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Search Results Suggestion

Sean Lange — Fri, 03 May 2013 08:20:46 GMT

It would be a great addition to the search results to include some more information about the items. Specifically when articles are in the list it would great to see the author and the rating. I was looking for a specific article. I would know the authors name when I see it but can't come up with it on my own. If the authors name was in the results I would easily be able to find it.

Message Snippet

opc.three — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:06:21 GMT

This enhancement's utility may be limited to folks like myself that post on SSC often but it would make posting easier and (I think) could improve the experiences of those asking questions with those omissions we so often see (no DDL, etc.) or whose answers we end up typing so often (a link to Gail's [i]Managing Transaction Logs[/i] article), so here goes...The 'Snippets' feature would appear under the IFCodes Shortcuts to the left of the Message box on Post.aspx in the form of Hyperlinks. The links would write common 'Snippets' of text to the message box. A new user would not have any 'Snippets' initially but could configure new ones through their Control Panel or by clicking a 'Configure Snippets' link shown in the Snippets section to the left of the Message box. A Snippet would consist of a Name (limited to maybe 20 characters) and Text (unlimited, or limited to a reasonably large number of characters).An example of a snippet would be:Name = [i]ask for DDL[/i]Text = [i]Please provide:1. DDL in the form of CREATE TABLE statements to create your sample tables2. DML in the form of INSERT INTO statements to populate the sample tables3. The expected results of your SELECT statements based on that sample data4. Most importantly: what you have tried so far.[/i]If I were to configure this Snippet then [u]ask for DDL[/u] would appear as a Link in the Snippets section under the IFCode Shortcuts section. Similar to an IFCode Shortcut, if I clicked on [u]ask for DDL[/u] the Snippet text (shown above) would be inserted into the Message box at the cursor-position.

Save output of DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS into a table

SeekQuel — Thu, 12 Jun 2003 02:08:00 GMT

Hi,At our company, we are using a single package on SQL server for Accounting and Warehousing.We experience some performance problems and a quick look at indexing shows that there are a lot of useless columns in the indexes.There are a lot of tables to evaluate, we would like to scan the statistics of all tables and place them in a datamart for thorough analysis.How can we access statistics with queries, or, at least, save the DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS results into a database?Regards,Geert Boelens

Security

jayoub1 — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 12:59:27 GMT

I would like to suggest adding a database security section to each version. I am currently doing database security and it would be nice to have an area where I can read up about how to and where i could get training. I could actually add lots of information from a document that i use to secure databases, but the fixes are where the challenge is. Please let me know what you thinkJeff

Discourse.org

Steve Jones - SSC Editor — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:20:25 GMT

Looking for comments on the Discourse.org framework. It's potentially a direction we could move the forums from SSC in. Not articles, scripts, QoTD, stairways, etc., just the forum discussions.[url]http://www.discourse.org/[/url]

Archived Blogs

Sapen — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 13:47:12 GMT

Dear moderator,Can you please add a sort by author option to select the blogs based on the author. And also add a sort by date per author. The problem is that there are too many blogs and blogs like "A DMV a Day Day-1" through 29 and powershell Day1 through day n are hard to be tracked and listed at one place.Hope this helps everyone.

Can we have Android & IOS mobile App please

Dhruvesh Shah — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:41:20 GMT

Hi All,Can some one please take an initiative to build mobile app for this site. and include forum discussion & QotD & few other articles in App to begin with. It would be such an asset to have it on the go.I can try in generating funding if required.Thanks,

How do I add an image to my post?

guerillaunit — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:40:33 GMT

There are opening and closing tags of '[img]' and '[/img]'. How do you use them (or is there another way) to embed images into my post? Thanks!

Add an option to display the answer and explanation for the QoTD?

jasona.work — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 09:17:25 GMT

I'm not the best when it comes to answering the QoTD, and will sometimes turn to the "copy code into SSMS, run, and answer" so I can then see the explanation of WHY the answer is what it is.To me, even though the QoTD points are the same as the points given on "Whose line is it anyways. The show where everything's made up and the points don't matter. That's right the points are just like tasteful" shirts to Steve Jones... ;-)Basically, give an option for people to simply display the answer and explanation, giving them NULL points for the question...Jason

Do not require registration to just read articles

timothyawiseman — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 14:06:58 GMT

I would humbly suggest it would be beneficial to not require registration for merely reading articles. I know that registration is swift and simple, but it is still a barrier for some. Earlier today, I referred someone on [url=http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10919577/displaying-the-correct-condition-found-in-where-clause/10919954#comment14271932_10919954]Stack Exchange[/url] to an article I had written myself and published on this site, and his response was that he did not want to register and so couldn't read it. I have also, occassionally, found this annoying when trying to show an article to colleagues when at their computer since they didn't always have accounts and I didn't want to log in with my account on their machine. Removing the need to register would encourage browsing and remove this barrier.

