Setting Different Colors for Connections in SSMS

  • ssms-man (9/18/2013)


    Hello Peter, I wonder if you have heared about the tool, that I develop: SSMSBoost. I have extensively addressed "connection coloring" topic there:

    (Full description is here: http://www.ssmsboost.com/Features/ssms-add-in-preferred-connections)

    SSMSBoost allows to define colors per database or per whole server and monitors the current connection: as soon as it matches with any pre-defined one, the status bar gets appropriate color.

    Additionally, it is possible to define "Important database alert": as soon as such database becomes active in SQL Editor window(for example live system), there is a tooltip displayed, attracting additional attention.

    I apologize for not including your tool, but I was not aware that it was around. I happen to use Red-Gate's SQL Prompt so came across that and used Mladen's SSMS Tools Pack since it was released to the public. I hadn't kept up my search for additional tools, but will take a look at yours as well.

    -Peter

  • I apologize for not including your tool, but I was not aware that it was around. I happen to use Red-Gate's SQL Prompt so came across that and used Mladen's SSMS Tools Pack since it was released to the public. I hadn't kept up my search for additional tools, but will take a look at yours as well.

    -Peter

    Thank you !

    Connection coloring is not the only feature present in SSMSBoost. I have created an overview about available functionality on the website, hope it provides an easy way to get the first impression without even installing the tool.

  • SSMSBoost looks interesting. I'll have to give it a more thorough look. I appreciate the full-featured community edition, even if you have to reinstall it every 120 days. That seems like a sensible limitation. I'll probably download soon and see how it works for me.

  • Peter Schott (9/18/2013)


    SSMSBoost looks interesting. I'll have to give it a more thorough look. I appreciate the full-featured community edition, even if you have to reinstall it every 120 days. That seems like a sensible limitation. I'll probably download soon and see how it works for me.

    Thanks !

    Yes - 120 days limitation just forces "community" users to use up to date versions ;). There are no other differences to Professional one - that is correct as well.

  • Enjoyed the article, thanks 🙂

  • I did notice that when I went back to the article half of it is missing txtPost_CommentEmoticon(':hehe:');

  • That's not good. I tweaked a little text to resubmit the article, but it shouldn't have deleted anything. Checking now....

  • And submitted a request to the people running the site to see if we can get the article back. The text was there when I submitted the update - I remember checking the whole thing to see if I needed to tweak or add any other comments. No idea why so much is missing.

    Thanks for the heads-up.

    -Peter

  • With a huge thanks to the SSC support team, they were able to recover the original article and adjust it to have the changes I'd made. I'll be a bit more cautious in submitting any corrections this time around.

  • Thank you sir. 😛

  • THIS! One of the best quick tips ever posted here. 🙂

  • I'll add my support for SMSS Boost. We used to use SMSS Tools here, and Boost (IMO) is much better. Tons of features like Fatal Actions Guard - where it warns you about executing actions on certain connections - is a lifesaver. Connection coloring is great, but can become white noise sometimes.

    And the community edition where you reinstall every 120 days is barely an annoyance (doesn't lose any of your settings when reinstalling)

    Kudos to Grasshopper for developing this. It really is a fantastic tool.

  • !!! Be aware that this ONLY works if you open a query window via Registered Servers!!!

    So if you connect to a server/instance through the Object Explorer or when SSMS opens it WON'T work.

    This bug has been there since 2008 and has never been fixed.

    This makes this "feature" very dangerous.

  • Carl Neirynck (3/13/2015)


    !!! Be aware that this ONLY works if you open a query window via Registered Servers!!!

    So if you connect to a server/instance through the Object Explorer or when SSMS opens it WON'T work.

    This bug has been there since 2008 and has never been fixed.

    This makes this "feature" very dangerous.

    Exactly ! Native implementation is dangerous. In SSMSBoost I have fixed it, by constantly tracking current connection and changing the color to pre-configured one (you can pre-define colors per server/ server+db).

    @jamesdavis: Thank you for warm words!

  • Carl Neirynck (3/13/2015)


    !!! Be aware that this ONLY works if you open a query window via Registered Servers!!!

    So if you connect to a server/instance through the Object Explorer or when SSMS opens it WON'T work.

    This bug has been there since 2008 and has never been fixed.

    This makes this "feature" very dangerous.

    Actually, the "feature" needs to be instituted in two places and then it operates as expected at all times. I'll see if I can dredge up the details for how to do that.

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.
    "Change is inevitable... change for the better is not".

    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)
    Intro to Tally Tables and Functions

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