Data

ODBC DM 3.81 in the Next Release of Windows (code-named Windows “8” and Windows Server “8”)

2012-04-10T01:43:00Z

We’re excited to announce Microsoft ODBC Driver Manager (DM) version 3.81. It will be released in the next release of Windows (code-named Windows “8” and Windows Server “8”).

What’s New in Version 3.81?

Compared to ODBC DM 3.80 that shipped in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, there are two major new features in ODBC DM 3.81.

ODBC Asynchronous Operation Notification

In ODBC 3.80 or before, applications can only use the polling model in asynchronous programming. An application has to call the original function multiple times in order to determine whether the operation has completed or not. This is not a very intuitive programming model. Also, repeated API calls waste CPU cycles, and hence the overall system performance might decrease. ODBC 3.81 supports the notification programming model for asynchronous operations. This feature supports both statement and connection APIs that are allowed to be executed asynchronously.

ODBC Driver-Aware Connection Pooling

In ODBC 3.80 or before, ODBC connection pooling is managed by DM without the participation of the ODBC drivers. Since most ODBC connection attributes and connection string keywords are driver-specific, the ODBC Driver Manager might not always know the best way to reuse connections in the pool. The ODBC DM 3.81 introduces a new model in which, the DM can collaborate with ODBC drivers on pooling decisions. This can improve the efficiency and performance of ODBC connection pooling.

Please read the introductory page for more detail about each of the above new features.

Why the Version Number is changed into 3.81?

This is mainly used to differentiate it from the ODBC DM 3.80 (released in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2). However, ODBC drivers do not need to update their version.

Is There any Application Compatibility Concern?

Application compatibility is our highest priority when the above features were designed. Basically, both features mentioned above are opt-in from both application and driver perspective. Therefore, existing ODBC drivers and applications will continue to work properly under the next release of Windows.

When Can I Use These New Features?

For ODBC driver writers, the Beta version of the next release of Windows (code-named Windows “8” and Windows Server “8”) has these features. Try out the Windows “8” Beta bits today!

For application developers, please read the linked MSDN pages above to better understand how these features may fit within your environment. At the
moment, ODBC 3.80 drivers supporting these features are not yet available; however, we are in contact with several driver vendors about supporting these
features. Please work with your driver vendor to better understand their plan for these features support.

Microsoft SQL Server Native Client ODBC driver plans to support these new features as soon as Windows “8” becomes general available.
Please monitor http://blogs.msdn.com/b/data/ for announcement on the support of these features.

Does SQLODBC Driver (inside WDAC) Support ODBC 3.80?

No. SQLODBC is already deprecated.
Its sole purpose is for backward compatibility. You are advised to plan the migration from SQLODBC to the latest version of SQL Server Native Client ODBC
driver.

Pak-Ming Cheung

Microsoft Developer, WDAC team, Data Programmability

ODBC DSN Management in the Next Release of Windows (code-named Windows “8” and Windows Server “8”)

2012-04-06T19:20:00Z

We’re pleased to announce two new improvements for ODBC Data Source Name (DSN) Management that will be
available in the next release of Windows (code-named Windows “8” and Windows Server “8”).

What’s New?

Improved User Interface in ODBC Data Source Administrator Panel (ODBCAD32)

In the past, you may have been confused by the ODBC DSN on 64-bit Windows (as discussed in the KB article).
In this improvement, we improved the user interface in ODBCAD32. In the dialog, a new column "Platform" is introduced to indicate which platform the DSN can be used:

The above screenshot shows that "DSN_to_Access" is a 32-bit only DSN, which can only be used in a 32-bit application. This is because the ODBC JET driver is only available on 32-bit platform. This also means that you have to use the 32-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator (C:\Windows\SysWow64\Odbcad32.exe on 64-bit windows) to configure and remove the DSN. Therefore, the “Remove” and “Configure” button have been disabled in the 64-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator. On the contrary, the Platform column for “DSN_to_SQL” shows “32/64-bit”, which means that “DSN_to_SQL” can be used in both 32-bit and 64-bit applications.

Also, this gives you a more consistent user experience by providing a unified view of all 32-bit and 64-bit System DSN in a single dialog.

PowerShell Cmdlet Support

In the past, you may have configured an ODBC DSN with ODBCAD32, which is a useful GUI tools to manage a few DSN manually. However, it would be tedious to manage hundreds of DSN on a single machine, or manage a few DSN on hundreds of machines with ODBCAD32.
Hence, you usually had to deploy a DSN via registry directly, which may not be a very convenient approach. To improve the manageability of ODBC DSN (as well as a few other WDAC settings), we will release a few PowerShell cmdlets in the next release of Windows:

Cmdlet Noun	Cmdlet Verb
OdbcDsn	Get, Add, Set, Remove
OdbcDriver	Get, Set
OdbcPerfCounter	Get, Enable, Disable
WdacBidTrace	Get, Enable, Disable

This improvement allows you to manage an ODBC DSN programmatically. Also, you can manage DSN on remote machines with the PowerShell Remoting feature.

For example, you can add a 64-bit ODBC System DSN using the driver SQL Server Native Client 10.0 in the local system:

C:\PS> Import-Module Wdac

C:\PS> Add-OdbcDsn MyPayroll -DriverName "SQL Server Native Client 10.0" -DsnType System –Platform 64-bit –SetPropertyValue @("Server=MySqlServer","Trusted_Connection=Yes", "Database=Payroll") -PassThru

Name : MyPayroll

DsnType : System

Platform : 64-bit

DriverName : SQL Server Native Client 10.0

Attribute : {Database, Server, Trusted_Connection}

When Can I Use These Improvements?

The above two improvements are already available in the Beta version of the next release of Windows (code-named Windows “8” and Windows Server “8”). Try out the Windows “8” Beta bits today!

How can I obtain the
documentation of the above PowerShell cmdlets?

You can run PowerShell with Administrative Privilege and then type “Update-Help Wdac”. Then, you can use “Get-Help” for each individual cmdlet, as normal.

