Satish Penta

Microsoft: Office 2010 and SQL Server 2008 R2 go better together

2011-08-08T16:57:00.002+05:30

Microsoft has relied on the “better together” concept to sell Windows client and Windows Server as a package. It also has done the same with previous versions of Office and Windows. But on May 12 — the day Microsoft is launching Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 in New York — Microsoft will be playing up how Office, SharePoint and SQL Server work better together.
In addition to being the day businesses can get their hands on Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010, today also is the day that volume licensees can get the latest version of Microsoft’s database, SQL Server 2008 R2.
“Better together,” in Microsoft parlance, means certain features “light up” when two (or more) products are used together. (It also means, in some cases, that certain features won’t work unless the “better together” complements are all part of the customer equation.)
SQL Server 2008 R2, Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 are tied even more tightly than other “better together” products around PowerPivot. PowerPivot is a new business-intelligence feature that is built on top of all of these products.
Donald Farmer, Principal Program Manager, SQL Server Business Intelligence, was a key lead in developing and delivering PowerPivot. Farmer, with whom I spoke last week, has spent the last two and a half years working on PowerPivot.
In an unusual move, Microsoft execs agreed to an “exchange program” between the Excel and SharePoint teams, Farmer said. This resulted in about 10 members of the analytics team being “embedded” in the Excel team, he said.
“We actually moved the team into the Excel team. They even moved offices, into their building,” Farmer said, and stayed there for the entire product cycle.
At the same time, a number of former Excel team members were recruited into the SQL Server team, Farmer said.
What’s the thinking? By making Excel 2010 the front end to PowerPivot, Microsoft is hoping to get users who know Excel but don’t consider themselves to be business intelligence experts to use more of SQL Server’s business intelligence functionality.
“We have lots of Excel users who felt they really didn’t know BI. But essentially, that’s what they are doing with Excel” — slicing and dicing data in new ways, Farmer said. “That’s why we said we should use that functionality as much as possible.”
Back to the topic of SQL Server 2008 R2, the analysts at Directions on Microsoft said business users should expect to pay more for the R2 release than the SQL Server 2008 version, but noted that they will get a number of new features as part of the update. Volume licensees should expect to see these changes in pricing (before any negotiated discounts):
SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition: Per-processor license goes up 25%
SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition: Per-processor license goes up 15%
SQL Server 2008 R2 server and CAL (client access license): Prices remain the same (remember, customers can choose per-processor or server-CAL licensing models for SQL Server)
Directions also did a similar analysis for Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 enterprise pricing.
Update (May 13): A couple of related points
* You don’t need the latest version of SQL Server to use PowerPivot for Excel. You can use SQL Server 2008 or an Oracle database as the back end, Microsoft officials said during the Office 2010 launch on May 12. You also don’t really need SharePoint — unless you want to take the views you create with PowerPivot and want to publish/share them in a richer and controlled way, company execs acknowledged.
* For more on using Excel as a BI tool, check out Microsoft Regional Director Andrew Brust’s recent blog post on that topic, entitled “Responsible BI for Excel, Even for Older Versions.”

10 Reasons Why SQL Server 2008 Rocks

2011-08-08T15:57:00.000+05:30

Just like its predecessor, SQL Server 2008 is taking its sweet time to actually ship. However, unlike its predecessor, it won't just be a "worthwhile upgrade". It will kick ass.
Here are the top 10 reasons why.

10. Plug-in model for SSMS. SSMS 2005 also had a plug-in model, but it was not published, so the few developers that braved that environment were flying blind. Apparently for 2008, the plug-in model will be published and a thousand add-ins will bloom.
9. Inline variable assignment. I often wondered why, as a language, SQL languishes behind the times. I mean, it has barely any modern syntactic sugar. Well, in this version, they are at least scratching the the tip of the iceberg.
Instead of:
DECLARE @myVar int 

SET @myVar = 5
you can do it in one line:
DECLARE @myVar int = 5
Sweet.
8. C like math syntax. SET @i += 5. Enough said. They finally let a C# developer on the SQL team.
7. Auditing. It's a 10 dollar word for storing changes to your data for later review, debugging or in response to regulatory laws. It's a thankless and a mundane task and no one is ever excited by the prospect of writing triggers to handle it. SQL Server 2008 introduces automatic auditing, so we can now check one thing off our to do list.
6. Compression. You may think that this feature is a waste of time, but it's not what it sounds like. The release will offer row-level and page-level compression. The compression mostly takes place on the metadata. For instance, page compression will store common data for affected rows in a single place.
The metadata storage for variable length fields is going to be completely crazy: they are pushing things into bits (instead of bytes). For instance, length of the varchar will be stored in 3 bits.
Anyway, I don't really care about space savings - storage is cheap. What I do care about is that the feature promised (key word here "promises") to reduce I/O and RAM utilization, while increasing CPU utilization. Every single performance problem I ever dealt with had to do with I/O overloading. Will see how this plays out. I am skeptical until I see some real world production benchmarks.
5. Filtered Indexes. This is another feature that sounds great - will have to see how it plays out. Anyway, it allows you to create an index while specifying what rows are not to be in the index. For example, index all rows where Status != null. Theoretically, it'll get rid of all the dead weight in the index, allowing for faster queries.
4. Resource governor. All I can say is FINALLY. Sybase has had it since version 12 (that's last millennium, people). Basically it allows the DBA to specify how much resources (e.g. CPU/RAM) each user is entitled to. At the very least, it'll prevent people, with sparse SQL knowledge from shooting off a query with a Cartesian product and bringing down the box.
Actually Sybase is still ahead of MS on this feature. Its ASE server allows you to prioritize one user over another - a feature that I found immensely useful.
3. Plan freezing. This is a solution to my personal pet peeve. Sometimes SQL Server decides to change its plan on you (in response to data changes, etc...). If you've achieved your optimal query plan, now you can stick with it. Yeah, I know, hints are evil, but there are situations when you want to take a hammer to SQL Server - well, this is the chill pill.
2. Processing of delimited strings. This is awesome and I could have used this feature...well, always. Currently, we pass in delimited strings in the following manner:
exec sp_MySproc 'murphy,35;galen,31;samuels,27;colton,42'
Then the stored proc needs to parse the string into a usable form - a mindless task.
In 2008, Microsoft introduced Table Value Parameters (TVP).
CREATE TYPE PeepsType AS TABLE (Name varchar(20), Age int) 

DECLARE @myPeeps PeepsType 

INSERT @myPeeps SELECT 'murphy', 35 

INSERT @myPeeps SELECT 'galen', 31 

INSERT @myPeeps SELECT 'samuels', 27 

INSERT @myPeeps SELECT 'colton', 42



exec sp_MySproc2 @myPeeps 
And the sproc would look like this:
CREATE PROCEDURE sp_MySproc2(@myPeeps PeepsType READONLY) ...
The advantage here is that you can treat the Table Type as a regular table, use it in joins, etc. Say goodbye to all those string parsing routines.
1. Intellisense in the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). This has been previously possible in SQL Server 2000 and 2005 with use of 3rd party add-ins like SQL Prompt ($195). But these tools are a horrible hack at best (e.g. they hook into the editor window and try to interpret what the application is doing).

Built-in intellisense is huge - it means new people can easily learn the database schema as they go.

There are a ton of other great features - most of them small, but hugely useful. There is a lot of polishing all over the place, like server resource monitoring right in SSMS, a la Vista.
I'd love to finish this entry on a happy note, but I can't, because I just finished perusing Editions of SQL Server 2008 page. In addition to the Standard, Enterprise, Developer and Express editions, there are now Workgroup, Web, Compact (which has nothing to do with SQL Server) and Express Advanced editions. Here is the comparison matrix. And you thought picking a version of Vista was complicated.

Choosing the Best Storage Desination for your Windows 7 Backup

2011-08-08T15:45:00.000+05:30

Windows 7 Backup and Restore is the long awaited backup replacement for Vista’s Backup Status and Configuration tool which lacked many important features. When using the Backup and Restore tool, an important aspect of the backup job is the proper selection of backup target.

While Backup and Restore can use several types of hardware for the backup destination, where you save your backup depends on the hardware that you have available, the information you are saving on your backup, and how you want to interact with the backup wizard.

BTW, when you insert a new hard drive (such as an external USB drive) and Windows 7 recognizes it, it will prompt you if you wish to use it as the target for your backups. This can be changed later, but if you do select it, the Backup Files will begin.

