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What is in it for me? (or My First Development Effort in SSAS)

2007-07-05T12:38:00Z

Well, I am not very much a database guy, however I developed some cool products/solutions in the past dependent on databases. Anyway, I am stuck at home (doctor's orders) and I am bored. I was looking something new to entertain myself, and decided to have a look deeper in SSAS.

Yesterday, I started blindly. Opened Visual Studio that is installed with SQL Server, and created an Analysis Services Project. You'll immediately notice the folders on the right. You can right click on each and start a wizard. That made my job a lot easier.

Before jumping further: I needed some data. Well, I don't like using sample data and asked a friend for his companies sales report. It was acually an Excel sheet, and every row has a line for a sale. OK I have a bunch of data - now what?

Data is valuable if you understand it. And understanding is easier if you group the data in smaller groups. It is harder, or at least not my choice, to run SQL queries on Excell sheets so I opened up another VS2005 instance and created an Integration Services project. Right clicked to the Packages folder and started importing wizard. Fairly simple and imported the whole excel sheet into a database table (SalesRawTable). Did practice some SQL queries to sort out the data (good to see that I still remember some clauses like SELECT DISTINCT). Collected products into a table including product group, division etc.; financial quarters into one table, all customer information including name, location etc. into one table; and sales data including prices into another. Build relationships with Primary/Foreign keys and connected all tables to sales table.

Right clicked and created a connection to database, created views, created the cube. That easy. In the cube creation wizard you will see a table where you will have to provide dimensions and measures. What I know is; dimension is something you would like to measure. So revenue would be a measure, and your products, customers and financial quarters would be your dimensions. This was what I know, and I built the cube accordingly.

All I wanted was to see the revenues coming from each customer and when. This was accomplished. Now what we can add? Key Performance Indicators... KPIs are, I think valuable to see where you are standing and to where you are going. It is easy to turn your data into an instantly viewable form. This is also easy, and you can do it inside VS2005 and deploy KPIs into your cube. However, a small knowledge of MDX would be good - or you can check MSDN for some samples as I did. After writing your first KPI in VS2005, it is easy to deploy more.

In the meantime, I deployed Office SharePoint Server 2007 which I like most to present data. I did not used a farm topology, a single server deployment on my home server was fast and it is best for testing. On the Reports Center, I created a KPI list (listed under Custom Lists), and created KPIs coming from Analysis Services. Well SharePoint can list nested KPIs also, so I created parent - child relationships in my KPIs.

Right now, I have a data source (Excel sheet) which I can feed the data into a table and group that data (with Integration Services) and analyze that data (with Analysis Services) and publish some KPIs which shows an instant view of the company's status. My next steps are to use some BI features of SSAS and build some scorecards (those will show more data in a better way).

Microsoft IT Early Adopter Experiences & Best Practices

2007-02-08T09:10:00Z

Find here Microsoft IT’s early adopter experiences, best experiences, and lessons learned from our own deployments of Windows Vista, the 2007 Office system, and Exchange Server 2007

Planning the Windows Vista Deployment at Microsoft
How Microsoft IT planned and performed the deployment of Windows Vista throughout Microsoft.

Preparing to Deploy Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System at Microsoft
Description of how Microsoft IT prepared for the deployment of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 to tens of thousands of Microsoft desktop computers, worldwide.

Optimizing Client Security by Using Windows Vista
In an attempt to strengthen the security of data network and data storage, Microsoft IT deployed an early version of Windows that provided improved defenses against the threats of unauthorized access and communications.

Enterprise Search at Microsoft with Office SharePoint Server 2007
Bringing diverse content sets together in a single search center experience has been a challenge, with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 it’s possible to allow users to search against different content repositories with just a few clicks.

Robust Reporting Portal on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
myBI enables users to view reports, scorecards, key performance indicators (KPIs), multi-dimensional analytics, and other metrics without having to move from one reporting site to another.

Groove 2007 Deployment
Learn how Microsoft IT deployed Groove 2007, which has resulted in a worldwide user base of over 8,000, a robust hosted and on-site server infrastructure, and direct integration with technologies such as Active Directory, Office, and SharePoint.

