some thoughts...

ready.for.take.of - German launch event SQL 2008

Markus Fischer — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:00:20 GMT

Sorry, German only...

Die ideale Gelegenheit, sich mit den neuesten Microsoft-Technologien vertraut zu machen, bieten die Launch-Konferenz 2008 und die Deutsche SharePoint Konferenz. Beide Konferenzen finden vom 19. bis 21. Februar 2008 gleichzeitig in Frankfurt am Main statt und bieten Ihnen die Möglichkeit, den produktiven Einsatz innovativer Techniken kennen zu lernen. Ein Highlight nicht nur für die Branche, sondern auch für Sie.

Verpassen Sie nicht den Launch der neuesten Microsoft-Technologien:

Windows Server^® 2008,
SQL Server™ 2008 und
Visual Studio^® 2008

und erfahren Sie, wie Sie diese Technologien konkret nutzen können, um die IT-Umgebung in Ihrem Unternehmen sicherer und effizienter zu gestalten. Es erwarten Sie über 80 hochkarätige Programmpunkte, Gespräche mit kompetenten Experten und die Vorstellung von Praxislösungen durch unsere Partner. Bringen Sie Ihr Knowhow über innovative und effiziente Technologien auf den neuesten Stand.

Gleichzeitig findet die Deutsche SharePoint Konferenz 2008 statt. Sie knüpft an die Erfolge der Vorjahre an und legt nun starken Fokus auf die praktische Nutzung von SharePoint. Experten, Kunden und Partner zeigen Ihnen in mehr als 60 Fachvorträgen, wie SharePoint erfolgreich eingesetzt wird − in unterschiedlichen Branchen, Fachbereichen und technologischen Umgebungen.

Ready for Take-off? Nehmen Sie an der wichtigsten Microsoft-Großveranstaltung teil! Melden Sie sich am besten gleich hier für die Launch-Konferenz 2008 und die Deutsche SharePoint Konferenz 2008 an.

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European PASS Conference 2008 - Become an exhibitor or sponsor

Markus Fischer — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 03:39:01 GMT

Why should your Company Exhibit at PASS Conference 2008?

Link to hundreds of highly qualified prospects that will help you expand your customer base
Engage with SQL Server and Business Intelligence experts to promote your products and services
Increase exposure and awareness for your company
Achieve sales growth and generate valuable sales leads
Cultivate existing relationships

For more information on how your company can benefit from participation as an exhibitor and/or sponsor, please contact exhibitors08@european-pass-conference.com.

Sponsoring & Exhibition Prospectus

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European PASS Conference 2008 - Call for Speakers

Markus Fischer — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 02:19:17 GMT

The 2008 European PASS Conference Call for Speakers is now open!

PASS would like to encourage you to submit an abstract today!

Link to abstract submission form : http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e27lqm18fa6vm3ti/start

PASS is an association for users, run by users. It is important that our members be involved and help build the community they are a part of.

As a speaker at the 2008 European PASS Conference Summit (http://www.european-pass-conference.com) in Neuss - Germany (Near Dusseldorf), April 15 and 16, 2008 , you will receive:

Complimentary registration to the 2008 European PASS Conference
Industry recognition
Networking opportunities with hundreds of attendees

Microsoft employees are encouraged to submit presentations using the online submission form, however, please note that these submissions will be reviewed and abstract status will be determined by Microsoft.

The deadline to submit a presentation is January 31, 2008. If you have any questions, please e-mail speakerbureau08@european-pass-conference.com.

Thank you and we look forward to your participation!

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Windows Live Writer

Markus Fischer — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:37:00 GMT

I have used the holidays to install a new version of Windows Live Writer since the official version - no beta - is available as download since the beginning of November and is named Windows Live Writer 2008...

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Happy New Year 2008!

Markus Fischer — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 20:14:07 GMT

I wish all a Happy New Year and best wishes for 2008! (presumed that you use the Gregorian calendar, like Wikipedia knows to tell... :-) )

And yes... one of my New Year's pledge is to blog more than the last year - I hope to satisfy this...

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Rodney Landrum: The Reporting Services 3-Trick Pony

Markus Fischer — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:44:27 GMT

Rodney Landrum demonstrates an ingenious way to monitor blocked SQL Server processes across all your servers, using nothing but SSRS in his posting "The Reporting Services 3-Trick Pony"

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Darren Gosbell: SSIS Best Practices

Markus Fischer — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:40:08 GMT

Darren Gosbell has published his presentation and a sample project with demos he presented at the SQL Down Under Code Camp.

This really is worth downloading and reading!

And Darren had a very well-fitting picture about the feelings while building the first SSIS package while coming from DTS for example:

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Sam Battermann: Augmented Reality Application in WPF

Markus Fischer — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:05:16 GMT

Sam Battermann has posted about a really fascinating video using a webcam and a WPF application to create some tremendous effects:

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using FTP in SSIS

Markus Fischer — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:37:20 GMT

I recently had to download some flatfiles from different FTP Resources to load these into a SQL database.

Being a fan of package configurations and minimized maintenance I decided to build a package which would loop through a recordset containing the necessary informations like FTP server, port, user and password instead of creating different packages or steps for each FTP server.

excursion:
I know that storing passwords in a database table is not really best practice for security, but the guys being responsible for the SQL Server are also responsible for the FTP server... :-)

So, extracting the informations with a SQL Task, including a loop and using expressions to set the correct properties would not be a great challenge I thought. Up to the moment I tried to select the property for the password from the Property Expressions Editor in BIDS:

There is no property which could be used to set the password via expression - this must be a security feature to enable FTP tasks to be "secure by default"...

