ApexSQL Enforce release notes

Enhancements:

• Application telemetry now collects anonymous data on the use and performance of applications and application components
• New ApexSQL Updater allows users to configure advanced updating settings of all installed ApexSQL products

Changes

• The activation model is switched to Subscription
• The application does not support integration into SQL Server Management Studio 2012, 2014, and 2016 versions
• The application does not support integration into Visual Studio 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2015 versions

Known issues

• 219624: "The 'ApexSOLEnforce_InstPackage' package did not load correctly" error is encountered when the Visual Studio 2019 16.7 version is started

Fixes:

• 208616: "Error encountered and application needs to be closed" message is shown when the “Edit condition” option is selected from the context menu for the displayed rules

Fixes:

• 198602: "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error message is shown on SQL Server Management Studio startup after the add-in installation

Enhancements:

• SQL Server 2019 support

Fixes:

• The application cannot be uninstalled if any version of SQL Server Management Studio is running, even though the application is not integrated in it
• The application cannot be uninstalled if any version of Visual Studio is running, even though the application is not integrated in it
• The application can be uninstalled, even when the application GUI is running

Enhancements:

• Rule descriptions are now more detailed and descriptive

Fixes:

• SQL Server Management Studio stops working when the Run best practices command from the right-click context menu in Object Explorer panel is clicked for SQL Server Reporting Services

Changes:

• The following rules have been deprecated:
  • APX1098 - "Execute statement"
  • APX1142 - "Nolock hint"
  • APX1279 - "Schema name not specified"
  • APX1290 – "Set offsets"
  • APX1306 – "CHECK constraint should be enabled"

Changes:

• Software Transaction Agreement is added as a new step in the installation wizard and updated in accordance with https://www.quest.com/legal/sta.aspx

Fixes:

• The application doesn't integrate with SQL Server Management Studio 18 GA version

Enhancements:

• Visual Studio 2019 integration support

Changes:

• ApexSQL parent menu of the add-in is now located under the Extensions main menu in Visual Studio 2019

Enhancements:

• SQL Server 2019 CTP 2.0 support
• SQL Server Management Studio 18 integration support
• New error handling and send logs functionality
• Improved application installer with a dark theme
• New application icon
• Multi violations per rule is added

Fixes:

• The "Open log" option in the main ribbon doesn’t work
• "StartIndex cannot be less than zer" error is encountered when the Cancel button is clicked on in the Process rulebase dialog
• ApexSQL Enforce is closed when empty space in the Output file name field of the Options dialog is selected and a new tag is added
• ApexSQL Enforce is closed when the OK button in the Process rulebase window is clicked on without SQL Server selection
• "StartIndex cannot be less than zero" error is encountered when the ‘’Save as batch’’ option is clicked on without previously checked rules
• ApexSQL Enforce is opened in the Community edition when the "Extend evaluation" option is clicked on

Changes:

• The application now requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7.2

Fixes:

• "Do you want to install .NET Framework 4.7.1" message is shown when installing the app via CLI using /VERYSILENT and /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES switches
• The Rule column filter in the Resultset grid does not show filtered objects
• "Unexpected error occurred." error is encountered when running rules against a database with the user who only has the db_owner permission
• The HTML report exporting option settings in the stand-alone application are not remembered
• All databases from the chosen Server are checked for permissions when rules are run against one database
• Required permissions are checked for all existing databases on the chosen SQL Server
• The following rules fail if the condition is met:
  • "Statement without TRY...CATCH"
  • "Use of @, @@, or @@ as Transact-SQL identifiers"
  • "Space separator for table hints"
  • "Schema name not specified"
  • "Missing primary key"
  • "Missing clustered index"

Enhancements:

• High DPI and 4K resolution support
• Applied concepts of Visual Language Dictionary for Visual Studio for iconography, imagery, colors, menus, fonts, formatting and other GUI elements
• Ignore options for object pairs, objects and script block
• Support for SQL Server Management Studio 2012 integration and higher
• Support for Visual Studio 2010 integration and higher
• Project file can now be saved as a batch file
• CLI switches:
  • Run all rules from the selected rulebase [/rar]
  • Specify the ignore file path [/if:arg]
  • Run only checked rules [/rcr:arg]
• In the Result summary form the following is now available:
  • Graphical representation of the resultset
  • Detailed rule execution results by category and type
• Added more than 30 new rules

Fixes:

• The application remains in the Community edition even after it has been activated with the appropriate key
• The "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error is encountered when running a set of rules against a database with no relevant objects
• Running rules is disabled in the Standard edition
• The "There are no active rules in the current rulebase" error is encountered when running rules from the ApexSQL rulebase via CLI if there are no previously selected rules in the application
• The application repeatedly asks for the activation key when it is started on an Amazon EC2 instance after the virtual machine resources were deallocated and allocated again
• The "ApexSQL Enforce is not installed" error is encountered during the ApexSQL DevOps toolkit Review step execution
• The installation of a new version does not delete the previous one from the Control panel

Changes:

• Threshold options are moved to the Threshold tab in the Options dialog
• The CLI return code for pass is now set to zero when running rules via CLI
• The CLI return code for failure on processed database is changed from 101 to 102
• The application now requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7.1
• The Rulebase grid is now grouped by Category column and sort by the Severity column
• The Reslutset grid is now grouped by the Result column and sort by the Severity column
• All rules now have the descriptive message for the failure reason
• Rulebase now can be run unattended on both databases and SQL scripts
• The Rulebase Object explorer pane is grouped by the Common statements and the Objects

Features:

• Supports SQL Server 2005 or higher, Azure SQL Database and Amazon RDS for SQL Server
• Run rules against scripts or databases
• Write new rules in C# and VB.NET
• Modify existing rules
• Code auto-complete in the internal editor
• Categorize rules
• Import rules into rulebases
• Compare two rulebases including individual rules
• Generate and run Fix SQL scripts
• Detailed rule execution results summary
• Command line interface
• Community, Standard and Professional editions
• HTML resultset reports
• XML resultset export
• GUI themes