Chris Bowen's Blog : Database

New England Data Camp v2.0 / SQL Saturday 34

cbowen — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:15:48 GMT

Back in January, the New England SQL Server Users Group and Southern New England SQL Server Users Group combined forces to host New England Data Camp v1.0. It was a solid success, bringing a focus on all things data to a large Code Camp style event.

I’m glad to pass along word that the event is making a return on January 30th!

This time, New England Data Camp v2.0 has joined forces with the SQL Saturday series of events and will be SQL Saturday #34!

Where? When?

      New England Data Camp v2.0 / SQL Saturday #34
      January 30, 2010
      All day (times TBD)
      Microsoft New England
      201 Jones Road, Waltham, MA
      [directions]

Who? What?

Anyone who works with data (yep, that’s a lot of us.) Developers, DBAs, Architects, Business Intelligence pros, etc.

Wondering what kind of content there may be? Nothing’s exact until the Call for Speakers closes, but the schedule from NEDC v1.0 should give an idea.

How?

Register here! (It’s free!)

Opportunities to Help

Like Code Camps, this event is being organized by and supported by volunteers and the community. Why not get involved?

Call for Speakers - All sessions are given by volunteers donating their time and expertise. Everyone is welcome to submit a session, and people new to public speaking are especially encouraged to join in.
Call for Sponsors – This event is made possible through the generosity and support of sponsors. It’s a great opportunity to help the community.

Grant Fritchey - “SQL Saturday #34/New England Data Camp v2.0”
Jim O’Neil - “Data Camp v2.0”
SQL Saturday Blog - “New SQLSaturday’s Announced”

-Chris

New England Data Camp v1.0 - Schedule Posted

cbowen — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:43:02 GMT

Adam Machanic has posted the session schedule from next Saturday's New England Data Camp v1.0. Registration is quite strong and Adam adds:

I'm really happy with how the schedule has turned out. We have four tracks: BI, DB Dev, DBA, and Data-Driven App Dev; 14 speakers; and a total of 18 sessions on a really diverse set of topics. This should be a fantastic event.

This is a free community-driven event for anyone interested in learning more about working with data. It will run from 8:15-5:30 on January 24th, held at the Microsoft's Waltham, MA office at 201 Jones Road (6th floor) [one-click directions].

Check out the schedule and if you haven't already, register here as soon as possible.

See you at Data Camp!
-Chris

New England Data Camp v1.0 - January 24th

cbowen — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:18:22 GMT

Adam Machanic, with the New England SQL Server Users Group and Southern New England SQL Server Users Group, has been working to create a data-focused event based on the Code Camp concept.

New England Data Camp v1.0 will be on January 24th from 8:15 AM to 5:30 PM at the Microsoft offices in Waltham, MA.

Registration and Details

From the Data Camp registration page:

It's all about the data! Today's applications are increasing data-dependent and whether you're a developer, DBA, or BI professional, you need to know how to work a variety of data across a range of products. This free, full-day Code Camp-style event will feature three concurrent tracks throughout the day to satisfy any tech professional who is interested in the latest and greatest tips and techniques for working with SQL Server 2005 and 2008, the Microsoft BI toolset, and all of the new .NET data access technologies--including LINQ and the Entity Framework.

Call for Speakers

Interested in helping? Data Camp is made better by multiple perspectives, so please consider giving a session! The Call for Speakers is open and available at:

http://www.thedevcommunity.org/CodeCamps

Here's how to add yourself and a session (excerpted from my Code Camp 10 post):

Sign in to an existing account or create a new one at TheDevCommunity.org site.
Complete a Speaker Registry profile (if you don't already have one.)
Go to the Code Camps home page.
Next to the Data Camp entry, you should see a "Submit a Session" link.
Submit one or more sessions.

I believe it's been a few years since we've had a dedicated data-oriented community event of this scale, so this is a nice thing to see. Whether you're a dev, DBA, or IT pro, this is a solid opportunity for networking and learning.

Registration is now open, so sign up today and I'll see you there!

-Chris

SqlConnectionStringBuilder

cbowen — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 20:11:00 GMT

[Perhaps old news for some, but I've found there's enough people I've bumped into who haven't heard of this to make it worth mentioning.]

In ADO.NET 2.0, there is a new class, SqlConnectionStringBuilder that can both create a connection string from strongly-typed properties or parse properties from an existing connection string. It inherits from the base DBConnectionStringBuilder and there are other classes for different systems as well (e.g. ODBC and Oracle.)

