indika's blog

MVC Movie App tutorial : Unable to find the requested .Net Framework Data Provider. It may not be installed

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 12:49:00 +0000

I got another problem when I work with MVC Movie App tutorial provided by Microsoft Asp.Net site.
I just go through the step by step. But unfortunately I stuck at one point.
Once I build the solution and press F5, and I tried to go to the following url. But it says
“Unable to find the requested .Net Framework Data Provider. It may not be installed.”
I tried several options and found good solution at this url.

What I did was just replace the connection string given by that url with my connection string.
It work perfectly now….

How to change debugging browser used in VS 2010 , MVC 3

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 05:05:00 +0000

Recently I have work with Asp MVC 3 and had a problem with changing my default Brower from Firefox to IE.
In Asp.NET it is possible with “browse with” option. See more details on ScottGu’s blog.
But in MVC project we don’t have any aspx files, so how to configure our solution to do it so?
There is a way to do this.

1. Right click on solution and go to the “Properties”
2. Go to “Web” Tab
3. Set the Start Action to use Start external program and then pass the Internet Explorer executable path and the url as Command line arguments.
4. Set the Servers’ specific port to the same port set in the url in step 3.
See the following image to get more info.

VS2010 not opening CSS files : MVC 3

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 05:27:00 +0000

Hi all,

I am using Visual Studio 2010 as my development platform. Recently I have install MVC 3 with Web Standards Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. But unfortunately when I try to work with MVC 3 applications I was unable to open CCS file with Visual Studio.

So I just Google it and found the solution. Here is the link .

Try to repair your installed Web Standards Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SP1 by using following path.

Got to Tools -> Extension Manager -> Online Gallery and search for/install the "Web Standards Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 sp1"

Then click on repair link. And restart Visual Studio. Hop everything fine now ….

Web Hosting

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Sat, 23 May 2009 03:48:00 +0000

If you want to take part in the internet as a business, information resource, directory, or as a hobbyist wanting to share data, information and knowledge with the many people and communities on the internet, you have to contain this in a central spot on the internet. You have to own a piece of space in cyberspace

Web hosting empowers you and anyone with a computer and internet connection to own a piece of cyberspace. In your space, you can have news, bulletins, documents, data, files (your web site) and your own post office (mail server) to accept mail, all in the context of you or your business. This is your space and to get this space you either have to own a piece of the physical internet with a network connection to the internet backbone and computer(s) operating as server(s) offering access to your files and post office, for people on the internet to view your web site or send and receive email with you.

The cost of owning a direct connection to the backbone and a server dedicated to a web site and email is out of reach for the average business and especially general members of the internet. Even running a web site and mail server on your own computer when it is connected to the internet requires a lot of technical ability and knowledge. The internet itself has to be your business for either of these options to be viable.

In a web-hosting environment, you are offered a web site to place your files, data, documents, and bulletins for people to access with their web browser and an email server for you to send and receive email messages. The web host will also provide you a means to get an address for people to get to your web site with a web browser and post email to you.

This is just a begin. I’ll write more about web hosting in my next post… cheers you all.

How to Order a SQL Server Database Hosting Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Wed, 06 May 2009 03:35:00 +0000

If you wish to add a SQL Server database option to your hosting account, simply add the option when you order your hosting account. If you only need a SQL Server database without a website, please contact our Sales Department and they will be happy to assist you.

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SQL Server Hosting Technical Information

For information on using SQL Server Enterprise Manager, SQL Server Query Analyzer, DTS, ODBC/OLEDB database connections, SQL Server Management Studio and more, please see the following sections of our Technical Support Center:

SQL Server 2005 Information and Resources

SQL Server 2005 drives better decision-making with enterprise-grade reporting and data analysis. A highly reliable database platform for critical applications, SQL Server 2005 delivers high levels of availability, performance, and security. For more information and links to SQL Server 2005 resources, please visit:

New iPhone Could Render Apple TV Obsolete

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:14:00 +0000

We all know that Apple will be unleashing a new version of the iPhone this summer and this highly anticipated handset is sounding better and better by the moment. We've already heard about possible upgrades like a 3-megapixel camera and video calling, but now we've got another juicy tidbit to consider.

You see, Apple has told its retailers to start putting the iPod AV cables on clearance. Why is this notable? Because they're reportedly making way for a new set of AV cables that combine both composite and component video outputs into a single set of cables. These will function in much the same way as the component cables for the Xbox 360.