When you choose a destination to save your backup to, the wizard searches your computer and displays a list of all destinations that you can use. The following list describes the types of backup destinations that Backup and Restore supports:

Internal hard disk – In the past years, hard disks became relatively inexpensive. This makes them the best option for backup media targets. If you have a problem with your operating system and cannot boot your computer up anymore, you can use the hard disk in another computer and you will still have access to the backups. Note: You should also never back up files on the same drive that Windows is installed on because if your computer gets infected by a virus or has a software failure, you might have to reformat the drive and reinstall Windows to recover from the problem and then, again, you would lose your backup data. This risk can be mitigated by using a different partition for the backup target. However, installing another hard disk in your computer is NOT the same thing as adding an additional partition to an existing hard disk (if it has enough free space in it). If you use a partition on an disk for your backups and that disk were to fail, you would lose your backups.Hard disks do have some disadvantages, with the most prominent being the fact that since the hard disk is installed inside your computer, you can't store it in a location separate from your computer, such as a fireproof safe. Furthermore, hard disks, being delicate in their mechanical aspects, are prone to hardware malfunctions and might be ruined when moved from one location to another.
External hard disks - An external hard drive can easily be attached to your computer using a USB or Firewire port. Like internal hard disks, external hard disks can hold a lot of information based upon their size. Unlike internal hard disks, external hard disks can be stored in a separate physical location from your computer. This can help protect your backup.External disks are as delicate as internal ones so be careful when moving them from one location to another, and protect them from strong magnetic fields. In addition, USB-attached disks tend to have a slower data transfer rate than internal disks, which, in turn, might cause longer backup times.
Writeable CDs or DVDs – If you have a CD or DVD burners installed in your computer, you can use it for your backup target. Being cheap to buy and offering cheap media, these make a good choice for mobilizing your backup media to locations that are separate from your computer, such as a fireproof safe.
However, note that you can't save a system image on a CD or DVD, and, depending on how much data you have, it might take several CDs or DVDs to hold your backup and you would need to store and keep track of all of them. In addition, CDs and even the larger DVD medias can store only a fraction of the amount of data that can be stored on a hard disk.
USB flash drives – Becoming cheaper from day to day, you can use external USB flash drives to store your backups. Like CDs and DVDs, you can store a flash drive in a location that is separate from your computer, such as a fireproof safe.To save a backup on a flash drive, it must be larger than 1 GB. Here too, like CDs and DVDs, current technology limits USB flash drive sizes and you can store only a fraction of the amount of data that can be stored on a hard disk. However unlike hard disks, USB flash drives have no moving parts, making them ideal for moving around.
Network locations - A shared folder or mapped drive on the network can be a convenient place to save your backups and they can be added as more storage space is required.However, the network location must be available at the time the backup is scheduled to occur and the user name and password that you provided when you set up your backup needs to still be valid for the network location, and other people who have access to the network location might be able to access your backup. Needless to say, a network location cannot be moved around. However being a “network” location, this means that it does not necessarily need to be close next to the computer you’re backing up, and with some limitations, it can be located in a separate physical site.

You cannot use any of the following destinations:

The destination is a tape drive. Backup and Restore cannot save backups to tapes.
The destination is the disk that you are trying to back up. You can't back up a disk to itself.
The destination is a CD-ROM drive or a DVD-ROM drive. You must use a CD or DVD burner, also known as a CD-R/CD-RW or DVD-R/DVD-RW drive.
The destination is not formatted as NTFS, FAT, or Universal Disk Format (UDF).
The destination is either the system disk or the boot disk.
The destination is a network location on a computer running Windows XP Home Edition.
The destination is a recovery partition created by your computer manufacturer that contains files and tools that you can use to return your computer to the manufacturer's settings if it stops working correctly.
The destination is locked by BitLocker Drive Encryption.

As a general recommendation in regard to using Windows 7 as a client operating system, use either internal hard disks, separate from the one Windows is installed on. Alternatively, use an external USB hard disk and make sure you disconnect it after you perform your backup.

Windows 7 Performance Tweaks

2011-08-08T14:18:00.002+05:30

Introduction
Windows Vista has drawn a lot of criticism for running more slowly than Windows XP did on comparable hardware. As such, one of the goals that Microsoft set for themselves when creating Windows 7 was to make it perform better than Vista did. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for improvement though. In this article, I will show you some things that you can do to squeeze even better performance out of Windows 7.

Internet Explorer Add-Ons
By itself, Internet Explorer is a fairly efficient application. However, add-ons can really decrease the browser’s performance. Windows 7 actually allows you to see which add-ons are taking the longest to load. From there, you can make a decision as to whether or not you want to disable the add-on in the name of faster load times.
You can check the performance of each add-on by opening Internet Explorer, and selecting the Manage Add-Ons command from the Tools menu. When the list of add-ons appears, scroll all the way to the right, and you will see a column that tells you how long each add-on takes to load, as shown in Figure A.
Figure A

Internet Explorer shows you how long it took to load each add-on.
MSCONFIG
MSConfig has been around in one form or another since the days of Windows 3.1, and is alive and well in Windows 7. Although MSConfig was originally intended as a tool for diagnosing boot problems, it can also be used as a tool for optimizing the system’s performance.
You can launch MSConfig by entering the MSCONFIG command at the Run prompt. When the System Configuration dialog box opens, go to the Startup tab. As you can see in Figure B, this tab shows you which programs are set to run when the system boots, and allows you to disable any unwanted startup items.
Figure B

The System Configuration tool allows you to disable unwanted startup items.
The Aero Interface
The performance impact of the Aero interface has been hotly debated since the time that Windows Vista was first released. I have seen some benchmark tests that indicate that there is no noticeable performance impact associated with enabling the Aero interface. At the same time though, there are people who swear that their PCs run more efficiently without it. In either case though, there is no denying that Aero does consume a significant amount of system resources.
In the current beta of Windows 7, Setup is designed to compute the system index. Assuming that the machine has a sufficient system index score and compatible graphics hardware, aero is automatically enabled. On the other hand, aero is not automatically enabled (although the aero shake and aero peek features are enabled) if you are running Windows 7 within a virtual machine. Windows 7 is designed so that it will not compute the system index if it is running within a virtual machine, and unless a system index is calculated, the aero glass is not enabled.

Of course this raises the question of whether or not these effects impact the system’s performance. My personal take on the matter is that it all boils down to your system’s hardware. If you have a good quality graphics card with plenty of dedicated memory on it, then the effects probably aren’t going to have much of an impact (if any) on your system’s performance. On the other hand, if your computer doesn’t have a processor that is dedicated to rendering graphics, then the various visual effects would probably have at least some impact on how the system performs.
If you are concerned about the performance impact of Windows Aero, you can disable it with relative ease. To do so, right click on an empty part of the desktop, and then choose the Personalize command from the shortcut menu. When the Personalization window appears, click the Windows Color icon. This will cause Windows to display the Windows Color and Appearance dialog box. Click the Open Classic Properties for More Color Options link, and Windows will open the Appearance Settings dialog box. This dialog box allows you to choose between various color schemes. Choose the Windows Vista Basic scheme, and click OK. Aero should now be disabled.
Conclusion
Windows 7 is still in beta, so it is a good bet that Microsoft will make us aware of even more performance tweaks as we get closer to the RTM build. Until then, these are some techniques that you can use to make Windows 7 run more efficiently.

Windows 7 Editions Comparison

2011-08-08T14:14:00.000+05:30

Microsoft has released some information as to the different editions of Windows 7 that may be available for use by consumers for purchase, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and corporations for use in their enterprise as part of their open and / or volume licensing agreements through their reseller.

[NOTES FROM THE FIELD] – A couple notes to point out. The first is the state of this information; it is important to remember that Windows 7 is still in beta release and this information as it is being provided is in a state of flux. Some of the different versions and editions of Windows 7 may be pulled or the details changed when the product formally releases to manufacturing (RTM) and then forward from there. This was the case with Windows Vista that started with four versions formally released and then more editions were added.
Additionally, not every version listed is going to be available for consumer purchase or OEM purchase, etc. For example, you cannot presently go out and buy at a retail outlet a copy of Windows Vista Business. Same is true for Windows Vista Starter edition.

Back History – Windows XP

With respect to the Windows XP family of operating systems Microsoft has formally released Home Edition, Professional Edition, Media Center Edition, Tablet PC Edition and Professional x64 Edition as outlined in Microsoft's Windows XP Homepage.
With respect to system requirements for XP Home and XP Professional, the Microsoft Windows XP System Requirements outline the following:

PC with 300 megahertz or higher processor clock speed recommended
233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system) Intel Pentium/Celeron family, or AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended
128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported which may limit performance and some features)
1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

[NOTES FROM THE FIELD] – No self-respecting IT professional would ever attempt to run a system with the minimum system requirements or the recommended system requirements other than to simply prove the installation would complete and the system would actually run upon completion.
The x64 version of XP has different minimum system requirements than those listed above but most of the other editions are the same or vary slightly.

Present Tense – Windows Vista

With respect to Windows Vista family of operating systems Microsoft had formally released with four editions Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate edition. Since that time and for various reasons (some legal, some performance, and some for various other reasons) additional editions were released.
As referenced by the Windows Vista Editions Comparison page, you can see a total of six versions available for use partially due to a legal settlement with the European Union and the anti-trust rulings there. This would be in reference to Home Basic N and Business N versions that do not include Windows Media Player and other media-related functionality preinstalled on the operating system.
You can compare the main version editions at the Microsoft Vista Editions Comparison page.
Also, you can read about the Vista Starter Edition at its homepage.
[NOTES FROM THE FIELD] – As I mentioned before, not everyone everywhere can buy some of the editions. As this site points out “Windows Vista Starter is not available in developed technology markets such as the United States, the European Union, Australia or Japan. Windows Vista Starter ships on lower-cost computers sold by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Microsoft OEM distributors in 139 countries.”
Here is a summary of the system requirements for Windows Vista:
Vista Home Basic should have a 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor installed with 512 MB of system memory and a 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space. Additionally there should be support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory.
A DVD-ROM drive, Audio Output and Internet access are also listed there as “recommended.”

Vista Home Premium, Vista Business and Vista Ultimate Editions list the following recommended system requirements:

1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1 GB of system memory
40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
Support for DirectX 9 graphics with: WDDM Driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum), Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware and 32 bits per pixelDVD-ROM drive
Audio Output
Internet access

[NOTES FROM THE FIELD] – While all editions of Windows Vista can support multi-core processors, only Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions can support multiple processors. (More than one physical processor regardless of the number of processor cores.)

Temporal Flux – Windows 7

With the beta of Windows 7 released and some of the roadmap laid out we do have some information to present on the suggested system requirements as currently available as well as some editions information with respect to the planned releases and versioning.
Presently the suggested system requirements as outlined in the Windows 7 Beta Installation Instructions indicate:

1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
1 GB of system memory
16 GB of available disk space
Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (required for Aero where it is available with no non-Aero amount listed)
DVD-R/W Drive
Internet access

Additionally I have been able to research out the following details on the different editions planned as part of the Windows 7 release. Again, these are preliminary and with any beta release, subject to change.

