Yesterday, I noticed on Twitter that the SQL Azure - Project “Houston” CTP 1 has been released online. For those who do not know Houston, this is a lightweight and easy to use database management tool for SQL Azure databases built in Silverlight. Translation: you can now easily manage your SQL Azure database using any browser. It’s not a replacement for SSMS, but it’s a viable, quick solution into connecting to your cloudy database.
A quick look around
After connecting to your SQL Azure database through http://manage.sqlazurelabs.com, you’ll see a quick overview of your database elements (tables, views, stored procedures) as well as a fancy, three-dimensional cube displaying your database details.
Let’s create a new table… After clicking the “New table” toolbar item on top, a simple table designer pops up:
You can now easily design a table (in a limited fashion), click the “Save” button and go enter some data:
Stored procedures? Those are also supported:
Even running stored procedures:
Conclusion
As you can probably see from the screenshots, project “Houston” is currently quite limited. Basic operations are supported, but for example dropping a table should be done using a custom, hand-crafted query instead of a simple box.
What I would love to see is that the tool gets a bit more of the basic database operations and a Windows Phone 7 port? That would allow me to quickly do some trivial SQL Azure tasks both from my browser as well as from my (future :-)) smartphone.