Can I use the above PowerShell Cmdlets on downlevel Windows?

There is no plan to port the above cmdlets to Windows 7.

What’s the road map of the similar command-line tools OdbcConf?

The command-line tools OdbcConf is already deprecated and is superseded by the above PowerShell Cmdlet. The OdbcConf will be removed in a future version of Windows. Therefore, you are advised to plan the migration from OdbcConf to PowerShell Cmdlet.

Pak-Ming Cheung

Microsoft Developer, WDAC team, Data Programmability

Available Today: Preview Release of the SQL Server [C/C++] ODBC Driver for Linux

2011-11-29T22:31:38Z

In our continued commitment to interoperability, we are very excited to announce the availability of a preview release of the SQL Server ODBC Driver for Linux! This release will allow native developers to access Microsoft SQL Server from Linux operating systems. To assist our customers with native applications on multi-platform we have ported our existing, reliable and enterprise-class ODBC for Windows driver (a.k.a. SQL Server Native Client, or SNAC) to the Linux platform. Download the driver today here!

In this release, the SQL Server ODBC Driver for Linux will be a 64-bit driver for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. We will support SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012 with this release of the driver. Notable driver features (in addition to what you would expect in an ODBC driver) include support for the Kerberos authentication protocol, SSL and client-side UTF-8 encoding. This release also brings proven and effective tools and the BCP and SQLCMD utilities to the Linux world.

This SQL Server ODBC Driver for Linux provides a Microsoft-supported solution for C and C++ applications that target SQL Server. It also provides a mechanism for applications and runtimes that leverage ODBC to access SQL Server from Linux platforms. For customers who want to move from Sybase to SQL Server, the SQL Server ODBC Driver for Linux allows C and C++ code to continue running in Linux environments. For additional information on the first release of Microsoft ODBC Driver for Linux please refer to our ODBC Driver on Linux Documentation.

This release marks a big milestone in Microsoft’s continued commitment to interoperability and our alignment with ODBC as the preferred way to access SQL Server. Download the driver today; please provide your feedback and ask us questions via our forums; or post a comment via Microsoft Connect. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Shekhar Joshi
Senior Program Manager
Microsoft SQL Server ODBC Driver For Linux

Annual SQL Connectivity Customer Survey

2011-08-17T20:40:39Z

Greetings to the Developer community:

Microsoft SQL Server team has been interacting on a regular basis with the developers and users in the form of surveys. During the last 2 years, we completed surveys that focused on the broad SQL Connectivity components that address major development platforms, including ODBC, ADO.NET, JDBC and PHP. These surveys provide us with an ability to validate some of the requests we have got from developers, users and partners such as you as well as ideas that we have gathered internally as a part of our development process. You have seen our roadmap for SQL Server evolve based on the feedback that we have received.

We view your organization as a key stakeholder in the process that we have to identify areas for future investments. The feedback you provide is valuable and each response will be read and will be treated with utmost confidence. The survey can be found in the link below and will be available until 9th September, 2011 5:00 PM PST.

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22CS45XT9FE/

Thank you,

Raghu Ram

Principal Group Program Manager

SQL Connectivity

SQL Server RDBMS Group

Microsoft Corporation

Data + Application Services + Sync= “It’s Still All Data” (the new again-expanded Data Developer Center)

2010-06-07T18:49:00Z

Last November, at the start of the 2009 PDC, we launched an expanded Data Developer Center that incorporated XML and SQL Server Modeling (formerly “Oslo”) technologies. It was a challenge to create a site structure that could accommodate eight or more distinct technologies under one roof, but it seemed to work well and allowed space for future expansion.

Today we’ve taken the next step in that expansion by bringing in the next ring of data-focused developer technologies. Some of these may seem a bit surprising, which is exactly why we’re pulling them in under Data. Our intent is to create a clear, developer-centric view of all Microsoft’s data-oriented technologies, meaning that you get all the goods that will help you create great applications without the marketing.

Here, then, is the roster of technologies that now appear on the Data home page (as well as the Learn page and elsewhere); * indicates those that have been added:

*Database Technologies:
.NET Technologies
*Application Services:
Native and Cross-Platform Technologies:
Future Technologies:
- SQL Server Modeling CTP (“M”, “Quadrant”, and Modeling Services)

So the big question, of course, is why are we doing this? What’s the deal with bringing all these SQL Server specific technologies into the mix? Is this just an underhanded means to promote SQL Server? Didn’t you just say this wasn’t about marketing?

SQL Server: Database Engine vs. Application Services

That’s right—it’s not about marketing: it’s about clearly exposing developer surface areas where they’ve long been hidden. So while the SQL Server product as a whole does include a core database engine, SQL Server also includes a number of powerful developer-oriented features that just so happen to utilize SQL Server internally to do their jobs.

Let’s look at this generally. Say you want to build a service for doing reports that can be used by many different data-driven applications, where those applications may themselves be built on a variety of data platforms. To accomplish this, your service would need to collect and store information from those other applications. Where, then, do you store your particular information? You store it in a database, of course, so you would choose some reasonable database product to fulfill that particular role. In that sense, the underlying database technology used by your reports service is really just an implementation detail—what really matters is the developer surface area (API) that helps developers write better applications more easily.

Well, this is exactly what those SQL Server “services” are all about (including the future SQL Server Modeling Services). These are all “roles” for SQL Server in that they internally require a database to operate, and they just so happen to SQL Server for this purpose. This affinity is why they carry a SQL Server name.

However, they do not demand than applications that employ these powerful and mature APIs must also use SQL Server for their own primary storage needs. Not at all—as with other data access technologies from OBDC to ADO.NET to the Entity Framework, applications can and obviously must interoperate with a variety of database technologies. And they can continue to do so even if they employ APIs like SQL Server Integration Services for certain feature sets.