If you go with the composite configuration, you'll get SD video as you've always had, but if you go with the component configuration, you can gain access to 720p and 1080i video output. That's because, so the story goes, the new iPhone (and iPod touch) will be capable of doing some great HD video goodness. And it'll output it through these new cables.

So, how does this relate to Apple TV? By the sounds of things, Apple will include a handy piece of software in iPhone 3.0 that "closely replicates" the functionality of Apple TV. In this way, you may be able to stream HD video content over a Wi-Fi connection, through your iPhone, and into your HDTV using the said cables. The Apple TV-like menu gives you access to not only locally stored media, but also stuff that can stream over Wi-Fi or 3G.

Chalk this up to rumor for now, but I wouldn't put it past Cupertino to do this. Too bad for Apple TV. Too good for iPhone Next

Website makes child's play of LHC science

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 07:10:00 +0000

Cute and cuddly. Not how you'd normally describe the biggest of big physics projects. But I've just spent a happy hour exploring and playing in CERNland, and I'm as smitten as a kitten.

CERNland is a new website aimed at 7 to 12-year-olds that aims to show kids what goes on at the CERN particle physics laboratory near Geneva and teach them some physics at the same time. Think Mario Bros meets the Large Hadron Collider and you can begin to imagine what CERNland is like.

SuperBob (pictured belove), MicroBoy and a host of other characters show you around. Here you can learn about CERN's antimatter factory, what happens in the theory department and how much of the real work gets done in the cafeteria.

There are games that involve dodging monsters and collecting chocolate bars in the LHC tunnel, as you answer questions about accelerating particles. And you can fly through space collecting the electrons, protons and neutrons you need to build atoms.

To complete some of the games and quizzes, you'll need to click through the educational screens. Thankfully these have been developed by educational professionals and kids, rather than physicists. So it makes for a fun experience.

You can also watch videos of CERN, download wallpaper and even songs by CERN's houseband Les Horribles Cernettes.

I've often cringed at some of the well-meaning, yet misguided attempts to teach kids about particle physics. But CERNland has got it spot on.

INTEL Vs AMD – The short review

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:36:00 +0000

I SUPPOSE YOU COULD SAY we've conducted plenty of CPU reviews in our time, but we just can't bring ourselves to slow things down. The release of Windows Vista and a round of price cuts by AMD prompted us to hatch a devious plan involving Vista, a new test suite full of multithreaded and 64-bit applications, fifteen different CPU configurations, and countless hours of lab testing.

Choosing a processor is an exercise in predicting the future. Given the rapid pace of technology, you'd ideally like a CPU—and the other parts of the system—to last a few years. Choose a CPU that's too new and you end up on the pricey, bleeding edge of the envelope. Choose one that's been around too long and you may find yourself struggling to run new software. Whether you're buying a PC, making an upgrade, or building a new system from scratch, you'll face the same problems.

Intel has been firing on all cylinders while AMD has been playing catch-up. The coming year looks to be more of the same. Both companies are poised to introduce new product lines. Intel is moving forward with a substantially new micro architecture, whereas AMD is just now making the move to the 45nm manufacturing process, which Intel has been using for nearly a year. The smaller architecture allows CPU manufacturers to build processors that use lower power and run at higher clock speeds, as well as cram more transistors on a CPU die.

Still, moving to 45nm should make AMD somewhat more competitive, at least in the midrange and low-end desktop market. AMD's Phenom processor line had some advantage in certain types of servers, particularly those applications that benefit from low latency memory access. Yet Intel's latest CPU, the Core i7 series, may eliminate or reduce those advantages.

Shift+Delete

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:44:00 +0000

Do you need to recover lost files, photos or documents? You're sure that a file was on your hard disk some time ago, but now it seems to have disappeared. Perhaps you archived some files or photos to CD or DVD to save disk space, and now the disk is corrupt or unreadable? Or perhaps your computer won't boot up, and you don't have a backup!

It may seem as if all is lost. But don't panic! Your data is almost certainly still on your hard drive somewhere. This article will help you choose the best method for restoring them.

Accidental deletion is the most common cause of lost data. Modern operating systems provide protection against accidentally deleting files. In Windows, it's called the Recycle Bin. It's basically a special folder to which files are moved when they are deleted. As far as the operating system is concerned files that are deleted to the Recycle Bin are not really deleted at all. If you think you have deleted a file, the Recycle Bin should be the first place that you look.

