Color and name tabs automatically by server / db

[ShutterSeeker]

I often work between servers and databases and SSMS really only allows the bar at the bottom of the window to be set to a color reflecting the active connection which is not helpful when I want to know which tabs are associated with which connections before I click on them.

I would love to be a able to configure auto tab coloring and naming by server or server+database for easy identification.

I have an janky, external app that allows you to configure colors using the built in SSMS tab coloring system with the "Color document tabs by regular expression" setting. It works by sending keystrokes to the app to save the file with the name of the active connection in the directory, and then sending more keystrokes to set the tab color.

If anyone is curious: https://github.com/Blake-goofy/SSMS-Plus

If this is something you could add to this extension, I'm sure it would be a lot cleaner than my solution. Thanks for the work you do!

[ShutterSeeker]

To be clear, in my example, these tabs show the name of the server_database_uniqueString because all of these tabs are new queries that have not yet been saved manually. In base SSMS these would typically appear as SQLQuery1.sql, SQLQuery2.sql, and so on. If you open a saved file I would expect the name of the saved file to appear in the tab name (not the name of the connection).

[Blake-goofy]

Any intentions on adding this?

[alex-bochkov]

Blake, this one is tricky. Technically SSMS supports tab coloring and you can use regular expressions to get any configuration you need. However, that coloring does not change the color of the tab itself, and there is a community request to address this.

I will wait until extensions can be upgraded for SSMS 22 and then look into it.

[Blake-goofy]

@alex-bochkov, I spent a lot of time working on this problem and ended up with a practical solution that leverages SSMS’s existing tab coloring via regular expressions.

I understand this only adds the small color indicator (not the full tab, except for the active tab), and that’s exactly the behavior I was aiming for.

I built a fully working extension here:
https://github.com/Blake-goofy/SSMS-EnvTabs

Core idea:
Dynamically rebuild ColorByRegexConfig.txt as documents open or change names in the SSMS editor.
To keep colors stable and avoid collisions, I add a small “salt” to the regex patterns.

How it works:
https://github.com/Blake-goofy/SSMS-EnvTabs/wiki/How-it-works

If this seems like a welcome change for AxialSqlTools, I’d be happy to implement it there and open a PR when I have time.
Alternatively, feel free to take the concept and implement it however you prefer.

[alex-bochkov]

Great job! I need to learn from you!
I will look into it soon. It is difficult to dedicate time right now because of hectic work schedule.

[alex-bochkov]

@Blake-goofy
I like your implementation of the tab coloring overall. The approach is clean and easy to follow.

One thing I would consider doing differently is how the color is selected. Instead of relying on document properties, I think it would be more flexible to base it on the active connection information. Many environments depend heavily on target server characteristics, and tying the logic to the connection would make this more adaptable.

A few example use cases where this could help:

• Coloring connections differently when using an account with "sa" privileges versus other users
• Coloring based on server name patterns
• Coloring based on the result of a custom query against the target server

Using the connection context would make these scenarios easier to support and extend in the future.

Do you want to take a stab at it? I would be happy to review and accept a PR with this change :).

[alex-bochkov]

I think the ideal implementation would allow using queries as part of the color selection logic, where each query is expected to return either a single value or no value. Multiple queries could be evaluated in sequence until one returns a result.

For example:
SELECT CASE WHEN @@SERVERNAME LIKE '%PROD Pattern%' THEN 'Red' END

If that returns no result, the next query could be executed:

-- Execute only if the previous query returned no result (this is just for example purposes what people can write)
SELECT 
   CASE 
       WHEN @@SERVERNAME LIKE '%QA Pattern%' THEN 'Yellow' 
       WHEN EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM master..mytable where isStage = 1) THEN 'Cyan' 
   END

[Blake-goofy]

@alex-bochkov
Thanks for the thoughtful idea. I can see the flexibility a query-driven approach would unlock. I do have concerns about added complexity, security, and usability, especially since most users (including me) mainly just want color by server/database.

Just to clarify: the current implementation already responds to the active connection, not static document properties. If you change the connection on a tab, the color changes accordingly. The server/db approach also makes “on-the-fly” rule creation much more practical via the prompts (see: https://github.com/Blake-goofy/SSMS-EnvTabs/wiki/Configuration-Guide#prompts).

Your query-based idea is interesting, but it is not what I had in mind. If you want to experiment, you could use my idea of leveraging the ColorByRegexConfig.txt flow and salt-based color selection to prototype behavior closer to what you’re envisioning. For now, I plan to keep my project stand-alone and focused on the simpler server/db colorization model.

[alex-bochkov]

Ok, that works for me. I will use parts of your implementation together with a query-based approach for this project. Thanks again.
Closing this for now.