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MssqlMerge logo for SQL Server
aka MssqlMerge
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Object list tab

  • Opened from: Home tab
  • Applicable tab-specific toolbar actions:
    • Refresh information from database. Also updates information about the current object type on the Home tab.
    • Export to Excel
    • Copy selection to clipboard
    • Show all, new and changed, new, changed objects
    • Jump to the next, previous change
    • Select all, none, invert selection on the left, all, none, invert selection on the right side
    • Merge left selected objects to the right side, right selected objects to the left side
    • Delete selected objects on the right side, selected objects on the right side
  • Applicable object types: all

This tab lists all objects of some particular type - tables, views, etc. Allows to identify whether some object is new, changed or unchanged. Note that for tables and views it does not provide information about data/content changes, only about object definitions (like changed column data type for tables or changed select statement for views).

for SQL Server, object list tab

For most object types each side has only 3 columns: Name, Created and Modified. In this case the Name column has a hyperlink that opens text diff tab with object definition. There are two exclusions for the Pro version: 'Table definitions' object type opens table structure diff tab and 'Views' object type opens view definition diff tab. Object name cell can also contain some additional action buttons for tables and views:

  • opens text diff with SQL script for the given table
  • opens text diff with SQL script for the given view
  • opens query result diff with select top 1000 records statement for the given table/view
  • opens data diff for the given table/view
  • opens data diff for the given table/view filtered only to new and changed records

Vertical toolbar between two panels contains additional tab-specific actions:

  • Replace selected on the right with selected on the left
  • Replace selected on the left with selected on the right
  • Compare two selected objects
  • Show table DL (foreign key dependency level) toggle makes visible DL column for tables. This value may help to understand the order of tables in the table merge script generated by the application. See Table DL for more information.
  • Show text preview in the bottom

When bottom text preview is active, it contains two more actions:

  • Show text preview line totals
  • Show text preview selected line

At the top of the object list it shows changes summary for each side: total count of objects, new, changed and new+changed count. It also shows the number of selected records.

Also the top panel has a small quick filter button that allows to filter object list by name. This can be very convenient for large object lists. This action is also available with Alt+F keyboard shortcut.

Each object name has a selection checkbox nearby - so you can select the object with the mouse or with the Space button from the keyboard and do some further actions with the selected object - merge, delete, etc. Merge, Delete and Replace actions may have some limitations:

  • If on Home tab object type was marked as MERGE NEW ONLY then replace action is not available and merge action is allowed only for new objects
  • Replace is available only for Views, Stored procedures, Functions and Triggers

Once you have selected number of rows and clicked merge, replace or delete toolbar button, it will show you the Execute script dialog that will contain SQL script with desired action, so you can review it before apply:

for SQL Server, execute merge script dialog

At the bottom panel it shows information about selected object - either object name with create/update date/time or text preview. Note that bottom text preview is currently available for all object types except indexes.

Some object types have different columns in the Object list (other than Name, Created and Modified), it is: Schemas, Table change tracking, Table indexes, View indexes, Foreign keys, User defined data types and Sequences. For such objects all available information is presented in additional columns and there is no link to text diff for detailed object definition.

Some object names are shown as grayed out, they have no hyperlink to open object definitions and bottom text preview shows nothing. This means that MssqlMerge could not retrieve object definition text - either because of permissions or because the object was created using a WITH ENCRYPTION statement. Such objects can not be merged to the other side.

See also:

Free version limitations:

  • Object name action buttons - available only for Table definitions, and only data diff actions
  • No bottom panel with text preview or selected object details
  • No Excel export
  • No jump to the next/previous change
  • No changes highlight in scrollbar
  • Not available 'Compare two selected objects' and 'Show table DL' for table definitions
  • No top panel quick filter

Last updated: 2023-09-27