It’s great to see that the Connect site leading to fixes in the product.
I was really pleased when SQL Server Data Tools for BI appeared for Visual Studio 2013. What I wasn’t pleased about where a number of UI issues that came with that version.
In particular, there was a problem with previewing Reporting Services reports. If I create a new report project, add a blank report, and drag on a text box:
2014-10-29
I’m finally catching up on some book reviews.
One that I’ve been meaning to write for quite a while is this review.
It’s hard to describe how awesome I think this book is. I was at a session in the USA some time back, where they were giving out the previous version of this book. I grabbed a copy but didn’t get around to reading it for a while. What a mistake.
2014-09-27
There were a number of great announcements from Scott Guthrie today: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/azure-sql-databases-api-management-media-services-websites-role-based-access-control-and-more
One that particularly caught my eye was a subtle change to the billing for Azure SQL Database. Databases used to be billed at a daily charge.
While this might not have seemed a big deal, the only way to create a transactionally-consistent backup of the database was to first copy it using CREATE DATABASE AS COPY OF original database, then to use the database export functions on the copy. The export needed to be done on the copy (not on the original) as it just copied the data in each table, one table at a time.
2014-09-14
I’ve been taking a look at some of the 3rd party tools for SQL Server. Today, I looked at DBForge Studio for SQL Server from the team at DevArt.
Installation was smooth. I did find it odd that it defaults to SQL authentication, not to Windows but either works fine.
I like the way they have followed the SQL Server Management Studio visual layout. That will make the product familiar to existing SQL Server Management Studio users.
2014-08-25
One of the things I’ve been keeping an eye on for quite a while now is the development of the Azure Search system.
While it’s not a full replacement for the full-text indexing service in SQL Server on-premises as yet, it’s a really, really good start.
Liam Cavanagh, Pablo Castro and the team have done a great job bringing this to the preview stage and I suspect it could be quite popular. I was very impressed by how they incorporated quite a bit of feedback I gave them early on, and I’m sure that others involved would have felt the same.
2014-08-25
It seems like anyone that’s talked to me this year has heard me going on and on about how Power Query is just the nicest new bit of tech that’s come from Microsoft lately. We cover it as part of our one-day Power BI Core Skills training class and as part of day 2 in our BI Core Skills classes that we recently updated for SQL Server 2014. Out of all the technologies that people see during that week, Power Query is the one that seems to promote the biggest discussions.
2014-06-28
| It was great to catch up with Jimmy May recently. Jimmy is a principal database architect at Microsoft and was part of the SQL CAT team (customer advisory team) for quite a while. We recorded a new SQL Down Under podcast. In this podcast, Jimmy discusses his experiences with columnstore indexes and the new updatable clustered columnstore indexes. You’ll find it here: https://podcast.sqldownunder.com Enjoy! |
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2014-06-22
I had the distinct honour (honor) this week of recording a new SQL Down Under podcast with Paul Larson.
Paul is a principal researcher at Microsoft and is one of the keen minds involved in the technologies behind the in-memory tables (Hekaton) and clustered columnstore indexes in SQL Server 2014.
In this podcast, Paul explains his role, and discusses how these core enhancements in SQL Server 2014 have been implemented.
2014-04-04
I’ve always thought that the support for spatial data types that was added in SQL Server 2008 was one of the best parts of that release.
In SQL Server 2012, a great set of enhancements were made to the spatial support.
We’ve had lots of interest lately in SQL Server spatial so we’ve been working on a new course that targets it specifically. We’re pleased that we’ve now added a brand new one day SQL Server Spatial Core Skills course to our list of regularly scheduled courses. It covers a wide variety of topics from understanding the data types, to loading data, geolocation, indexing, etc. It also covers the enhancements that were made in 2012.
2014-02-28
I hear comments from people all the time that say it’s not worth posting details on the Connect website as they don’t get actioned anyway. While it can seem a frustrating process, and often take quite a while, improvements do come from there.
At a SQL Saturday event in Brisbane, I was speaking to an attendee (Ian Roberts) who was complaining that DQS was returning what he perceived as the wrong status. More importantly, the results from using the DQS client differed from using the SSIS transform. He described it this way:
2014-02-22
