What's new - release log

2024-03-29 SQL Spreads release 7.4.1

The new 7.4 release focuses on three main areas: Tree Filters, Column Sorting, and Security Improvements. These are the changes:

• Tree Filters are now shown per Excel sheet and a change in a Tree Filter will only reload the tables that are affected by the filter.
• Improved arranging of columns in the SQL Spreads Designer and added a possibility to move columns to the beginning or end of the table.
• Upgraded to a new safer encryption algorithm.
• Improved database connection to allow larger timeouts than 100 seconds.
• Improved usage of decimal data type with better handling of precision and scale.
• Fix issue to show time out message if Azure SQL Serverless is warming up.
• Fixed issue when sorting in Pivoted view.

2024-01-31 SQL Spreads release 7.3.0

• Enhanced SharePoint integration for SQL Spreads documents by implementing document locking for Editors.
• In the SQL Spreads Designer, the database and table filters are now displayed by default in the Database tab.
• Optimized connectivity with Azure Data Warehouse/Azure Synapse.
• Refined the introductory dialogues for a more intuitive user experience.
• Resolved an issue where '#N/A' could not be used as a null identifier.
• Fixed a bug preventing Editors from updating their password in the event of a database connection failure.

2023-11-10 SQL Spreads release 7.2.5

• Fixed issue with the new Show intro button being shown in Data Editor mode.

2023-11-08 SQL Spreads release 7.2.4

• Improved the Intro dialogs shown during the first start of the trial.
• Added a button in the SQL Spreads tab to show the Intro again.
• Minor bug fixes.

2023-08-28 SQL Spreads release 7.2.0

• Added a new intro dialog with info about the trial.
• Added a check if Excel is running before installation, and auto-restart of Excel after the installation.
• Added a lock to prevent a user with a Data Editor license to install and use the SQL Spreads trial in Design mode.
• Added a Create Table Script button to simplify supporting SQL Spreads documents.
• Changed default plan in the trial to Pro plan.
• Fixed issue when using the "Remember password on local machine" feature for multiple SQL users.
• Minor bug fixes.

2023-07-14 SQL Spreads release 7.1.2

In this new release we are introducing the new SQL Server tools which allows you to do more SQL Server operations from within Excel.

The SQL Server tools contains these three features:

• The Table Creator - to create SQL Server tables based on data in Excel.
• The Table Modifier - to modify existing tables in SQL Server.
• The table Copier - to copy tables in SQL Server.

SQL Spreads 7.1.2 change log

• Introducing the new SQL Server tools to allow you to do more SQL Server operations from within Excel. The SQL Server tools contains these three features:
  • The previous Table Creator to transfer an Excel table with data into a new table in SQL Server.
  • The new Table Modifier to rename, add and delete columns in an existing table in SQL Server.
  • The new Table Copier to create a copies of a SQL Server tables.
• Added info to the License Manager to find inactive users by showing the last time a user saved data with SQL Spreads.
• Added a Refresh button to the SQL Spreads Designer to check for any changes of the table structure in SQL Server.
• Fixed issue with checkboxes being show after unselecting Multi-select Tree-Filters.
• Fixed issue when inserting values with data type DateTimeOffset.
• Fixed issue with adding Sort in the Designer giving error "Ambiguous column".
• Fixed issue with license message shown incorrectly "SQL Spreads have not been able to refresh your license online...."

2023-05-29 SQL Spreads release 7.0.8

This release fixed a couple of minor issues.

• Fixed issue with columns with data type Time not updating correctly.
• Fixed issue with Change tracking not working when only one of the ModifiedBy or ModifiedOn was used.
• Fixed issue with labels for number of loaded rows not shown in Database and Filter tab in Designer.

2023-03-30 SQL Spreads release 7.0.5

The new SQL Spreads 7.0 has two major improvements.

The first improvement is the batch processing of updates, inserts and deletes from Excel to the SQL Server. We have measured speed improvements of up to 18 times with this new release, compared to the older 6.2 release.

The second improvement is that we have added the possibility to use checkboxes when selecting items in a Tree Filters. These multi select Tree Filters will make it super easy to slice and dice your data into smaller parts.