Perhaps a "stairway" to data entry?

TB-462197 — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 07:57:32 GMT

I apologize if this is request is far off the scope of the site: Is there any interest in a "stairway" for the hand-off of HTML5 forms to SQL database? I know there are tons of frameworks out there that address this - each with pros and cons, varying levels of complexity, and often horrible backward compatibility. Companies fortunate enough to have full-time programmers (in addition to DBAs) can leverage these frameworks quite well, but somewhere between the needs for using something like MS Access and creating an elaborate Entity Framework web app, there seems to be a middle ground missing (or not discussed). Is it just "use PHP"?I'm wondering if there's anything as "pure" or close to standards as possible that could be taught here in terms of "okay, we've taught you how to create a database, here's a simple, future-stable way to submit data into it".Thanks!

Periodic e-mail

marcia.j.wilson — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 11:48:58 GMT

Rather than the option of immediate e-mail, I'd like to see a way of getting an e-mail every so often that would give a summary of what topics I was following had new replies and maybe a link to the first new one.I'm not sure what the best interval would be. I'm thinking somewhere in the 1 to 4 hour range.

Ability to filter/order scripts by the following - star rating,date added, reads etc

AHWB — Wed, 30 May 2012 04:31:13 GMT

I have been looking at the Scripts section of the sqlservercentral.com website and can only list all scripts or search.would be good to filter out, i.e by star rating, views, date added etc.I would like to be able to browse through 5 rating scripts to see if there is anything of use to help me - as oppose to viewing none rather or poorly rated scripts.unless this is already possible.

Please fix the "Pretty Print" class in the forums and the article "Contribution Center"

Jeff Moden — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:29:30 GMT

One of the things I like the most about SQLServerCentral.com is how easy is usually is to post formatted code. It's come a long way but there are still some problems with the "Pretty Print" class code block both in the forums and the article "Contribution Center". I don't know if it's possible but it would be a wonderful thing if some of these minor problems could be repaired in the near future.1. Neither preserves the color of comments when an apostrophe is present in the comment. Instead, it reads the apostrophe as a single quote and colors everything after that Red. For example…[code="sql"]WITHcteSomeCTE AS(--==== This is Jeff's 1st test comment SELECT yadayada FROM sometable)--==== This Jeff's 2nd test comment SELECT * FROM cteSomeCTE;[/code]2. Observing the same example above, neither preserves comments when the comment is a trailing comment immediately after either a left or right parenthesis. The work around, of course, is to insert a space between the parenthesis and the first dash of the comment but most folks don't expect this.3. Both use light gray coloring for some symbology which, at best, is difficult to read. See the NULL, parenthesis, and the mathematical operatior in the following.[code="sql"] SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) + 1;[/code]Further, some of the functions also appear in light gray (Left and Right below).[code="sql"]ABS()SUBSTRING()LEFT()RIGHT()CHARINDEX()PATINDEX()SIGN()SUM()[/code]4. In the "Contribution Center", by default, if a line is long enough to trigger the scroll bars, it also makes the code block window much too long. This can be (apparently) manually adjusted in the contribution center but only if the width of the window is small enough (it usually is) so that you're actually aware of the problem. This problem no longer appears on the forums.5. During copy and paste operations from such a rendered code block, the code appears as a single line when pasted into SSMS. There was a time when this all worked perfectly and wonder if it can be brought back.6. Occasionally, characters such as "<", ">", etc show up as their entitized value instead of being displayed correctly. (or course, it works correctly for me now... go figure).[code="sql"] SELECT * FROM sometable WHERE A < B[/code]As a sidebar, most of these problems where repaired in previous editions of the code blocks and the latest "upgrade" has resurrected these problems.

Member should be able to mark post as "Answered".

Rohit Khare — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:56:05 GMT

I feel without marking a post as "Answered", it always doubtful whether the answer submitted proved useful or not.My suggestion is to have a top-level category: Answered. There can be two or more correct answers, so the member should be able to mark:- Best Answer- Alternate or something like that.

Filter the contribution center

GilaMonster — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:13:47 GMT

Please, please can we either get a filter on the contribution center for blog posts/articles/scripts/QotD or can they be listed separately? It's incredibly hard now to search through all the blog posts for the articles (when looking for a link to post in the forum)

Sharing new things from other websites

mohammed moinudheen — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:00:03 GMT

Is there any way by which we could share some interesting things which we come across from other sites.Like today, I came across this link which I found to be really informative. If I am not wrong, SQL Server is used as backend database in some critical applications for NASDAQ, Hilton, FAC etc. I thought it would be nice to have a discussion where we could get points from members regarding usage of SQL server as a backend database for mission critical applications.[url=http://gigaom.com/cloud/facebook-shares-some-secrets-on-making-mysql-scale/]link[/url]I was just wondering if there is any way we could share any new things especially from other sites apart from writing blogs or forums?