Helping Developers See the Services

We’ve found that many developers don’t realize that all these Application Services are developer APIs that can be used in this capacity. People hear “SQL Server” and they only think “database engine” and thus end up implementing their own reporting, analysis, integration, and synchronization services from scratch. Ouch!

By surfacing these technologies as partners with the well-known data access technologies, we’re thus hoping to increase awareness of these roles that SQL Server can play as powerful development tools above and beyond its being a database engine. And let us know, certainly, how well you think we’ve succeeded at this (or not).

Indeed, to underline this contrast, we’ve also chosen to separately distinguish the SQL Server database engines (including SQL Azure and SQL Compact), apart from the services. OK, so maybe this does plug those engines themselves a bit, but we felt it was necessary to set the proper context for the developer APIs we’re really trying to highlight. After all, you’re under no obligation to click those links!

Expanding Our Dev Center Organizational Model

Something else we’ve done with this mass-merging of additional technologies is to also expand on model of technology-specific landing pages that we started last November. The idea is that the Home and Learn pages are where you explore the whole gamut of technologies in order to make a more specific choice about the ones you’ll really be using. (For this purpose, by the way, we’ve updated the Data Development At-a-Glance and Data Development Technologies: Past, Present, and Future papers to include Application Services and everything else listed on the home page).

Once you make those choices, then, (and click on an appropriate link), you then arrive at an area that’s specifically focused on one technology. There we have prominent graphics for Get It (obtaining the technology), Beginner’s Guide (for on-ramping), and Learn More (for ongoing announcements, support, and deep-dive resources)—all of which is focused on the one technology. Thus within these landing pages, you’ll find specifically-relevant blog feeds, forum feeds, highlights, video and documentation links, book links, and so forth.

Thus we fully expect that you’ll often be branching off the main Data home page to those technologies of specific interest to you, as that’s where we’ll be highlighting technology-specific content. The main Data page, for its part, will continue to be where we highlight cross-technology content.

Would You Like to Contribute?

Speaking of content, we’d like to extend an invitation to you—the developer community—to participate in content creation for All Things Data. We really love your creative ideas because while we may be the ones creating these technologies, you’re the ones using them to create great value for the many customers we are all trying to serve.

So if you see opportunities to fill in gaps in the Data Developer Center content, please drop us both your suggestions as well as idea for articles, videos, etc., that you might like to produce. We can then work with you on that production (including technical and editorial review), and then find space on the Developer Center to share that content with the community and give you great exposure in return.

We look forward to hearing from you! You can reach us through dpfback (at) microsoft.com.

Kraig Brockschmidt
Community Program Manager for the Data Developer Center

Data + XML + “Oslo” = “It’s All Data” (the new Data Developer Center)

2009-11-17T18:05:00Z

After some months of planning and execution, we’re delighted to present you with the newly redesigned and expanded Data Developer Center on MSDN!

The expanded part here comes from the fact that the Data DevCenter is now home to what used to be two other separate centers, XML and “Oslo”. Actually, the XML DevCenter already joined with Data back in early October more or less intact. The former “Oslo” site, on the other hand, has merged with Data as of PDC 2009, a natural result of “Oslo” becoming SQL Server Modeling and taking a clear place within the larger ecosystem of data development technologies.

The redesign part then really came up as the natural result of this merging. Back in early July, Elisa Flasko (the owner of the Data DevCenter at that time) and myself (owner of the “Oslo” DevCenter) started to explore how best to present all the diverse technologies that we’d be supporting on the merged DevCenter.

The challenges were immediately apparent, as were the opportunities implicit in the solutions to those challenges. For one, the Data and XML DevCenters were very much oriented around currently shipping technologies, as well as ones with a multi-version history. SQL Server Modeling/“Oslo”, on the other hand, was 100% pre-release. But that gave us the clear opportunity to ground our presentation of SQL Server Modeling in the context of the most recently data technologies, like the ADO.NET Entity Framework, as well as the entire arc of data development technologies over the last two decades.

Second was the need to answer a perennial question: with all these different data development technologies, which one do you use for what purpose, and when? It’s a question I’ve been hearing over and over from developers, one that stems from the undeniable fact that after twenty-five years or so, Microsoft’s overall development platform is just plain big. Very, very big! The opportunity, then, was to start exploring ways to help you—the developers who live and breathe MSDN—navigate your way through that bigness, by leading you through distinct steps that quickly reduce the overall surface area of what you need to think about and understand. What we’ve done on the Data DevCenter, which I’ll discuss more in a moment, is our first step.

The third major challenge was to create a DevCenter structure that could continue to support the healthy developer communities that have grown up around the individual technologies while at the same time encourage the growth of an “It’s All Data” community. The opportunity here was to think beyond just having a single community stage—that is, a single aggregation of data-related community blogs—to create “mini-DevCenters” for main individual technologies along with really a “best of” aggregation on the Data DevCenter home page.

And, of course, we had the challenge to do all this in time for PDC 2009, especially with the redesign of MSDN itself in mid-October that had serious implications where page layout was concerned. But truly, this was an opportunity both to keep ourselves focused and to reevaluate (by necessity!) how we utilized your screen real-estate.

Whew!

Well, we hope that the new Data Developer Center has met these challenges and created a framework upon which we can grow.

Now if you want to continue reading, the sections that follow go into a little more detail about what you’ll find on the site. But of course you’re wholly invited to just go there yourself and start exploring!

The Home, Community, and Support Pages

Upon visiting the site, you’ll see that the home page is designed to help you find your place in the overall data technology stack. Instead of a flat list of technologies, which assumes you already know what they’re used for, we’ve grouped them into .NET technologies, “native” (e.g. Win32) technologies, and the ever-available “future stuff” bucket, with direct, one-sentence descriptions. I also wanted to illustrate—literally, with diagrams—how the technologies within these groups relate to one another, a real act of self-discipline for one who loves to wordsmith. Thus was born the short Data Development Technologies At-a-Glance article (as well as individuals At-a-Glance topics for Entity Framework and Data Services). As an expanded version, I also wanted to understand and illustrate how all these technologies developed over time, which you’ll find in Data Development Technologies: Past, Present, and Future. (My associates have described this as a real “archeological job,” for which I’m grateful to whoever ditched an old 1999 copy of Inside SQL Server 7.0 in one of the Microsoft mailrooms!)