So what do to do?
Searching the properties for the password prop I recognized that there is a property for the connection - though I should use this for the loop approach instead of building several tasks? But what would be the correct usage of the connection?

Once again like every day in the life of an IT guy I used the "tool which must not be named" [@Microsoft: why don't you find search results even in your own resources???] and et voilà I got the perfect hint in the SSIS forum of MSDN.

The correct syntax for the connection would be Server IP:Port.loginAccount.loginPWD, therefor you could use an expression like this:

@[user::FtpServer] + ":" + @[user::FtpServerPort] +"."+ @[user::FtpAcct] +"."+ @[user::FtpPwd]

to build this connection string. And if you use another variable to build the string - do not forget to set the "evaluate as expression" to TRUE...

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some interesting tools for KPI support

Markus Fischer — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:10:02 GMT

A long time ago - February and March 2006 - Eugene Asahara has posted two very intersting articles about

The "KPI Cause and Effect Visio Graph" is a very useful visualization tool to diskuss KPI´s with the prospective users whereas the "KPIRelationships sample application" is a very smart tool to control if all perspectives, KPI´s, etc are developed and have the right definitions.

This two articles are a really must-read and Eugene also provides the tools for download - so check it out!

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little SQL-helpers: split a column

Markus Fischer — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:38:48 GMT

If you would like to split values from a column which are divideable beacause they are using the same delimiter like an ',' for example you could use the function below. The function also brings up the postion, which sometimes could be very usefull, too.

To call the function just use,


          select * from dbo.fn_split('Value
1,Value 2',',')

the first parameter is the column to split, the second contains the delimiter. You can not use different delimiters at one time at the moment, if you want to suggest some enhancements, please use the comments.... :-)
The statement will bring up the following result set:


          CREATE
          FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_Split](@text
nvarchar(max), @delimiter char(1)
= ' ') RETURNS @Strings TABLE ( positionintIDENTITYPRIMARYKEY, value nvarchar(max)
) ASBEGINDECLARE @indexintSET @index =
-1 WHILE (LEN(@text) > 0) BEGINSET @index =
CHARINDEX(@delimiter , @text) IF (@index =
0) AND (LEN(@text) > 0) BEGIN INSERT INTO @Strings VALUES (@text) BREAKENDIF (@index >
1) BEGIN INSERT INTO @Strings VALUES (LEFT(@text,
@index - 1)) SET @text = RIGHT(@text,
(LEN(@text) - @index)) ENDELSESET @text
= RIGHT(@text, (LEN(@text) - @index)) ENDRETURN END

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little SQL-helpers: help with date formats

Markus Fischer — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:33:12 GMT

Are you also always looking in the BOL if you have to deal with datetime?

This stored procedure could bring some light in the dark...

You will have to call it with the following statement:


          Select dbo.fn_formatdate(getdate(),'formated
date: \TT\MM\YYYY \hh:\mi:\ss \ms Week: \wk Weekday: \DW Quarter: \qq'),getdate()

The formatstring can contain severall formatstrings and will bring up all datetimeparts you want, including some additional textparts...


          CREATE
          FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_formatdate](@dat
datetime,@format varchar(255)) RETURNSvarchar(255) ASBEGINdeclare @ret varchar(255) declare @i int--
year 4 digitsset @ret=replace(@format,'\jjjj',cast(year(@dat) asvarchar(4))) --
year 4 digits set @ret=replace(@ret,'\yyyy',cast(year(@dat) asvarchar(4))) --
day 2 digits set @ret=replace(@ret,'\dd',right('0'+cast(day(@dat) asvarchar(2)),2)) --
weekday 1 digit set @ret=replace(@ret,'\dw',cast(datepart(dw,@dat) asvarchar(1))) --
day of yearset @ret=replace(@ret,'\dy',right('00'+cast(day(@dat) asvarchar(3)),3)) --
hour 2 digitsset @ret=replace(@ret,'\hh',right('0'+cast(datepart(hh,@dat) asvarchar(2)),2)) --
year 2 digits set @ret=replace(@ret,'\jj',right(cast(year(@dat) asvarchar(4)),2)) --
minute 2 digits set @ret=replace(@ret,'\mi',right('0'+cast(datepart(mi,@dat) asvarchar(2)),2)) --
month 2 digitsset @ret=replace(@ret,'\mm',right('0'+cast(month(@dat) asvarchar(2)),2)) --
milliseconds 3 digitsset @ret=replace(@ret,'\ms',right('00'+cast(datepart(ss,@dat) asvarchar(3)),3)) --
quarter 2 digits set @ret=replace(@ret,'\qq',right('0'+cast(datepart(qq,@dat) asvarchar(2)),2)) --
seconds 2 digitsset @ret=replace(@ret,'\ss',right('0'+cast(datepart(ss,@dat) asvarchar(2)),2)) --
day 2 digitsset @ret=replace(@ret,'\tt',right('0'+cast(day(@dat) asvarchar(2)),2)) --
week 2 digitsset @ret=replace(@ret,'\wk',right('0'+cast(datepart(wk,@dat) asvarchar(2)),2)) --
year 2 digitsset @ret=replace(@ret,'\yy',right(cast(year(@dat) asvarchar(4)),2)) --
day 1-2 digits set @ret=replace(@ret,'\d',cast(day(@dat) asvarchar(2))) --
hour 1-2 digits set @ret=replace(@ret,'\h',cast(datepart(hh,@dat) asvarchar(2))) --
month 1-2 digits set @ret=replace(@ret,'\m',cast(month(@dat) asvarchar(2))) --
minute 2 digitsset @ret=replace(@ret,'\n',right('0'+cast(datepart(mi,@dat) asvarchar(2)),2)) --
quarter 1 digit set @ret=replace(@ret,'\q',cast(datepart(qq,@dat) asvarchar(1))) --
seconds 1-2 digitsset @ret=replace(@ret,'\s',cast(datepart(ss,@dat) asvarchar(2))) --
day 1-2 digits set @ret=replace(@ret,'\t',cast(day(@dat) asvarchar(2))) --
week 1-2 digits set @ret=replace(@ret,'\w',cast(datepart(wk,@dat) asvarchar(2))) return @ret END GO

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little SQL-helpers: Create database snapshots via stored procedure

Markus Fischer — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:14:49 GMT

Do you want to create database snapshots? And do you want to do it programmatically? Then you could use this stored procedure...

