Regarding my book on SQL Azure

I hope my latest book "Microsoft SQL Azure Enterprise Application Development" which should be available in a couple of days appeals to the readers as much as my two other books on Microsoft BI. This book covers most of the changes that took place between the CTP and the updates in October 2010. Even as I am writing this post it must be undergoing more changes, a fact that may take away the shine from what is written in the past. Notwithstanding, the core ideas do not change; what changes perhaps are, a few more modified screens; a new UI; and some additional hooks. The more profound changes will be totally new elements that gets added to product with time and that is the time for yet another book.

I take this opportunity to record my sincere thanks to, Microsoft Corporation for evaluation software and allowing me to participate in their events including the boot camps; the third party vendors for evaluation copy of their cloud related software and to Neudesic for giving me a chance to attend their boot camp. I am benefited immensely with my association with the Microsoft MSDN and TECHNET forums and I am thankful for the many forum participants and the moderators for helpful suggestions and answering some of my questions.

Here are the chapter titles of the new book:

1. Cloud Computing and Microsoft Azure Services    Platform
2. SQL Azure Services
3. Working with SQL Azure Databases from Visual  Studio 2008
4. SQL Azure Tools
5. Populating SQL Azure Databases
6. SSIS and SSRS applications using SQL Azure
7. Working with Windows Azure Hosting
8. Database applications on Windows Azure Platform    accessing SQL Server
9. Synchronizing SQL Azure
10.Recent Developments

Some of the details of what you can learn copied from Packt Site is reproduced here:

•  An easy to understand briefing on Microsoft Windows Azure Platform Services

•  Connect to SQL Azure using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio

•  Create and manipulate objects on SQL Azure using different tools

•  Master the different types of Cloud offerings

•  Access SQL Azure through best practices using Client and Server API’s in VB and C# and using hosted services with user authentication Windows Azure

•  Learn how to populate the SQL Azure database using various techniques

•  Create Business Intelligence Applications using SSIS and SSRS

•  Synchronize databases on SQL Azure with on-site enterprise and compact SQL Servers

•  Learn how to write an application to access on-site data from a cloud hosted service

•  Get a comprehensive briefing on various updates that have been made to SQL Azure and the projects still in incubation

•  Understand the future and evolving programs such as the Houston Project, OData Services, Sync Services, and more built to support SQL Azure and transform it into a global enterprise data platform

Importing Geospatial data from an Excel file

Sometimes there is a need to import data / geo-spatial data harvested from the web using built-in tools in Excel to SQL Server 2008 R2. The Import and Export Wizard makes it very easy and read up on this article to learn the details on the SSWUG.ORG web site,

http://www.sswug.org/articles/viewarticle.aspx?id=52687

Hook up with SQL Azure using Microsoft LightSwitch

Jump start on Microsoft's latest RAD developmental tool - the Microsoft LightSwitch.It is still in Beta but looks very cool. You have data sources and screens. Hook them up and you are done. It has screens that are representative of most of the likely usage scenarios such as searching, point to parent and all the children show up, edit data, etc. You hardly need to write code for most of the common business use. In case you want to write code, you could. There are lot of events to which you can hook up code. I used VS 2010 Express and some coding is limited but I understand with a better VS versio you can do a lot more.
Before you do the big things get a head start knowing about this interface. Read this article and jump start on LightSwitch.
Start here and if you have a problem send me an email

Importing Geospatial data from MS Excel 2010 to SQL Server 2008 R2

Capturing geo-spatial data from web pages is something that Excel can do very well and processing of geo-spatial data is a new capability that became available in SQL Server 2008 R2. With Bing and Maps new applications are possible.
Getting data from MS Excel to SQL server 2008 R2 is very easy with the Export and Import wizard.
This article shows how you would bring in geo-spatial data from an MS Excel 2010 Spread Sheet file to a database table in SQL Server. As SQL Server 2008 R2 supports geo-spatial data it is very easy to process it on the SQL Server. SQL Server Import and Export Wizard is used.
 
The SSWUG article can be viewed free by registering as a guest and well sign up as well and get the full benefits.

While you are visiting SSWUG read this other article on Geo-Spatial data :

Installing AdventureWorks Sample Databases

AdventureWorks  is one of the common sample databases used in Microsoft Database related programming or, in Visual Studio applications. What started off as a single database has grown into a big family and together with this, the installation procedure has undergone a lot of changes. The days of attaching and detaching sample database files are gone. The WinZip installer kicks off the installation.