Windows 7 Starter (limited distribution)

Broad application and device compatibility with up to three concurrent applications.
Safe, reliable, and supported.
Home Group makes it easy to share media, documents and printers across multiple PCs in offices without a domain.
Improved taskbar and Jump Lists.

[NOTES FROM THE FIELD] – Don’t confuse “three concurrent applications” with the old “concurrent connections” from the desktop operating system limitations – this is different; this is effectively “three concurrent applications” running at the same time.

Windows 7 Home Basic (emerging market only)

All of the functionality listed above in Starter Edition
Live thumbnail previews and enhanced visual experience.
Advanced networking support (ad-hoc wireless networks and internet connection sharing).
Mobility Center is included.

Windows 7 Home Premium

All of the functionality listed above in Starter and Home Basic Editions

Aero Glass and advanced windows navigation.
Easy networking and sharing across all your PCs and devices.
Improved media format support, enhancements to Windows Media Center and media streaming, including Play To.
Multi-touch and improved handwriting recognition.

Windows 7 Professional

All of the functionality listed above in Starter, Home Basic and Home Premium Editions
Domain Join enables simple and secure server networking.
Encrypting File System protects data with advanced network backup.
Location Aware Printing helps find the right printer when moving between the office and home.

Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimate

All of the functionality listed above in Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium and Professional Editions
BitLocker protects data on removable devices.
DirectAccess links users to corporate resources from the road without a virtual private network (VPN).
BranchCache makes if faster to open files and Web pages from a branch office.
AppLocker easily restricts unauthorized software and enables greater security.

[NOTES FROM THE FIELD] – I could not find real differences between Enterprise Edition and Ultimate in the Windows 7 information that I could reference.
As an example, one main difference between Vista Business and Vista Ultimate is the All-in-one media center functionality of Ultimate which allows the end user to leverage Windows Media Center and Media Center Extenders. Business edition does not support this functionality.
There are other subtle differences as well.
I could not find any delineation details in the information I referenced for Windows 7 editions between Business Edition and Ultimate Edition.

In Summary

So that is a wrap on my Windows 7 Editions Comparison article. I hope you found it informative and a good investment of your time.
As always, I welcome any feedback that you might have this or any other articles I have written and I am always interested to hear your suggestions for future articles so please keep that email coming.

Get Back the Classic Start Menu in Windows 7

2011-08-08T14:11:00.000+05:30

In Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 it is not possible easily revert to the original, Classic Start menu that was used since Windows NT 4.0 SP6a with IE 4 and the Active Desktop addition. The classic version was previously included in all MS operating systems, including Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008. While in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 we did get a new looking Start menu, it was still possible to right-click on it and in its Properties window, get it to use the Classic menu.

Here's how the default Start menu looks in Windows 7:

Why did Microsoft decide to remove the Classic Start menu option in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2? I don't know. Personally, I like the new way the new Windows 7 Start Menu works, and have gotten used to it a long time ago.
However, a lot of people still haven't gotten used to the newer version, so we thought it would be handy to explain a couple of ways to get the Classic Start menu back:

1. Classic Shell

Classic Shell is free and takes up very little memory. It changes the Windows 7 start menu to classic and it looks exactly the same like what you see in Windows XP. The nice thing about it, besides being totally free, is that when you type the first letter of a program or folder it brings you to the correct menu.
Get it from here:
Classic Shell Files on SourceForge.net
http://sourceforge.net/projects/classicshell/files
After installing, this is the way your Start menu will look like:

BTW, if you press SHIFT and click on the Start menu, you'll get to the original Start menu, so you can in fact use both, as the same time.

2. CSMenu

"CSMenu" is a small application for Windows 7 which can bring the Classic start menu back in Windows 7. You just need to install it and run the application. There is also a portable version available so you can run it without installing. Free to use, this is a cool tool. However, please make sure you read the following note.
Please note:
CSMenu will prompt you to install the ASK dot COM toolbar. While not an actual malware, I would never recommend ANYONE to install that toolbar unless you're looking for trouble. Therefore, while installing CSMenu, please make sure you select "Custom Installation" and that you manually remove the 2 check-boxes, unless you really really need the ASK dot COM toolbar.

Anyway, get it here:
CSMenu Official Site:
http://www.csmenu.com
After installing, this is the way your Start menu will look like:

Here too, if you press SHIFT and click on the Start menu, you'll get to the original Start menu, so you can in fact use both, as the same time.

3. Windows 7 Classic Start Menu with Aero

This is another software by the same author, that will get you to the Classic Start menu. It will also give you an "Aero" theme feeling, which is all nice. However, the software is NOT free, therefore, you will have to consider if you're ready to pay to get your Classic Start menu back. Well, at least this one doesn't include the ASK dot COM toolbar...
Get it from here:
Windows 7 Classic Start Menu with Aero
http://www.classicstartmenu.com
Once installed, you'll get a tray icon that will let you customize some settings in the program.

After installing, this is the way your Start menu will look like:

Here too, if you press SHIFT and click on the Start menu, you'll get to the original Start menu, so you can in fact use both, as the same time.

It's worth noting that during my testing I found 2 issues that cooled my enthusiasm: The first is that once enabled, and once you clicked on the Start menu and opened one of the Program folders, if you click away from the Start menu it will not go away, it'll stay opened on your desktop and will only close either after running a program (and program) from the menu, or by clicking on the Start menu icon.

The second issue I found is that one click on the "Programs" folder opens the folder in Windows Explorer instead of expanding the folder's contents.

That said, if you really need to get your Classic Start menu back on Windows 7 AND are willing to pay to get it, Windows 7 Classic Start Menu is a valid option. Personally, I would go for the first freeware option.

The Ultimate Guide to Installing Windows 7

2011-08-08T14:07:00.003+05:30

So, you're ready to install Windows 7? Read on to get guidance on how to approach this installation and make sure your copy of Windows 7 is properly installed.

Planning the Installation

As with any OS installation, we must first plan the installation process. When you run the Windows 7 Setup program, you must provide information about how to install and configure the operating system. Thorough planning can make your installation of Windows 7 more efficient by helping you to avoid potential problems during installation. An understanding of the configuration options will also help to ensure that you have properly configured your system.
Here are some of the most important things you should take into consideration when planning for your Windows 7 installation:

Check System Requirements
Check Hardware and Software Compatibility
Determine Disk Partitioning Options
Complete a Pre-Installation Checklist

Microsoft states the minimum recommended specs for Windows 7:

1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
1 GB of system memory
16 GB of available disk space
Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (to enable the Aero theme)
DVD-R/W Drive
Internet access (to activate and get updates)

32-bit or 64-bit Version?

You need to decide whether to install the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows 7. The Windows 7 installation disc package includes both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7. Basically, the 64-bit version of Windows handles large amounts of random access memory (RAM) more effectively than a 32-bit system. So if you plan on using Windows 7 on a computer with more than 3 GB or RAM, I would strongly suggest to use the 64-bit version. Most programs designed for the 32-bit version of Windows will work on the 64-bit version of Windows, and if they don't, you can always use Windows XP Mode (read my "How to Install Windows XP Mode on Windows 7" article).
Note: Either way, you cannot use an existing 32-bit version of a previous OS to perform an in-place upgrade to a 64-bit version of Windows 7, and you'll need to format and install a fresh copy. Also, you cannot use an existing 64-bit version of a previous OS to perform an in-place upgrade to a 32-bit version of Windows 7.

Type of Installation

Basically, there are 2 approaches to installing Windows 7:

Upgrade (In-place upgrade) - This option replaces your current version of Windows with Windows 7, and keeps your files, settings, and programs in place on your computer.
Custom ("fresh" installation) - This option replaces your current version of Windows with Windows 7, but doesn't preserve your files, settings, and programs. It's sometimes referred to as a clean installation for that reason.

As always, a fresh installation is much better and I strongly recommend taking that track. Even if you've got an existing Windows XP/Vista OS on your computer, I would strongly recommend that you format it and install a fresh copy of the OS.
This article will focus on a fresh installation of Windows 7. Please read my "How to Upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7" and "Upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7" articles for more information on those paths.

Beginning the Installation Process

When installing on a physical computer insert your Windows 7 DVD media into your DVD drive and reboot your computer. If you're asked to press a key to boot from DVD or CD, press any key. A black window will appear momentarily while the DVD content is read.

Note: These screenshots are taken from a Windows 7 Ultimate installation performed on a virtual machine running on VMware Workstation. I will be using an .ISO file mounted on the VMs CD/DVD drive.
Next, a Starting Windows screen will appear.

Note: If the Windows installation page doesn't appear and you're not asked to press a key to start from DVD or CD, you might have to specify that your computer uses its DVD or CD drive as the startup device.

The Installation Process

Like in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, and unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows 7 does not have a noticeable text phase of the setup process, and it will boot directly into the Graphical User Interface (GUI) mode.
After a few moments you will see the first prompt:

Click "Next" unless you want to change some regional settings for the installation process. Hebrew users should read my "Installing Hebrew on Windows 7" article.

Click on the "Install now" button.
Note: If you're using the installation media to repair an existing installation of Windows 7 you should also read my latest article on the Windows Recovery Environment.
Next, accept the license terms and click on "Next".

Next, unless you're upgrading an existing Windows installation, press the Custom (Advanced) installation type button. Note that in this case, the Upgrade button is disabled because this specific installation if performed on a new computer without any previous operating system on it.

The next phase is to pick the installation partition. Since this computer has a new hard disk that hasn't been formatted before, you will only have the option to create a new partition on it.
If you don't want to specify a specific partition to install Windows on, or create partitions on your hard disk, click Next to begin the installation. If you already have another existing partition with enough free space and want to install the Windows 7 on that partition to create a multiboot configuration, select the partition you want to use, and then click Next to begin the installation. If you want to create, extend, delete, or format a partition, click Drive options (advanced), click the option you want, and then follow the instructions.
Since I don't need to perform any additional task I will just click on the "Next" button. The installation process will then create a partition on all the available disk space, and format it.