Enjoy!


          CREATE
          PROC [dbo].[spr_CreateSnapshot]
(@Masterdb VARCHAR(255), @SnapshotName VARCHAR(255),
@ExecuteBIT = 1) ASSET NOCOUNT ONDECLARE @NewLine CHAR(2) DECLARE @Q CHAR(1) DECLARE @fname VARCHAR(255) DECLARE @extention VARCHAR(255) DECLARE @Pfad VARCHAR(255) DECLARE @DBname VARCHAR(255) DECLARE @LogicName VARCHAR(255) DECLARE @Command VARCHAR(MAX) DECLARE @indexExt INTDECLARE @indexPfad INTDECLARE @lenFname INTDECLARE @lenPfad INTDECLARE @lenDB INTDECLARE @lenExt INTCREATETABLE #Info
(physical_name VARCHAR(255) notnull,
logicname VARCHAR(255) notnull) SET @newLine
= CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) SET @Q
= CHAR(39) SET @command = 'INSERT
INTO #info (physical_name, logicname) SELECT s.physical_name,s.[name] AS LogicName
FROM ' + Quotename(@masterdb) + '.sys.filegroups as g INNER
JOIN sys.master_files AS s ON s.type = 0 AND s.database_id = db_id(' + @Q +
@Masterdb + @Q + ') AND s.drop_lsn is null AND s.data_space_id =
g.data_space_id ORDER BY g.data_space_id'EXECUTE (@Command) SET @Command
= 'CREATE DATABASE ' + @SnapshotName + @NewLine SET @Command
= @Command + 'ON' + @NewLine DECLARE c CURSOR READ_ONLY FORSELECT physical_name,
logicname FROM #info OPEN c FETCHNEXTFROM c INTO @fname,@LogicName WHILE (@@fetch_status
<> -1) BEGINIF (@@fetch_status
<> -2) BEGINSET @fname
= REVERSE(@fname) SET @lenFname = LEN(@fname) SET @indexExt
= CHARINDEX('.',@fname) -1 SET @indexPfad
= CHARINDEX('\',@fname) - 1 SET @extention
= REVERSE(SUBSTRING (@fname, 1, @indexExt)) SET @lenExt
= LEN(@extention) SET @Pfad = LEFT (REVERSE(@fname),
@lenFname - @indexPfad) SET @lenPfad = LEN(@Pfad) SET @DBname
= SUBSTRING(REVERSE(@fname), @lenPfad + 1, (@lenFname -
@lenPfad - @lenExt) - 1) SET @Command = @Command + '(Name
= ' + @Q + @LogicName + @Q + ', Filename = ' + @Q SET @Command
= @Command + @Pfad + @SnapshotName + '_' + @DBname + '.' + 'ssh' +
@Q + '),' + @NewLine ENDFETCHNEXTFROM c INTO @fname,@LogicName ENDCLOSE c DEALLOCATE c SET @Command
= LEFT(@Command,LEN(@Command)-3) + @NewLine + 'AS
SNAPSHOT OF ' + @masterdb IF @Execute =
1 BEGINEXEC (@Command) ENDELSEBEGINSELECT @Command AS Command END

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little SQL-helpers: Get some infos about your SQL Server

Markus Fischer — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:57:03 GMT

You are interested in getting some informations about your SQL Server, for example to be able to do an auditing on your SQL Server via SSIS, this code will help:


          SELECT SERVERPROPERTY ('MachineName') as MachineName,
SERVERPROPERTY ('InstanceName') as InstanceName,
SERVERPROPERTY ('ProductVersion') as ProductVersion,
SERVERPROPERTY ('ProductLevel') As ProductLevel,
SERVERPROPERTY ('Edition') as Edition,
SERVERPROPERTY ('LicenseType') as LicenseType,
SERVERPROPERTY ('NumLicenses') as NumLicenses,
SERVERPROPERTY ('IsClustered') as IsClustered,
SERVERPROPERTY ('IsIntegratedSecurityOnly') as IsIntegratedSecurityOnly

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little SQL-helpers: sp_refreshview

Markus Fischer — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:51:39 GMT

I do not know the original author of this stored procedure...
If you are the one - please send me an email and I will publish the right credits!

After changing the structure of a table or delete one you will need to check and refresh your views also. This code will help...


          DECLARE @Table_Name varchar(100) DECLARE Refresh_Views CURSORFORSELECT Table_Name FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERE TABLE_TYPE
= 'VIEW'AND TABLE_SCHEMA = 'dbo'OPEN Refresh_Views FETCHNEXTFROM Refresh_Views INTO @Table_Name WHILE@@FETCH_STATUS =
0 BEGINEXEC sp_refreshview @Table_Name FETCHNEXTFROM Refresh_Views INTO @Table_Name ENDCLOSE Refresh_Views DEALLOCATE Refresh_Views

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European PASS Conference 2008

Markus Fischer — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:11:31 GMT

This one is an event for your 2008 calender...
PASS is coming back to Europe next year from April 14th to 16th with the European PASS Conference 2008!