SQL Spreads 7.0.5 change log

• Added batch processing during save to database which makes saving up to 18 x faster.
• Added checkboxes for tree filter to make it possible to do Multi-selection of items.
• Added possibility to filter and sort the items in drop-downs for lookups created using the Advanced Setup.
• Minor bug fixes.

2022-12-22 SQL Spreads release 6.2.15

• Improved Intro screens shown during first time start-up.
• Fixed issue when moving columns if Excels table header filters are turned off.
• Fixed issue with items with quotes not working in Fixed List Lookups.
• Fixed issue when switching server when the document has key Lookups.
• Fixed issue with a Pivoted table with Lookups giving error message "ambiguous columns” error in SQL query".

2022-08-09 SQL Spreads release 6.2.8

• Fixed issue with bigint numbers with more than 17 digits that were truncated.
• Fixed issue with commas in text key columns.
• Fixed issue with uninstalling when both the per-machine and the per-user versions was installed.
• Fixed issue with the database connection setting "Remember password on local machine".
• Fixed issue with losing the database connection when the network connection was down.
• Implemented a speed improvement when using spreadsheets with large number of calculations.
• Added info to the About dialog to tell if SQL Spreads is installed as per-user or as per-machine.
• Updated to the new SQL Spreads logo.

2022-05-23 SQL Spreads release 6.2.1

• Support for connecting to Azure SQL using Azure AD Authentication.
• Support for using Multi-Factor Authentication when authenticating to Azure AD.

2022-03-29 SQL Spreads release 6.1.32

• Improved deleting of rows in the database to align with Excel's Delete rows.
• Added check if per-machine or per-user installer exists.
• Added a possibility to call Excel's Refresh All command after data is saved to the database.
• Fixed bug so that commas can be used in Pivot Headers and Pivot Keys.
• Fixed issue that a document loses the connection to the database when the network connection is down while working in the Designer.
• Fixed issue with IsIdentity checkbox not being saved when changed for a view.
• Fixed issue with multiple read-only messages shown when replacing text.

2021-12-09 SQL Spreads release 6.1.15

• Added support for the new pricing model with Basic, Pro and Premium plans and separate Editor licenses.
• Added a checkbox to the Table Creator to decide if columns in a new table should be nullable.
• Added a field to set the name of the Identity column in the Table Creator.
• Fixed issue with the “Auto-size number of rows…” checkbox in the Database Import dialog in Advanced Setup not showing the correct status.
• Fixed issue when server, table or column name was changed in a workbook with protected worksheets.
• Fixed issue when inserting rows using the Advanced Setup and change tracking.

2021-10-29 SQL Spreads release 6.0.44

This new release focus on stability improvements - we have made a number of stability improvements and fixes in the areas around Excel table formatting, detection of changes in SQL Server etc.

This release also includes the new new feature to set Default values on columns.

SQL Spreads 6.0.44 change log

• Added the possibility to set a Default value for a column to use when a cell is blank or when a column is not shown in SQL Spreads.
• Added the possibility to turn off conflict detection to speed up larger imports.
• Added a detection of renamed columns in SQL Server and a new dialog to handle these types of table changes.
• Speed improvement by pre-calculating lists and lower frequency when updating the user interface.
• Speed improvement by only updating progress every 12th row if more than 100 rows.
• Implemented a resolution for the issue with the Excel document not being detected as a SQL Spreads document.
• Fixed issue when renaming or deleting a column in the database when having a Lookup setup for the column.
• Fixed issue with Insert parameter dialog when the same table was opened several times.
• Fixed issue with Insert parameter dialog in Lookup dialog when no Lookup table was selected.
• Fixed issue importing table after all rows has been deleted.
• Fixed validation issue when clearing a row with a drop-down list column.
• Fixed issue with Excel table column formatting when deleting a column in SQL Server.
• Fixed issue with Excel table column formatting when moving a column in a Pivoted view in SQL Spreads.
• Fixed issue with Excel table column header formatting when moving a SQL Server column in the SQL Spreads Designer.
• Fixed issue with detection of changes in a table's Identity column.
• Fixed issue when canceling out of the Key selection dialog.
• Fixed issue when canceling out of Password dialog.
• Fixed issue with detection of inserting new rows in an Excel table.
• Fixed issue with lifetime license showing offline warning.
• Fixed issue when saving to the database with a Custom SQL Filter containing an invalid SQL query.
• Fixed issue with the checkbox "Set all columns to Read-Only" not working when Change Tracking was enabled.
• Fixed issue with Tree Filter definition requiring case sensitive Code and Text column aliases.
• Fixed issue that cleared the background color for cell A1.