Streamlining Records Management Using SharePoint Server 2007 Workflow
Learn how the LCA Corporate Records Management team at Microsoft used Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Office InfoPath 2007 to create an efficient inventory tracking solution.

Improved Business Analytics Solution Enables Faster Decision Making
Microsoft deployed an internal tool called Rhythm of the Business to help its financial analysts and top executives support global sales and marketing strategies with up-to-date progress reports for key business metrics.

Deploying 2007 Office System at Microsoft
Learn how Microsoft IT used robust new deployment technologies, such as a single build folder, single customization patch, and script hooks, in the 2007 Microsoft Office system to streamline the enterprise rollout of applications.

How Microsoft IT Deployed and Architected SharePoint Server 2007
Learn how Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 was deployed internally at Microsoft.

How Microsoft Automated Employee Performance Reviews
Experiences of Microsoft IT migrating from a document and paper-based employee review process to a fully-electronic process.

Improving an IT Self-Help Portal User Experience
Microsoft improved the user experience, reduced the help desk costs, and published more engaging and timelier information by migrating its IT Portal to SharePoint Server 2007.

Going 64-Bit with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Learn how Microsoft IT moved its messaging systems to the 64-bit platform.

Enterprise Messaging with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
This topic illustrates how Microsoft met evolving business needs with the deployment of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, such as reducing risks associated with spam, improving business agility, and lowering TCO.

eLearning Collection 5237: Configuring and Managing Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Hosted Environments

2007-02-01T20:36:00Z

In this online learning collection of six courses, you will gain the knowledge and skills to deploy a Windows-based Hosting solution.

Topics covered within the collection include:

Overview of Windows-based Hosting.
Planning, Deploying and Running a Windows-based Hosted solution.
Optimizing, Reporting and Troubleshooting the solution.

This collection also helps you prepare for the certification exam 70-501.

The List

2007-01-09T00:52:00Z

I was checking Architecture Resource Center tonight and saw the post of John Evdemon. He has compiled a great list of publicly-available SOA resources from Microsoft. If you are interested in the topic, you should have a look at http://blogs.msdn.com/jevdemon/archive/2007/01/08/a-round-up-of-microsoft-soa-resources.aspx

New tools for Database Hosting (SQL Server Hosting Toolkit)...

2006-12-21T17:23:00Z

Release Candidate of the SQL Server Hosting Toolkit went live on the web yesterday! This includes both the Database Publishing Wizard and the Database Publishing Services.

Database Publishing Wizard

The Database Publishing Wizard enables the deployment of SQL Server 2005 databases (both schema and data) into a shared hosting environment on either a SQL Server 2000 or 2005 server.

The tool supports two modes of deployment:

It generates a single SQL script file which can be used to recreate a database when the only connectivity to a server is through a web-based control panel with a script execution window.
It connects to a web service provided by your hoster and directly creates objects on a specified hosted database

The Database Publishing Wizard provide both a graphical and a command-line interface. In addition, it can integrate directly into Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Web Developer 2005.

Database Publishing Services

As a hoster, you can use Database Publishing Services to enable your customers to easily deploy their SQL Server databases into your environment with tools such as the Database Publishing Wizard

People Ready Newspaper

2006-10-30T23:21:00Z

While we are working towards People-Ready Business, and Dynamic IT environments; we have great tools and applications in our arsenal. Windows Presentation Foundation is just one of them.

Till Windows Vista (or till release of WPF) we did only have screen elements (buttons, text boxes etc.) those have changeable colors and sizes (only). As developers, we had to play with those tools to build application UIs. But now; with the introduction of WPF we have People-Ready User Interfaces those can change themselves while interacting with the user. May be the first of a series of commercial applications is the Times Reader. Below you can have a look at the user interface of the application, and it is publicly available from http://firstlook.nytimes.com/.

The first two screenshots are the same but different size views of the application. The application itself changes the sizes of the fonts, arrangement of the articles/titles, nearly all the content when you resize the application window.