You want to be part of it?

	Registration:	registration@european-pass-conference.com
	Speaker:	speakerbureau@european-pass-conference.com
	Accounting:	accounting@european-pass-conference.com
	Exhibitors:	exhibitors@european-pass-conference.com
	Information:	inquiries@european-pass-conference.com

View map

- The Swissôtel is placed directly near the Rhine and is approx. 10 min away from the "Düsseldorf Altstadt" if you drive by car.

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DasBlog2 Theme Contest

Markus Fischer — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:34:30 GMT

Scott Hanselman has posted about the "DasBlog Theme Contest" started to get some more themes for the start of the 2.0 release of DasBlog. The contest is hosted by Ben Scheirman at [http://www.flux88.com/das BlogThemeContest.aspx (please remove the blank by yourself, DasBlog is mixing up the link due to an included ContentFilter...)], who also provides a step-by-step description on how to create an own theme. If you have ever thought of feeling as a designer and create a new theme for DasBlog? There will be no better time than now! :-)

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Phil Brammer: SSIS - Using a Script Component as a Source

Markus Fischer — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 21:22:14 GMT

Phil Brammer has posted a very nice and simple quick tutorial on using a script component as a source on his blog:

http://www.ssistalk.com/2007/04/04/ssis-using-a-script-component-as-a-source/#more-42

Really worth reading!

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Visual Studio 2005 Keyboard Shortcut Reference Posters

Markus Fischer — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:25:16 GMT

Microsoft provides some useful nice stuff for download:

"Keyboard shortcuts can help increase productivity when performing certain tasks within the Visual Studio 2005 IDE (Integrated Development Environment). This wall poster provides the shortcut and associated description for the default key bindings setup in the Visual Basic 2005 profile. The poster is provided here in both color and grayscale for you to print locally as a PDF file."

Download, print, place it near your keyboard and save time:

Visual Basic 2005 Keyboard Shortcut Reference Poster

Visual C# 2005 Keyboard Shortcut Reference Poster

Visual C++ 2005 Keyboard Shortcut Reference Poster

Microsoft, what about providing that for the Business Intelligence Developer Studio and the SQL Server Management Studion also??
:-)

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PASS BootCamp 2007 - DBA & Reporting Services

Markus Fischer — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 21:29:37 GMT

PASS Germany is doing a BootCamp again this year! [Even if it is an event in German language I am writing in English - please spread this news around in your blogs though interested community members have the chance to participate] We are slightly breaking traditions this year, because we are not having a complete BI-focused BootCamp, we are having two different tracks this time: the first one is DBA-stuff including performance optimization, clustering, mirroring, security, etc the second one is a deep dive into SQL Server Reporting Services including development, design, security, infrastructur and 3rd party tools like Dundas also With one habit we do not break traditions! We have included three suprising night sessions again and also two late night sessions - stay tuned! For further information visit the event page - if you want to register, please use this link. The Early-Bird ends at 9th July 2007 and the seats are limited - so register as fast as possible...

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PASS: 15. Treffen der Regionalgruppe Ruhrgebiet am 10. April 2007 ab 18.00 Uhr

Markus Fischer — Tue, 22 May 2007 05:04:44 GMT

PASS: 15. Treffen der Regionalgruppe Ruhrgebiet am 10. April 2007 ab 18.00 Uhr

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SQL Server Katmai - its official

Markus Fischer — Thu, 10 May 2007 02:03:05 GMT

Today at the BI Conference in Seattle Jeff Raikes from Microsoft has given a first official impact - just slides - on the next SQL Server version.

I have seen a new feature called Change Data Capture (also mentioned in the datasheet) in the session "PL208 Data Warehousing with Microsoft SQL Server 2005" presented by Gopal Ashok, Program Manager with the SQL Server Product team, which was quite impressive.

Ever dealt with the problem of having mass data in a table and no "real" marker to identify the specific rows for incremental data operations like inserts, updates and deletes?
The Change Data Capture should ease your pain by creating a kind of audit table to watch data modification without the need of programming stored procedures, triggers and so on.
I am extremely curious how this feature proves in real life scenarios. And I am also a little bit surprised if the SSIS team will not bring up some new tasks to enable the use of the audit table of the Change Data Capture - or do we still need to develop the handling concerning load cycles, deleting of successfully loaded records, etc by our own? A kind of automatic delta queue mechanism and handling like in SAP systems would be great!

Tomorrow Ted Kummert, corporate vice president of the Data and Storage Platform Division at Microsoft will have a keynote at the morning - I hope that he will show some more live impressions.

You will find the official press release here.

And there also is a information website online.

Regarding to the press release, "SQL Server “Katmai” is scheduled to be delivered in 2008" - but there is no information about CTP´s available on the website yet.

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Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference 2007, Seattle

Markus Fischer — Mon, 07 May 2007 00:00:08 GMT

With the conference beginning on Tuesday with the Welcome Reception, I tried to build my schedule online today. But as ecpected I have had a problem while choosing my schedule because there are some slots with many interesting session - I will have to choose spontanously which session I attend...

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SQL Server troubleshooting

Markus Fischer — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:34:30 GMT

Vera Noest provides a really great link collection of ressources which will be very usefull while doing troubleshoting.

Vera also provides troubleshooting tips for Terminal Server and Citrix.

Worth reading - check it out!

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little SQL-helpers: Extracting Olap Data from SSAS using SSIS - Darren Gosbell

Markus Fischer — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:05:16 GMT

Darren Gosbell has posted a very interesting article about querying SSAS and use the result in the relational part of SQL Server.

I have used it in a project to retransfer data which was calculated due to a parent child dimension containing items for a financial analysis.
Calculating this via the relational data would have been a mess, because of having to rebuild the whole calculation from the bottom to the top of the hierarchy.

