Creating databases using SQL Server Management Studio Express
With the release of SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, TI students and professionals began to have an efficient, professional and cheap solution for creation and management of SQL databases. However, to the surprise of most, the Express distribution is not accompanied by any front-end to manipulate the databases and its objects. This happens because of the fact that all the Visual Studio tools have the capability to manage the SQL Server from inside of its IDEs.
In order for the database administrators to use SQL Express, Microsoft released a free tool called SQL Server Management Studio Express. This program, obtained through download, substitutes the old “Enterprise Manager” and “Query Analyzer” of SQL Server 2000, now centering all of the database management in a single tool.
In this article you will get acquainted with Management Studio Express and will learn to create the database of a small library through the resources offered by the tool. You will also see how to create a Database diagram, insert views and export the database created.
Download and installation of the manager
To obtain the SQL Server Management Studio Express, just download directly from Microsoft’s site at the http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/sql link. Having done this, simply install the software. After its installation, a program shortcut is created in the Start menu of Windows, inside the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 folder.
Gaining access to SQL Server 2005 Express
When you open Management Studio Express, a connection window with SQL Server will be opened, as Figure 1 shows. In this window, you will enter the data for connection with SQL Express existent in your machine. A detail to be observed is that you can, through the Management Studio, connect to a server SQL Server which is in another machine in the net. Just click in the Server name box and choose the Browser for more option to search for the other server. In our example, we will connect to the existing SQLEXPRESS instance in the machine itself (that, in this case, has the name PND).
Figure 1. Connection window of the SQL Management Studio Express