The frontiers of UI development will change with Windows Vista, and will open doors to new opportunities. If you use the Times Reader, you will notice the different places of New York Times logo and how the advertisement (which appears on the last page of the article and not on every page) is changed and placed. The advertisement is not a picture, but a series of WPF calls to pictures, text and their placement relative to the ad and to the window. This makes the advertisement fit into every screen perfectly, just like the newspaper itself.

With these dynamic UI abilities, WPF can be useful in especially dynamic reporting (e.g. business intelligence, financial), monitoring (e.g. displaying the state of Windows Servers, web servers from Microsoft Operations Manager) applications or can be used in remote education in schools. But whether it is this type of application or that type of application, WPF sure will change our perception of computing; because UI will be People-Ready from now on…

Some resources for Architects...

2006-10-09T23:19:00Z

An Architectural Perspective on Software + Services
Technological advances can cause disruption in the use of IT which can have a significant impact on organizations. Beginning with a look at this disruption and the opportunity for innovation that it generates, this article examines the melding of SOA and Web 2.0 into a Software + Services model.

Software as a Service - Articles, Opinions, Webcasts, and more
Software as a Service (SaaS) is a model of software delivery in which the software company provides maintenance, daily technical operation, and support for the software provided to their client. Visit this page to find architecture guidance and share your opinions on this new model of software consumption

Readings in Service Orientation; Book Two in the Architecture Journal Series - Available Online
Available online and for download, Readings in Service Orientation presents papers on architecting services authored by a variety of well-known writers in the architectural space. Read this book to form your own opinions about the impact of services orientation on your business and computing environments.

Windows Live Toolbar Customization

2006-09-01T09:08:00Z

Have you seen the new Windows Live Toolbar (http://toolbar.live.com)? It comes with a new approach to develop custom buttons without coding. All you need to do is go to http://gallery.live.com/createcustombutton.aspx and fill the necessary information in the form. You can add RSS feeds, links and web page windows to your button with an icon.

There are many buttons that you can enjoy at http://gallery.live.com/ and you can download CS Update button here.

Deploying Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server as an Enterprise-Wide Service

2006-08-31T10:09:00Z

By deploying Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server as an enterprise-wide service, Microsoft is standardizing methodologies for project management, software development, and software testing. This standardization provides a much more transparent management view into projects and makes complying with statutory reporting requirements much easier.

Download Technical Case Study

Mobile Client Software Factory – Community Technical Preview Release

2006-06-07T19:24:00Z

The Microsoft patterns & practices team has released the first Community Technical Preview (CTP) for the Mobile Client Software Factory. The factory will help architects and developers design and build mobile LOB solutions. The Mobile Client Software Factory will include a prescriptive architecture, application blocks, and other guidance/tools for enterprise architects and developers targeting Windows Mobile powered devices. If you’re serious about building mobile enterprise solutions, join the community, download the latest pre-release drop, and start contributing feedback today!

The article at patterns and practices site and also the workspace has detailed information and also the code. I will discuss more about this, after I develop some cool stuff :)

the summary;

The Mobile Client Software Factory provides an integrated set of guidance to help architects and developers create line-of-business Windows Mobile applications that interact with back-end systems over various networks (WiFi, GPRS, etc.) that might be intermittently available. A mobile smart client line-of-business application has one or more of the following characteristics:

It has a rich user interface that takes advantage of the power of the Windows Mobile device.
It connects to and exchanges data with multiple back-end systems through a gateway server through the most cost effective underlying network technology.
It takes advantage of local caching and processing to enable operation during periods of no network connectivity or intermittent network connectivity.
It is easily deployed and configured.
It keeps local, potentially confidential information secure.

The guidance assets included in the Mobile Client Software Factory take different forms: patterns, step-by-step instructions (How-to topics), sample application source code (reference implementation), reusable self-contained components (application blocks), a Guidance Automation Toolkit package that automates common mobile client development tasks in Visual Studio, and architecture documentation.

This offering also leverages the following existing patterns & practices assets:

Composite UI Application Block ported into the .NET Compact Framework
Specific application blocks for logging, data access, and so on
Guidance Automation Toolkit

Architects can use the offering to create a baseline architecture for their organization. A baseline architecture is a starting point for implementing instances of similar applications—in this case, a mobile application—that includes the most critical mechanisms and shared elements common to those applications. Developers can use the baseline architecture to create mobile client applications in a predictable and agile way.

