Reed Me : CodePlex

If you absolutely must call a WCF service from inside your database, here’s how you do it...

reedme — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:02:09 GMT

When I was an operations DBA, this would probably fall into the category of “just because you can do something, doesn’t mean that you should”:

Call a WCF Service from SQLCLR (by Niels Berglund)

However, there are probably a couple of good scenarios where I might advocate for doing just this in future projects, especially if the customers have experienced DBAs and don’t have an existing middle tier admin group. (They exist. I consulted for a couple.)

I’m encouraging Niels to formalize this a bit and put in CodePlex or Code Gallery.

Cool stuff!

Now with more open and soon with more source!

reedme — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:24:56 GMT

Over the holidays, the SQL Server community & samples test team in China has been migrating all of our open product samples bugs out of our internal VSTS bug tracking database and into the VSTS database which backs the CodePlex TFS system. There are some non-bug work items which will be migrated (mostly related to the AdventureWorksKilimanjaro improvement) after the 1st of the year.

If you want to see new stuff from the community & samples team (create a work item on CodePlex!) or increase the likelihood that we’ll fix your pet bug with one of the samples, vote on the one(s) that you want fixed most and help us prioritize.

CodePlex Project Work Items for SQL Server Product Samples

Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Analysis Services

Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Data Programming

Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Database

Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: End to End

Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Engine

Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Integration Services

Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Replication

Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Reporting Services

Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Scripts

Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Service Broker

Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: XML

In other news, we will be migrating all of the product samples discussion forums to the new MSDN forums platform in January in a single consolidated place to chat about SQL Server community and samples projects.

I’ll be in use-it-or-lose vacation territory this afternoon, hence you may or may not hear from me again until after New Year’s. If not, I wish y’all a merry New Year!!

Searching for Mexican Food... on CodePlex?

reedme — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:11:44 GMT

Tagging is all fun and games until somebody gets hurt, right? Actually, like so-called Google-bombing, it can be pretty funny.

Have you ever been guilty of surfing while hungry? It appears that somebody was pretty hungry while they were wandering around CodePlex looking for something. No idea what. But two projects have been tagged on CodePlex as "Mexican Food," including the AJAX.NET toolkit and the AdventureWorks sample databases.

Searching CodePlex for Mexican Food

I only noticed because I own the AdventureWorks project... and apparently I needed a good laugh today. Thank you, Anonymous Tagger Person, for the laugh.

SQL Server 2008 RTM samples are up on CodePlex now.

reedme — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 08:13:29 GMT

A little snafu delayed things, but they're all signed, sealed and delivered now. I only had to skip a little of the launch party to get them out the door...

Microsoft SQL Server Community & Samples - Release: SQL Server 2008 RTM

Enjoy!

Cool (Free, Open) Tools: SQL RSS

reedme — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:15:40 GMT

Even if nobody has asked you for an RSS feed of data in one or more of your databases, it won't be long before they do! When they do, you can grab this configurable, easy to use data-driven RSS feed widget.

A couple ideas for using this application:

Business intelligence updates delivered to Microsoft Outlook 2007 for management.
Proactive application event logs to your Vista Sidebar news gadget FTW!

I'm sure you can think of more... Check it out!

SQL RSS on CodePlex.com (Microsoft SQL Server Community & Samples)

It's also a great way to get a solid introduction to these technologies:

Change Data Tracking (CDT) feature of SQL Server 2008
SQL Server Reporting Services
The syndication feed feature of WCF
LINQ to XML
ADO.NET

Join us!
This project is a bit different than other SQL Server-sponsored projects. We want YOU to contribute to it. We are actively seeking other people (i.e. not on my team) to enhance and grow this project. Whether you work for Microsoft or not, let us know if you'd like to help!

Be there. Do that. Get the T-shirt.

reedme — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:08:44 GMT

Since I've never been to an MVP Global Summit, Tech*Ed or the SQL PASS summit, I'm looking forward to going this year. Since I will have T-shirts, I'm hoping that I won't have to be lonely. Heh.

