Years ago I knew how to configure the Apache webserver, back when I was a grad student / Linux admin. As any reader will have figured out, I've been a Microsoft-centric programmer for a number of years now. Thus it is not surprised that I would have forgotten some basics about Apache.
We recently returned to the discussion of using XML style transforms to format flat file output from Reporting Services. The report we created was pretty basic, so let's look at something more complex: a fixed format.
Let's say the client has given us the following file format, and we've trimmed the data in the SQL query to make sure it doesn't exceed the data width:
In the third installment of a series, we defined some intended flat file output, designed a simple report in MSSQL Reporting Services, and looked at the plain XML output from Reporting Services. Now, long after that post, we can create and apply the XLST needed to convert that report to the desired output.
Postscript November 2020: from the days in which I was not allowed to practice "agile"...
You've written requirements. You've created a detailed use cases, and unit tests, and reviewed all three. Code is delivered, passes system testing, moves on to UAT. Whoa, holdup there fella, where's the data validation that prevents the user from doing X? Its right there in the requirements. What happened? Not only was it missed in the unit testing (and possibly use cases), but it was missed in the review process as well.
Although very handy, C#'s foreach statement is actually quite dangerous. In
fact, I may swear off its use entirely. Why? Two reasons: (1) performance, and
(2) predictability.
Good article on using indexed views: Indexed
Views Basics in SQL Server. Similar good coverage in Ben-Gan's Inside
Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Programming. Problem: both specify that the
hint WITH(NOEXPAND) needs to be used when executing a query against the index
on anything other than Enterprise and Developer. However, I've found that it is
also required for Enterprise.
SQL Server 2005 queries that used to be fast are now rather slow. You've already tuned the query with good indexes and optimized structures. You've checked the running jobs with Activity Monitor and don't see anything that should be slowing down the server. Likewise you've checked the memory and CPU utilization and they don't seem out of line. Did you check the indexes fragmentation? Ah, there's the problem — a highly fragmented index was slowing things down. Is there a way to pre-emptively find and fix these?
I have an SSIS package, MyPackage, stored on MyServer in the
Package Store. I create an Agent to run the package, running under a SQL account
hooked up to a proper proxy and credentials for Windows authentication. Works in
development, doesn't work in production: the agent gets the error Connect to SSIS Service on machine "MyServer" failed: Access is denied.
As a Web developer whose formal programming training focused only on console
applications and simple GUI apps, it was not immediately obvious to me how to
update a (Windows Forms) GUI while a method was still running. Once I decided it
was worth the effort to learn how to do so, I was not surprised to find that it
is rather easy, using BeginInvoke().
I mentioned using the XML datatype for sparse column support in my recent post on some of the Useful Features in SQL Server 2008. Until today I had never had an opportunity to actually use this feature. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to use, especially with some help from Itzik Ben-Gan's Inside SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Programming.
I've begun using data-driven subscriptions in SQL Server Reporting Services. I want to create one table to house subscription data. Various reports will have different parameters, both in number and kind. It is impractical to create one column for each possible parameter, and seems senseless to create a separate table for every report.
