Night Owl Custom Theme for Azure Data Studio

Hello, in this post today I just wanted to briefly talk about how I was able to successfully create my own version of the Night Owl VS Code theme created by Sarah Dresner for Azure Data Studio.

For those of you that don't use SQL and have no idea what Azure Data Studio is, it is a SQL IDE that is built off of the VS Code framework that allows extensions and customization options similar to VS Code but for SQL code. I have been using it a lot lately in my transition to becoming a data scientist as opposed to software engineer. It has really helped me out.

Why Azure Data Studio

I chose to use Azure Data Studio for a couple of reasons. The first reason being that at my work I currently use MSSQL(Microsoft SQL) but at home I use PostgreSQL. MSSQL uses a Microsoft proprietary tool called SSMS or SQL Server Management Studio which allows you to run your queries and look at all the tables in your databases you are connected to. That is great and while I have a few SQL Server databases of my own that I use at home I also use PostgreSQL.

I know what you are thinking. Why are you using two different versions of SQL why not just stick to one. Well the reason for that is I was practicing using SQL Server as it differs ever so slightly from other flavors of SQL such as PostgreSQL. I use Postgres more on personal projects but work also has me using SQL Server. What does this have to do with why I chose Azure Data Studio over pgAdmin and SSMS? Well for one I don't have to use two different tools to connect to my different databases. I can instead open up Azure Data Studio and connect to all of my SQL Server databases that I need as well as my PostgreSQL databases all from one tool. The other reason I chose it is, well in order to connect to my PostgreSQL instances I have to install the PostgreSQL extension that is published and maintained by Microsoft themselves. Once you have this extension installed it automatically adds postgresql as a form of connection when you open up the connections options to connect to a database.

Still Not Convinced huh?

I get it you're skeptical. It's a tool made by Microsoft which means it probably only works with Windows and I have a Linux or macOS machine. Well that's just it. It runs on the same Electron style software that VS Code does. Which means it's cross platform for three major OS's. So if you are on mac and don't like to use pgAdmin then don't use Azure Data Studio instead. It also works with connecting to cloud databases such as those from Salesforce and other cloud based platforms. (I don't have experience with this but my coworker who works solely with Salesforce uses a Macbook and Azure Data Studio to do all of his work.)

Did I Mention It's Customizable?

Azure Data Studio is also customizable. It comes with some pretty neat built in themes that allow you to change the colors of the editor and window to something a bit easier on the eyes or colors you are used to seeing say in VS Code if you are also a software developer. The process of creating your own theme if you don't find one you like can be a bit scary but I assure you if you have opened up a settings.json file and modified a few lines in it then you are going to be just fine. There are tutorials that I will link to at the bottom of this post that will help get you started. One is for creating a theme for VS Code and the other for creating your own extensions for Azure Data Studio. The processes can be interchanged since they are the same platform so-to-speak.

Conclusion

That's all I have on this subject for now. As promised the links to the tutorials are below:

1. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/azure-data-studio/tutorial-create-extension
2. https://css-tricks.com/creating-a-vs-code-theme/

Enjoy!