The setup process will now begin to copy files from the installation DVD media to the hard disk.

Process could take a while depending on the type of hardware your computer uses. In my VM test sample I've used for this demo, the entire process finished before I could finish writing the previous 3 paragraphs, so it could be pretty quick.
The computer will reboot, and the next thing you'll see is the prompt to set the user's and computer's name. By default, the computer's name will be username-PC, where username is the username you've entered.
Note: The user you're creating will be the only user currently available on the system. Like Vista, the built-in Administrator's account is disabled. Read my article on how to enable the Windows 7 Administrator's account article for more information.
Click on "Next".

Enter the user's password. Remember this password, as it will be the ONLY user on the system, and unless you create an additional user or enable the built-in administrator account, if you forget this password you'll need to crack it to gain access to the system. The best option would be to choose a complex password made of at least 7 characters or more (something like Pssw0rd or MYpa$$w0rd). You must also enter a password hint.
Click on "Next".

Next, type in your product key. If you do not have the product key at hand you can still click "Next", and proceed with the installation. You will be asked to enter the product key after Windows is installed.

Choose what sort of protection your computer gets. The recommended settings are best for someone that doesn't plan to hide their computer behind a corporate firewall (and even then, in some cases, this would be the best option). If you plan to install a 3rd-party firewall later you can opt to be prompted later. Note that this setting will also have effect on how the computer uses the Microsoft Windows Update (Automatic Updates) features.

Choose your time zone and location and click on "Next".

Select your network location type. This setting can be changed later, but do note that choosing a profile will have effect on the Windows Firewall and sharing settings. Click on "Next".

Windows will finalize the settings and your desktop will appear.

This concludes the Windows 7 installation. Next, you would probably want to update your computer with the latest hotfixes and/or patches from Microsoft.

Get the Windows Live Messenger Icon back to the Tray Area in Windows 7

2011-08-08T12:43:00.000+05:30

When you run the Windows Live Messenger application in Windows 7, it permanently takes up space on your taskbar. This can be annoying, because the icon takes up precious space on the taskbar, and it cannot be made to go away. Furthermore, if you do close it by clicking on the red X mark, it will close Windows Live Messenger and you will be signed off.

Luckily, there's a way around this. Follow me:
1. First, you must find the file location for Windows Live Messenger. We can do so by using the Task Manager. Right-click on an empty spot on the Taskbar and select Start Task Manager. You can also click on CTRL+SHIFT+ESC or use CTRL+ALT+DEL to tart Task Manager. Needless to say, you can skip steps 1 and 2 if you know that location already.

2. Click on the Processes tab and look for msnmsgr.exe. Right-click on it and select Open File Location.

3. Windows Explorer will open to the folder where msnmsgr.exe is located.
4. In the meantime, close Windows Live Messenger. Right-click on the Messenger icon and select Exit.

4. Next, right-click msnmsgr.exe and select Properties.

5. In the Properties window, click on the Compatibility tab. Then click to select Run this program in compatibility mode for:. In the drop-down list select Windows Vista SP2. Click Ok.

Next, run Windows Live Messenger. You will still see it in the taskbar, but now it will also have a tray icon. When you minimize it, the Taskbar icon will go away, and you'll only have the tray icon, just like we wanted.

Bingo!
Got more Windows 7 tweaks and tips? E-mail me!

Disabling User Account Control (UAC) in Windows 7

2011-08-08T12:39:00.000+05:30

User Account Control (or UAC) is included in Windows to help prevent unauthorized changes to your computer. UAC notifies you when changes are going to be made to your computer that require administrator-level permission. These types of changes can affect the security of your computer or can affect settings for other people that use the computer.

When you are notified by UAC that there is a pending change to your computer, you should carefully read the contents of each dialog box before allowing changes to be made to your computer. It's usually safe to allow changes to be made to Windows settings without you being notified. However, certain programs that come with Windows can have commands or data passed to them, and malicious software can take advantage of this by using these programs to install files or change settings on your computer. You should always be careful about which programs you allow to run on your computer.
Note: In this article, you'll learn how to limit notifications from and/or disable UAC in Windows 7, but if you'd like to learn how to disable UAC in Windows Vista, see here.
In Windows 7, UAC settings has a slider to change the level of the notifications and allows you to choose one between the following four options:

Always notify - With this option, you'll be notified before programs make changes to your computer or to Windows settings that require the permissions of an administrator. When you're notified, your desktop will be dimmed, and you must either approve or deny the request in the UAC dialog box before you can do anything else on your computer. The dimming of your desktop is referred to as the secure desktop because other programs can't run while it's dimmed. This is the most secure setting, and is similar to what the Windows Vista UAC looked like.

Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer - You will be notified before programs make changes to your computer that require the permissions of an administrator. You will not be notified if you try to make changes to Windows settings that require the permissions of an administrator. Also, you will be notified if a program outside of Windows tries to make changes to a Windows setting. This is the default setting.

Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer (do not dim my desktop) - You will be notified before programs make changes to your computer that require the permissions of an administrator, and you will be notified if a program outside of Windows tries to make changes to a Windows setting.. However, you will not be notified if you try to make changes to Windows settings that require the permissions of an administrator. This setting is the same as "Notify only when programs try to make changes to my computer," but you are not notified on the secure desktop. Because the UAC dialog box isn't on the secure desktop with this setting, other programs might be able to interfere with the dialog's visual appearance. This is a small security risk if you already have a malicious program running on your computer.

Never notify - You will not be notified before any changes are made to your computer. If you are logged on as an administrator, programs can make changes to your computer without you knowing about it. If you are logged on as a standard user, any changes that require the permissions of an administrator will automatically be denied. This is actually somewhat similar to using Windows 7 in the permission model of Windows XP. This is the least secure setting. When you set UAC to never notify, you open up your computer to potential security risks.

Personally, and unlike my recommendations on disabling UAC for Vista, I now think it's a good idea to leave UAC on if possible. Adjusting your notification options can make that a little easier to do.
If you do disable UAC, be aware of which programs you run as they'll have the same access to the computer as you do. This includes reading and making changes to protected system areas, your personal data, saved files, and anything else stored on the computer. Programs will also be able to communicate and transfer information to and from anything your computer connects with, including the Internet.
There are many ways to disable UAC on your computer. Here are a few...

Option A - Disable UAC Through User Account Control Settings

This is the method that should be used by most users wanting to disable UAC.
Go to User Account Control Settings.
Type in UAC, or go to the System and Security applet.
Click on the "Change User Account Control Settings" link.

BTW, you can also type in this command from the Run menu:

C:\Windows\System32\UserAccountControlSettings.exe

To turn off UAC, move the slider to the Never notify position, and then click OK. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

To turn UAC back on, move the slider to choose when you want to be notified, and then click OK. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
You will need to restart your computer for UAC to be turned off.

Option B - Disable UAC Through Group Policy

This is the method that should be used by administrators wanting to disable UAC across several computers at once.
This can be done via Local Group Policy or via Active Directory-based GPO, which is much more suited for large networks where one would like to disable UAC for many computers at once.
If using Local Group Policy you'll need to open the Group Policy Editor (Start > Run > gpedit.msc).
If using in AD-based GPO, open Group Policy Management Console (Start > Run > gpmc.msc) from a Windows Vista/7/2008 computer that is a member of the domain. In the GPMC window, browse to the required GPO that is linked to the OU or domain where the computers are located, then edit it, or, if needed, create a new GPO.

In the Group Policy Editor window, browse to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options.

Make the following changes:

User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode - Set its value to Elevate without prompting.
User Account Control: Detect application installations and prompt for elevation - Set its value to Disabled.
User Account Control: Only elevate UIAccess applications that are installed in secure locations - Set its value to Disabled.
User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode - Set its value to Disabled.

Restart the computer when done.

Option C - Disable UAC Through the Registry

Another method to disable UAC is through the computer's Registry.

Warning!
This document contains instructions for editing the registry. If you make any error while editing the registry, you can potentially cause Windows to fail or be unable to boot, requiring you to reinstall Windows. Edit the registry at your own risk. Always back up the registry before making any changes. If you do not feel comfortable editing the registry, do not attempt these instructions. Instead, seek the help of a trained computer specialist.

Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click Enter.
If prompted to enter your credentials by UAC, do so and/or press Yes to continue.
Navigate to the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

In the details pane, locate the EnableLUA key (REG_DWORD type).
On the Edit menu, click Modify. In the Value data box, type 0 (zero), and then click OK.

Exit Registry Editor, and then reboot the computer.

Chrome and Firefox working together to make Web Apps get along

2011-08-08T12:31:00.000+05:30

The developers of two of the most influential open-source Web browsers are working together on a feature that should make Web apps play together much more nicely. As we covered on ReadWriteHack yesterday, Google's Chromium engineers announced that they're working with Mozilla on a framework called Web Intents, the brainchild of Google developer Paul Kinlan. Firefox announced its project last month.

Web Intents, based on an existing capability in Google's Android mobile OS, will let Web apps express a simple call for an action, like 'share' or 'edit,' which receiving apps will be designed to use, without either app needing to have specific knowledge of the APIs of the other. This way, instead of having to code for each specific Web app one might want to access, developers can just use these simple requests, which will be built into the browser. The Chrome and Firefox teams are each building this functionality for their own browser, but they're combining their proposals to use a single API for Web app developers to reach both platforms.

Google+ set to beat Twitter, LinkedIn

2011-08-08T12:28:00.000+05:30

Google+ Inc's new social-networking service may grow to claim 22 per cent of online US adults in a year, passing Twitter Incand LinkedIn Corp. to be the second- most-used social site after Facebook Inc, a survey found.

Google+ has signed up 13 per cent of US adults and will add 9 percent over the next year, according to the survey from Bloomberg/YouGov. In the same period, Facebook will lose about 2 percentage points of US adults to keep 69 per cent of that population, while Twitter and LinkedIn continue to grow their portion of users.