All you have to do is to define a linked server in the first step:


          USE master GO /* Addnew linked
server */ EXEC sp_addlinkedserver @server='LINKED_OLAP', --
local SQL name given to the linked server  @srvproduct='', --
not used  @provider='MSOLAP.3', --
OLE DB provider (the .2 means the SQL2K version)  @datasrc='localhost', --
analysis server name (machine name)  @catalog='Adventure
Works DW'-- default catalog/database

After successfully defining the linked server you will be able to query any SSAS cube based on your security like this way:


          SELECT * FROMOpenQuery(linked_olap,'SELECT
--measures.members {Measures.[Internet Sales Amount]} ON COLUMNS, [Date].[Month].members
ON ROWS FROM [Adventure Works]')

While writing this blog entry I tested it on my notebook also - and was very astonished that querying the cube does not work, while testing the linked server worked well.
I am getting an error message like:
"Msg 7399, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
The OLE DB provider "MSOLAP.3" for linked server "linked_olap" reported an error. The provider did not give any information about the error.
Msg 7330, Level 16, State 2, Line 1
Cannot fetch a row from OLE DB provider "MSOLAP.3" for linked server "linked_olap"."

Maybe it depends on Windows Vista, even with the security set in the right way and also running SSMS as an administrator...

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We7

Markus Fischer — Tue, 01 May 2007 21:41:06 GMT

Interested in downloading music for free? Without DRM?
You will just be targeted with advertising and the advertiser pays the artist. We will have to see if the advertising is implemented in a smooth way or just is annoying.

All you have to do is to visit We7 and register - for sure you do not get the superstars, I am curious which known bands and artists will join.
Knowing that Peter Gabriel is a member of the team, we will have some surprises I think...

Referring to the website, "The real secret of We7 is our Web 2.0 based, 'pat.pending' MediaGraft engine"...
Huh... :-)

Just another Web 2.0 hype? We will see... But the idea is nice...
The website will start early in Summer 2007.

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little SQL-helpers: search and replace data from Narayana Vyas Kondreddi

Markus Fischer — Tue, 01 May 2007 19:37:56 GMT

Narayana Vyas Kondreddi has published some nice little sql helpers to search and replace data in various tables - therefor the following content is intellectual property of Narayana Vyas Kondreddi.

Maybe you will have to adjust the sql commands to search only special tables via a prefix for example or to just search via a special column...

The first one, SearchAllTables, can search all the columns of all the tables in a given database for a specific keyword:

CREATE PROC SearchAllTables
(
@SearchStr nvarchar(100)
)
AS
BEGIN

-- Copyright © 2002 Narayana Vyas Kondreddi. All rights reserved.
-- Purpose: To search all columns of all tables for a given search string
-- Written by: Narayana Vyas Kondreddi
-- Site: http://vyaskn.tripod.com
-- Tested on: SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000
-- Date modified: 28th July 2002 22:50 GMT

CREATETABLE #Results (ColumnName nvarchar(370), ColumnValue nvarchar(3630))

SETNOCOUNTON

DECLARE @TableName nvarchar(256), @ColumnName nvarchar(128), @SearchStr2 nvarchar(110)
SET @TableName = ''
SET @SearchStr2 = QUOTENAME('%' + @SearchStr + '%','''')

WHILE @TableName ISNOTNULL
BEGIN
SET @ColumnName = ''
SET @TableName =
(
SELECTMIN(QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME))
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
WHERE TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
ANDQUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME) > @TableName
ANDOBJECTPROPERTY(
OBJECT_ID(
QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME)
), 'IsMSShipped'
) = 0
)

WHILE (@TableName ISNOTNULL) AND (@ColumnName ISNOTNULL)
BEGIN
SET @ColumnName =
(
SELECTMIN(QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME))
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = PARSENAME(@TableName, 2)
AND TABLE_NAME = PARSENAME(@TableName, 1)
AND DATA_TYPE IN ('char', 'varchar', 'nchar', 'nvarchar')
ANDQUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME) > @ColumnName
)

IF @ColumnName ISNOTNULL
BEGIN
INSERTINTO #Results
EXEC
(
'SELECT ''' + @TableName + '.' + @ColumnName + ''', LEFT(' + @ColumnName + ', 3630)
FROM ' + @TableName + ' (NOLOCK) ' +
' WHERE ' + @ColumnName + ' LIKE ' + @SearchStr2
)
END
END
END

SELECT ColumnName, ColumnValue FROM #Results
END

The second one, SearchAndReplace, does not only perform the search but also will do a replace:

CREATE PROC SearchAndReplace
(
@SearchStr nvarchar(100),
@ReplaceStr nvarchar(100)
)
AS
BEGIN

-- Copyright © 2002 Narayana Vyas Kondreddi. All rights reserved.
-- Purpose: To search all columns of all tables for a given search string and replace it with another string
-- Written by: Narayana Vyas Kondreddi
-- Site: http://vyaskn.tripod.com
-- Tested on: SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000
-- Date modified: 2nd November 2002 13:50 GMT

SETNOCOUNTON

DECLARE @TableName nvarchar(256), @ColumnName nvarchar(128), @SearchStr2 nvarchar(110), @SQL nvarchar(4000), @RCTR int
SET @TableName = ''
SET @SearchStr2 = QUOTENAME('%' + @SearchStr + '%','''')
SET @RCTR = 0

WHILE @TableName ISNOTNULL
BEGIN
SET @ColumnName = ''
SET @TableName =
(
SELECTMIN(QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME))
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
WHERE TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
ANDQUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME) > @TableName
ANDOBJECTPROPERTY(
OBJECT_ID(
QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME)
), 'IsMSShipped'
) = 0
)