We’re also happy to offer the much more detailed piece by Bob Beauchmin, Guide to the Data Development Platform for .NET Developers, as well as our Top Ten Questions & Answers on Data.

Farther down the home page you’ll also find aggregations of our top team and community blogs—those we’ve hand-picked to feature—while on the main Community page you’ll find aggregations of all the blogs we monitor. The main Community page is also home to training partners, an index of user groups, and the best data development books and community sites.

And we should mention too that the main Support page is also an all-up gateway to all the different data development MSDN forums and the data development Connect sites.

The Learn Page

The main Learn page now is the one that we consider of top importance, second only to the home page. It’s really here that we hope newcomers will land when they really want to know what they should be investigating more deeply.

What we’ve done on this page then, after providing links again to the At-a-Glance, Past/Present/Future, and Guide for .NET Developer articles, is offer the Selection Guide section. This contains a decision tree based on four initial choices: Application Type, Release Timeframe, Storage Technology, and Learning Type. Each of these leads you into a second level of choices that finally present a list of those specific technologies that are really applicable to the choices you’ve made. Because we’ve invested quite a bit of thought into this guide, we’d really love to hear what you think!

Below the selection guide we continue to present the list of technologies we support on the Data DevCenter, organized into Current and Future columns. And rounding out the Learn page is a group of Learning Type links that will take you off to index pages for documentation, videos (shipping and pre-release), articles, samples, books, and more!

Individual Technology Pages (Mini-DevCenters)

Now when you’re on either the home page or the Learn page and click on the name of a technology, you’ll go to another page that helps you dive more deeply into that technology. In some cases, especially with the most mature technologies, those secondary pages are static. In others, especially the most recent and future technologies for which there is significant community buzz, we’ve creating something of the look-and-feel of a separate DevCenter.

For shipping technologies, specifically Data Services and ADO.NET Entity Framework, these technology pages give you quick links to the necessary downloads, a sequenced Beginner’s Guide, a detailed Resources & Community page, and a futures page. Here you’ll also see technology-specific highlight along with team and community blog aggregations.

Those blog aggregations are repeated on the Resources & Community pages for the individual teachnologies, where you’ll also find feeds for the latest videos, articles, forum posts, and Connect feedback, along with links to samples, MSDN library content, product documentation, related technologies, and available hands-on-labs. In short, we designed these each of these Resources & Community pages to be the place where you’ll be spending most of your time once you are actively working with any given technology.

We’re doing a similar thing with pre-release technologies, such as those in the SQL Server Modeling CTP: the “M” language, “Quadrant”, and SQL Server Modeling Services. In these cases we don’t have a separate Beginner’s Guide or—obviously—a “futures” page, because all of that is really folded into the individual Resources & Community pages.

What’s to Come

Well, the first thing I can think of, after writing everything to this point, is that I should sit down and do a video tour of the DevCenter! But as you might expect, many of us are going to be taking some well-deserved vacation after PDC…I, for one, am planning to hit the already-open ski slopes of Mount Hood outside Portland, Oregon, where I live. So I can’t promise a video right away.

What we’ll be doing in the months ahead is really working to deliver new content for the various sections of the Data DevCenter as appropriate for the lifecycle stage of the individual technologies. For example, the Data Services and Entity Framework teams are ramping up their content plans in preparation for the imminent release of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4. With a new SQL Server Modeling CTP just out the door, there are many good content opportunities to pursue there as well.

So watch all those feeds we’ve dropped around the DevCenter, and more than that, do take the time to tell us what you think of this redesign, the Selection Guide on the Learn page, blogs you’d like to see included in our aggregations, and really anything else you can think of (including any glitches you see). “It’s All Data,” sure, but it’s really all about serving you, to help you have the greatest successes you can—and enjoyment!—with Microsoft’s data development technologies. To this goal I and the rest of our whole Community team are completely committed.

You can reach us through dpfback (at) microsoft.com.

Kraig Brockschmidt
Community Program Manager for the Data Developer Center

Breaking Down ‘Data Silos’ – The Open Data Protocol (OData)

2009-11-17T17:25:00Z

This morning at PDC and on the ADO.NET Data Services team blog, we announced the Open Data Protocol (OData). OData which was previously known informally as the "data services protocol", is an open protocol for sharing data that provides a way to break down data silos and increase the shared value of data by creating an ecosystem in which data consumers can interoperate with data producers in a way that is far more powerful than currently possible, enabling more applications to make sense of a broader set of data. Every producer and consumer of data that participates in this ecosystem increases its overall value. This is similar in many ways to Microsoft’s efforts with ODBC, although applied to the Web environment and supporting a variety of data sources including (but not limited to) relational databases, file systems, content management systems, and traditional web sites.

For more information on OData check out OData.org and our announcement on the team blog.

VS2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 Announced Today!

2009-10-20T00:59:44Z

Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 are now available for download by MSDN subscribers and will available to the rest of the world on Wednesday. Beta 2 as well the VS2010 Launch date of March 22, 2010 were announced this morning on Soma’s blog.

Included in Beta 2 are some great new features and updates for both the Entity Framework 4 and ADO.NET Data Services 4. For more information check out our post on the ADO.NET team blog.

Thank you,

Elisa Flasko
Program Manager,
Data & Modeling Group

Microsoft wants to hear your opinion

2009-10-03T00:59:12Z

It is this time of the year when our product team takes a step back, reviews the priorities and goals for the long term and identifies areas that we want to investment in.

We view YOU and your organization as a key stakeholder in this process and would like to gather your inputs in this survey, which should take no more than 5 - 10 minutes, and a few other surveys that we will conduct in the next few months. The feedback you provide is very valuable and rest assured that each and every response will be read and will provide the background for some of the key decisions that will benefit our user community - developers, DBAs and all those who use SQL Server.