Started in late June, Google+ is growing faster than Facebook and MySpace Inc. did in their early days. The service, which lets people connect with and manage groups of friends on a website, gained about 25 million users worldwide in less than a month, estimates market researcher ComScore Inc Facebook has more than 750 million active users.

"Google+ is tracing a path similar to Facebook's initial growth -- building excitement in a core group of early adopters," said Michael Nardis, head of YouGov investment products, in a statement about the survey.

Katie Watson, a spokeswoman for Mountain View, California- based Google, declined to comment. Jonathan Thaw, a spokesman for Facebook, and Matt Graves, a spokesman for Twitter, also declined to comment.

Bloomberg and London-based market researcher YouGov Plc polled 1,003 online US residents 18 and older from July 29 to August 2 for the survey.

Twitter, LinkedIn Grow
The results showed Twitter will add almost 3 percentage points of US adults online over the next year to claim 20 per cent of the population. LinkedIn will also have signed up 20 per cent of those people, after gaining almost 2 percentage points within the year, the survey found.

Grid View Events in ASP.NET

2011-08-08T11:36:00.000+05:30


	DataBinding	Occurs when the server control binds to a data source. (Inherited from Control.)
	DataBound	Occurs after the server control binds to a data source. (Inherited from BaseDataBoundControl.)
	Disposed	Occurs when a server control is released from memory, which is the last stage of the server control lifecycle when an ASP.NET page is requested. (Inherited from Control.)
	Init	Occurs when the server control is initialized, which is the first step in its lifecycle. (Inherited from Control.)
	Load	Occurs when the server control is loaded into the Page object. (Inherited from Control.)
	PageIndexChanged	Occurs when one of the pager buttons is clicked, but after the GridView control handles the paging operation.
	PageIndexChanging	Occurs when one of the pager buttons is clicked, but before the GridView control handles the paging operation.
	PreRender	Occurs after the Control object is loaded but prior to rendering. (Inherited from Control.)
	RowCancelingEdit	Occurs when the Cancel button of a row in edit mode is clicked, but before the row exits edit mode.
	RowCommand	Occurs when a button is clicked in a GridView control.
	RowCreated	Occurs when a row is created in a GridView control.
	RowDataBound	Occurs when a data row is bound to data in a GridView control.
	RowDeleted	Occurs when a row's Delete button is clicked, but after the GridView control deletes the row.
	RowDeleting	Occurs when a row's Delete button is clicked, but before the GridView control deletes the row.
	RowEditing	Occurs when a row's Edit button is clicked, but before the GridView control enters edit mode.
	RowUpdated	Occurs when a row's Update button is clicked, but after the GridView control updates the row.
	RowUpdating	Occurs when a row's Update button is clicked, but before the GridView control updates the row.
	SelectedIndexChanged	Occurs when a row's Select button is clicked, but after the GridView control handles the select operation.
	SelectedIndexChanging	Occurs when a row's Select button is clicked, but before the GridView control handles the select operation.
	Sorted	Occurs when the hyperlink to sort a column is clicked, but after the GridView control handles the sort operation.
	Sorting	Occurs when the hyperlink to sort a column is clicked, but before the GridView control handles the sort operation.
	Unload	Occurs when the server control is unloaded from memory. (Inherited from Control.)

How to Export Email Addresses of all your Facebook Friends

2011-08-08T10:06:00.002+05:30

Search the Facebook Apps directory for something like “export contacts” and you’ll come across quite a few applications that sound as if they can transfer your friends contact information out of Facebook.
There’s an app called “Export Friends” that will save you friends names, city, birthday and their current location in a CSV (text) file that you then import into Excel, Gmail or any other web email program.
Then there are social plug-ins that can sync photos and status updates of your Facebook friends with matching contacts in Outlook.
The problem is that none of these apps can download what you are looking – the phone numbers and email addresses of your Facebook friends. There are Greasemonkey scripts and other hacks that can pull this information from Facebook through “web scraping” but don’t ever take that route as Zuckerberg’s army might ban your account forever.

Export Email Addresses of your Facebook Contacts

Facebook APIs don’t expose email addresses of users and hence none of the Facebook apps can provide you with the actual contact data of your friends. There’s however a simple (and perfectly legal) workaround that can help you easily download all your friends email addresses from Facebook’s walled garden.

The trick, as you can see in the video, is actually quite simple.
Go to address.yahoo.com and click the Facebook icon. A login dialog should pop-up, just sign-in with your Facebook credentials and within seconds, you entire Facebook address book will be available inside your Yahoo Mail Account. Once the import is done, click this link to download a CSV file with the email addresses of all your Facebook contacts to your desktop.
You can then import the CSV file into Gmail Contacts, LinkedIn, your phone address book or any of the social sites where you want to connect with your existing Facebook circle.
Update: If Yahoo! is unable to import your Facebook Address book, open your Facebook page and choose “Application Settings” under Account. Next remove the “Yahoo! Contact Importer” application from your Facebook profile and try the steps mentioned in the video again.

Microsoft Dot Net Development

2011-08-08T09:56:00.002+05:30

Microsoft dot.net is a powerful and robust software development technology that provides the security advancements, management tools, and updates needed to build, test, and deploy highly reliable and secure software.

Radix invests time & money for adaptation of latest trends & technology thus ensures cutting edge services to client.

Microsoft Certified Professionals focusing on C# software development are experienced in building software application, deployment & unique needs of client server architecture

Our understanding & expertise on Microsoft Dot.Net

NET Framework 3.5 & NET Framework 4.0

The .NET Framework is an integral Windows component that supports building and running the next generation of applications and XML Web services. The .NET Framework is hearty of development now & tomorrow for business applications.

Our dot.net consultant hides technical complexity & ensures deliver of better application. Radix has started development on net framework 4.0 to influence best technology for client projects.

Explore technical verticals of Radix consulting & development services from following sections.

Learn how Radix being Microsoft Certified Gold Partner can help to implement technology for meeting business requirements.

ASP.NET MVC 3 Tools Update

2011-08-08T09:53:00.002+05:30

MIX 2011 conference held in Las Vegas. MIX is one of my favorite events of the year, and the conference always has a ton of great content and announcements. All of the keynotes and breakout sessions from the event can be watched online for free here. I’ll be doing a few posts in the upcoming weeks that also cover some highlights from it.

ASP.NET MVC 3 Tools Update

One of the announcements I made in my Day 1 keynote was the release of an ASP.NET MVC 3 Tools Update. This update is a small, but very tasty, update that includes a bunch of really nice tooling improvements for ASP.NET MVC 3. You can install it from the http://asp.net/mvc site (just click the installer).
The ASP.NET MVC 3 Tools Update can be installed on top of the original ASP.NET MVC 3 release (no need to uninstall it if you already have it installed) or just installed directly on a clean machine (there is no need to have the original ASP.NET MVC 3 bits already installed).
The ASP.NET MVC 3 Tools update only includes Visual Studio tooling improvements and default project template changes – it does not include any changes to the ASP.NET MVC 3 runtime binaries. Because it uses the same ASP.NET MVC 3 runtime binaries as our original January release, there is no need to update existing MVC 3 projects you are working on or make any code changes to them.

What is in the ASP.NET MVC 3 Tools Update?

The ASP.NET MVC 3 Tools Update includes a bunch of nice tooling improvements for ASP.NET MVC 3 including:

The final release of EF 4.1 (which includes EF Code First) is now included by default with all new projects. Previously you had to download this library separately or get it using NuGet. Now it is referenced by default when you create new projects (enabling a really clean, powerful data API out of the box).

Built-in data scaffolding support is now supported with the Add->Controller dialog within Visual Studio. This enables you to automatically scaffold a Controller class (which includes all the necessary data access code) and all of the view templates required to implement a CRUD solution against an EF model class (using either code-first, database-first or model-first). It makes it super easy to quickly create a data driven site using ASP.NET MVC.

New HTML5 project templates are included that make it easy to use HTML5 semantic markup when creating new sites (meaning elements like <header>, <footer>, <section>, <aside>, etc). We also now include the Modernizr 1.7 JavaScript library with new projects. Modernizr is a cool OSS library that makes it easy to check for HTML5 capabilities within browsers, and also allows you to use standard CSS to style HTML5 semantic elements and still have the styling work on older browsers (like IE6).

A new Intranet Project Template has been included with this release that makes it easy to create a new project that uses Windows authentication to identify users (as opposed to the Forms Authentication pages built-into the Internet template today). Speaking of the Internet Project Template, the AccountController class within it has also been cleaned up with this release.

Newer versions of jQuery core, jQuery UI and jQuery Validation are included with this release. The default versions added to new projects are also now added as NuGet libraries (meaning they are listed in the packages.config file of the project) – which means that you can use NuGet to easily update them to even more recent versions as a later date.

I’m going to do several blog posts in the days and weeks ahead that cover the above features and how to take advantage of them. You can also learn more about the release (and see it in action) from the following posts/videos:

Overview of the MS Web Stack of Love – Scott Hanselman at his usual best
Scaffolding – ASP.NET, NuGet, MVCScaffolding – Steve Sanderson presents on the scaffolding improvements
Introducing ASP.NET MVC 3 Tools Update – Nice summary post by Phil Haack
Scott Hanselman’s MIX 11 Keynote Demo Script Showing off ASP.NET MVC 3 and More

Hope this helps!

Creating a Currency Masked TextBox with On-the-Fly Currency Formatting

2011-08-08T09:50:00.000+05:30

By default, a user can enter any character into a textbox. Masked textboxes help reduce user input error by limiting what characters a user can type into a textbox. Masked textboxes have been a standard user input element in desktop applications for decades, but are less common in web applications for a variety of reasons. However, it’s not terribly difficult to implement masked textboxes. All that’s required is a touch of JavaScript and a sprinkle of jQuery.
In a recent project the client wanted a masked textbox for the textboxes on the page collecting currency information. Moreover, he wanted the user’s input to automatically be displayed as a formatted currency value in the textbox after entering their value. (Check out a live demo of my script…) But first things first, let’s see how to create a currency masked textbox.