WHILE (@TableName ISNOTNULL) AND (@ColumnName ISNOTNULL)
BEGIN
SET @ColumnName =
(
SELECTMIN(QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME))
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = PARSENAME(@TableName, 2)
AND TABLE_NAME = PARSENAME(@TableName, 1)
AND DATA_TYPE IN ('char', 'varchar', 'nchar', 'nvarchar')
ANDQUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME) > @ColumnName
)

IF @ColumnName ISNOTNULL
BEGIN
SET @SQL= 'UPDATE ' + @TableName +
' SET ' + @ColumnName
+ ' = REPLACE(' + @ColumnName + ', '
+ QUOTENAME(@SearchStr, '''') + ', ' + QUOTENAME(@ReplaceStr, '''') +
') WHERE ' + @ColumnName + ' LIKE ' + @SearchStr2
EXEC (@SQL)
SET @RCTR = @RCTR + @@ROWCOUNT
END
END
END

SELECT'Replaced ' + CAST(@RCTR ASvarchar) + ' occurence(s)'AS'Outcome'
END

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Update for Outlook 2007 (KB933493)

Markus Fischer — Tue, 01 May 2007 19:14:10 GMT

If you are working with a large .pst file or a large .ost file in Outlook 2007 you may have come across performance issues as described in KB932086.

Microsoft now has published an update in KB933493 which should fix this problem (including some other) and can be downloaded here.

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little SQL-helpers: all base tables of a view

Klaus Hoeltgen — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:20:16 GMT

To get all base tables of a view you can use the following CTE-Statement...

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SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 available for download

Markus Fischer — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 01:17:05 GMT

Interested in all the new things in SP2? Here is a complete list.

And this is the complete download site with links for the SP2 itself, a new BOL, new Samples, new Feature Pack and especially the links to SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Add-in for Microsoft SharePoint Technologies and SQL Server 2005 Data Mining Add-ins for Microsoft Office 2007.

To avoid a restart after the installation of the SP2 you should stop the neccessary services which could be done with the following commands on the command line - if you have used the standard instances:

net stop MSSQLSERVER
net stop MSSQLServerOLAPService
net stop msftesql
net stop MsDtsServer
net stop ReportServer

After the installation the "SQL Server 2005 User Provisioning Tool is started automatically if you use Windows Vista. As you probably know, Windows Admins are not automatically also SQL or AS Admins - this tool enables to set the right privileges to the administartor accounts.

But do not forget to start the services before you try to set the privileges...

If you want to add a new account you will have to start the Provisioning Tool again, but unluckily it is not added to the Start Menu, you will find it at:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\SqlProv.exe - assumed that you have a standard installation and an english version of MS Windows Vista.

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SQL Server Training online ressources

Markus Fischer — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 14:41:58 GMT

Interested in online ressources for SQL Server Training? Please do not forget that these ressources can not replace a complete Training and therefor only should be considered as a additional point of information...

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little SQL-helpers: fillup string

Markus Fischer — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 09:51:35 GMT

If you need to fill up a string to a defined total count you will be glad if you have a function like this:

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little SQL-helpers: Last day of month

Markus Fischer — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 09:46:00 GMT

Do you need the last day of a month in a SQL Statement?

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Deploy SSAS with systemerror

Klaus Hoeltgen — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 22:34:45 GMT

I have encountered a system error deploying a SSAS project when I changed the deployment from my deployment server to a new production server. As you can imagine, the common case that really could bring you made is when you successfully deploy a project into a development server but you fail to deploy the same database into a production server and the error message is too generic and it hides the real cause of the problem that is very hard to find:

I looked for the error in the connection strings, I guess network or Active Directory problems...but every change attempt fails with the same error message: "Systemerror: ."

The solution was a problem with a role that references a membership of a local user of my development server, that fails because the role member name can't be resolved by SSAS production server. Thanks to microsoft for the great translation from "Can't deploy role xyz..." to "Systemerror: ." ;-)

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Migrating to Windows Vista Ultimate - post-installation tips...

Markus Fischer — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:19:56 GMT

I used the free time after Christmas to install Windows Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 - instead of doing an upgrade of my current Windows XP system I choosed to do complete new installation...

I succeeded in a short time, but afterwards I had some trouble and therefore I had to solve some issues...

1. Join your domain as soon as possible - but pay attention!

The first step you should do after installation is to join your domain - if you have one.

But please pay attention if you use Small Business Server mechanisms - or any other - to deploy software to your clients. I had a configuration which tried to install IE6 and other tools from the server to the client after joining the network. There just pops up a question if you really want to execute the setup and being a "creature of habit" I just clicked "Yes".

This seems to have wrecked my installation, because afterwards Vista decided to start without a taskbar, explorer and elements on the desktop...
So I installed it a second time...
:-)

2. systemvendor-specific software

I am using an IBM R50 laptop, which brings up some vendor-specific software like powermanagement utilities, Network access and so on.

Do yourself a favor and keep a cable for Internet access ready after installation and do not panic if you have got a kind of incomplete system after a successful installation.

Therefor the second step you should do afterwards is to start the windows update and download all vendor-specific software the system will offer you. That brought back power management and WLAN also, but some other tools are still missing (like the display control to switch to a beamer) and are not allowed to install on Vista.

3. Security and UAC (User account control)

I bet, that the new feature UAC (User Account Control) will be a pain in your neck - especially during the first hours doing all installations you need. Everytime you start a setup you will be faced with "Do you really want to?", everytime you will be alerted "a program tries to..."...