This survey will be open for your submissions until October 21, 2009 and can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ZyUzG1TqA30QaEgAS9FYuQ_3d_3d.

Thanks,

Luiz Fernando Santos
Program Manager, Managed Providers

ADO.NET Data Services v1.5 CTP2 available for download

2009-09-01T21:34:34Z

ADO.NET Data Services v1.5 CTP2 is now available for download! This is the second tech preview release of the next version of ADO.NET Data Services. This release (v1.5) will target the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 & Silverlight 3 platforms and provide new client and server side features for data service developers.

What’s included in CTP2?

This release includes updates to the features that were in the CTP1 release of ADO.NET Data Services v1.5 plus a few additional new features and a number of bug fixes including:

Projections
Data Binding updates
Feed Customization (aka "Web Friendly Feeds") updates
Server Driven Paging (SDP) client library support
Enhanced BLOB Support client library support
Request Pipeline
"Data Service Provider" Interface updates

For more information and to watch the Getting Started video check out the Announcement on the ADO.NET Data Services Team Blog.

Thank you,
Elisa Flasko
Program Manager, Data Programmability

Announcing the php toolkit for ado.net data services

2009-08-21T19:19:00Z

This morning the Microsoft Interoperability team announced the release of a new project that bridges PHP and.NET: the PHP Toolkit for ADO.NET Data Services. The toolkit makes it easier for PHP developers to connect to and take advantage of services built using ADO.NET Data Services. The PHP Toolkit for ADO.NET Data Services is an open source project and is available today on Codeplex at phpdataservices.codeplex.com

For an overview and quick demo of the toolkit check out the Channel9 video with Pablo Castro and Claudio Caldato, Senior Program Manager with the Interoperability Technical Strategy team.

For more information on the toolkit check out the Interoperability Teams blog post and phpdataservices.codeplex.com.

- Elisa Flasko
Program Manager, Data Programmability

ODBC DM 3.80 in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

2009-07-07T02:45:00Z

We’re excited to announce that version 3.8 of the Microsoft ODBC DM (Driver Manager) will be released in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

What’s New In Version 3.80?

Compared to ODBC 3.5x, there are four major improvements in ODBC 3.80.

Streamed Output Parameters

In ODBC 3.5x, applications can only use SQLBindParameter to bind a buffer to an output parameter of a stored procedure. When working with large BLOB data objects, such as images, allocating an extremely large buffer may not be possible. ODBC 3.80 allows applications to retrieve BLOB output parameters in parts via SQLGetData.

ODBC C-Type Extensibility

The list of valid C-Types defined in the ODBC specification is the same for all ODBC drivers. Typically, data store manufacturers create new data types for new scenarios or new customer needs. Applications usually use the generic C-type SQL_C_BINARY to work with these new data-source specific types. ODBC 3.80 allows driver manufacturers to define their own C-Types. This means that a driver can define its own client-side type conversion rule for its new driver-specific data type, and thus provide a better developer experience.

Asynchronous Connection Operation

Before ODBC 3.80, asynchronous mode was only supported on statement operations, such as SQLExecDirect and SQLGetData. We extend this support to connection operations, such as SQLDriverConnect and SQLEndTran. ODBC 3.80 also allows applications to cancel connection operations, just as with SQLCancel on statement operations.

Asynchronous connection operations can significantly improve the performance of many large-scale, mission-critical applications, given the same amount of resources. For example, assume that you want to populate 100 connections in the pool at the application startup time so that all subsequence requests can be more efficiently served. Suppose it takes 1 second to make a connection to a remote server. You may be able to make 100 connections within a few seconds with asynchronous mode in a single-threaded application, compared to 100 seconds with the previous model! Interactive applications that take advantage of this new feature could, for example, render a progress bar, and also cancel long-running connection operations easily.

Better Management In ODBC Connection Pooling

ODBC Drivers are now notified when the ODBC Driver Manager puts a connection into the connection pool. This was previously opaque to the driver. Upon receiving the signal from the Driver Manager (via a newly introduced connection attribute SQL_ATTR_RESET_CONNECTION), a driver can reset some of its attributes to their default states. This can provide a more consistent behavior to an application when it reuses a connection from the pool.

For more detail about each of the above new features, you can download the Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1: RC.

Why Update To Version 3.80?

Application compatibility was our highest priority when the ODBC 3.80 features were designed. Since the new features in ODBC 3.80 introduced new behavior, we upgraded the version to 3.80 from 3.5x (shipped on Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008). This guarantees that:

- Existing ODBC drivers and applications (ODBC 2.0 or ODBC 3.x) will still work properly under Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

- ODBC 3.80 is optional for new development of drivers and applications.

When Can I Use These New Features?

For ODBC driver writers, the release candidates of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 have these features. Try out the Win7 RC bits today!

For application developers, please read the SDK (link above) to better understand how these features may fit within your environment. At the moment, ODBC 3.80 drivers are not available; however, we are in contact with several driver vendors about supporting ODBC 3.80. Please work with your driver vendor to better understand their plan for ODBC 3.80 support.

Does SQLODBC Driver (Inside WDAC) Support ODBC 3.80?

No. SQLODBC is now in maintenance mode. Its sole purpose is for backward compatibility.

Pak-Ming Cheung

Microsoft Developer, WDAC team, Data Programmability

DataDirect Releases Beta Entity Framework Provider for Oracle

2009-05-01T20:27:52Z

DataDirect has released the much anticipated Beta of their DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET Entity Framework provider for Oracle!