SQL Heroes : The T-shirts have arrived.

If you don't have a clue about what kind of project to start, keep an eye on the SQL Heroes blog! Although I will *not* be blogging about actual contest entries until the Contest Period™ is over, I will be blogging about Community Projects™ that *I* want to see.

If you've got a great contest idea that you want to "protect" and you haven't signed up for the contest yet... you'd better get started... or I might "accidentally" blog your great idea for all the world to see. Heh.

Calling all SQL Heroes!

reedme — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:51:33 GMT

I'm hoping that I can keep my blogs straight, but for the duration of the contest, I'll be blogging in two places: here and there.

Here will be all the normal stuff you don't read anyway, and over there is your chance to convince me to give you a Windows Home Server. (Well, convince me and the other SQL Ranger judges, and the SQL Server community at large.)

In case you haven't heard, the SQL Heroes Blog is where the Official Contest Rules™ live. Check it out. If you get a chance to come to the MVP Global Summit next month or Tech*Ed-Developer this summer, come introduce yourself. I might even have a SQL Heroes T-shirt for you!

{Open Source} Heroes Happen Here?

reedme — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:19:57 GMT

They certainly do. I'm glad to see initiatives like this!

{Open Source} Heroes Happen Here

If you want a Hero Hack Pack, you'd better ask 'em for one soon. While supplies last...

Office is now more open?

reedme — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:18:23 GMT

Having been involved with a government archival project, I can say that format longevity is a serious concern.

Particularly in the case of governments, documents may be required to be archived for hundreds of years. Indeed, many local, state, national and international governments are actively in the process of establishing policies that every document must be easily retrievable using standardized formats.
Microsoft 'Frees' Office Formats (InternetNews.com)

The only thing that I'm disappointed about is that the project's in SourceForge, not CodePlex. Hrm.

How do I use Feature X in SQL Server?

reedme — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:20:18 GMT

Buck's got a great point about how SQL Server's development themes are managed from the top down:

It isn't a matter of thinking up single features or changes to the product, it's a cohesive direction we all want to go.
Carpe Datum : Why on earth are you working on that?

Reading his blog always make me wish that I could translate the pun in the title of my blog into Latin, too. Heh.

However, when it comes down to actually using SQL Server's new features du jour (see how I get my exotic language points in, too?), it's all about the individual features and changes to the product. Which is where the product samples and community projects come in... We (collectively) have got to take the roadmap and figure out the simplest way to show people how to use individual features and changes to the product in 2008.

Here are of the new features that we're fixin' to show off in the AdventureWorks 2008 family of databases. (Yes, I just moved from Tejas to Redmond, so we're fixin' to. Deal wit' it.)

Support for Entity Framework
Integrated full text indexing support
New data types

New date/time types
ORDPATH
FILESTREAM
GEOGRAPHY

Backup compression

At least that's the current plan. We're working through some changes that we tentatively plan to ship in the CTP6/joint launch timeframe. Among other things, I'd like to figure out how to get transparent data encryption and some others in there, too. BUT some of the self-imposed constraints for the AdventureWorks family of databases are that they have to be easy to deploy... and easy to understand. I've got half a mission statement for the AdventureWorks databases drafted, but those are two of the core principles.

Easy to understand is the driver that prompted Bonnie last year to create the newest member of the AdventureWorks family of databases: AdventureWorks LT. We (before I was part of we) had received feedback from customers that there are some folks who are new to the database universe who struggle with a higher level of normalization that the AdventureWorks OLTP database demonstrates, so AdventureWorks LT was born. It's a subset of the AdventureWorks data in a greatly denormalized format that is easier for instructors to demonstrate simple T-SQL concepts with and easier for new students of database technology to grasp. But I digress... If you yearn for the simplicity of Northwind or pubs, check out AdventureWorks LT and let me know what you think.

