jetlounge.net - technews

SQL Server 2008 Data Warehousing Best Practices

2008-09-12T10:44:00Z

Good White Paper on TechNet:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc719165.aspx

Check your Google AdSense

2008-09-07T05:51:00Z

My ads dropped to PSAs because I hadn't logged in to confirm my phone number!

Creating a Data Mining Reporting Services Report - Quick Demo

2008-09-04T13:38:00Z

Good Demo on using the SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Wizard to create a report based on a data mining model from SSAS

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Video/64190/

Features Supported by SQL Server 2005 Versions

2008-09-03T21:38:00Z

Concise matrix of features by SQL Server 2005 version (Standard, Enterprise, Developer)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143761.aspx

The Undocumented Query Builder tab in MS Outlook

2008-07-28T14:48:00Z

Adding the Query Builder tab to the Filter Page in Outlook 2007

Outlook has an undocumented feature to add a query builder from within the custom filter tab in custom views. This is very useful in generating search strings in automation (VBA, VSTO, .NET, etc). Build the filter, then copy and paste into your code.

To display the Query Builder page on the Filter dialog box :

Click Start, point to Run, type Regedit in the Run dialog box, and then click OK to launch the Windows Registry editor.
In the Registry tree, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook. (for earlier versions of Outlook, change the version number from 12.0 to your version..ie 10)
Select New from the Edit menu, and then select Key from the New submenu.
Name the key: QueryBuilder.
Save and Close

To build a filter using the Query Builder page on the Filter dialog box

In Outlook, select Current View from the View menu and then select Customize Current View from the Current View submenu.
Click the Filter button on the View Summary dialog box.
Click the Query Builder page on the Filter dialog box.
Use the Query Builder interface to build your query. When you construct a filter, you actually build a WHERE clause without the WHERE keyword. Notice that you can use the logical AND or logical OR operator to develop the query and move clauses up or down.
Click the SQL page shown in Figure 11-2 on the Filter dialog box, and clear the Edit These Criteria Directly check box. Once you clear the check box, you can copy the query by selecting it and pressing Ctrl+C to copy to the Clipboard.
Because you don't want to modify the view, click Cancel to dismiss the Filter dialog box. Then click Cancel again to dismiss the View Summary dialog box.

Manage Hotmail Calendars and Contacts in Outlook - for Free

2008-07-28T12:56:00Z

With the new release of the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.1 beta, you can manage your Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail or Microsoft Office Live Mail accounts, including e-mail messages, contacts and calendars for free! This works for Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007

But notice I did not say synchronize, because it really isn't a sync utility. It will create a new shared folder within your Outlook profile to hold your contacts, messages and calendars. An entry in your Personal folder for instance is NOT automagically updated in your Hotmail folder. You must copy/paste for that to happen. In the case of Calendar entries, you can show a single unified view. But again, these are NOT synched.

This also means that if you are on an iPhone and sync to Outlook you still only get the default profile folder...still no shared folder items.

So, one step closer, but still no panacea.

The link for the download is here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9A2279B1-DF0A-46E1-AA93-7D4870871ECF&displaylang=en

Free Web Conference & Screen Sharing

2008-06-25T12:53:00Z

Performing demo's over the web versus a F2F meeting is becoming more prevalent. Following are a list of some tools..all free.

Yugma
www.yugma.com
Offers free cross-platform (PC, Mac, Linux) web conference, screen control, chat, and FREE audio conferencing for up to 15 attendees (long distance charges may apply..but you already have VOIP, right?). Nice synch to Outlook and quick download. In my test, I was able to download the thin client in IE 8, but Firefox got hosed twice. Mac was fine. Go figure.
The paid version allows you to pre-schedule conferences on the web site.

Microsoft SharedView
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=95AF94BA-755E-4039-9038-63005EE9D33A&displaylang=en
I originally tried SharedView since it seemed like a LiveMeeting 'lite' and I am already confortable with that. The beta was a bit crunchy, and for screen sharing really awful...dropped connections, frozen frames...a nightmare. While this is now a 1.0 release, I have yet to give it a second chance. Besides, I may stick with yugma since SharedView is only for the PC. I am not so concerned with Linux, but I do need to connect with folks on Macs.

dimdim
www.dimdim.com
If you dig the whole open source thing, dimdim may be for you. It is also free for conferencing and audio. They also recently received some additional VC funding. Not sure why you'd care about open source web conferencing software...virtual world gaming if your future?? I have not tried it, but appears to be cross platform.

Force Users To Select a Perspective From a Report Model in Report Builder

2008-06-17T20:45:00Z

In SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services you can Increase your Model reusability and development productivity by creating Perspectives. You then limit the usage of a Model only to those Perspectives, rather than the huge monster views.