If you empty the Recycle Bin, or Shift+Delete a file, then the file becomes deleted as far as the operating system is concerned. The file disappears from any folder listing and the disk space occupied by the data becomes available for re-use. But the data is not physically erased from the disk. The disk space still contains the data. And it is not re-used immediately. What data recovery products do is find ways to locate this data so that the files can be undeleted or unerased
When files are deleted, a lot of pointers to the data are still left lying around. Because of this, recovering deleted files can be treated as a special case as far as data recovery goes.
It's a lot quicker than a full data recovery, which requires locating the contents of lost files with no additional pointers at all. Some data recovery tools will only recover deleted files.

Recovering photos

Specialist data recovery software can speed up the process and improve the chances of success by searching just for specific file types. . Using forensic techniques they can locate lost files on otherwise unrecoverable disks.

Photo recovery software will know, for example, that a JPG image file will start with the characters "JFIF". Following that is a header that gives more information about the file, such as its length. The software will scan the disk looking for a cluster that starts with "JFIF", determine the expected file length, and then read as many clusters as necessary to create a file of that length.

However, the recovered images will be corrupt if the file was fragmented. Because the data stream in a photo image file is essentially random, it isn't as easy to piece together a file from fragments in the way that you can for a text-based document.

ODBC Vs OLEDB

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:03:00 +0000

Hi all, Hope this post will help for the DB beginners. :)
Back in the old days, database connectivity was difficult. Everybody had their own database formats, and developers had to know a low level API for each database they wished to develop for. There was a push for a universal API, an API which would work for numerous data stores. It was about this time that ODBC, or Open Database Connectivity, which was an early attempt at creating this universal API. A number of databases conformed to this standard, and became known as ODBC-compliant databases. ODBC-compliant databases consist of Access, MS-SQL Server, Oracle, Informix, etc.

ODBC is Open Data Base Connectivity, which is a connection method to data sources and other things. It requires that you set up a data source, or what's called a DSN using an SQL driver or other driver if connecting to other database types. Most database systems support ODBC

Well, ODBC wasn't perfect. It still contained a lot of low-level calls, and was difficult to develop with. Developers had to focus more on low-level communications with the database, as opposed to being able to concentrate on getting the data they needed and using it how they saw fit. Along came Microsoft's solution: DAO, or Data Access Objects.

.OLE is Object Linking and Embedding. OLEDB is partly distinguished from OLE itself, now called "automation". OLEDB is the successor to ODBC, a set of software components that allow a "front end" such as GUI based on VB, C++, Access or whatever to connect with a back end such as SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, mySQL etal. In many cases the OLEDB components offer much better performance than the older ODBC.OLEDB is a different type of data provider that came about with MS's Universal Data Access in 1996 and does not require that you set up a DSN. It is commonly used when building VB apps and is closely tied to ADO. It works with COM, and DCOM as of SQL 7.0.

OLEDB sits between the ODBC layer and the application. With your ASP pages, ADO is the "application" that sits above OLEDB. Your ADO calls are first sent to OLEDB, which are then sent to the ODBC layer. You can connect directly to the OLEDB layer, though, and if you do so, you'll see an increase in performance for server-side cursors (the default cursor type for recordsets, and the most common type of cursor used).

NASA - Ares I

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:05:00 +0000

2008 was a mixed year for spaceflight. Let’s consider same shuttle releases, First, China carried out its first spacewalk, then India sent a probe to the Moon, and several private space vehicles took flight for the first time. What you think about NASA. News was NASA's long-term goals and a looming gap in US space access after the retirement of the space shuttle.

The year, which marked NASA's 50th anniversary, they begin with the new hardware and system for the Ares I rocket that will send future astronauts in to orbit build on cutting edge launching technologies. But it suffers from vibrations that could endanger astronauts. Some engineers said the agency should consider alternative shuttle replacement vehicles. But NASA said the vibration problem can be fixed by incorporating springs into the rocket's design.

Ares I, which will loft Apollo-like capsules into orbit, could be ready to fly as early as 2015. But the space shuttle is due to retire in 2010, creating a five-year gap in US access to space flight. This matter concerns by the both Barack Obama and John McCain pledged to do what they could to close this gap.

There was discussion about extending the shuttle's life, and Congress directed NASA to keep this option open for the next administration to consider. But some said an extension might not actually help matters, since it could pull resources away from the development of next-generation vehicles.