DataDirect’s Beta release of its Entity Framework provider for Oracle offers:

100% managed code architecture
Superior performance and including integrated performance tunability wizards functional with the Entity Framework
7 x 24 phone, email, and web-based technical support.
Support for security features including Kerberos and SSL
Supports reliability features including application failover and Oracle RAC
Support for key Oracle features including schemas, REF CURSORs, and packages
Extensive Oracle data type support including BLOB, BLOB, BINARY, and XML
Provides interoperable platform for future DataDirect ADO.NET Entity Framework providers

For more information or to download the Beta check out

http://www.datadirect.com/products/net/beta/index.ssp

-Elisa Flasko
Program Manager, Data Programmability

Database Diagramming Survey

2009-04-21T18:49:00Z

The Data Programmability Tools team is currently running a survey with the goal of prioritizing ‘value add’ features for a database designer. If you’re interested in helping shape the future of MS database design tools, please take ten minutes and fill out the survey at the following link. We’d appreciate your input!

https://MSCUILLUME.smdisp.net/Collector/Survey.ashx?Name=DBDiagramming&LoginId=

Thanks ,Tim Laverty

Microsoft PM, Data Programmability Tools

Announcing Microsoft SQL Server JDBC Driver 2.0

2009-04-01T08:21:00Z

We are excited to announce the newest release of the Microsoft SQL Server JDBC Driver! This version of the JDBC driver provides support for the JDBC 4.0 API, including new national character set conversion methods, new metadata methods, and new data types like SQLXML, as well as a host of performance improvements and bug fixes. The latest version also enhances the tracing operation by logging the entry and exit points of public methods and by providing better distinction between the trace levels. Please feel free to download a copy and see for yourself!

- JDBC Team

PDC 2008 - Los Angeles, CA - Oct. 27-30

2008-09-13T00:13:21Z

Microsoft's premier developer event, the Professional Developer Conference, is almost here. PDC 2008 will feature more than 160 sessions covering a wide range of topics including a number of great sessions from the Data Programmability Team, including the ADO.NET Entity Framework, ADO.NET Data Services and Project "Velocity".

Developing Applications Using Data Services

Presenter: Mike Flasko

In the near future, applications will be developed using a combination of custom application code and online building block services, including data-centric services. In this session we discuss advancements in the Microsoft development platform and online service interfaces to enable seamless interaction with data services both on-premises (e.g., ADO.NET Data Services Framework over on-premises SQL Server) and in the cloud (e.g., SQL Server Data Services). Learn how you can leverage existing know-how related to LINQ (Language Integrated Query), data access APIs, data-binding, and more when building applications using online data.

Offline-Enabled Data Services and Desktop Applications

Presenter: Pablo Castro

The ADO.NET Data Services Framework (a.k.a. Project "Astoria") introduced a way of creating and consuming flexible, data-centric REST services. By combining data services with the Microsoft Sync Framework, learn how to create offline-capable applications that have a local replica of their data, how to synchronize that replica with an online data service when a network connection becomes available, and how replicas can be used with the ADO.NET Entity Framework. Also, hear us talk about our plans, see the tools that help client- and server-side setup, and discuss the runtime components and APIs.

Entity Framework Futures

Presenter: Tim Mallalieu

The next version of the Entity Framework adds scenarios in the areas of model driven development, domain driven development, simplicity, and integration. See a preview of production and prototype code for the next version of the Entity Framework as well as a candid discussion with members of the development team.

Project "Velocity": A First Look

Presenter: Murali Krishnaprasad

It is predicted that all large applications will use a distributed data cache as the initial tier for all data access. This session presents an overview of "Velocity," Microsoft's distributed in-memory cache, and shows how it works with IIS, ASP.NET, ADO.NET and SQL Server Data Services.

See you there!!

Elisa Flasko
Program Manager, Data Programmability

Announcing Entity Framework & ADO.NET Data Services RTM!

2008-08-11T19:11:00Z

Announcing Entity Framework & ADO.NET Data Services RTM!

We are excited to announce the RTM of the Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, including the RTM of the ADO.NET Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services, which raise the level of abstraction for database programming and supply both a new model-based paradigm and a rich, standards-based framework for creating data-oriented Web services. With this service pack, Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 also support SQL Server 2008, making the Microsoft platform the most comprehensive environment for database application development.

“The ASP.NET AJAX improvements and new capabilities like ADO.NET Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services meant we didn’t have to worry about any of the underlying plumbing and could simply focus on building a highly responsive and interactive experience for users,” says Galen Murdock, President and CEO at Veracity Solutions. (Link to Official Press Release)

For more information or to download check out http://msdn.microsoft.com/data

Elisa Flasko
Program Manager, Data Programmability

XML Technology and Tools Survey

2008-07-02T00:37:00Z

The Data Programmability XML Tools team is conducting a survey focused on XML technology and tools usage over the coming weeks. The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete and we’d appreciate it if you would take the time to respond to it. We plan to use the survey results to help drive prioritization of features over the coming releases of Visual Studio and SQL Server.

The survey can be found here: https://mscuillume.smdisp.net/Collector/Survey.ashx?Name=XMLTools

Thanks,
Tim Laverty
PM, XML Tools

Announcing Project Codename "Velocity"

2008-06-03T06:53:00Z

The advances in processors, memory, storage, and connectivity have paved the way for next-generation applications that are data-driven, whose data could reside anywhere (i.e. on the desktops, mobile devices, servers, and in the cloud) and that require access from anywhere (i.e. local, remote, over the network, from mobile devices, in connected and disconnected mode). This trend has led to the development of distributed, multi-tiered, and composite application architectures for the web and for the enterprise. A typical enterprise application accesses data from multiple data sources, integrates that data, re-shapes (or transforms) that data into a form most suitable for the application (typically into object form like C# or Java object), and writes application logic. The same is true of web applications – consider social networking apps or mashups – they access data from multiple web sources, over the internet, aggregate it, execute application logic, and generate pages for web interaction. As these styles of multi-tiered web and enterprise application are becoming main stream, the demand for application performance and scale is increasing. End users become less tolerant and more frustrated when a web application cannot respond in milliseconds; web applications that cannot scale, as the number of concurrent accesses increase, lose traffic and thereby business. Fundamentally, we have all begun to expect high performance and scale from every application. And let’s not forget application availability. For similar reasons to those I describe above, an application cannot be down. We cannot imagine the MSN portal or the Amazon web site, or the corporate SAP financial application being down when we need it. We expect to access our personal information on MSN at any time; consumers do business with Amazon at any time and from anywhere. Fundamentally, applications need to be available all the time to support access at any time, and from anywhere. Another major expectation, especially from application developers and from application hosters is that of scalable and available applications at a low cost. A decade ago, only mission-critical businesses could afford to invest in large and expensive infrastructure (both hardware and software) to support scale and availability of their applications. But, now with web hosting, everyone expects and demands high scale and availability at low cost. Extending this even further, not only developers want cheap scalable and available applications, they want the ability to develop (and deploy) such applications very rapidly.

