Azure Data Studio (formerly SQL Operations Studio) is a free Cross-Platform DB management tool for for Windows, macOS and Linux. Azure Data Studio (ADS) initial release was only compatible for SQL Server, however recently Microsoft released a PostgreSQL extension for ADS – so now you can also manage your PostgreSQL instance using ADS. For more details on Azure Data Studio PostgreSQL Extension, refer to my earlier posts
- ADS PostgreSQL Extension – Free data management tool to manage your PostgreSQL databases
- ADS PostgreSQL Extension – Custom insight dashboard
Initially, I was apprehensive switching to ADS as I did not want to leave the comfort and ease of SSMS – after all I had been using it for more than a decade. My thoughts changed once I was on it.
Also, do you know ADS is built on Visual Studio code that has multiple options to ‘Customize’?And in this post I’ll take that feature and share how you could ‘Customize’ and ‘Personalize’ Azure Data Studio.
I. Change the Color theme
- Open Settings by clicking the gear on the bottom left and click on Settings
- Click on Color Theme
- Choose from the number of options (Choose between Light, Dark and High Contrast themes)
II. Change Keyboard Shortcuts
- Open Settings by clicking the gear on the bottom left and click on Settings
- Click on Keyboard Shortcuts
Change Run Query from Default to F5 And/Or Ctrl+E
// Place your key bindings in this file to overwrite the defaults [ { "key": "ctrl+e", "command": "runQueryKeyboardAction" }, { "key": "f5", "command": "-runQueryKeyboardAction" } ]
III. Add Extensions
- Click the Extensions icon on the left
- Select the Install button on the extension you want from the list
- Click the Reload button to activate the installed extension
Refer to my previous post for detailed step-by-step instructions for installing PostgreSQL extension.
IV. Get ‘Actual’ execution plan
You can modify the keyboard shortcut to your preference in user settings
V. Open an Integrated Terminal
- Use the Ctrl+` keyboard shortcut with the back tick character
- As a default, Terminal on my Windows 10 use Powershell, while Linux and macOS use $SHELL.
- You can customize and change the terminal by specifying the correct path for executable and update the settings. Below is the list of common shell executable and their default locations.
// Command Prompt "terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe" // PowerShell "terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\Windows\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe" // Git Bash "terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\Program Files\\Git\\bin\\bash.exe"
Isn’t customizing on ADS easy? Let me know what you think.
I’ll share more about Azure Data Studio as I continue the journey – so stay tuned!