After the election, the US Government Accountability Office listed shuttle retirement as one of the most urgent issues facing Obama's incoming administration.

NASA was also sharply criticized for cost overruns by former associate science administrator Alan Stern. Days later, the agency announced that technical glitches would delay its ambitious Mars Science Laboratory rover, adding $400 million to the mission's cost.

With the prospect of a new administration and possibly new NASA leadership, various groups pushed for a focus on sending astronauts to Mars instead of the Moon, igniting a storm of controversy.

Nokia with Wibree Technology

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 09:20:00 +0000

Nokia announced the introduction of Wibree technology as an open industry initiative extending local connectivity to small devices.

Wibree Technology is a new radio technology that developed by Nokia Research Center complements other local connectivity technologies, consuming only a portion of the power compared to other such radio technologies, It takes more smaller and less costly implementation and It is very easy to integrated with Bluetooth.

Wibree is the first open technology that offers connectivity between mobile devices or Personal Computers, and small, button cell battery power devices such as watches, wireless keyboards, toys and sports sensors.

Nokia is planning to make the new technology available on the market as fast as possible. The company is defining the Wibree interoperability specification together with Broadcom Corporation, CSR, Epson and Nordic Semiconductor which are representing semiconductor manufacturers, device vendors and qualification service providers. The technology will be made broadly available to the industry through an open and preferably existing forum enabling wide adoption of the technology. The forum solution is under evaluation and will be defined by the time the specification is finalized. According to the current estimate, the first commercial version of the interoperability specification will be available during second quarter of 2007.

Wibree technology complements close range communication with Bluetooth like performance within 0-10 m range and data rate of 1 Mbps. Wibree is optimized for applications requiring extremely low power consumption, small size and low cost.
Wibree is implemented either as stand-alone chip or as Bluetooth-Wibree dual-mode chip. The small devices like watches and sports sensors will be based on stand-alone chip whereas Bluetooth devices will take benefit of the dual-mode solution, extending Bluetooth device connectivity to a new range of smallest devices.

The new chip that will let an iPod store 500,000 songs

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 06:36:00 +0000

Mobile phones, iPods and other consumer devices may soon be able to hold a hundred times more information than they do at present thanks to a breakthrough in storage technology.
Scientists at IBM say they have developed a new type of digital storage which would enable a device such as an MP3 player to store about half a million songs - or 3,500 films - and cost far less to produce.

In a paper published, said that devices which use the new technology would require much less power, would run on a single battery charge for "weeks at a time", and would last for decades. So-called 'racetrack' memory uses the 'spin' of an electron to store data, and can operate far more quickly than regular hard drives.

Like flash memory - the most advanced type of memory for small devices such as mobile phones - it has no moving parts, meaning that the problems associated with mechanical reliability are dramatically reduced.
Unlike flash, however, it can 'write data' - or store information - extremely quickly, and does not have the 'wear out' mechanism that means flash memory drives can only be used a few thousand times before they wear out.

"The promise of racetrack memory - for example, the ability to carry massive amounts of information in your pocket - could unleash creativity leading to devices and applications that nobody has imagined yet," Stuart Parkin, the IBM fellow who led the research, said. At present the most capacious iPod - the 160GB iPod Classic - can store 40,000 songs. For nearly fifty years, scientists have explored the possibility of storing information inside the walls that exist between magnetic domains, but to date manipulating such walls has been too expensive and complicated to achieve significant results.

In his paper, Mr Parkin describes a milestone in which he and his team were able to store data in columns of magnetic material arranged on the surface of a silicon wafer. The information moves around the columns at high speed, giving the technology its racetrack name.

IBM said the technology was still "exploratory" at this stage, but that it expected devices which used it to be on the market within ten years.

Web Apps Critically Vulnerable, Says Report

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:38:00 +0000

According to a new report by consultancy Corsaire, almost a quarter of Web applications have critical security issues or vulnerabilities.The paper, which analyzed applications from leading companies across the several countries like UK, Australia, Europe, the U.S. and Asia, puts the remaining three quarters into “medium” and “low” impact categories, reports vnunet.com. But still, these vulnerabilities present a high possibility of data loss or other security breach according to the reports.

According to the new report by consultancy Corsaire, Nearly a quarter of web applications have critical security issues or vulnerabilities. This based its findings on security assessments from the past six years.