As described in the article above it really gets annoying and also brings up some risks like clicking every OK you will face without reading carefully, but if you want to be secure you can not have everything. That UAC could give you a hint for investigating for Trojans and others is proofed with this blog-entry

If you are interested in digging deeper into Windows security, read Windows Vista Security blog or UAC blog.

4. Installation of SQL 2005

I you want to install SQL 2005 on your Vista client you will have to fulfil some prerequisites, especially enabling the IIS and doing some configuration, as described in KB article 920201. But even if you do this it is not guaranteed that Reporting Services will run as described in the comments of James Kovacs' posting.
Further tips and known issues are described in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 on "Microsoft Windows Server Longhorn" or Microsoft Windows Vista.

We will have to wait for the official version of SP2 and see what it brings - I hope it will work!

5. OWA with IE7 and Vista

I am using OWA to access my exchange server and I did do this also using IE7 and Windows XP.
Windows Vista seems to have a slightly other IE7, which handles ActiveX-controls - even the one form Microsoft - a little bit stricter. Using OWA I was able to read messages, but I could not answer to a message´, because the input frame just displayed a red X...

There are two KB articles - 911829 and 924334- and also two downloads which will solve this problem.

6. 3G data card for PCMCIA-Slot

I am using a Novatel Merlin™ U740 Wireless PC Card to connect via 3G to the Internet and my German provider is Vodafone.

In Germany it is very common that providers will deliver a specific software with there own branding to assure that you will have an easy installation and access, the Vodafone software is called "Dashboard" and the current downloadable version is 7.04.

Due to the Vista restrictions you will not be able to install the software and there you neither get the drivers nor the software to communicate with your data card.

So I allowed myself to call the business hotline to ask for a new version of the dashboard to enable the data card using Vista.
The answer was that there is no specific time schedule which is public but that there will be a good chance that the software will be presented at the CeBit and available afterwards...
Presented? This software is just a little tool to enable and control the connection and not the ultimate version of a hype-whatever software suite!
And CeBit? This fair will be in the mid of March! Should I wait about three months to enable my data card?
Common, I understand that the software has to be tested and certified also and that this could be time consuming but to be honest... Is Windows Vista really such an unexpected and uncommon OS??

So I called not only one time but twice, because the first answer was not very satisfying...
The second answer was that there will be a version around end of January....
Ah, there is light at the end of the dark! But having to wait till end of this months would be also annoying...

So I choosed another solution, why not to use the data card as a kind of normal dial-up connection??

First you will have to disable the PIN on your SIM-Card, because the dial-up connection will not be able to ask for the PIN like the dashboard does.
You can use your mobile phone or the dashboard software for that.

After disabling the PIN insert the data card to your PCMCIA-Slot and wait for the drivers to be installed.

Then you will have to do some manual steps:

Open the Control Panel - Network and Sharing Center
Click "Setup a connection or network" in the tasks at the left side.
Mark "Connect to the Internet" and click Next
"Create a new connection"
Choose "Dial-up"
Choose the Novatel Wireless Merlin HSDPA Modem
enter *99# as Dial-up phone number
leave User name and Password blank
enter a describing description into Connection name
decide whether to allow other people to use this connection
click Connect

To make it a little bit more secure you should turn of all options in "Sharing and Discovery" and as a little comfort hint: you should put a Shortcut on the Desktop or into the Quick Launch to be able to activate the connection very easily.

This will work, but without the Vodafone dashboard you will not be able to diagnose you connection speed and control your download rates (a pity if you pay for volume or time and do not have a flat rate) so be careful! But I think that will be a proper workaround till the software will be available...

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SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on a server with more than one website

Klaus Hoeltgen — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 13:15:04 GMT

HowTo install Reporting Services on server with more than one website:

http://www.atrevido.net/blog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=3f1a7332-e4e1-4dda-be02-527bfe07e98c

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Free E-Learning courses from Microsoft

Markus Fischer — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 05:33:53 GMT

Free E-Learning courses from Microsoft: - SQL Server 2005 - Sharepoint Technology - Visual Studio 2005 and .Net 3.0

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TechNet Seminar: SQL Server 2005 -optimaler Einsatz in SAP-Umgebungen

Markus Fischer — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 01:09:33 GMT

Sorry, German only...

Microsoft bietet zum Thema "SQL Server 2005 – optimaler Einsatz in SAP-Umgebungen" ein kostenfreies TechNet Seminar in verschiedenen deutschen Städten an.

Referenten sind:

Martin Sudbrock – Partner Account Manager, Microsoft Deutschland GmbH
Guido Schmitt – Senior Consultant, Microsoft Deutschland GmbH

Beschreibungstext von der Webseite:

"Die Microsoft-Plattform ist die Standard-Plattform für SAP-Lösungen. Immer mehr SAP-Kunden entscheiden sich für Microsoft und damit für die seit zwei Jahren bewährte Mehrheitsplattform im Datenbankumfeld bei SAP-Neuinstallationen. Inzwischen erfolgen zwei von drei SAP-Neuimplementierungen auf Windows Server 2003 und mehr als 42 Prozent auf SQL Server 2005.

SQL Server 2005 ist die zukunftssichere Datenmanagementplattform für hochverfügbare, leistungsfähige und zuverlässige Installationen von SAP-Lösungen.

In diesem Seminar geben wir Ihnen einen Überblick, wie Sie SQL Server 2005 optimal in einer SAP-Umgebung einsetzen können. Die Schwerpunkte des Seminars sind:

Skalierbarkeit und Performance von SQL Server 2005 für SAP-Anwendungen
Hochverfügbarkeit von SQL Server 2005 für SAP
Konfiguration von SQL Server 2005 für SAP
SQL Server 2005 als Datenmanagementplattform für SAP
Migration auf SQL Server 2005 im SAP-Umfeld"

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PASS Essentials: DBA StartUp

Markus Fischer — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 15:28:52 GMT

Sorry, German only...