Allowing Only Currency-Related Characters In a TextBox

There are a number of existing masked input plugins for jQuery. After trying some out I decided to roll my own JavaScript functions. I intend to come back to these and turn them into jQuery plugins, but for now they’re just JavaScript functions. As you can see in the script below, I created four functions:

numbersOnly – allows just number inputs, whether they are from the letters at the top of the keyboard or from the number pad.
numbersAndCommasOnly – allows number inputs and commas.
decimalsOnly – allows numbers, commas, and periods (either from the main keyboard or the number pad).
currenciesOnly – allows numbers, commas, periods, and the dollar sign.

In addition to the allowed characters discussed above, the functions also permit “special character key codes,” namely Delete, Backspace, left arrow, right arrow, Home, End and Tab. What keycodes are valid are listed in the variables at the top of the script; see Javascript Char Codes for a table listing the keys and their corresponding key codes.
Here is the script of interest:

01// JavaScript I wrote to limit what types of input are allowed to be keyed into a textbox 
02var allowedSpecialCharKeyCodes = [46,8,37,39,35,36,9];
03var numberKeyCodes = [44, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105];
04var commaKeyCode = [188];
05var decimalKeyCode = [190,110];
06 
07function numbersOnly(event) {
08    var legalKeyCode =
09        (!event.shiftKey && !event.ctrlKey && !event.altKey)
10            &&
11        (jQuery.inArray(event.keyCode, allowedSpecialCharKeyCodes) >= 0
12            ||
13        jQuery.inArray(event.keyCode, numberKeyCodes) >= 0);
14 
15    if (legalKeyCode === false)
16        event.preventDefault();
17}
18 
19function numbersAndCommasOnly(event) {
20    var legalKeyCode =
21        (!event.shiftKey && !event.ctrlKey && !event.altKey)
22            &&
23        (jQuery.inArray(event.keyCode, allowedSpecialCharKeyCodes) >= 0
24            ||
25        jQuery.inArray(event.keyCode, numberKeyCodes) >= 0
26            ||
27        jQuery.inArray(event.keyCode, commaKeyCode) >= 0);
28 
29    if (legalKeyCode === false)
30        event.preventDefault();
31}
32 
33function decimalsOnly(event) {
34    var legalKeyCode =
35        (!event.shiftKey && !event.ctrlKey && !event.altKey)
36            &&
37        (jQuery.inArray(event.keyCode, allowedSpecialCharKeyCodes) >= 0
38            ||
39        jQuery.inArray(event.keyCode, numberKeyCodes) >= 0
40            ||
41        jQuery.inArray(event.keyCode, commaKeyCode) >= 0
42            ||
43        jQuery.inArray(event.keyCode, decimalKeyCode) >= 0);
44 
45    if (legalKeyCode === false)
46        event.preventDefault();
47}
48 
49function currenciesOnly(event) {
50    var legalKeyCode =
51        (!event.shiftKey && !event.ctrlKey && !event.altKey)
52            &&
53        (jQuery.inArray(event.keyCode, allowedSpecialCharKeyCodes) >= 0
54            ||
55        jQuery.inArray(event.keyCode, numberKeyCodes) >= 0
56            ||
57        jQuery.inArray(event.keyCode, commaKeyCode) >= 0
58            ||
59        jQuery.inArray(event.keyCode, decimalKeyCode) >= 0);
60 
61    // Allow for $
62    if (!legalKeyCode && event.shiftKey && event.keyCode == 52)
63        legalKeyCode = true;
64 
65    if (legalKeyCode === false)
66        event.preventDefault();
67}

My script is, admittedly, very US-centric. I have not tested the key codes with a non-English keyboard and for currencies I only allow a dollar sign. For the project I wrote this script for this is (currently) a non-issue since it is used within the corporate firewall and all sales are domestic, but clearly the above script would not work as well for international settings.

Applying the Currency Masking Script to a TextBox on the Page

With the above script in place you can have a textbox on the page mask its input by having the appropriate function called in response to the keydown event. The following jQuery syntax wires up this logic to all single-line textboxes that have the CSS class currenciesOnly.

1$(document).ready(function () {
2    $("input[type=text].currenciesOnly").live('keydown', currenciesOnly);
3});

That’s it!

Formatting the Just-Entered Currency

Another requirement my client had was to format the just-entered number as a currency. That is, to change the user’s input – say, 45000 – to a formatted value like $45,000.00 immediately after their tabbed out of the textbox. To accomplish this I used Ben Dewey’s jQuery Format Currency Plugin, which you can see a demo of at http://www.bendewey.com/code/formatcurrency/demo/. This plugin adds a formatCurrency function that you can call on a set of elements returned by a jQuery selector.
To use this plugin I updated the $(document).ready event handler shown above to also call the formatCurrency function on blur:

1$(document).ready(function () {
2    $("input[type=text].currenciesOnly").live('keydown', currenciesOnly)
3                        .live('blur', 
4                                 function () { 
5                                     $(this).formatCurrency(); 
6                                 }
7                              );
8});

In short, whenever a textbox with a CSS class of currenciesOnly is blurred, the just-blurred textbox’s inputs are formatted as a currency thanks to the formatCurrency function.
And that’s all there is to it, folks.

The War of the Web Leaders

2011-08-06T17:51:00.000+05:30

Google, the most popular Web site onearth, is worried about the second most popular site. That, of course, would beFacebook. Why else would Google keep trying, over and over again, to create asocial network of the same type? Orkut, Jaiku, Wave, Buzz - Google has lobbedforth one fizzled flop after another. And now there's Google+. It's the latestGoogle "we wanna be Facebook" project.

The difference is, this one's got a real shot. Instead of throwing open itsdoors with a big splash, as it did with the hopelessly confusing Wave and theprivacy-challenged Buzz, Google is letting Google+ seep into the world virally.You can't yet just go sign up; you have to be invited by someone who's alreadya member. Even so, Google+ already has millions of members. That's not quite750 million (Facebook's current tally), but watch out for the network effect.

At first, Google+ looks like ashameless Facebook duplicate. There's a place for you to make Posts (yourthoughts and news, like Facebook's Wall); there's a Stream (an endlessscrolling page of your friends' posts, like Facebook's News Feed); and even alittle +1 button (a clone of Facebook's Like button), which may be whereGoogle+ gets its peculiar name. But there's one towering, brilliant difference:

Circles. On Google+, you put thepeople of your life's different social circles into - well, into Circles. Thatis, groups. Categories. Google starts you off with empty circles calledFriends, Acquaintances, Family and Following (people you don't know, but wantto follow, as you would on Twitter). It's a piece of cake to add new ones. Theycan be tiny circles ("Granny and Gramps") or big ones ("FamilyTree "), organization-based ("Fantasy League Buddies") orarbitrary ("Annoying People").

Creating them is a blast: an array of tiles represents your onlineacquaintances, which it assembles from Gmail and other accounts. You drag eachinto an on-screen circle, where they tumble into place. You can drag a personinto more than one circle. The lucky encircled friend will know that you'veadded him or her to a circle, but not which one, thank heaven. From now on,every time you share something - a news item, a thought, a photo, a chatinvitation -you can specify exactly which Circles receive it.

In one fell swoop, Google has solved the layers-of-privacy problem that hasdogged Facebook for years. Senators embarrassed by their children's drunkenparty photos. Potential employers reading about your crazy nightlife.Girlfriends learning accidentally about their beaus' proposal plans. All of itgoes away with Circles.

You share each item with only the people who deserve to know. Andsimultaneously, you spare the masses from seeing news of no interest to them;why should the whole world be in on your discussion of this Friday's bowlingouting? You're spared, too. You can click a Circle's name to filter thescrolling blurbs. You can view only the work-related posts or only your collegebuddies' posts with one click apiece.

Facebook has something similar, called Lists. But compared with Circles, it'sburied and a lot more effort to use. In Google+, you have to specify who getseach post or each photo (although it remembers your last selections). That'sactually a little annoying - you can't just type an update and hit Enter - butoverall, the benefits outweigh the hassle. Google+ has a few more attractions,though, besides this clever privacy control feature. There's Sparks, which islike a personal press-clipping service (and akin to Google Alerts). You browsefor, or type in, a topic you're interested in, like "Electric Cars,"or "Bundt Cakes."

Google+ fills the screen with matching articles, news and videos from all overthe Web. It may be the easiest, least threatening news reader in history. Themost mind-blowing "Facebook can't do this" feature, though, isHangouts. Technically, it's videoconferencing. It lets up to 10 people join achat simultaneously, using their Web cams or laptop cameras.

7 New SQL Server 2008 Technical Articles

2011-08-04T18:47:00.004+05:30

Best Practices for Data Warehousing with SQL Server 2008
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc719165(SQL.100).aspx
There is considerable evidence that successful data warehousing projects often produce a very high return on investment. Over the years a great deal of information has been collected about the factors that lead to a successful implementation versus an unsuccessful one. These are encapsulated here into a set of best practices, which are presented with particular reference to the features in SQL Server 2008. The application of best practices to a data warehouse project is one of the best investments you can make toward the establishment of a successful Business Intelligence infrastructure.

Build a Metadata-Driven ETL Platform by Extending Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc313017(SQL.100).aspx
SQL Server 2008 Integration Services (SSIS) provides a flexible and scalable architecture that enables high-performance data extract, transform, and load (ETL), which is a crucial process in data warehousing. ETL involves extracting data from outside sources, transforming it to fit business needs, and ultimately loading it into the end target, usually the data warehouse. Some of the most common scenarios of using SSIS are building data warehouses (DW) and developing business intelligence (BI) solutions. The Microsoft Business Intelligence Center of Excellence has extended SSIS to a metadata-driven platform to more effectively build, deploy, and manage ETL processes in large data warehousing environments.