The State of the Web white paper analyzed samples of security assessments of applications from leading companies in a number of sectors across the UK, Australia, Europe, the US and Asia.
Corsaire found that, despite a general improvement in security over the past six years, just fewer than 25 per cent of the problems could have a 'critical' or 'high' impact on application security, representing a significant likelihood of data loss or other security breach. The remaining three quarters were split between 'medium' and 'low' impact.

Martin O'Neal, managing director of Corsaire, argued that web application attacks are becoming ever more sophisticated, and that security in this area is still being overlooked by many firms.
"These vulnerabilities can often be eliminated through a more structured approach to security during development," he said.

"In fact, by employing rigorously specified security requirements, backed by developer education and regular security testing checkpoints, businesses can effectively define what security is, and can help to ensure that personnel have the understanding and skills to deliver improvements."

Broadcom Launches Combo Chip for Mobile Devices

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:12:00 +0000

Broadcom Corporation is an American supplier of integrated circuits (ICs) for broadband communications. Founded in 1991 by Henry Samueli (chairman and CTO) and Henry Nicholas, it became a public company in 1998 and now employs over 6,800 people worldwide. Broadcom is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders.

Broadcom has launched a new 802.11n chip that also enhances the data rate for Bluetooth and FM radio in mobile phones and mobile devices. According to Computerworld and itbusinessedge, the BCM4329 chip will enter volume production next year and be made available for product use by the end of 2009.

Because the chip is more energy-efficient than current 802.11g chips, Chris Bergey, director of Broadcom’s embedded wireless line of business, believes it will be quickly adopted in cell phones. EE Times reports that nearly one-third of mobile phones and other wireless devices will use chips that support multiple wireless links. Broadcom’s combo chip provides common memory and power management blocks for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and FM.

Visual Studio Test Attributes

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:00:00 +0000

When we built our test in the previous section, we were required to use the following two attributes:
· [TestMethod] – Used to mark a method as a test method. Only methods marked with this attribute will run when you run your tests.
· [TestClass] – Used to mark a class as a test class. Only classes marked with this attribute will run when you run your tests.
When building tests, you always use the [TestMethod] and [TestClass] attributes. However, there are several other useful, but optional, test attributes. For example, you can use the following attribute pairs to setup and tear down tests:
· [AssemblyInitialize] and [AssemblyCleanup] – Used to mark methods that execute before and after all of the tests in an assembly are executed
· [ClassInitialize] and [ClassCleanup] – Used to mark methods that execute before and after all of the tests in a class are executed
· [TestInitialize] and [TestCleanup] – Used to mark methods that execute before and after each test method is executed
For example, you might want to create a fake HttpContext that you can use with all of your test methods. You can setup the fake HttpContext in a method marked with the [ClassInitialize] attribute and dispose of the fake HttpContext in a method marked with the [ClassCleanup] attribute.
There are several attributes that you can use to provide additional information about test methods. These attributes are useful when you are working with hundreds of unit tests and you need to manage the tests by sorting and filtering the tests:
· [Owner] – Enables you to specify the author of a test method
· [Description] – Enables you to provide a description of a test method
· [Priority] – Enables you to specify an integer priority for a test
· [TestProperty] – Enables you to specify an arbitrary test property
You can use these attributes when sorting and filtering tests in either the Test View window or the Test List Editor.
Finally, there is an attribute that you can use to cause a particular test method to be ignored when running a test. This attribute is useful when one of your tests has a problem and you just don’t want to deal with the problem at the moment:
· [Ignore] – Enables you to temporarily disable a test. You can use this attribute on either a test method or an entire test class

Unit test in VS 2005

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:59:00 +0000

If you didn't know it already, it is not a difficult one to learn.Tremendous progress is being made on several fronts: IDE integration, process integration, and new test fixtures. In here I will cover unit testing in Visual Studio 2005, including VSTS unit testing, NUnit and MBUnit--the Superman of unit testing. First post I’ll cover NUnit testing.