2021-06-17 SQL Spreads release 6.0.30

This new release introduce a new feature to use the Tree filter selection as the key column(s) when inserting new rows into a table:

We are also introducing a new Parameter selection dialog to more easily work with parameters:

SQL Spreads 6.0.30 change log

• Added a new Parameter selection dialog to easily insert Tree Filter and Cell parameters.
• Added the possibility to hide key columns that are selected in a Tree Filter from the Excel table. Using this new feature, the Tree filter controls which key value that is used when inserted new rows into the table.
• Added new parameters to the Post Processing script to be able to decide in which tables the data has been changed.
• Minor bug fixes.

2021-03-30 SQL Spreads release 6.0.17

SQL Spreads 6.0 introduce the new Lookup feature to easily lookup key values from a related table or a list of fixed key-text pairs. A drop-down list in Excel allows the user to select a text item, while the corresponding key will be written to the database.

• Added the new Lookup feature with Drop-down lists in the SQL Spreads Designer
• Upgraded our Knowledgebase to a new system. The knowledgebase can now be found at https://sqlspreads.com/docs
• Improved possibility to add calculated columns on the right-side of the Excel table, such as totals etc.
• Added the possibility set default configuration when doing corporate deployments using the per machine installer.
• Wrapping of texts with line breaks is now disabled by default to improve performance and simplify reading. Wrapping can be turned on in the Designer Settings.
• Redesigned the ribbon menu to make it clearer.
• Redesigned the Document Settings dialog.
• Tree filters now always select the first item as default item.
• Fixed issue with Columns tab in Designer scrolling to top when a checkbox is checked.
• Fixed issue within Columns tab that selection of items sometimes needed to be done twice.
• Fixed issue with the Table creator not showing correct reference to a cell when an error occurred.
• Fixed issue with data validation for Drop-down list columns with more than 25000 rows showing wrong row number.
• Minor bug fixes

2020-09-30 SQL Spreads release 5.1.12

• Added support for using key columns with the UNIQUE IDENTIFIER data type while also generating new IDs as a default value in SQL Server.
• Fixed issue with Designer being locked for new worksheets in certain cases.
• Minor bug fixes

2020-07-01 SQL Spreads release 5.1.07

• The number of rows in the Excel table will now auto-resize to the number rows that are imported from the database.
• Added support for using SQL Server columns with the data type DateTimeOffset. Conflict detection will now work over different time zones when setting the ModifiedOn Change Tracking column to a DateTimeOffset column.
• Added support for using key columns with a DateTime data type.
• Fixed issue when having Drop Down lists where leading zeros from the key/code value were dropped.
• Fixed issue when creating a table with the TableCreator and having special characters in the table name.
• Fixed issue with LastN- Designer column filters not returning all rows in the specified filter condition.

2020-04-29 SQL Spreads release 5.0.55

SQL Spreads 5.0 is the largest SQL Spreads update in over two years with several long-wished features and improvements such as data pivoting, the table creator and database and table search.

• Introducing the new Pivoting feature to update pivoted data in columns in Excel into rows in SQL Server.
• Introducing the new Table Creator to easily create new SQL Server tables from within Excel in just a few clicks.
• New database and table search in the SQL Spreads Designer to quickly find your SQL Server databases and tables.
• Improved support to deploy SQL Spreads Excel documents from test databases to production databases. You can now easily switch the connection in a SQL Spreads Excel document to a new server, database or table while keeping all the settings in the document.
• Improved the new subscription engine to support monthly and annual subscriptions. We will soon start to offer monthly subscriptions.
• Improved document compatibility - SQL Spreads documents are from release 5.0 backward compatible so no need to upgrade all users to the same SQL Spreads version.
• Improved Enterprise Deployment Package which support large scale installations with one common license key for all users and a web application to manage licenses.
• Improved the database key selection dialog.
• Fixed issue with loading and saving data during document opening and closing to be done for all worksheets in a document.
• Fix issue with drop down lists to make drop down lists case insensitive.