Database Encryption in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc278098(SQL.100).aspx
With the introduction of transparent data encryption (TDE) in SQL Server 2008, users now have the choice between cell-level encryption as in SQL Server 2005, full database-level encryption by using TDE, or the file-level encryption options provided by Windows. TDE is the optimal choice for bulk encryption to meet regulatory compliance or corporate data security standards. TDE works at the file level, which is similar to two Windows® features: the Encrypting File System (EFS) and BitLocker™ Drive Encryption, the new volume-level encryption introduced in Windows Vista®. This white paper compares TDE with these other encryption methods for application developers and database administrators. While this is not a technical, in-depth review of TDE, technical implementations are explored and a familiarity with concepts such as virtual log files and the buffer pool are assumed.

Introduction to New Data Warehouse Scalability Features in SQL Server 2008
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc278097(SQL.100).aspx
SQL Server 2008 makes a major advance in scalability for data warehousing by meeting data warehouse needs of the largest enterprises more easily than ever. SQL Server 2008 provides a range of integrated products that enable you to build a data warehouse, and query and analyze its data. These integrated products include the SQL Server relational database system, Analysis Services, Integration Services, and Reporting Services. This paper introduces the new performance and manageability features for data warehousing across all these components. All these features contribute to improved scalability.

An Introduction to New T-SQL Programmability Features in SQL Server 2008
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc721270(SQL.100).aspx
This paper introduces key new Transact-SQL (T-SQL) programmability features in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 as well as SQL/Common Language Runtime (CLR) enhancements. New T-SQL features provide improved performance, increased functionality, and enhanced globalization support. T-SQL programmability enhancements in SQL Server 2008 address the needs of both OLTP and data warehouse environments.

Scaling Up Your Data Warehouse with SQL Server 2008
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc719182(SQL.100).aspx
SQL Server 2008 introduces many new functional and performance improvements for data warehousing. This paper discusses how to use SQL Server 2008 to get great performance as your data warehouse scales up. We present lessons learned during extensive internal data warehouse testing on a 64-core HP Integrity Superdome during the development of the SQL Server 2008 release, and via production experience with large-scale SQL Server customers. Our testing indicates that many customers can expect their performance to nearly double on the same hardware they are currently using, merely by upgrading to SQL Server 2008 and compressing their fact tables. We cover techniques to improve manageability and performance at high-scale, encompassing data loading (extract, transform, load), query processing, partitioning, index maintenance, indexed view (aggregate) management, and backup and restore.

SQL Server 2008 Full-Text Search: Internals and Enhancements
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc721269(SQL.100).aspx
Databases need to move forward and grow beyond the traditional realm of relational data to support an increasing amount, and variety of, unstructured and semi-structured information, be it speech, documents, XML, bioinformatics, chemical or multi-media. Search has proven itself as a key technology capable of working with vast amounts of such data: it is scalable, low-latency and very user-friendly. It is just what we need to make a database the best place to store all types of data. SQL Server 2008 introduces a new integrated Full-Text Search engine (iFTS) into the relational database, which makes Search as fully integrated a feature of SQL Server as any other traditional database service. The goal of this document is to cover the iFTS architecture in detail, explain its benefits, highlight new features, explain changes from previous solutions (SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005), and outline existing limitations and best practices for deploying iFTS-enabled applications.

Change Data Capture (CDC) in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

2011-08-04T17:33:00.000+05:30

Introduction

Often, you’ll be told that the specificationof an application requires that the value of data in the database of anapplication must be recorded before it is changed. In other words, we arerequired to save all the history of the changes to the data. This feature isusually implemented for data security purposes. To implement this, I have seena variety of solutions from triggers, timestamps and complicated queries(stored procedures) to audit data.

SQL Server 2005 introduced the new features of‘after update’, ‘after insert’ and ‘after delete’ triggers that almostsolved the problem of tracking changes in data. A better solution wasintroduced in SQL Server 2008 and is called Change Data Capture (CDC). CDC hasallowed SQL Server developers to deliver SQL Server data archiving andcapturing without any additional programming.

CDC is one of the new data tracking andcapturing features of SQL Server 2008. It only tracks changes in user-createdtables. Because captured data is then stored in relational tables, it can beeasily accessed and retrieved subsequently, using regular T-SQL.

When you apply Change Data Capture features ona database table, a mirror of the tracked table is created with the same columnstructure of the original table, but with additional columns that include themetadata used to summarize the nature of the change in the database table row. The SQL Server DBA can then easily monitor the activity for the loggedtable using these new audit tables.

Enabling Change Data Capture on a Database

CDC first has to be enabled for the database.Because CDC is a table-level feature, it then has to be enabled for each tableto be tracked. You can run following query and check whether it is enabled forany database.

USE master
GO
SELECT [name], database_id, is_cdc_enabled
FROM sys.databases
GO

This query willreturn the entire database name along with a column that shows whether CDC isenabled.

You can run thisstored procedure in the context of each database to enable CDC at databaselevel. (The following script will enable CDC in Adventure Worksdatabase)

USE AdventureWorks
GO
EXEC sys.sp_cdc_enable_db
GO

As soon as CDC isenabled, it will show this result in SSMS.

Additionally, inthe database Adventure Works, you will see that a schema with the name‘cdc’ has now been created.

Some SystemTables will have been created within the Adventure Works database aspart of the cdc schema.

The tables whichhave been created are listed here.

cdc.captured_columns – This table returns result for list of captured column.
cdc.change_tables – This table returns list of all the tables which are enabled for capture.
cdc.ddl_history – This table contains history of all the DDL changes since capture data enabled.
cdc.index_columns – This table contains indexes associated with change table.
cdc.lsn_time_mapping – This table maps LSN number (for which we will learn later) and time.

Enabling Change Data Capture on one or moreDatabase Tables

The CDC featurecan be applied at the table-level to any database for which CDC is enabled. It has to be enabled for any table which needs to be tracked. First runfollowing query to show which tables of database have already been enabled forCDC.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
SELECT [name], is_tracked_by_cdc
FROM sys.tables
GO

The above querywill return a result that includes a column with the table name, along with acolumn which displays if CDC is enabled or not.

You can run the following stored procedure toenable each table. Before enabling CDC at the table level, make sure that youhave enabled SQL Server Agent. When CDC is enabled on a table, it creates twoCDC-related jobs that are specific to the database, and executed using SQLServer Agent. Without SQL Server Agent enabled, these jobs will not execute.

Additionally, it is very important tounderstand the role of the required parameter @role_name. If there isany restriction of how data should be extracted from database, this option isused to specify any role which is following restrictions and gating access todata to this option if there is one. If you do not specify any role and,instead, pass a NULL value, data access to this changed table will not be trackedand will be available to access by everybody.

Following scriptwill enable CDC on HumanResources.Shift table.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
EXEC sys.sp_cdc_enable_table
@source_schema = N'HumanResources',
@source_name = N'Shift',
@role_name = NULL
GO

As we are using AdventureWorksdatabase, it creates the jobs with following names.

cdc.AdventureWorks_capture – When this job is executed it runs the system stored procedure sys.sp_MScdc_capture_job. The procedure sys.sp_cdc_scan is called internally by sys.sp_MScdc_capture_job. This procedure cannot be executed explicitly when a change data capture log scan operation is already active or when the database is enabled for transactional replication. This system SP enables SQL Server Agent, which in facts enable Change Data Capture feature.
cdc.AdventureWorks_cleanup – When this job is executed it runs the system stored procedure sys.sp_MScdc_cleanup_job. This system SP cleans up database changes tables.

The StoredProcedure sys.sp_cdc_enable_table enables CDC. There are several optionsavailable with this SP but we will only mention the required options for thisSP. CDC is very powerful and versatile tool. By understanding the StoredProcedure sys.sp_cdc_enable_table you will gain the true potentialof the CDC feature. One more thing to notice is that when these jobs arecreated they are automatically enabled as well.

By default, allthe columns of the specified table are taken into consideration of thisoperation. If you want to only few columns of this table to be tracked in thatcase you can specify the columns as one of the parameters of above mentionedSP.

When everythingis successfully completed, check the system tables again and you will find anew table called cdc.HumanResources_Shift_CT. This table willcontain all the changes in the table HumanResources.Shift. If you expandthis table, you will find five additional columns as well.

As you will seethere are five additional columns to the mirrored original table

__$start_lsn
__$end_lsn
__$seqval
__$operation
__$update_mask

There are twovalues which are very important to us is __$operation and__$update_mask.

Column_$operationcontains value which corresponds to DML Operations. Following is quick list ofvalue and its corresponding meaning.

Delete Statement = 1
Insert Statement = 2
Value before Update Statement = 3
Value after Update Statement = 4

The column _$update_mask shows, via abitmap, which columns were updated in the DML operation that wasspecified by _$operation. If this was a DELETE or INSERT operation, all columns are updated and so the mask contains value which has all 1’sin it. This mask is contains value which is formed with Bit values.

Example of Change DataCapture

We will test thisfeature by doing DML operations such as INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE on thetable HumanResources.Shift which we have set up for CDC. We will observethe effects on the CDC table cdc.HumanResources_Shift_CT.

Before we startlet’s first SELECT from both tables and see what is in them.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
SELECT *
FROM HumanResources.Shift
GO
USE AdventureWorks
GO
SELECT *
FROM cdc.HumanResources_Shift_CT
GO

Theresult of the query is as displayed here.

The originaltable HumanResources.Shift has three rows in it, whereas the table cdc.HumanResources_Shift_CTis totally empty. This table will have entries after an operation on thetracked table.

