Atlanta.mdf is hosting a LoadFest event to celibrate the launch of SQL Server 2005. They asked me to stop by and answer tough Business Intelligence questions.. Time permitting, I may do a demo or two.
You may also put in your calendar my next presentation for Atlanta.mdf on 9/1/2006 when I will talk about Analysis Services 2005.
See ya there!
SQL Pass 2005 was a great show. It had about 2,000 attendees, which is great si nce you don’t feel disconnected in the TechEd crowd of 13,000 people. I did a “RS Tips, Tricks, and Gotchas” presentation with Bruce L-C whom I finally had a chance to meet. I think the presentation went very well. I’ve uploaded the slides and the sample code to my website. Among other things the code demonstrates:
Happy reporting!
If you are attending
I have some cool demos that demonstrate retrieving images from a web service, dynamic connection string from configuration file, Analysis Services integration, using CLR stored procedures, and more… If you are not coming, I will upload the code demos on this site after the event.
See you in Texas!
In addition to my previous post about installing CTP, here are some additional notes:
If you are subscribed to Microsoft Beta, you can downoad the SQL Server September CTP and Visual Studio Release Candidate (plan for a day or two given the 30K connection speed) from the Microsoft betaplace website.
Here are the steps I was taking to install both SQL Server CTP and Visual Studio.NET RC that you may find helpful. I had SQL Server 2005 June CTP and Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 installed prior to installing the new bits and the upgrade went fine for me. You may not need to be so reboot-oriented but I like to start from a clean state just in case J.
There are only a few breaking changes I have come across so far with the previous release. The VS.NET Unit test namespace have changes and the WinForm Report Viewer has dropped some properties.
Microsoft has released a hotfix for SP2 that fixes a few items in SP 2. Specifically:
Download the hotfix here.
As you probably know, Microsoft has made a great effort to scale down the SQL Server 2005 components and provide more features at a lesser cost. Here are some links worth checking.
SQL Server 2005 Feature Comparison
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/productinfo/sql2005features.mspx
SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Enhancements
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/2005ssrs.mspx
SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Features Matrix
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/productinfo/rsfeatures.mspx
As far as Reporting Services is concerned, here are a couple of important points.
1. Reporting Services 2005 will run on the Express Edition of SQL Server 2005 (previously known as MSDE in SQL Server 2000). What it means to you is that you can build and distribute reasonably feature-rich reporting solutions for free. This could be nirvana for many software vendors and integrators. Now you can build a report enabled-application and distribute the SQL Server components at zero cost to the client.
2. Different editions support different feature sets. The last link provides a detailed comparison about supported reporting features. Extensibility and several export formats are not supported on Express and Standard editions.
Aren’t you excited? It is really do more with less!
Happy reporting.
D-day! I wondered how many people would show up for my presentation about RS Custom Security. I turned out that about 60 people thought that custom security is just what they needed to boot up after the last night party. I think the presentation was well received. While you are waiting for the Tech Ed DVD, I posted the code on my website.
I got hammered a bit about my presentation skills. Obviously, the tips I’ve learned from the train-the-trainer session weren’t enough. Next time, I will try some of the Steve Ballmer’s stunts. May be they will do the trick. If someone who’s attended my session reads this, please let me know what I can possibly improve to deliver the message more effectively, since I don’t think I can solve this dilemma by myself. BTW, custom security will be available with RS Standard Edition, as Brian Welcker pointed out at the end of the sessions. This was news to me as well.
My plan was at 2 pm. I wanted to see the Jason Carlson’s (Product Manager of RS) session about advanced report authoring with RS but I didn’t have time. Will see it once I get the Tech Ed DVD. Good bye, Tech Ed, it is time to go back to Atlanta (my home for the past seven or so years).
I couldn’t sleep well last night. My neighbor on the left was talking on her cell phone until midnight and I can hear every damn word through the thin wall. My other neighbor was watching a horror movie. A double impact. Not to mention that the cell phone of my left neighbor rang and woke me up at 6. Luckily, today is not presentation day.
In the morning, I went to see the Managing Analysis Services 2005 Using Analysis Management Objects (AMO) presentation by Alex Lim. Alex is also a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional. We introduced to each other and talked briefly about
I had a great lunch with Brian Welcker to catch up on the latest on RS and beyond. Lately, I haven’t been buried in my book and SSAS, so I’ve neglected RS 2005 a bit. It turns out that there is plenty to learn.
Next, I went to see Developing SQL Server 2005 OLAP Applications with ADO MD.NET presentation by Andrew Brust (another MVP). An excellent presentation! ADO MD.NET is a thin managed wrapper on top of the XMLA protocol. It is what you need to send MDX queries to SSAS from a .NET application.
Finally, I attended the Custom Reporting Services Items presentation by Andrew Bryan (a Product Manager of Dundas Software). These are the same guys who did the RS chart region. I didn’t have time to look at this extensibility area in RS 2005 so I found the presentation useful. It turns out that you can write a custom report item and plug it in RS just like you can do this with ASP.NET. Unfortunately, you cannot re-use existing ASP.NET controls. Writing custom report items could be very useful for ISVs, I suppose.
Next, I went to have a session rehearsal since my presentation is tomorrow. Today is also the Tech Ed Attendee’s party in Universal Studio. I hopped on the bus to see the latest and greatest rides. I didn’t have much time since I wanted to get back to the hotel by 10:30. First, I saw Shrek since it happens to be my favorite movie. I enjoyed very much. The 4D effects were awesome. The idea was that the Lord Farquad is not dead and he’s now a ghost. He kidnaps Fiona and Shrek and Donkey are chasing him with the dragon.
Next, I went to see Twister which simulates a class 5 tornado. Got soaked up pretty well. Next, I saw the Mummy. This was a hell of a intensive roller coaster ride. I thought I would vomit at some point. I wanted to see Men In Black but the wait was one hour! So, I went to see Terminator. I’ve been in Universal about 5 years ago, so I thought they may have upgraded the show. I was the same stuff but nonetheless pretty good.
I went back to the hotel and slept like a baby. Tomorrow is my presentation.
Wednesday. The pressure and fatigue starts building up. So, I am going to take it easy today. Now that I am writing a book about Analysis Services 2005, I felt like I need a pinch of MDX to boost my spirit. So, I went to see theSolving Business Problems with MDX in Analysis Services presentation by Amir Netz and Richard Tkachuk. I didn’t regret at all! It was an excellent presentations which gave me some tips about how to structure the MDX part of my book.
Next, I attended the SQL Server 2005: End-to-End Part 3 presentation by Donald Farmer (Product Manager of Integration Services, aka DTS). It was a good presentation as well.
In the afternoon, I had a train-the-trainer session which goal was improve the speaker’s presentation skills. I found out that I have to show more energy and articulate every word to captivate my audience. Now I know the secret of getting high scores for my presentation! Why nobody told me thid before? I went back to hotel to practice my presentation along those lines. I think my newly found vigor woke my neighbor…hopefully, it will do the same for my audience on Friday. Will see…
