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Engines

Microsoft SQL Server

Bobby Tables connects to Microsoft SQL Server over TCP with SQL Server authentication and opens each connection in a SQL workspace with T-SQL formatting and quoting.

Where to find it

ActionHow
Choose SQL ServerNew connection, ⌘N (Ctrl+N), then Microsoft SQL Server under Choose a provider
Fill the form from a URLUse connection URL with a sqlserver:// or mssql:// URL, then Fill fields
Default port1433

Searching the chooser for mssql also finds it.

Connecting

The form asks for Host, Port, User, Database (optional) and Password, and notes that the connection Uses 2 server connections. Below the fields it says SQL authentication and explicit TCP ports only. Integrated authentication and named instance discovery are unavailable., and a host written with an instance name is refused with Use a host and explicit TCP port. Open in read-only mode blocks writes in the app and disables editing.

What works

  • Browse schemas, tables, views, routines, triggers, keys and indexes in the table grid.
  • Stage inserts, updates and deletes on tables with a primary key, as described in Editing. Identity, computed and rowversion columns are not written.
  • Change structure in the Structure tab, with supported DDL run inside a transaction.
  • Snapshots are not available, so Create snapshot... does not appear.
  • Draw a schema diagram from declared foreign keys.
  • Format result columns with result directives.
  • Stop a running statement with Cancel, ⌘. (Ctrl+.), and keep using the connection afterwards.
  • Run Explain, ⌘⇧E (Ctrl+Shift+E), in the SQL editor.

Engine notes

SQL Server authentication is the only sign-in method, so Windows integrated authentication, Kerberos and named-instance discovery are not available on any platform. New connections start on Verify Full in the TLS section, which checks the certificate and host name, while Require encrypts without checking; see SSH and TLS. A custom CA certificate is supported, client certificates are not, and host name checks still apply through an SSH tunnel. Deadlocks and in-memory transaction conflicts appear as statement errors with their SQL Server error code, and the app never replays a transaction.

Good to know

  • A table without a primary key stays read-only, with a banner saying why.
  • Values such as decimals, unique identifiers and datetime offsets arrive exactly as stored.
  • The PostgreSQL page has a short video of opening a connection from Home.