New in SSMS 2012

-- 1. CODE SNIPPET:

press "Ctrl+k,Ctrl+x"

To add a new code snippet:

    Create the snippet file with .snippet extension(Its advisable to take existing snippet file and modify it)
    Go to Tools -> Code Snippets Manager
    Select the folder, under which you wants to add code snippet and click on Add button and select the snippet file.

-- 2. TASK LIST : GO TO VIEW -> TASK LIST
    We often use some external tools to manage our task list, where we will add our tasks and will follow the tasks according to the task list.
    Now with SQL Server 2012, external tool is no longer required.

-- 3. Zoom/Magnify feature helps in presentations

-- 4. Multi Monitor Support:

    Until SQL Server 2012, in SSMS, we were able to open only one query window. 2 or more query windows can't share the same screen.
    Only one query window can be visible on the screen.

    Now SQL Server 2012 SSMS provides the option to open multiple query windows at a time.
    Easily we can drag the query window and can place that query window where ever we want.

-- 5. Debugging Enhancements:
        Before SQL Server 2012, SSMS already provided a feature to debug the queries.
        In SQL Server 2012, this has been enhanced more to provide more rich experience.

        Conditional Hit breakpoints ? Break point will hit only when the specified condition met.

        Hit Count -> Break point will hit when that breakpoint is hit specified number of times.
        Export/Import the breakpoints to an XML file.
        and more..

        You can get these additional options by Right click on a break point and explore these additional capabilites

-- 6. New Sequence Node to manage Sequences:

        SQL Server 2012 SSMS has a new node “Sequences” in object explorer under Database-> programmability.
        This will allows you to create new sequences or update existing sequences by using GUI.

            Go to Object Expolorer -> Expland database -> Programmability -> Sequences.
            Right click the folder -> New Sequence

        This will open the dialog box, where you can create new sequence and mention its properties, such as minimum value, maximum value and increment value and set its other properties like "Cycle","Cache" etc.

-- 7. “Surround With” feature to enclose your query with IF,BEGIN..END,WHILE blocks

Often in stored procedures/queries, we will use IF, BEGIN..END, WHILE statements. Now, In SQL Server 2012, SSMS provides an option “Surround with”,
which simplifies in enclosing query statements with these blocks.

    Right Click and choose “Surround with”, which shows IF,BEGIN,WHILE options. Or Alternatively press Ctrl+k,Ctrl+s

-- 8. Keyboard Shortcuts enhancement

Few users are used to shortcuts in SSMS, where as users coming from Visual Studio background, might be used to certain shortcuts,
which might be different from SSMS. Now for the users, who are used to Visual Studio, SQL Server 2012 allows to change the keyboard shortcuts similarly like Visual Studio.
This feature also gives ability to export keyboard shortcuts to a file or import these shortcuts from a file.

To change keyboard shortcuts like Visual Studio,

    Go to Tools -> Options -> Keyboard
    Change dropdown selection from "Default" to "Visual Studio 2010 compatible" and Click OK.

To export/import settings to/from a file, you can find it under Tools -> import/export settings

-- 9 . Cycle Clipboard Ring feature to access clipboard and previously copied items

Often we will copy various parts of a query window content to another query window. While copying we often switch between multiple windows.
Now in SQL Server 2012, SSMS supports a new feature "Cycle Clipboard Ring", which allows us to access previously copied items from clipboard.
With the help of this feature, we can copy all the queries at once in a query window and now in another query window, we can paste all those consecutively..

Eg:

    From a query window, copy the query content by pressing Ctrl+C
    Copy another query content by pressing Ctrl+C
    To access recently copied content, press Ctrl+Shift+V
    Now to access the first copied content, press Ctrl+Shift+ V two times.

-- 10. One of the challenges involved in moving/copying databases to a new location (prior to SQL Server 2012) was copying the dependencies along with the database.
External dependencies such as login names, linked servers etc are not automatically copied to the new location when you restore a regular database backup.

SQL Server 2012 (Denali) introduces Contained Databases, a new feature that allows you to embed all the dependencies right into your database.
When the database is moved/copied to a new location, all the dependencies are also moved/copied along with the database.

GO TO Database Properties -> Options -> Containment Type.


-- 11. Following permissions has been added in SQL Server 2012

    Alter any availability Group - Users having this permission can update any availability group.
    Alter any server role - Users having this permission can update server roles.
    Create availability Group - Users having this permission can create availability group.
    Create any server role - Users having this permission can create server role.

Before SQL Server 2012, we have 8 Server Roles. There was no provision to create our own Custom Server Role. Now, in SQL Server 2012, we can create our own Custom Server Role.
While creating Custom Server Role, we can configure the required Endpoints,Logins,Servers,TSQL Named pipes etc.

To add your own custom server role,

    Connect to SSMS
    In object expolorer, Go to Security-> Server Roles.
    Right click and choose "Add new server role"