Elisa Corp. (Finland) and Telecom Argentina deploys CCF 2005

2006-05-16T21:31:00Z

Telecom Argentina is deploying Microsoft Customer Care Framework 2005 to improve efficiency and revitalize obsolete support systems in six of its trouble-ticketing call centers across the country. The deployment is expected to be completed by November 2006. [more...]

Elisa Corp., Finland’s leading telecom company, has chosen the Microsoft^® Customer Care Framework 2005 communications platform to improve its contact center. The new solution will improve the usability and support of customer processes, make customer service more efficient, and facilitate integration with existing business applications. Microsoft Customer Care Framework is designed to guide customer inquiries from multiple channels such as Elisa’s Web portal, e-mail and phone, and is flexible in allowing Elisa to adapt easily to different customer relationship management (CRM) strategies and customer care profiles. In addition, it will offer versatile self-service solutions and support automated processes. [more...]

Communicator Mobile is ready to download!

2006-04-22T19:22:00Z

You can download Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile.

Overview:

Communicator Mobile extends the reach of Live Communications Server 2005 to information workers who use Windows Mobile based devices. Communicator Mobile offers a similar look and feel to the desktop version of Microsoft Office Communicator 2005, and it ensures that access to capabilities that are provided by Live Communications Server 2005 continues when users are away from their desks.

Communicator Mobile is available in four editions for Windows Mobile based devices, depending on which operating system the device is running. The installation file for each operating system is as follows:

Windows Mobile 2003 SE for Pocket PCs
Downloadable file name: CommunicatorMobile_PPC2003.msi.

Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PCs
Downloadable file name: CommunicatorMobile_PPC50.msi.

Windows Mobile 2003 SE for Smartphone
Downloadable file name: CommunicatorMobile_SP2003.msi.

Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone
Downloadable file name: CommunicatorMobile_SP50.msi.

SiteBuilder 3.0 for Windows

2006-04-17T23:06:00Z

SWSoft has launched SiteBuilder 3.0 for Windows last month. You can download and try it.

New SiteBuilder 3.0 features for end users include:

Drag & Drop Support – Now the SiteBuilder WIZARD supports drag and drop during multiple steps, advancing the software’s usability and the user’s flexibility allowing them to drag and drop desired components.
New Dynamic Modules – Eleven newly improved modules make this version of SiteBuilder even more powerful and flexible.
Improved Blog Functionality – Now end users can create standalone blogs or add them as part of a traditional website to serve a wider range of users.
Photo Gallery – This feature allows end users to add and modify a photo gallery. End users can manage an unlimited number of photos and have the capability to choose templates and customize photo displays.

New administrator features include:

New Interface with Desktop – Administrators can now easily navigate and manage the application. Frequently used items are easily available for managing users and customizing offerings quickly and efficiently.
User Management – Now the application has a multi-level users system with support for resellers. Each owner of an admin panel has the capability to create and manage websites and configure parameters depending on the access level.
Site Management – Administrators now have the ability to install different site management levels. Each site has a unique set of rights and parameters created in the management module of the application. Administrators can also create trial sites.
Plan Management – This new release has improved plan management capabilities which allow Hosting Providers to set up different plans depending on the service level required by a specific set of customers. Each plan can support various limits and permissions.

Microsoft Expression

2006-04-17T15:04:00Z

Microsoft Expression is a great tiny software. Expression family has Graphic Designer, Interactive Designer for creating UI and Web Designer. Watch the demos available at http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/demos.mspx.

Expression is based on Windows Presentation Foundation and makes good use of it. Coding4Fun had redesigned FreeCell using Expression and Visual Studio.

MEDC 06 Europe Sessions

2006-04-17T14:04:00Z

After my first entry, I took a look at the session list. I found interesting sessions - which are I think a must attend!