NUnit
NUnit is the unit testing framework that has the majority of the market share. It utilizes attributes to identify what a test is.
The TestFixture attribute is used to identify a class that will expose test methods.
The Test attribute is used to identify a method that will exercise a test subject.
Let's get down to business and look at some code. First we need something to test.
public class Subject
{
public Int32 Add(Int32 x, Int32 y)
{
return x + y;
}
}
That Subject class has one method: Add.
We will test the Subject class by exercising the Add method with different arguments.
[TestFixture]
public class tSubject
{
[Test]
public void tAdd()
{
Int32 Sum;
Subject Subject = new Subject();
Sum = Subject.Add(1,2);
Assert.AreEqual(3, Sum);
}
}
The class tSubject is decorated with the attribute TestFixture, and the method tAdd is decorated with the attribute Test.
You can compile this and run it in the NUnit GUI application. It will produce a successful test run.
That is the basics of what NUnit offers. There are attributes to help with setting up and tearing down your test environment:
SetUp, SetUpFixture, TearDown, and TearDownFixture. SetUpFixture is run once at the beginning when the fixture is first created; similarly,
TearDownFixture is run once after all tests have completed. SetUp and TearDown are run before and after each test.
NUnit tests can be run several different ways: from the GUI application, from the console's application, and from a NAnt task. NUnit has been integrated into Cruise Control .NET as well. In the last product review, you will see how it has been integrated into the VS.NET IDE as well.

'Interplanetary internet' passes first test

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:58:00 +0000

NASA has finished its first deep-space test of what could become an 'interplanetary internet'. The new networking commands could one day be used to automatically relay information between Earth, spacecraft, and astronauts, without the need for humans to schedule transmissions at each point.

Spacecraft usually communicate directly with Earth - the first to do so through an intermediary were the Mars Explorations Rovers, which launched in 2003. The Spirit and Opportunity rovers transmit data to orbiters, which then send the data back to Earth.

But human intervention is still required to schedule communications sessions for orbiters and Landers. "The traditional method of operations is largely manual," says Jay Wyatt of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "People get in a room and decide when they can send data."

A new method would automate and streamline this process by sending data through an interplanetary 'internet'. Just as data is sent from one point to another on the internet via a linked network of hubs, or nodes, spacecraft scattered throughout the solar system could be used as nodes to transmit data through space.

Last week, NASA completed a month-long test of a simulated network of Mars Landers, orbiters and mission operations centers on Earth.

For the test, dozens of images of Mars and its moon Phobos were transmitted back and forth between computers on Earth and NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft. The craft, which sent an impactor into Comet Tempel 1 in 2005, has been renamed "Epoxi" now that it its mission has been extended to search for extrasolar planets.

Measuring Performance of Stored Procedures

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:09:00 +0000

Database developers need to write stored procedures which are not only fully functional, but also which perform acceptably. As database servers use permanent storage media heavily (mainly because of ACID properties), which are known for slow performance, optimizing the stored procedures for performance is very important. In here I’ll describe on some of the counters used to measure performance and analyses methods of capturing these counters. This post is intended for database developers who write stored procedures and optimize for performance.
Currently there are three counters widely used for measuring performance of the system.

Execution time
CPU Cost
IO Cost

Execution Time
The most primitive method is to get the time taken to execute the query from SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). The status bar displays the time taken in terms of hour, minute and second. This may be a measure used when a query takes a longer time (Usually more than 10 seconds, so that a 10% improvement to the query could be measured) and the time difference in sub seconds is insignificant. When a query executes within a second, SSMS rounds the value. Thus this value could not be used to get the value if the query executes within sub seconds.Another method is to get the system time before and after the execution of the stored procedure and analyze the difference. SQL Server management studio could be used for this purpose, simply by adding print statements before and after the stored procedure.

PRINT CONVERT(varchar, GETDATE(), 114)

The developer could also use variables to hold the values and calculate the time difference.The advantage over this method is it could be used within a query too. For a stored procedure to be executed multiple times with different parameter for each time, print statement could be injected between each execution to analyze the time difference. For a multi statement procedure, Developers need to modify the stored procedure adding print statement, but it gives better control over the data to the developers. On the disadvantages side, one of the major points is its disability over getting time taken for compilation. Instead of PRINT statements, the time could be inserted into a table for further analysis is required. As datetime data type as it allows the value to be accurate up to 3 milliseconds the results may have vary with actual up to 3 milliseconds, and better than the previous method.

SQL Server has some other methods too.

SQL Server has a Set option which could be used to display the time taken:

SET STATISTICS TIME ON

SET STATISTICS TIME OFF

When this set option is ON. SQL Server will return message which may look similar to:

SQL Server Execution Times:

CPU time = 109 ms, elapsed time = 164 ms.