To cope with competitive pressure, both from an innovation and a deployment perspective, rapid development and deployment of these applications is critical for application vendors. In turn, application developers are looking for application infrastructure that enables them to build highly performant, scalable, and available applications using commodity hardware and software, at a rapid pace. Traditional application platforms like the .NET and Java platforms, which are known for rapid multi-tier application development and deployment, are required to provide the scalability and availability infrastructure.

Distributed cache is becoming the key application platform component for providing scalability and high availability. In-memory caching has been traditionally used primarily for meeting the high performance requirements of applications. By fusing caches on multiple nodes into a single unified cache however, the distributed caches offer not only high performance, but also scale. By maintaining copies of data on multiple cache nodes (in a mutually consistent manner), the distributed cache can also offer high availability to applications. Distributed caches are especially ideal for applications with the following characteristics:

There is a considerable number of data requests that are mostly read (e.g. product catalogs)
- Large concurrent access to such data can be provided by replicating the catalog data on multiple cache nodes. Since updates are infrequent to such data, maintaining consistency (synchronously or asynchronously) is not very expensive
Applications that can tolerate some staleness of data
- Such applications can provide better performance and scale by not requiring immediate updates ore refreshing of caches
Applications that can work with highly partitioned data (e.g. session data, shopping cart)
- High scale and performance can be supported by partitioning and distributing data across multiple cache nodes, and thereby distributing data processing across the cache nodes
Applications that can work well with eventual consistency
- Consider a flight inventory application, which must satisfy a large number of concurrent read/writes to the inventory of seats. To support large scale, the distributed cache may replicate the inventory value on multiple nodes; however, the inventory values on different nodes have to be made consistent in some fashion. Requiring immediate (also known as strong) consistency will require updates to be synchronously propagated to all the copies. Such action would impact the overall performance and scale of the application. However, instead of immediately making the copies consistent, allowing them to eventually (in an asynchronous manner) become consistent will provide low latency, high performance access to inventory.

As distributed caches become more widely deployed, I believe over the next few years, distributed cache will be used as the first tier of all data access. Multi-tier application architecture will include the cache tier as a data access tier between the application server tier and the backend data tier.

Today, Microsoft is announcing the first CTP of a distributed caching product to provide the .NET application platform support for developing highly performant, scalable, and highly available applications. The project code named “Velocity” is a distributed cache that allows any type of data (CLR object, XML document, or binary data) to be cached. “Velocity” fuses large numbers of cache nodes in a cluster into a single unified cache and provides transparent access to cache items from any client connected to the cluster. The Data Platform Developer Center at http://msdn.microsoft.com/data and the Velocity Team Blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/velocity provides additional information about project code named “Velocity” as well as links to download our first CTP.

Distributed caches are not new – during the last couple of years several caching products have emerged to address the performance and scalability needs of applications. Most of these products are point products, primarily supporting key-based access. Other than memcached, which is an open source technology, most others target enterprises and enterprise workloads and scale. I think the web workloads require considerably large scale, with 1000s of cache nodes in a cluster. The web scale distributed caches not only require mechanisms that can scale and provide availability in very large clusters, they must be easy to manage or self-managed. In the Future, “Velocity” envisions being an integral part of the .NET application stack targeting both enterprise and web workloads (and scale). As applications start using the caches for data access, I also believe, they will demand richer data services like query, transactions, analytics, synchronization etc. For example, we believe .NET applications will require LINQ queries on the distributed cache, the same way they query the backend SQL Server database. We envision “Velocity” becoming such a comprehensive distributed caching platform. The performance, scale, and availability functionality of “Velocity” along with its rich data services will allow for rich web and enterprise applications development and deployment.

Anil Nori
Microsoft Distinguished Engineer

Software Development Engineer in Test opening in Data Programmability

2008-05-24T03:55:00Z

The SQL Server JDBC team is running at full speed working on the next JDBC driver for SQL Server. We are looking for people to share in our excitement about the future of data access for SQL Server and to manage the quality of our next deliverables.

Are you passionate about working with data, the powerful query capabilities of T-SQL, the power of Object Oriented programming languages like Java, C#, C++? Are you interested in designing the next set of API’s for data and want to work for a team that’s focused on shipping technologies and having fun?

We are interested in hearing from you. Drop us a line through the team blog or directly to me and we’ll get back to you.

Uwa Agbonile

SQL Server JDBC/SNAC/PHP Teams

Uwa.Agbonile@microsoft.com

Interested in working on the ADO.NET Data Services Framework (aka "Astoria") or XML?

2008-05-20T19:13:00Z

Do you want to work on the next generation of data access APIs for the web? If so, the Astoria and XML teams are hiring. If you want to get a feel for the types of problems our team thinks about the solutions we build, check out the earlier posts on this blog as well as

http://msdn.microsoft.com/data and http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml

We have a range of job openings across disciplines (Development, Developer in Test and Program Management) available on the Astoria and XML teams. If you are interested in any of these positions, please send myself (mike.flasko@microsoft.com) and Andy Conrad (aconrad@microsoft.com) email.

