For all your Vista vows, and more... http://answers.microsoft.com

-Mithun Dhar

Welcome to the Windows FireStarter Chat Page. This is a community page for the Windows FireStarter event that will be simulcasted on the web via Live Meeting on Friday the 12th of December between 8:15 AM and 5:30 PM PST.

To view the event on the web, you need to Register for the Live Meeting version. If you can come attend the event in Person, we are hosting this at the Microsoft Conference facilities in Redmond, WA. Please register to ensure a seat...

With this chat page, I'm trying to bring the 'live event' experience as much as possible. You'll be able to chat with the attendees in Redmond, ask questions and clarifications. We'll also try and have a couple moderators.

You can, have a group chat, or 1-1 chat via this page.

• Register for the In Person Event: https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032396693&Culture=en-US
• Register for the Live Meeting version: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032396930&Culture=en-US
• Event Date: 12th December - 2008 - (this Friday)
• Event Time: 8:15 AM to 5:00 PM (Entire event will be simulcasted on the web)

If you have any questions, mail them to me at MithunD at Microsoft dot com.

See you at the event!

-Mithun Dhar

This news is about two weeks old but better late than never :) I'm trying to put together a VSTS FireStarter event which will essentially be a comprehensive one day training on VSTS. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Download page:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bb3ad767-5f69-4db9-b1c9-8f55759846ed&displaylang=en

Setup:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/a/e/0ae1153a-8798-474a-93e6-d19299f37c8b/setup.exe

Read Me:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/a/e/0ae1153a-8798-474a-93e6-d19299f37c8b/Readme.mht

Documentation:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/a/e/0ae1153a-8798-474a-93e6-d19299f37c8b/Documentation.zip

Features:

• Project System
  • Full support for SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 support.
    • All database objects are now modeled, therefore they are compared and part of deployment. The side-effect of this is that there are no more objects that need to be stored in pre- and post-deployment scripts.
  • Server vs. Database projects
    • This change allows you to model the different behavior of shared and server level objects inside SQL Server vs. user database level objects. 
  • Partial projects
    • Partial project allow you to share implementation between projects, with a single definition of the code
  • Composite projects
    • Composite projects extend database references, allowing you to add objects from other project to the name database schema namespace. So you can compose your database from other projects and/or DBSCHEMA file references
  • Database references using literals, in addition to SQLCMD token support
    • The addition of literal support facilitates that you do not have to change your code of 3-part names, when do do not require the flexibility of name independent deployment
  • Reference support for XML Schema Collections to include .XSD files
    • Enables single sourcing of XML Schema Collections from an .XSD file which itself can be used by other developers or tools.
  • Reference support of SQL-CLR projects and / or SQL-CLR assemblies
    • Enables the inclusion of a SQL-CLR project or a binary, to represent a SQL-CLR assembly. Like XSD references, the goal is single sourcing of artifacts inside the development environment
  • Import Schema and Import Script is now available through DTE
    • This allows the creation of macros or programmatic add-in to drive these common tasks.
  • No more "DesignDB"
    • The change to a fully model driven implementation makes the need for a local SQL Server database instance obsolete. Having a sandbox for your development environment is still am advised practice though, so you can test the changes independently and in an isolated environment.
• Build
  • Build validates the consistency of the schema model and produces all the files that you need to deploy the database
• Deploy
  • Deploy takes the output from the build stage and deploys this information based on the settings supplied
  • Deployment settings are now isolated in to the .SQLDEPLOYMENT file, which allows you to standardize and re-use the deployment settings
  • Most of the "Schema Compare" comparison options are now available as the deployment options, to increase the symmetry between the two
  • VSDBCMD.EXE, is a command line deployment tool, which enables the standalone deployment of Database Project
• Schema Compare:
  • Compares any combination of live databases, Database Projects and .DBSCHEMA files
  • Session level option support, which can be persisted and re-used
  • Object type level filtering allow you to exclude object types from the comparison
  • You can now quickly navigate back and forward between difference via the toolbar and optionally configurable keyboard shortcuts
  • Substitution of SQLCMD variables, allows for the comparison of projects that rely on the use of SQLCMD variables
  • Schema Compare can now be executed through DTE
• Data Compare
  • Support for SQL Server 2008 data types
  • Data Compare can now be executed through DTE
• Refactoring:
  • New refactoring types: Expand Wildcards and Fully-qualify Names (in addition to Rename, Move Schema and 3/4 part name refactoring)
  • The patented "preservation of intend" functionality makes is possible that the Deployment Engine will deploy renames and move schema operations as actual renames and move schema operations, instead of a DROP / ADD operation.
  • Extensibility enables the creation of your own refactoring types (operations) and refactoring targets.
• Database Unit Testing
  • Added support for SQL Server 2008
• Data Generation
  • BulkCopy based inserts in addition to the existing INSERT data sync
  • Sequential Databound Generator is now included in the product
• T-SQL Static Code Analysis
  • Execute analysis using MS Build and/or as part of the VS IDE build process
  • Including the ability to write you own T-SQL Static Code Analysis rules
• Extensibility
  • Public full fidelity .NET based T-SQL parser for SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008.
  • Public .NET based SQL Script DOM, for programmatically generation of SQL code (equivalent to the Code DOM in .NET)
  • Access to the Schema Model from within Visual Studio, this enables for example ability to write code generators based on the schema model.
  • Feature extensibility:
    • T-SQL Static Code Analysis rules
    • Refactoring types, these are the refactoring operations
    • Refactoring targets, these are the sources that you want to update as part of a refactoring operation
    • Data Generators
    • Data Distributions
    • Test Conditions

You can read more about it on the Data Dude's blog post - http://blogs.msdn.com/gertd/archive/2008/11/25/visual-studio-team-system-2008-database-edition-gdr-rtm.aspx!

My Colleague, Stephen Rose will be maintaining and contributing this awesome blog - http://blogs.technet.com/springboard/default.aspx. If you are an IT Pro this is your one stop resource for all Windows Desktop IT professionals. Be sure to check it out...

While you are at it, we would love to hear your feedback about Windows Vista SP2.

Geek on!

-Mithun Dhar

If you watched last night's Simpson's you were in for a ROFL moment for the whole 30 minutes! If you didn't click on the link below and you'll know what I mean...

Endgadget has a better review and another video of the (M)Apple parody!

Funny!

-Mithun Dhar