2019-12-02 SQL Spreads release 4.50.148

• Fixed issue with changing the SQL Server server name (the text field was disabled) when opening a document when the SQL Server instance is not accessible.
• Fixed issue with conflict detection not saving non-conflicting rows correctly.
• Fixed issue with checking the license on the server if a license key is changed between Designer and Editor.

2019-10-31 SQL Spreads release 4.50.139

With this release, we are introducing a new license system that supports online activations and a lot of new features on the deployment and installation side. With the new online activations, there is no need to manually activate the licenses through emails.

If you are an existing customer, please contact our support to get new license keys to switch to the new online activations.

• Introduced a new license system which supports online activation.
• Added new “Only Allow Inserts” option in the Designer settings.
• Upgraded the .NET Framework to a later version to support future updates. With this change we have dropped the support for Excel 2010 in the main release. We still support Excel 2010 but it has its own release with a lower update frequency.
• Minor improvements and bug fixes.

2019-06-05 SQL Spreads release 4.4.7

• Fixed issue when working with protected Excel worksheets.
• Fixed issue with conflict detection giving an error under certain circumstances.

2019-04-16 SQL Spreads release 4.4.5

• Fixed issue with “Remember password on this machine” for Data User installations.
• Fixed issue with license key being lost when upgrading SQL Spreads – the fix resolves the issue for upgrades from 4.4.5 and forward on.
• Fixed issue with loading data when using Excel tables with table filters disabled.
• Updated naming when activating license – to Activate the license, the button is now named “Activate License” instead of the previous “Create Machine key”.

2019-03-06 SQL Spreads release 4.4.3

• Added a new MSI-installer property to make it possible to force an overwrite of the license key during installation.
• Resolved issue with mapping columns to CreatedOn and CreatedBy in the Advanced Setup.
• Resolved issue with the progress panel not hiding after saving data to the database for Advanced Setup.
• Stability improvements.

2019-01-31 SQL Spreads release 4.4.0

• Added new buttons to the SQL Spreads tab in Excel for saving and refreshing the data between Excel and SQL Server.
• Added new change tracking setting to separately track database row creation with date, time and Windows user name.
• Added a release license feature for transferring a license from within the application.
• Added a warning with instructions if the current machine settings require to add SQL Spreads/Obnex Technologies as a trusted publisher.
• Added a tool tip effect in the Designer to show SQL Server table column details, such as data types etc by hovering over the "Show details" link in the Columns tab in the SQL Spreads Designer.
• Improved the SQL Spreads Designer to now preserve Excel table formatting to keep e.g. Header styling, Conditional Formatting, Slicers etc.
• Improved the User/Filter panel on the left side will now remember the width of the panel per document and also remembers if it is shown or hidden per document.
• Improved the layout of the User/Filter panel on the left side will auto-adjust when made narrower to take less space.
• Improved the per-machine installer so the license key can be fetched from the per-machine settings.
• Fixed issue with settings not being correctly saved when closing the Excel document using Excels red upper-right close button cross.
• Fixed issue with some document settings not warning when closing the document without saving.
• Fixed issue with the document setting "Refresh import data when documents is opened" not having effect when using Tree-View Database Import filters.
• Fixed a number of speed and stability improvements.
• Fixed the uninstallation of SQL Spreads so all settings are deleted for per-user installations.

2018-11-01 SQL Spreads release 4.3.1

• Fixed issue connecting to Azure SQL databases when opening an older SQL Spreads document.
• Fixed issue when creating a new Database Import.

2018-10-25 SQL Spreads release 4.3.0

This release adds a few new features and also improves working with data in Azure SQL.

• Added support for working with contained databases, where the default database must be specified.
• Added the Formula Row feature to be able to add summary rows within an Excel range that is synced with a SQL Server table.
• Improved support for filtering data based on user when SQL Authentication is used. Mainly for Azure SQL implementations.
• Improved support for inserting rows into Views with a base table having an Identity Key.
• Improved seamless installation on both 32-bit and 64-bit Excel.
• Fixed issue with Filter and Sort tabs in the Designer not being shown if Excel is updated to a July 2018 release and Windows is still on an earlier release.
• Fixed issue with editing Excel workbook embedded into Word.
• Fixed issue with default database not cleared when a new database is selected.
• Fixed issue with conflict detection when the data in the database is set to a date before 1900-02-26.
• Fixed issue with check for VSTO Runtime during installation.