Insert Operation

Let’s run anINSERT operation on the table HumanResources.Shift.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
INSERT INTO [HumanResources].[Shift]
([Name],[StartTime],[EndTime],[ModifiedDate])
VALUES ('Tracked Shift',GETDATE(), GETDATE(), GETDATE())
GO

Once the scriptis run, we will check the content of two of our tables HumanResources.Shiftand cdc.HumanResources_Shift_CT.

Because of theINSERT operation, we have a newly inserted fourth row in the tracked table HumanResources.Shift.The tracking table also has the same row visible. The value of _operationis 2 which mean that this is an INSERT operation.

Update Operation

To illustrate theeffects of an UPDATE we will update a newly inserted row.

USE AdventureWorks

UPDATE[HumanResources].[Shift]

SET Name = 'New Name', ModifiedDate = GETDATE()

WHERE ShiftID = 4

Once more, wecheck our tables HumanResources.Shift and cdc.HumanResources_Shift_CT.

UPDATE operations always result in twodifferent entries in the tracking table. One entry contains the previous valuesbefore the UPDATE is executed. The second entry is for new data after theUPDATE is executed. In our case we have only changed two columns of the tablebut we are tracking the complete table so all the entries in the table arelogged before, and after, the update happens. The Change Data Capture mechanismalways captures all the columns of the table unless, when CDC is set up on atable, it is restricted to track only a few columns. We will see how this canbe done later on this article.

Delete Operation

To verify thisoption we will be running a DELETE operation on a newly inserted row.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
DELETE
FROM [HumanResources].[Shift]
WHERE ShiftID = 4
GO

Once this scriptis run, we can see the contents of our tables HumanResources.Shift and cdc.HumanResources_Shift_CT.

Due to the DELETE operation, we now have onlythree rows in the tracked table HumanResources.Shift We can see thedeleted row visible in the tracking table as new entry. The value of _operationis 4, meaning that this is a delete operation.

Change Data Capture and Operations

We have now verified that, by using CDC, weare able to capture all the data affected by DML operation. In the trackedtable we have four values of the operation. We can see this operation’s valuein the following image.

Understanding Update mask

It is important to understand the Update maskcolumn in the tracking table. It is named as _$update_mask. The valuedisplayed in the field is hexadecimal but is stored as binary.

In our example we have three differentoperations. INSERT and DELETE operations are done on the complete row and noton individual columns. These operations are listed marked masked with 0x1F istranslated in binary as 0b11111, which means all the five columns of the table.

In our example, we had an UPDATE on only twocolumns – the second and fifth column. This is represented with 0x12 inhexadecimal value (0b10010 in binary). Here, this value stands for secondand fifth value if you look at it from the right, as a bitmap. This is a usefulway of finding out which columns are being updated or changed.

The tracking table shows two columns whichcontains the suffix lsn in them i.e. _$start_lsn and _$end_lsn.These two values correspond to the Log Sequential Number. This number isassociated with committed transaction of the DML operation on the trackedtable.

Disabling Change Data Capture on atable

Disabling this feature is very simple. As wehave seen earlier, if we have to enable CDC we have to do this in two steps –at table level and at database level,: In the same way, when we have to disablethis feature, we can do this at same two levels. Let us see both of them oneafter one.

For dropping any tracking of any table we needthree values the Source Schema, the Source Table name, and the CaptureInstance. It is very easy to get schema and table name. In our case, the schemais HumanResource and table name is Shift, however we do not knowthe name of the Capture Instance. We can retrieve it very easily by runningfollowing T-SQL Query.

USE AdventureWorks;
GO
EXEC sys.sp_cdc_help_change_data_capture
GO

This will returna result which contains all the three required information for disabling CDC ona table.

The StoredProcedure sys.sp_cdc_help_change_data_capture provides lots ofother useful information as well. Once we have name of the capture instance, wecan disable tracking of the table by running this T-SQL query.

USE AdventureWorks;

EXECUTE sys.sp_cdc_disable_table

@source_schema= N'HumanResources',

@source_name =N'Shift',

@capture_instance = N'HumanResources_Shift';

Once Change Data Capture is disabled on anytable, it drops the change data capture table as well all the functions whichwere associated with them. It also deletes all the rows and data associatedwith this feature from all the system tables and changes relevant data incatalog views.

In our example, we can clearly see thatcapture table cdc.HumanResources_Shift_CT is dropped.

Disable Change Data Capture Feature onDatabase

This is the easiest task out of all process.Running following T-SQL query will disable CDC on whole database.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
EXEC sys.sp_cdc_disable_db
GO

This StoredProcedure will delete all the data, functions, tables related to CDC. If thisdata is needed for any reason, you must take a backup before dropping CDC fromany database

Capture SelectedColumn

When CDC is enabled on any table, it usuallycaptures the data of all the columns. During INSERT or DELETE operations, it isnecessary to capture all the data but in UPDATE operations only the data of theupdated columns are required. CDC is not yet advanced enough to provide thiskind of dynamic column selection but CDC can let you select the columns fromwhich changes to data should be captured from the beginning.

This storedprocedure should be run in the context of each database to enable it atdatabase level. Following script will enable CDC in AdventureWorksdatabase.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
EXEC sys.sp_cdc_enable_db
GO

Now we willenable this feature at table level but for selected columns of ShiftIDand Name only. This script will enable table-level change data capturefor only two columns.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
EXEC sys.sp_cdc_enable_table
@source_schema = N'HumanResources',
@source_name = N'Shift',
@role_name = NULL,
@captured_column_list = '[ShiftID],[Name]'
GO

So what’s in the system table whichwill be created by data capturing purpose in AdventureWorks Database?

So you can seethat there are now only two rows which are tracked.

We will changethe data of one of the columns that weren’t specified so as to see the value incdc.HumanResources_Shift_CT table.

Before we startlet us first select from both of the table and observe its content.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
SELECT *
FROM HumanResources.Shift
GO
USE AdventureWorks
GO
SELECT *
FROM cdc.HumanResources_Shift_CT
GO

Here is theresult.

The originaltable HumanResources.Shift now has three rows in it; whereas table cdc.HumanResources_Shift_CTis totally empty. Let’s update ModifiedDatefor ShiftID =1 and see if that record creates an entry in the trackingtable.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
UPDATE [HumanResources].[Shift]
SET ModifiedDate = GETDATE()
WHERE ShiftID = 3
GO

Now to check thecontents of the tracking table cdc.HumanResources_Shift_CT and seewhether that change is captured.

The tracking table is empty because it onlytracks the changes which it contains, and it ignores any changes in othercolumns.

Retrieve Captured Data of Specific Time Frame

Quite often, one is asked for data to betracked over a time interval. If you look at the tracking data there isapparently no time captured at all. It always provides all the information.However, there are few fields which can definitely help us out i.e. _$start_lsn. LSN stands for Last Sequence Number. Every record in transaction log isuniquely identified by a LSN. They are always incrementing numbers.

LSN numbers are always associated with timeand their mapping can be found after querying system table cdc.lsn_time_mapping.This table is one of the tables which were created when AdventureWorksdatabase was enabled for CDC. You can run this query to get all the data in thetable cdc.lsn_time_mapping.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
SELECT *
FROM cdc.lsn_time_mapping
GO

When this query is run it will give us all therows of table. It is a little difficult to find the necessary information fromall the data. The usual case is when we need to inspect a change that occurredin a particular time period.

We can find thetime that corresponds to the LSN by using the system function sys.fn_cdc_map_time_to_lsn.If we want all the changes done yesterday, we can run this function asdescribed below and it will return all the rows from yesterday.

Before we run this query let us explore twotable valued functions (TVF) in AdventureWorks database. You can seethat there are two new TVF are created with schema CDC. These functions arecreated when table level CDC was enabled.

The function cdc.fn_cdc_get_all_changes_HumanResources_Shiftcan be used to get events that occurred over a particular time period. You canrun this T-SQL script to get event happened during any specific time period. Inour case, we will be retrieving this data for the past 24 hours.

Following queryshould do retrieve data which was modified in the past 24 hours.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
DECLARE @begin_time DATETIME, @end_time DATETIME, @begin_lsn BINARY(10), @end_lsn BINARY(10);
SELECT @begin_time = GETDATE()-1, @end_time = GETDATE();
SELECT @begin_lsn = sys.fn_cdc_map_time_to_lsn('smallest greater than', @begin_time);
SELECT @end_lsn = sys.fn_cdc_map_time_to_lsn('largest less than or equal', @end_time);
SELECT *
FROM cdc.fn_cdc_get_all_changes_HumanResources_Shift(@begin_lsn,@end_lsn,'all')
GO

We have used relational operations in thefunction sys.fn_cdc_map_time_to_lsn. There can be total of fourdifferent relational operations available to use in that function:

largest less than
largest less than or equal
smallest greater than
smallest greater than or equal

This way captured data can be queried veryeasily and query based on time interval.

Automatic Clean Up Process

If we track every change of all the data inour database, there is very good chance that we will outgrow the hard drive of mainserver. This will also lead to issues with maintenance and input/output bufferissues.

In CDC this there is automatic cleanup processthat runs at regular intervals. By default the interval is of 3 days but it canbe configured. We have observed that, when we enable CDC on the database, thereis one additional system stored procedure created with the name sys.sp_cdc_cleanup_change_tablewhich cleans up all the tracked data at interval.

Summary

For years, programmers have tried to createsystems that record all the changes made to the data in a databaseapplication. At last, with SQL Server 2008, we have a robust way, CDC,that comes ‘out of the box’ to deliver this functionality in a standard way.This should be useful for auditing databases and for tracking obscure problemsthat require you to know exactly when and where a change to a base table wasmade.

This article has been written keeping SQLServer 2008 SP1 Cumulative Update 3 in mind. I would encourage any of yoursuggestions or ideas on this subject as comments to the article.

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