching between Python (notebooks), on-premises, and cloud databases. I enjoyed the flexibility
If you search for "Azure Data Studio," you should end up at this link:
The download link has a series of installers. You can choose installers for all the platforms, in a series of formats. I picked the Windows installer
When you start the installer, you get a standard setup wizard. Here’s what you see, but these are all really next, next, next dialogs.
Running the Program
When you start Azure Data Studio, it opens with a large pane and a connection dialog. Before I can do anything, I need to connect.
I need to provide details, as expected, but I can optionally group my connections by name. This is like the registered servers grouping I can do in SSMS.
There are 3 types of authentication available:
1. Windows Authentication: Windows authentication is the default and is often referred to as "integrated security" because this SQL Server security model is tightly integrated with Windows.
2. SQL Login: SQL Server stores both the username and a hash of the password in the master database, and uses internal authentication methods to verify login attempts.
3. Azure Active Directory — Universal with MFA support — multi-factor authentication is a process in which users are prompted during the sign-in process for an additional form of identification, such as a code on their cell phone or a fingerprint scan
Here I’ve filled out some details using a sandbox and given my connection a nickname for quick connections in the future.
Once I click Connect, I get a dashboard when ADS makes a connection. Briefly, I can see a few things. This is the “Manage” widget that Microsoft provides. You can make your own if you like.
There are some mappings for keyboards, and CTRL+N (of File | New Query) gets me a query window. Some basic intelligence is here.
It’s no SQL Prompt, which I miss when I use this tool.
CTRL+E doesn’t work, so I need to click the arrow to run the query. That’s OK, but it’s not ideal. Fortunately, there’s an extension to help here.
The results are slightly odd for me, since I’ve used SSMS for so long, but they work fine.
There is a column of icons on the left, the top of which is my list of server connections. If I click this, I see the list on the left side.
There’s lots more to do here, and you should experiment with this if you want a lightweight query tool. I’ll do a bit more work here, and see what I think, but I’m not sold on this for now as any sort of replacement for SSMS. I don’t know if MS will go that route, but for now, this still feels bare bones.