2018-05-08 SQL Spreads release 4.2.5

• Fixed issue with working with SQL Spreads when the Excel document is in Read-Only mode.
• Fix issue with cursor not returning from wait state after loading document.
• Minor other fixes and stability improvements.

2018-01-26 SQL Spreads release 4.2.4

• Added possibility to auto-save the Excel file after data has been saved to the database.
• Added support for XML data type columns.
• Added warning of FIPS encryption is enabled.
• Fixed issue with loading SQL Spreads document when opening a document without having Excel running.
• Fixed issue with loading SQL Spreads when opening a document stored in SharePoint.
• Fixed issue restoring a previous document version from SharePoint.
• Stability improvements.

2017-09-12 SQL Spreads release 4.2.2

• Fixed issue with columns not shown for table names with Cyrillic characters.
• Fixed issue with ordering of the databases in the Designer.
• Minor bug fixes and improvements.

2017-07-07 SQL Spreads release 4.2.0

With this new release, SQL Spreads has support for updating and managing data in cloud-based Azure SQL databases. SQL Spreads supports updating data in tables and views in Azure SQL.

• Added support for Azure SQL databases.
• Added remembering the last used SQL Server instances.
• Added possibility to locally store password.
• Fixed issue to insert null during the inserting of new rows. Non-edited cells for nullable number and date columns are now stored as NULL in the database.
• Fixed issue with duplicate user panel shown when saving an empty Excel file.
• Bug fixes and stability improvements.

2017-04-06 SQL Spreads release 4.1.7

• Added the new setting to scroll to the first row after data has been refreshed.
• Added new info panel when the Designer’s preview mode is turned on. The info panel will be shown below the last loaded data row and inform the user that preview mode is turned on.
• Added the possibility to paste several rows over the Excel table border.
• Added the new BeforeSave event to the VBA API.
• Added the new HasUnsavedChanges property to the VBA API.
• The VBA API method RefreshImportData is updated to be able to refresh data, also if there are unsaved changes. Use the new HasUnsavedChanges property to check if there are unsaved changes.
• Fixed issue with drop-down lists not being correctly deleted when a worksheet is deleted.

2017-02-17 SQL Spreads release 4.1.4

• Improved license key handling.
• Added the possibility to force an update of columns that saves
• the result of an Excel formula to the database.
• Bug fixes and minor updates.

2016-12-05 SQL Spreads release 4.1.3

• Fixed issue with case sensitive collation.

2016-12-02 SQL Spreads release 4.1.2

• Bug fixes and minor updates.

2016-11-17 SQL Spreads release 4.1.1

The major improvement in this release is support for updating data in SQL Server Views from Excel. The new View support also includes updating data in Views that join data from multiple base tables.

• Added support for updating data in SQL Server Views.
• Added automatic detection of 32- or 64-bit Excel.
• Fixed issue with named ranges not being deleted.
• Fixed issue in Custom SQL-filter after SQL error was given.
• Fixed issue that second value in a between filter was not shown correctly in filter tab.

2016-11-14 SQL Spreads release 4.0.27

• Improved support for installing on Terminal Server
• Fixed issue when saving documents with +250k database rows

2016-09-01 SQL Spreads release 4.0.23

• Improved Undo when working with SQL Server data.
• Fixed issue with the length of text and ntext columns.

2016-08-15 SQL Spreads release 4.0.22

• Added subscription license model.
• Bug fixes and minor updates.

2016-07-20 SQL Spreads release 4.0.21

• Fixed issue with settings when using a document created with SQL Spreads 3.0.
• Fixed issue with pasting into filtered rows.
• Fixed issue with when updating cells in a hidden sheet via VBA.
• Fixed issue with loading table in Designer in Excel 2010 64-bit.

2016-06-08 SQL Spreads release 4.0.17

• Added support for showing and updating NULL values in cells and in Drop Down Lists
• Advanced setup is now shown by default
• Fixed issue that a document that only contains a database connection was treated as a SQL Spreads document
• Bug fixes and minor updates.

2016-05-16 SQL Spreads release 4.0.10

• Bug fixes and minor updates.

2016-04-22 SQL Spreads release 4.0

This release contains the new SQL Spreads Designer, which adds the possibility to configure columns, filters and sorting from the new Designer Panel on the right side in Excel.