Windows Mobile Enterprise Features and Futures (Level 200)
If employees in your company or at customers you support are asking how you can help them be more productive when they're away from their desks, then this session is for you! See demos of enterprise-focused features provided by Windows Mobile. Walk through the scenarios, enabled by Windows Mobile that your customer are asking you for now and that they want in the future! Get a glimpse of new devices and solutions that will be available in the future! Amongst other things this session will cover Microsoft’s Direct Push Email solution and Live Communication Server.
Building Successful Mobile Line of Business Applications with Visual Studio 2005 for Devices, Windows Mobile 5.0 and SQL Mobile 2005 (Level 300)
Join me for a comprehensive look at the challenges that must be overcome when designing and developing mobile line of business applications. I'll address issues like enterprise application integration (EAI), synchronization strategies, developer productivity, application provisioning and management, and the specific coding best practices needed to succeed on your next project
Building Media Server Client with .NET Compact Framework (Level 300)
This session demonstrates how to utilize UPnP API, Imaging API and COM Interop to build a simple client for UPnP media server such as Windows Media Connect or Windows Vista Media Library Network Sharing using .NET Compact Framework 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005
Building Media Devices With the Windows CE 5.0 Networked Media Device Feature Pack (Level 300)
During this session you will learn how to use the newly released components of the Windows CE 5.0 Networked Media Device Feature Pack to create compelling media devices on Windows CE. In addition to a technology overview this session will include a deep dive into new components, what devices can be easily created, along with demos and code walkthroughs.
Writing Today Plugins for Windows Mobile 5.0 (Level 300)
Advanced session on how to write Today Screen Plugins for Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC, take advantage of all the nifty features. Caveats to watch out for, issues that is not in Microsoft's documentation. Discusses elements on Treo 700W done to enhance the user experience by making the Today screen the focal point of the device.
Advanced Windows Mobile Features (Level 400)
This session will explore a collection of more advanced Windows Mobile technologies including services, telephony, Bluetooth and DirectShow: Windows Mobile restricts the number of running processes to 32; however there is a very convenient service architecture that can host your code, which would otherwise occupy one of the process slots, under a shared process. Some of the telephony API’s are now exposed to managed code through the new Windows Mobile 5.0 managed libraries, however much finer control of the telephony subsystem is achievable by interacting directly with the TAPI and ExTAPI libraries. In addition to the DirectX libraries, Windows Mobile 5.0 also adds DirectShow support that can be used, amongst other things, to provider much finer control of image data coming from the camera source. In this session we will build a CCTV security app that redirects camera input to a desktop machine using Bluetooth libraries to link the two devices and TAPI to initiate and capture voice calls.
Centralizing Data Synchronization (Level 400)
This session focuses on Microsoft's plans around data synchronization. The new Sync Center in Windows Vista will become the hub for all data synchronization between the PC and applications, services, devices and other computers. We take a closer look at the development framework as well as the end user experience that Sync Center helps create.
Secure Provisioning for Devices (Level 300)
Over the air provision of Windows Mobile devices has been possible for some time using Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Client Provisioning XML files in conjunction with the Device Manager component. Windows Mobile 5.0 builds on these capabilities by adding new Configuration Service Providers enabling control of further areas of the operating system. In addition Windows Mobile 5.0 supports the OMA Device Management protocols, enabling a secure two way communication channel with the device. This session will review OMA Client Provisioning and explore the new capabilities of Windows Mobile 5.0 and then take a deeper look at the new Device Management protocols to show how this can be used to retrieve device information and further configure the device
Windows Mobile 5.0 Local Authentication Sub System (Level 400)
Out of the box Windows Mobile provides simple PIN or password perimeter control to restrict device access to authorized users only. There are many enterprise scenarios where this is considered inadequate and Windows Mobile has always enabled this mechanism to be overridden and replaced with a bespoke authentication mechanism. Windows Mobile 5.0 introduces a brand new way of implementing custom authentication through the new Local Authentication Sub System (LASS) and specifically through a Local Authentication Plug-in (LAP) module for capturing and validating credentials. In this session we will explore the new LASS / LAP architecture, build and deploy a LAP that implements custom authentication. Going beyond the ‘how do I’ part of LASS / LAP, we will also consider why this feature is important and how it can be used very effectively to enhance your enterprise application security.

There are nice sessions to attend! I hope I will be there to join you. (You will be there, right?)