If you've got a favorite Feature X that you'd like to see in the AdventureWorks 2008 schemas, now is the time to voice your opinion. Let's hear it!

[Obligatory Disclaimer: Like the Any Key of legend, the name Feature X is a convenient placeholder or wildcard term. There is not now, nor has there ever been, a part of SQL Server called Feature X. As far as you know.]

A cool DP sample that couldn't make it into the out of the box for some reason...

reedme — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:20:44 GMT

Although we've been putting the SQL Server product samples in CodePlex for quite a while, I'm not sure why this one didn't wind up "in the (out of the) box" space. Go figure.

Sending BLOB Data to SQL SERVER Using IROWSETFASTLOAD and ISEQUENTIALSTREAM (Microsoft SQL Server Native Client team blog)

Doesn't make it any less cool, though!!

FILESTREAM, Windows Vista and you.

reedme — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:16:52 GMT

I won't complain about yet-another-configuration-stored-procedure, since I hold out hope that managing FILESTREAM's status at the server level will be rolled into sp_configure or DDL before RTM... but this is me not holding my breath. *sigh*

Anyway, if you want to use FILESTREAM data on your SQL Server 2008 instance (hopefully with the November 2007 CTP (aka CTP5), you should check the readme for some of the little gotchas. Then you've got to turn it on (Books Online for CTP5 makes this pretty obvious if you look):

sp_filestream_configure [ [ @enable_level = ] level ]
[ [ , @share_name = ] 'share_name' ] ;

Seems easy enough... (Hint: you want @enable_level = 3.) Unless you're running Windows Vista and if you don't remember to launch your SQL Server Management Studio 2008 (SSMS) elevated. If you forget (like I do occasionally - until I remember to flip the run-as-administrator bit on the shortcut) then you'll get this error (or one just like it):

(local)(MYDOMAIN\myusername): Msg 5587, Level 14, State 1, Procedure sp_filestream_configure, Line 1
You do not have permissions to configure FILESTREAM feature. You need Windows Administrator and sysadmin rights to configure FILESTREAM feature.

Whoops. I'm an administrator, but UAC forgot to tell SQL Server that (on purpose). Doh. Elevate! Either right-click and Run as administrator or change your shortcut to do the same.

Why am I warning you about this? Because we're planning to ship AdventureWorks2008 with some FILESTREAM data in it and if you want an easy way to demo FILESTREAM, AdventureWorks2008 is it! No promises on exact features to be included in anything, including AdventureWorks2008, so [Insert standard Microsoft pre-RTM disclaimer here]. Caveat downloader.

SQL Server gurus! Get connected to CodePlex.

reedme — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 02:09:19 GMT

First off, CodePlex is looking for developers. That seems like the best way to get plugged in. Heh. I have a vested interest in seeing you top-notch coders working on CodePlex. I know several great coders out there; you know who you are, so apply! More on my vested interest later.

Looking for developers to join the CodePlex team!

There are also lots of different ways to get plugged directly into the source control (Team Foundation Server).

The CodePlex command line client. Free, as in beer. (Makes me hum about Power Shell to the tune of I want my MTV.) Works for anonymous, developers and coordinators.
Teamprise Explorer (standalone, plug-in for Eclipse or command line client). Free, as in beer. Does not support anonymous access.
TortoiseSVN. Free, as in beer. I used this one a lot in previous lives and loved it. Works for anonymous, developers and coordinators.
Visual Studio Team Explorer. You may own it already, depending on your Visual Studio edition or MSDN subscription level. Does not support anonymous access.

See What clients can I use for source control with CodePlex? for more details.

What does this have to do with SQL Server specifically? You mean besides the fact that all the SQL Server Samples are in CodePlex? Well, besides that, I have a secret or three up my sleeve with regards to CodePlex (pending management approval). If you're already plugged into CodePlex, you'll be that much further ahead of the game when the other shoe drops.