For more details on each of the open positions, please see:

ADO.NET Data Services PM

XML PM

ADO.NET Data Services SDE

XML SDE

ADO.NET Data Services SDE/T

XML SDE/T

We look forward to talking with you...

Thanks,

Mike Flasko : ADO.NET Data Services ("Astoria"), Program Manager

Entity Framework & Data Services Available in VS2008 SP1 Beta

2008-05-12T07:30:00Z

We are very excited about .NET 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and what this update means for developers who use ADO.NET for data development. This beta marks the entry of the ADO.NET Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services (aka project Astoria) as part of the overall .NET/Visual Studio beta install. This public release is also the final beta before the RTM of these two technologies. In addition, we have a revision of LINQ to SQL that introduces the new date time functions for SQL Server 2008.

In the space of a few short months developers have been able to experience a wave of innovation in the .NET data programming space. We began with the introduction of LINQ in .NET Framework 3.5 for providing a compile time query experience over in-memory objects, XML and relational data, and now we’re adding the Entity Framework runtime and graphical entity designer into the mix. The Entity Framework extends the reach of ADO.NET, providing a new data model that will be the foundation for a range of data services moving forward. We’ve also enhanced the common ADO.NET provider model enabling a LINQ programming experience against 3^rd party databases. The Entity Framework designer in Visual Studio works with 3^rd party databases as well and enables developers to visualize the data model being used by the application.

Over the last year or so we’ve seen a growing trend in the way people build services. They tend to either be operation-centric with a focus on actions occurring on either side or they are resource-centric, where the focus is on working with the data or resource on either side. For operation-centric services the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow (WF) teams have done a bunch of work in .NET 3.5 to make it easier to build these action oriented service interfaces as a workflow. On the data-centric side, the Data Programmability team has been working with the WCF team to deliver ADO.NET Data Services. This is one of the most exciting new additions to the platform in some time, providing the foundation for building the next generation of data-driven applications and services today. These data services build on the WCF classes to provide an end-to-end experience for building data-centric REST based services in .NET. They have a REST based query model, a means of exchanging metadata (in terms of the Entity Data Model) and client and mid-tier API’s that let people build rich data services and clients in a way that is easier than ever before. Developers can start with the Entity Framework and expose relational data via the Data Services Framework, they can expose non-relational data using a custom provider, or they can use some of the existing services that already expose these protocols.

· Live App Storage

· Live Spaces Photos

In summary, it is an exciting time to be working with data on the .NET platform. The team is looking forward to your feedback. We invite you all to download this beta and start using these technologies today.

Sam Druker

General Manager, Data Programmability

Program Manager openings in Data Programmability in 2008

2008-04-17T03:43:00Z

We’re gearing up for the next release of the SQL Server, and we are looking for people that have a passion for building great data access technologies and frameworks to help with the effort. We have been very busy recently releasing:

· Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server aka SqlClient)

· Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack CTP, February 2008 (includes Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Native Client)

· SQL Server 2005 Driver for PHP Community Technology Preview (February 2008)

· Microsoft SQL Server 2005 JDBC Driver 1.2

If you are interested in designing the next set of API’s and tackling challenging technical subjects across all our SQL Server data access stacks and want to work for a team who is focused on shipping great technologies, we’re interested in hearing from you. Drop me a line directly at ddove@microsoft.com.

Debra Dove
Lead Program Manager

Connecting to Pre-Release Versions of SQL Server 2008 – Part Deux

2008-04-07T21:26:00Z

Since posting on the topic of design-time and runtime connectivity to pre-release versions of SQL Server 2008 on the Data blog in November, the set of affected clients (applications, runtimes, and operating systems) have been officially released: Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, Microsoft .NET Framework v3.5, Microsoft Vista Service Pack 1, and Microsoft Windows 2008. Runtime connectivity from a client system configured with any of these released products to SQL Server 2008 November CTP or later provides full runtime access to the following features (for design-time functionality, see below):

· Table-Valued Parameters

· New date/time data types

· Large user-defined types

· Support for very large FILESTREAM-attributed column data

Design-Time Connectivity Between Visual Studio and SQL Server 2008

Developers using Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008 design tools will receive an error when trying to open a database on any pre-release instance of SQL Server 2008 without installing a Visual Studio patch. Pre-release patches for Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2005 enable the following Visual Studio functionality for SQL Server 2008:

· Server Explorer successfully connects to SQL Server 2008, and database objects such as stored procedures and table data can be viewed and edited.

o Note that table schemas still cannot be viewed or edited in this release.

· SQL CLR projects that target SQL Server 2008 can be created and deployed to the server.

· T-SQL and SQL CLR debugging are now enabled for SQL Server 2008.

· Data binding features in Client and Web Projects are enabled.

Pre-release versions of the design-time patches are currently available: the Visual Studio 2008 CTP patch is available for download here and the Visual Studio 2005 CTP patch is available for download here. Final versions of the patches will be available in the near future. For more information please see the "Connecting to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 from Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and 2008" whitepaper on MSDN.

Debra Dove

Program Manager Lead, Data Programmability

64-bit OLEDB Provider for ODBC (MSDASQL) Is Now Available For Windows Server 2003

2008-04-07T18:51:00Z

We’re pleased to announce that 64-bit MSDASQL for Windows Server 2003 is now available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=000364db-5e8b-44a8-b9be-ca44d18b059b. This update will also be available through “Windows Update” soon.

What is MSDASQL?

MSDASQL is an OLEDB/ODBC ‘bridge’ that allows applications built on OLEDB and ADO (which uses OLEDB internally) to access data sources through ODBC drivers. MSDASQL ships with the Windows Operating System, and Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 are the first Windows releases to include a 64-bit version of MSDASQL.

Isn’t MSDASQL Deprecated?

Previous messaging on MSDN indicated that a 64-bit version of MSDASQL would not be available. However, we have received numerous requests from customers for this technology and we are making it available on the following Windows operating systems: Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft has no plan yet to deprecate this technology currently.

Mo Lin

Program Manager, Data Programmability