I spent time working with Reporting Services again today on a client site. The complexity of the reports we were working on reminded me that I really, really don’t like seeing T-SQL scripts (or really any business logic) embedded in reports.

DBAs tend to be considered a conservative bunch. One thing they’re usually conservative about is refactoring their databases. In many cases, this is because they have little idea what they will break when they make database changes. I’ve seen countless organisations that have allowed direct access to tables from client Access-based applications and have then lost control of the ability to ever change anything in the database because of the hundreds of little applications and reports that they might then break. I spend a lot of time talking to them about how to regain control of the situation.

2008-03-11

Hi Folks,

SQL Down Under show 34 with guest SQL Server MVP Geoff Hiten is now available for download from www.sqldownunder.com . In this show, Geoff discusses SQL Server clustering, SANs and magic SAN dust.

Enjoy!

Regards,

Greg

2008-03-07

SQL Server Data Services was announced today at MIX. This new offering from Microsoft provides Internet-based data services using RESTful interfaces like those provided by ADO.NET Data Services.

This is going to enable some outstanding new applications.

Apply for the beta here now.

2008-03-06

Hi Folks,

SQL Down Under show 33 with SQL Server MVP Allen White discussing the automating of administration using SMO and Powershell is available for download from www.sqldownunder.com .

Enjoy!

Regards,

Greg

2008-02-29

In a previous post, I mentioned lessons I learned from what I think Progress made mistakes at. However, when looking at the implementation of LINQ in .NET, I think much could have been learned from these types of applications and tools.

At the time I used to use it, Progress applications implicitly has a database context. It’s often said that over 90% of applications are data-related. This is the argument for why data libraries shouldn’t be an add-on to the language but should be baked in.

2008-02-25

Alphatross posted an interesting reply to my blog entry about LINQ and Entity Framework terminology. He asked if I’d worked with the Progress DBMS. I have. Here are my thoughts on it. Obviously others will have a different view of history but I mention Progress over and over again when I’m teaching classes as three examples related to them really hit home for me.

I worked with Progress for many years, starting in about 1983 through to some time in the 90’s.

2008-02-25

A little while back I wrote an article on SQL Cache Dependencies. I had a colleague ask about these today so I think it’s time to blog it. (For more information, I also did a podcast some time back with my old mates Wally McClure and Paul Glavich from the ASP.NET Podcast. It’s at: http://weblogs.asp.net/pglavich/archive/2005/08/21/423160.aspx )

SQL Dependencies in ASP.NET v2

Traditional ASP Applications

In traditional ASP applications, every time the user would request a page, the application would retrieve the data from the database to render the page. Clearly this doesn’t scale very well. It works for a small number of users but not a large number. Often though, this data access can be completely avoided for certain types of data.

2008-02-25

There has been an interesting discussion on an internal Microsoft mailing list regarding the certification process and exams. I’ve seen posts from many people that are very experienced with products saying they can’t see any point in the certification exams and that competencies in the Microsoft Partner program shouldn’t be based on exams. They feel these people should somehow just be recognised for their other contributions.

Regarding the certification process, I don’t agree that anyone should be just “grandfathered” in. Any of the people that  have a great deal of knowledge and experience should be able to just take the exams and be done with it. I find it really easy to take them at events like TechEd. I typically book in for one each morning at 8am and usually it’s only $50.

2008-02-24

Darren Neimke posted a link to some great content today from his colleague Steven Nagy. Steven had done a bunch of posts on getting started with Notification Services.

It’s a great set of posts but it’s important to get the message out that in the next version of the product, Notification Services isn’t just deprecated, it’s gone. It isn’t wise to use it for any new development work unless you’re intending to stay on SQL Server 2005 for the life of your application.

2008-02-24

Hi Folks,

SQL Down Under show 32 with SQL Server product group member Dr Michael Rys is now available for download from www.sqldownunder.com . In this show, Michael discusses why XML matters in SQL Server, provides an overview and tips on the support provided in earlier versions and discusses the changes upcoming in SQL Server 2008.

Enjoy!

Regards,

Greg

2008-02-23