Recently I wanted to work with PHP training kit which required a SQL Server 2008 Express with a AdventureWorks database. The download link on the Configuration Wizard-PHP on Windows Training kit took me to a dead end (Trust me this happens a lot with Microsoft documentation). Finally, I thought just that any AdventureWorks would do and downloaded the AdventureWorks2008R2_RTM.exe (82.3 MB ) from CodePlex site and installed it on the brand new SQL Express 2008 (SQLEXPRADV_x86.enu.exe). Although it did not provide the right (Which, I don't know what? As yet) AdventureWorks, I could see how the installation procedure has changed.

The installation took 35 minutes. It took 100% of the CPU and 76% of physical memory during installation and installed a bunch of AdventureWorks databases for all kinds of end users. Here are some screen shots of the installation.

Look at all the AdventureWorks databases in this image.

SQL Server Compact 3.5 : Basics you must know

Microsoft SQL Server Compact is an embedded(able) database ideal for desktop, (hand-held) mobile devices and web clients. It is free to download (also free to deploy and redistribute) and comes in the form of just one code-free file. Its small foot print makes it easy to  deploy to a variety of device sizes and requires no administration. It also supports a subset of T-SQL and a rich set of data types. It can be used in creating desktop/web applications using Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2010.

The following two articles provide the basic  knowledge you should possess if you are planning to work with this database:

Managing SQL Server Compact 3.5 in SQL Server Management Studio

In this article managing SQL Server Compact 3.5 from the SQL Server Management Studio which is installed with SQL Server 2008 R2 Nov-CTP (or R2 RTM) will be described. Alternately one could also use SSMS bundled with SQL Server Express 2008. Creating databases, tabels, indexes and nested queries are also described.

http://www.sswug.org/articles/viewarticle.aspx?id=50315

Programmatic Connection to SQL Server Compact 3.5 using Visual Studio

Connection string is the entry point to develop any data-centric application that includes handheld or mobile platform. It really is the first step. If you are accessing SQL Server Compact then this article tells you all that you need to know about connecting to SQL Server Compact from Visual Studio, be it the latest VS2010 or an older data technology.


Check out this article and let me know if you liked it.
http://www.packtpub.com/article/connecting-microsoft-sql-server-compact-3.5-visual-studio

After connecting you can develop a Pocket PC forms application as shown in this article on the same site:

http://www.packtpub.com/article/pocket-pc-application-visual-studio-2005

SQL Server 2008 R2 and Data-Tier Applications

DATPACs
In the August CTP Microsoft introduced Data-Tier Applications and several new features were introduced in the Nov 2009 CTP. Registering; Viewing & comparing and upgrading Data-Tier applications were added.

A Data Application Component is an entity that integrates all data tier related objects used in authoring, deploying and managing into a single unit instead of working with them separately. Programmatically DACs belong to classes that are found in The Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Dac namespace. DACs are stored in a DacStore and managed centrally. DACs can be authored and built using SQL Server Data-Tier Application templates in VS2010 (now in Beta 2) or using SQL Server Management Studio. This article describes creating DAC using SQL Server 2008 R2 Nov-CTP(R2 server in this article), a new feature in this version.

The following two articles treat DATPACs from two different angles. The first part is what you or a DBA can do in SQL Server Management Studio and in the second what a developer can do in Visual Studio.

Using SQL Server Management Studio
In the first part of this series [http://www.packtpub.com/article/working-with-data-application-components-sql-server-2008-r2] the author shows shows how you may extract a Data Application Component from a SQL Server 2008 and then deploy the component to an SQL Server 2008 R2 Server. The process is Wizard driven and very easy to understand. DAC files in the field of DATA are like *.msi files for applications. Just as you would install an application from an MSI file, you would install a database package with the DAC file with the extension DACPAC. You may even email a database. The cited article shows how all this is done.




Using Visual Studio
In  the second part of this series[http://www.sswug.org/articles/viewarticle.aspx?id=49844] the author shows how you may create a DATPAC from scratch in your Visual Studio IDE. You will start creating a DATPAC which has database with  a table and a view based on the table  even when not  connected to a server. You will then manually deploy the DATPAC to the server after connecting to it and complete the deployment.