Elapsed time is the execution time of the query.

However, there is another time involved in this query: The time taken to compile the query. To view that, the statement should be issued when SET STATISTICS TIME ON Statement is already executed. When a batch of statements is submitted, SQL Server goes through ALL of them but compiles one by one. As GO is considered as batch separator, inserting a GO statement between the SET command and the query will make SQL Server to consider each statement as a batch and compile and execute them separately. Executing the set command first and executing the query (i.e. in two batches) will also do the trick.

When done the messages may be different.

SQL Server parse and compile time:

CPU time = 62 ms, elapsed time = 72 ms.

(1139 row(s) affected)

SQL Server Execution Times:

CPU time = 109 ms, elapsed time = 167 ms.

In this case, the time taken by the server for execution is 167 milliseconds. In addition to this, 72 milliseconds have been taken for compilation. The unit of measurement is in milliseconds and smaller figures will be rounded. When a multi statement stored procedure is called, the total time may slightly differ from the calculation. For this reason, SQL Server provides a summary too. Additionally, some of the internal operations like creating worktables, statistics on temporary tables etc. may create additional load but not be captured as individual statements. However, they will be added to the final cost.

I'll explain the other topics in my next post.

Full Text Indexing in SQL Server

noreply@blogger.com (Indika Athukorala) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:49:00 +0000

Sql Server’s Full-Text search can let a developer create some very slick features disturbingly easily. And, unlike many other Full-Text implementations, it is not limited to plain text fields. It can also search within binary fields with the proper setup considerations. Needless to say, there are a few protips to making Full-Text indexes work and taking advantage of them. In this post, I will tell you how to get Full-Tex.

Getting Started

First, you are going to need a copy of Sql Server 2000 or 2005 Standard edition. MSDE or Sql Express do not have Full-Text capabilities. In order to enable Full-Text search, you must do a few things.

Enable Full-Text search on the database.
Create a Full-Text catalog.
Enable Full-Text searching on specific columns in your data.

Full Text Indexing in SQL Server 2000

Create and populate a table.
Enable the pubs database for full-text searching
Create a full-text catalog.
Register the new table and certain columns in it for full-text search.
Populate the new full-text catalog with full-text index information from the new
tableExecute a full-text query against the new table.

USE Pubs

-- Create and populate a table.

IF EXISTS (SELECT TABLE_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES

WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'FulltextTest')

DROP TABLE FulltextTest

CREATE TABLE FulltextTest

( article_id int IDENTITY(100,1)

CONSTRAINT PK_title_id PRIMARY KEY,article_title nvarchar(200))

INSERT FulltextTest (article_title) VALUES (N'Steven Buchanan has always enjoyed ice skating.')

INSERT FulltextTest (article_title) VALUES (N'Elvis Stoiko: The best male figure skater')

INSERT FulltextTest (article_title) VALUES (N'Steven Buchanan On Ice: Skating Reaches Tops in Public Opinion Poll')

INSERT FulltextTest (article_title) VALUES (N'Last night, Steven Buchanan skated on the ice!! Skating fans cheer!')

INSERT FulltextTest (article_title) VALUES (N'Ice-skating brings out the best in Steven. Buchanan exults in first victory...')

-- Enable full-text searching in the database.

EXEC sp_fulltext_database 'enable'

-- Create a new full-text catalog.

EXEC sp_fulltext_catalog 'StevenBCatalog', 'create' GO

-- Register the new table and column within it for full-text querying,

-- then activate the table.

EXEC sp_fulltext_table 'FulltextTest', 'create', 'StevenBCatalog', 'PK_title_id'

EXEC sp_fulltext_column 'FulltextTest', 'article_title', 'add'

EXEC sp_fulltext_table 'FulltextTest', 'activate'GO

-- Start full population of the full-text catalog. Note that it is

-- asynchronous, so delay must be built in if populating a

-- large index.

EXEC sp_fulltext_catalog 'StevenBCatalog', 'start_full'

WHILE (SELECT fulltextcatalogproperty('StevenBCatalog','populatestatus'))<>0

BEGINWAITFOR DELAY '00:00:02'

-- Check every 2 seconds to see if full-text index population is complete.

CONTINUE

END

-- Execute a full-text query against the new table.

SELECT article_title

FROM FulltextTest

WHERE CONTAINS(article_title, ' "Steven Buchanan" AND "ice skating" ')