In Report Model designer, (BIDS), select the top node of the model called, "Model".

In Properties, click the elipsis next to CustomProperties.
Add a New Member with the following details:
DataType : Boolean
Name \ LocalName: MustUsePerspective
Namespace : http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2004/11/semanticquerydesign
Value : True

Redeploy the Model.

Now when you launch Report Builder the main Model will be grey, but users may select the Perspectives below.

Adding Adobe PDF Icons and Search Capability in MOSS 2007

2008-06-10T19:48:00Z

1. Ensure Office SharePoint and Windows Search service are enabled

2. Download & install Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.1 - which includes iFilter
3. Download the PDF icon (select 'small 17 x 17') from http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html

and copy to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Template\Images"

4. Edit the Docicon.xml file to include the .pdf extension. To do this, follow these steps:
a. Start Notepad, and then open the Docicon.xml file. The Docicon.xml file is located in one of the following folders on the server:

SharePoint Portal Server 2003 - Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\60\Template\Xml

SharePoint Server 2007- Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12\Template\Xml

b. Add an entry for the .pdf extension. For example, add a line that is similar to the following to the Docicon.xml file, where NameofIconFile is the name of the .gif file:
<Mapping Key="pdf" Value="pdficon_small.gif"/>
c. On the File menu, click Save, and then quit Notepad.

5.
Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Applications\GUID\Gather\Search\Extensions\ExtensionList
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click String Value. d. Type 38, and then press ENTER.
Right-click the registry entry that you created, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type pdf, and then click OK.

6. Add the .pdf file type to the content index. To do this, follow these steps:
a. Connect to the portal site, and then click Site Settings.
b. On the Site Settings page, click Configure search and indexing under Search Settings and Indexed Content.
c. On the Configure Search and Indexing page, click Include file types under General Content Settings and Indexing Status.
d. On the Specify File Types to Include page, click New File Type.
e. On the Add File Type page, type pdf in the File extension box, and then click OK.

6. Install IFilter 6.0 (may not be necessary if Acrobat 8.1 is installed)

7. Run "net stop osearch" and then "net start osearch" from command line. (if not restarting)

8. Run "net stop spsearch" and then "net start spsearch" from command line. (if not restarting)

9. Go to Application Management > Content Databases > Select your content db and set your search search server.

10. Recrawl the site

I probably had a few extra steps in here, but it worked.

SQL Server 2008 Katmai Performance

2008-06-10T14:38:00Z

I have an article on DevX that compares SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services performance to SSRS in SQL Server 2005, from an execution perspective as well as development.

As it is currently in CTP, these things may change.

Link to the article:

SQL Server 2008 (Katmai) Reporting Services Performance: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back?

http://www.devx.com/dbzone/Article/37653

Error When Deploying a Large RS Report Model

2008-05-30T15:14:00Z

You may recieve the error during the deployment of a Reporting Services model:

There was an exception running the extensions specified in the config file.
Maximum request length exceeded.

To correct, you need to increase the file size limit currently in place in the web.config on the RS Server.
Find the web.config file located in the directory:

[SQL Server Directory]/[MSSQL RS Instance]/Reporting Services/ReportServer

Locate the node <httpRuntime> and add the attribute maxRequestLength and a number, or simply modify the value until you increase the limit such that you can deploy.

Mine looked like this when I was done:
<httpRuntime executionTimeout = "9000" maxRequestLength = "102400" />

Save the file and redeploy. You can switch it back if you like when you are done deploying.

Full attribute listing for httpRuntime here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e1f13641(VS.80).aspx

SQL Server 2005 SP3 Announced

2008-05-09T14:43:00Z

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3 (SP3) has been officially announced for release. The good news: sometime in 2008. The bad news: it won't be released until GA of SQL Server 2008.

More here: http://blogs.technet.com/dataplatforminsider/archive/2008/04/15/sql-server-2005-sp3-coming-soon.aspx

SSIS Fails on SQL Server Destination Insert

2008-05-08T19:48:00Z

Receiving the following error in SQL Server Integration Services?

Error: SSIS Error Code DTS_E_OLEDBERROR. An OLE DB error has occurred. Error code: 0x80040E14. An OLE DB record is available. Source: "Microsoft SQL Native Client" Hresult: 0x80040E14 Description: "Could not bulk load because SSIS file mapping object 'Global\DTSQLIMPORT ' could not be opened. Operating system error code 2(The system cannot find the file specified.). Make sure you are accessing a local server via Windows security.".

Here's the likely reason: You are using a SQL Server Destination adapter, but the machine running the SSIS process is not the same as your SQL Server destination.

SQL Server Destination Adapters are supposedly more performant than OLE DB's, but one big caveat is that the SSIS and Destination must be the same server. To fix, you'll need to change the destination adapter to an OLE DB Destination adapter.