Here's a simple console-based sample:

using System.Data.SqlClient;

...

static void Main(string[] args)

{

//Compose and use a connection string

SqlConnectionStringBuilder csb = new SqlConnectionStringBuilder();

csb.DataSource = @"LOCALHOST\SQLEXPRESS";

csb.InitialCatalog = "SomeDatabase";

csb.IntegratedSecurity = true;

Console.WriteLine("Generated Connection String = " + csb.ConnectionString);

using (SqlConnection cn = new SqlConnection(csb.ConnectionString))

{

cn.Open();

Console.WriteLine("Connection is " + cn.State);

}

//Parse an existing connection string

const string CONNECTION = "Server=myServerAddress;Database=myDataBase;User ID=myUsername;Password=myPassword;Trusted_Connection=False;Packet Size=4096;";

SqlConnectionStringBuilder csb2 = new SqlConnectionStringBuilder(CONNECTION);

Console.WriteLine("Server = " + csb2.DataSource);

Console.WriteLine("Database = " + csb2.InitialCatalog);

Console.WriteLine("User = " + csb2.UserID);

Console.WriteLine("Password = " + csb2.Password);

Console.WriteLine("Packet Size = " + csb2.PacketSize);

Console.ReadLine();

}

Also note that if you need assistance with connection string formats, ConnectionStrings.com is a good reference site with plenty of examples.

-Chris

Launch Event for Team System Edition for Database Professionals

cbowen — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 17:52:50 GMT

The New England launch event for Visual Studio Team System's new Database Professionals role is coming to the Boston area (Waltham) on December 14th from 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM.

This new Team System role complements the existing Architect, Tester, and Developer roles, providing many new features for working with databases:

The new Visual Studio Database Project allows you to import your database schema and place it under source control. When the time comes to deploy schema changes the new project system allows you to quickly build update scripts and then provides a mechanism to deploy them to the database of your choice

Rename Refactoring allows you to easily rename any object in your database and be assured that all references to that object will be renamed to correspond to the change

A New T-SQL editor allows you to be more productive when writing T-SQL code from within Visual Studio including support for parallel execution of queries and viewing of execution plans

SchemaCompare allows you to quickly compare the schema of two databases (or your source controlled project and a database) and script updates to bring the database schemas into sync

DataCompare allows you to quickly compare two databases and script updates to bring the data in these databases into sync

The Database Unit Testing infrastructure allows you to create database unit tests using T-SQL or managed code

DataGenerator lets you create data generation plans that produce repeatable sets of meaningful data based upon your existing production databases that can be deployed to a database prior to running unit tests thus ensuring consistent test results

You can read more about these features here.

Full details of the launch event are attached below. Register for the Boston/Waltham event or visit http://teams-deliver.com for other cities and more information.

Hope to see you there!

-Chris

Keeping competitive means leveraging your data to provide your people with the tools they need to drive sales, efficiencies, and customer satisfaction. Visual Studio Team 2005 Edition for Database Professionals delivers a market-shifting database development product designed to manage database change, improve software quality through database testing, and bring the benefits of Visual Studio Team System and life cycle development to the database professional.

Join us at one of 23 cities to learn how Visual Studio 2005 for Database Professionals can help your SQL DBAs and Visual Studio developers.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
SQL development teams, developer teams writing against databases

WHERE ARE THE EVENTS?
Events are held in 23 cities across the United States.

Atlanta GA 11/30
Boston MA 12/14
Chicago IL 12/12
Cincinnati OH 12/07
Dallas TX 12/13
Denver CO 12/13

Detroit MI 12/05
Ft. Lauderdale FL 12/12
Houston TX 12/14
Los Angeles CA 12/07
Milwaukee WI 12/06
Minneapolis MN 11/29

Mountain View CA 12/5
New York City NY 12/12
Philadelphia PA 11/30
Phoenix AZ 12/12
Pittsburgh PA 11/28
Raleigh NC 12/14

Seattle WA 12/14
San Diego CA 12/6
St. Louis MO 11/30
Tampa FL 12/5
Washington DC12/5

AGENDA
  7:45 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. Registration & Continental Breakfast
  8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Joining Forces: Assimilating Data Experts into the Development Team
  9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Taking Control of Database Change
10:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. - 11:45 p.m. Automate Database Testing to Improve Quality
11:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Lunch
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Panel Discussion

Chris Bowen's Blog : Database

New England Data Camp v2.0 / SQL Saturday 34

Where? When?

Who? What?

How?

Opportunities to Help

Related Posts

New England Data Camp v1.0 - Schedule Posted

New England Data Camp v1.0 - January 24th

Registration and Details

Call for Speakers

SqlConnectionStringBuilder

Launch Event for Team System Edition for Database Professionals