PASS Deutschland e.V. bietet wieder eine interesssante Veranstaltung an und wir starten damit eine neue Reihe, die PASS Essentials. Ziel dieser Veranstaltung ist die Grundlagenvermittlung in einem spezifischen Thema des SQL Server 2005 innerhalb eines Tages mit einer begrenzten Anzahl an Teilnehmern und mit einen hohen Anteil Hands-On-Labs.

Los geht es mit dem "DBA StartUp", einem eintägigen Überblick über Installation,Backup & Restore, der am 23.November 2006 von 09.00 - 18.00 Uhr bei Microsoft in Bad Homburg stattfindet

Speaker ist mein hochgeschätzter PASS-Vorstandskollege Ralf Dietrich:
"Ralf Dietrich ist seit 1998 als Trainer und Consultant für Microsoft Betriebssysteme
und Datenbanken tätig. Als MCT, MCSE (Security) und MCITP für SQL Server
liegt sein Fokus in der Performanceanalyse und im Data Warehouse Design. Mit
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 beschäftigt er sich seit Mitte Juli 2003. Ihm liegen
sichere Servernetze & SQL-Server Installationen besonders am Herzen."

Hier der entsprechende Flyer PASSEssentials_DBAStartup.pdf (40.42 KB) mit mehr Informationen.

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Writing Custom Code in SQL Server Reporting Services

Klaus Hoeltgen — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 00:40:08 GMT

This article shows how easy it really is to write custom code for SQL Server Reporting Services

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Migration succeeded - Version 1.9.6264.0 online

Markus Fischer — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 23:55:25 GMT

I have installed Version 1.9.6264.0 of dasBlog and it works fine - nevertheless I had some difficulties getting it started due to security issues.

I now will have to discover the new things included in this version.Interested in a list of new features posted by Scott Hanselman?

Or interested in downloading? The official website will be a good point to start at.

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Windows Live Writer Enhancement: Insert Code

Markus Fischer — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:10:35 GMT

There are only two reasons why I have avoided Windows Live Writer so far it is still beta... it does not have a kind of "Insert Code" like my online form Today I discovered that Omar Shahine has build a "Insert Code for Windows Live Writer" - and kindly also hast posted it on Windows Live Gallery. Thanks Omar!

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Banner for my Blog

Markus Fischer — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:00:17 GMT

I am not really a fan of having blinking banners on a web page, but knowing (PRODUCT)^RED I think I will make an exception as soon as I have figured out how to custmize the style template of dasBlog...

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Transaction Codes for BW Developers

Markus Fischer — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 03:00:19 GMT

This link Transaction Codes for BW Developers to a SDN Forum post contains some really useful listings for transactions normally used by SAP BW Developers and SAP BW Basis.

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Stromberg Fanclub: Stromberg meets Hollywood!

Markus Fischer — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 22:19:38 GMT

Sorry, German only... Wer Bernd Stromberg mag, der wird die typischen Sprüche in diesem Video lieben -Stromberg meets Hollywood!

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System Views in SQL Server 2005

Markus Fischer — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 22:00:30 GMT

You will find a complete overview for the System Views at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms177862.aspx. The most usefull ones of the Catalog Views probably will be Object Catalog Views Security Catalog Views To query metadata you will have to use the Information Schema Views. If you need some hints on how to use the SQL Server System Catalog have a look at Querying the SQL Server System Catalog and the Querying the SQL Server System Catalog FAQ for some examples.

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MS Virtual PC - some infos and news

Markus Fischer — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 21:34:13 GMT

Microsoft provides a whitepaper for Virtual PC 2004 called Virtual PC Development and Debugging, which is worth reading. Charlie Maidland provides some infos about Virtual PC 2007 in his post Vista Backup PC to VPC. If you are interested in betatesting Virtual PC 2007 you should apply for the Virtual PC 2007 Beta Program.

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Chris Webb: Designing Effective Aggregations in AS2005

Markus Fischer — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 21:22:17 GMT

Chris Webb has posted an detailed article called Designing Effective Aggregations in AS2005 which - in my personal opninion - is a must-read because of the details mentioned and the further links Chris provides. Number 9 of his listing also points out a pitfall if you use Usage based optimization via the wizard - also read this carefully.

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Internet Explorer 7 and SAP - some light in the dark

Markus Fischer — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 21:02:37 GMT

As posted here from the technology team in Microsoft's Global Alliance for SAP IE7 will be supported by SAP, but you probably need to install a Support Package, which will be Support Package 19 for SAP NetWeaver 2004 and Support Package 10 for SAP NetWeaver 2004s and are not available yet. Sorrowly it is not mentioned if older versions before Netweaver will also support IE7 or if there are some known issues. Further reading is provided in SAP note 981710. There is an interesting hint in the comments, that WebAS 6.20 could use the Kernel of WebAS 6.40 - which is described in SAP note 803429 - to force compatibility...

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Ms. Dewey - Just another search engine or the future form of presenting search results?

Markus Fischer — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:45:04 GMT

I just came across Ms. Dewey, which in my personal opinion is a very interesting effort to make a search engine more "personal" and could also help to dear down barriers for target groups with low affinity for the Internet... The search engine technology used behind the scenes is Windows Live like mentioned here in the Windows Live Blog. As a suggestion: the result set could be arranged in a larger area to enhance the lucidity.... But this is a nice try I think... Microsoft, listen! With Lena Gerke being the "german face" for Windows Live I would expect - and also highly recommend.. :-) - a localized version...

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