• Added the new SQL Spreads Designer.
• Added preview mode that will load only the first 50 rows by default.
• Improved conflict detection dialog with the possibility to select which rows to overwrite.
• License settings are moved to the new About dialog.
• Dialogs for creating Database Imports and Database Mappings (previous Database Exports) are moved to the Advanced Setup menu.

2016-03-22 SQL Spreads release 3.1.53

• Fixed issue with tables not being shown for Case Sensitive databases.

2016-03-04 SQL Spreads release 3.1.52

• Added support for drag and drop in Excel tables.
• Fixed issue with copy and paste between documents.
• Minor updates.

2016-02-24 SQL Spreads release 3.1.51

• Minor updates.

2016-02-12 SQL Spreads release 3.1.50

The new release includes better handling and display of the database schema and a fix for the issue with the license being lost when upgrading Excel to a new version.

• Improved display of schema in Wizard and database export.
• Improved detection of column names in Edit Export Dialog.
• Fixed issue with the license being lost in Office 365 after an automatic upgrade.
• Fixed issue with two tables with the same name in two different schemas.
• Fixed issue that Manage Export dialog was not shown after closing the Post Save SQL dialog.
• Fixed issue with sorting a table in Excel.
• Disabled drag and drop in SQL Spreads tables as it is currently not supported.

2016-02-04 SQL Spreads release 3.1.4

• Minor updates.
• Fixed issue with pasting into a filtered range with hidden rows.

2015-11-30 SQL Spreads release 3.1.3

• Fixed issue with Num Lock being turned off.

2015-11-24 SQL Spreads release 3.1.2

The new release includes an update that will auto-detect available SQL Server instances. When selecting columns, there is a new Select All/Select None feature for tables with a large amount of columns. The column width of the data imported into Excel will now auto-adjust the column size to create a smoother look. See the full list of changes below:

• Added automatic detection of SQL Server instances.
• Added auto-adjust for table columns.
• Added Select All/Select None when selecting columns.
• Added info message if wrong 32/64 bit version was installed.
• Improved loading speed when using protected spreadsheets.
• Added support for canceling out from dialogs by pressing ESC.
• Database Connection dialog is now disabled for data user role - only shown if a password is missing.
• Fixed issue with feedback dialog shown after upgrade to new version.
• Fixed issue with Drop Down Lists referring a table with no values.
• Fixed issue when copying a document and having both documents opened at the same time.
• Fixed issue with showing filter panel after the Macro security warning is accepted.

2015-08-19 SQL Spreads release 3.1.1

• Added support for using columns with numbers-only names.
• Fixed issue with installing for 64-bit Office 365.

2015-08-13 SQL Spreads release 3.1.0

The new release includes support to manage data in SQL Server tables that do not have any identity key.

• A major change in 3.1 is the ability to use a combination of key columns in a table. This removes the previous requirement for an Identity column in the table.
• Added improved database selection without the need for the 'View any definition' permission.
• Added automatic detection of key columns based on primary key or identity column.
• Added Feedback dialog.
• Added new 'Document Settings': “Refresh Import Data after save to database”. If this new setting is enabled, the spreadsheet data from SQL Server will be automatically refreshed immediately after changes are submitted to the database.
• Improved the screen for selecting 32- or 64-bit Excel when installing for Office 365.
• Fixed issue with Execute button in Setup Filter dialog when using the @WindowsUser parameter in the SQL Query.
• Fixed issue when exporting a fixed number of rows.
• Fixed issue when mapping an Import filter to a Primary Key column in the database.

2015-04-07 SQL Spreads release 3.0.6

A new release of SQL Spreads is now available for download. The new release contains a number of updates and fixes:

• Improved support for Office 365.
• New improved layout of the import filter panel which now has buttons for Refresh and Save.
• New name on the "Database Submit" button: "Save to Database".
• Fixed issue with selected columns in the wizard when moving back and forth between wizard dialogs.
• Fixed issue when creating an import data filter with an empty name.
• Fix issue when canceling out from the intro dialog.

2015-02-27 SQL Spreads release 3.0.4

With this new release, SQL Spreads is now an Excel only Add-In. The new Excel Add-In will connect directly from Excel to a SQL Server database.

The SQL Spreads Excel Add-In makes it possible to manage data in SQL Server tables using Microsoft Excel.