Performance
Some performance issues were encountered with SQL Examiner. The Northwind database, which comes with SQL Server installation, was used to measure performance. Having made only minor changes to the Northwind database, SQL Examiner consumed 99% of CPU time for two minutes during the comparison process, and other applications could not be used during that stint.
Support
E-mail is the prime mode of support, and is provided for free for one year. In addition, minor version upgrades will be provided free, and major updates will be supplied at discounted price.
Help is provided by a chm file from within SQL Examiner. From this help, you are able to find the solution to most problems that you run across. You can send your queries and concerns from http://www.sqlaccessories.com/support.aspx. In addition, you can also access a FAQ from http://www.sqlaccessories.com/faq.aspx. If you got any errors from the application, you can directly send these to the vendor, as following screen will appear when errors occur.
Update Service
An automatic Update Service is included, which is an essential option, as new features are released often.
Enhancements Needed
1. There should be a way to search snapshots. Currently, you need to select the snapshot by its physical location where it is stored. When saving the snapshot, instead of giving it a file name, it would have been much better if users could save it as a project. If users can save the snapshots in projects, then they would be able to search by date and/or time, which would be very handy, as databases always change with the time.
2. Many of the comparison tools in the market provide data comparison and synchronization, which is missing in the SQL Examiner. If SQL Examiner to compete with the existing tool, it needs to offer this this feature.
Review Summary
I will rate the SQL Examiner 1.0.0.17 in following categories using a scale from 1 to 5, 5 being the best and 1 being the worst.
Product Information
What do you think? Is it the right tool for you to assist in database comparison and synchronization? To find out for yourself, you can download and try out a full-featured trial version of SQL Examiner from http://www.sqlaccessories.com/Download.aspx.
In addition, http://www.sqlaccessories.com/walk-through.aspx gives you an overview of this product. At the time of writing this review, this product is US$ 199.50. More importantly there is an unconditional 30 days money back guarantee. For the latest development of this tool you can visit http://www.sqlaccessories.com.
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