{"id":75,"date":"2021-03-03T17:28:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T17:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/help\/documentation\/getting-started\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T15:23:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T15:23:37","slug":"getting-started","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/help\/documentation\/getting-started\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Started"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Prerequisites<\/h2>\n<p>A couple of things before we get started:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/ssms\/\">SQL Server Management Studio<\/a>, version 2012 or later<\/li>\n<li>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/sql-server-downloads\">SQL Server database<\/a>, version 2005 or later<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"wedocs-callout callout-blue\">Want a quick database just for testing? Try <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql\/database-engine\/configure-windows\/sql-server-express-localdb\">SQL Server Express LocalDB<\/a><\/div>\n<h2>Installing<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/download\/?ctaid=docs-getting-started\">Download<\/a> and run the VersionSQL installer. After installation has completed, open SQL Server Management Studio and connect to your database. Verify that &#8220;VersionSQL&#8221; now appears in the top menu bar.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re connecting to anything more powerful than SQL Server Express, VersionSQL will automatically start a free trial.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wedocs-callout callout-blue\">Not seeing the menu? If SSMS was open during the installation, close all open SSMS windows and reopen it to load VersionSQL.<\/div>\n<h2>Choosing a Version Control System<\/h2>\n<p>If you already have a version control system in place, just skip right on to the next section.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re new to the world of version control, welcome! Like any new field, at first there seems to be an overwhelming number of options. The simplest way to move forward is opening a <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/\">GitHub<\/a> account and <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.github.com\/en\/github\/getting-started-with-github\/create-a-repo\">creating a private repository<\/a> there. Done that? The URL in your browser address bar is your &#8220;repository path&#8221;. Copy that to your clipboard; you&#8217;ll need it in a minute.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wedocs-callout callout-blue\">Want to skip the strange and new for now? Select Folder under Repository Type when configuring VersionSQL. All your SQL will be written to disk without having to mess with any of this version control stuff.<\/div>\n<h2>Connecting<\/h2>\n<p>In the Object Explorer pane, right-click on your database and select &#8220;Connect to Version Control&#8221; from the context menu. Paste in your repository path and click OK. VersionSQL will prompt you for your version control login credentials, either directly or through your web browser. Follow directions and in no time you&#8217;ll see a message confirming that VersionSQL is connected.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"wedocs-callout callout-blue\">This assumes you plan on connecting to Git. To connect to a Subversion server, make sure that Subversion underneath Repository Type is checked. To connect to a TFVC repository in Azure DevOps or on-premises TFS, select the TFVC repository type. To use another version control system like Mercurial via the command line, or to dump SQL files straight to disk, pick the Folder option<\/div><div class=\"wedocs-callout callout-yellow\">Not working? Clear as mud? <a href=\"mailto:support@versionsql.com?subject=Getting+Started\">Send me an email<\/a> and I&#8217;ll do my best to straighten it out for you<\/div><\/p>\n<h2>Committing<\/h2>\n<p>Now we get to the fun part. The first time you commit, VersionSQL will ask if you want to send everything to version control. Click <code>Yes<\/code> and you&#8217;ll be off to the races. Sit back and enjoy the sensation of progress! (Or <code>Alt<\/code>+<code>Tab<\/code> back to SSMS and let VersionSQL churn while you do something more important.)<\/p>\n<p>Once it&#8217;s all processed, another window will pop up asking for your thoughts on the operation. Give it a piece of your mind and press <code>OK<\/code> to push all that out to the version control system. Done!<\/p>\n<div class=\"wedocs-callout callout-blue\">To do it again later, right-click on a database, folder, or object inside the Object Explorer pane. There will be a new option labeled Commit.<\/div>\n<h2>Integrating into your Workflow<\/h2>\n<p>Ah yes, this was for work.<\/p>\n<p>Version control is like insurance: When you need it, the history is there &#8212; if you kept up with the premiums. The premium here is remembering to commit your code. Just ALTERed an SP? Give it a quick commit. The week&#8217;s flown by and you&#8217;re not sure what you changed? Run a full-DB commit for good measure. Then when disaster strikes and management <em>needs<\/em> to know when that critical stored proc stopped writing to the finance tables, you&#8217;ll be the hero with an audit trail that shows it all.<\/p>\n<h2>But what does it look like?<\/h2>\n<p>Grab your popcorn, it&#8217;s movie night!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/VersionSQL_Setup_Animated.gif\" alt=\"Video\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Short and action-packed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":35,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-75","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry"],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/docs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":67,"href":"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1783,"href":"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/75\/revisions\/1783"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/35"}],"next":[{"title":"Features","link":"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/help\/documentation\/features\/","href":"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/98"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"doc_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.versionsql.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_tag?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}