Suggestion: Let author of thread flag thread as "solved", along with post within thread as "solution"

kramaswamy — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:52:45 GMT

Hi all,Simple suggestion, though one which I'm not sure is possible under the current forum structure.It would be very neat if there were to be a way for the author of a thread to indicate that their problem was solved, and have that indication be visible from the main forum menu. This would allow people who are looking to aid others, to look at the threads which do not have a solution already posted, or, alternatively, for people who are looking for solutions, to glance at the threads which are already marked as solved.Also, would be nice to have the solution post within the thread be markable by the author as well.These are suggestions in the same vein that the social.msdn.microsoft.com forums have going.

Solution - Decreasing initial datafile size of an user database

arjen.schrier — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:27:26 GMT

The following issue occurred:The datafile of the database has an initial size of 48GB while the data only occupies 29GB of the file.DBCC SHRINKFILE only shrinks the MDF file to the initial size, but doesn't release the space held by the initial filesize or decreases the size of the datafile. Database files are not meant to be shrunk, however sometimes the "overhead" of free space claimed is not in scope with the size of the database.Following steps solved the issue for me:* Make a full database backup, of the database you want to change.* Make sure you have sysadmin rights and bring the database into [u]restricted user mode[/u].* Select tasks --> shrink --> files from the database menu.* Choose the “Reorganize pages before...” option and enter the desired file size. Make sure the file size is larger than the minimum needed space for the data.* Check the properties of the database files and decrease the initial size of the datafile (if not already changed)* After finishing bring the database back in Multi User mode.This shrinks the files to the desired file size, without having to migrate data between datafiles (empty file solution) or having to bring the database or instance down.As any DBA can tell you, be aware of (and know) what you're doing, before you start an action like this. It's not certain this will solve a similar issue for anyone else, but it's worth to investigate.

Notifications email

bkubicek — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:26:26 GMT

I have recently started to try and answer a few questions on the different forums. I have found that the Notification email is a bit cryptic. So my suggestion would be to add the first 255 characters of the new post to the email. In some cases it would help identify which post is what.

SQL Server Website

kapfundestanley — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:46:36 GMT

Have a way so that i can see all the Topics that i posted and am subscribed to.

Stairway to XML

Rich Weissler — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 20:12:52 GMT

I'm sure I'm not the only SQL Admin to look at the XML Datatype and respond "Ugh!"In my recent reading, I'm starting to get the hint that there might be something to this XML thing-- it's not just a buzzword from a previous decades. How about a series of articles which starts with 1. an introduction to XML and explains the important parts of XML (it looks like HTML, but obviously it's different)... continuing with 2. The XML Datatypethen3. Creating XML Indexes ('cause them seem to be different from normal indexes in the same way that full-text indexes different from normal indexes.)and4. Generating XML from Queries.and I'm hoping somewhere in there that XSD will be explained.And I have the sneaking suspicion that there is more to the topic, but I've barely scratched the surface. I don't yet know what I don't know!(I toss this out there in case there are some terribly smart potential series writers looking for a topic. :-) )

Stairway to SQL Security

Rich Weissler — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:55:55 GMT

First I'll say that the Stairway series of articles are one of the most useful set of resources I've seen on-line for SQL. I'm one of those 'Accidental DBAs' who is trying to make good. I'm actually a little surprised there isn't already a Stairway series for SQL Security, but might suggest it as a viable topic.Possible topics (off the top of my head as a neophyte) might include:[b]Logins, Users, Schema, and Roles[/b]Building [b]Custom Roles[/b]Using [b]Schemas, Views[/b], and protecting data[b]Procedure [/b]scope[b]Certificates [/b]in SQL - creation, use, and gotchas[b]Backups, Restores, and Storage[/b] - (More than just backing up the database... what to store, and what not to keep together.)[b]Encryption[/b] - TDE, encrypting pwds/credit card numbers, etc.And I'm sure there are books worth of other advanced topics that I don't even know to reference yet...

Forum Topic Twitter Feed

Nicholas Cain — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:02:06 GMT

I've found the RSS feeds can be somewhat flaky, how about setting up a process that would post to twitter with a search tag dependent upon the forum and include the subject? This would just be based upon a new topic being submitted and not based upon individual posts.Example based upon this topic: [code="plain"]Forum Topic Twitter Feed #SSCSuggest[/code]Other example search tags:[ul][li]#SSC2K8Gen - SQL 2008 General[/li][li]#SSC2K8TSQL - SQL 2008 T-SQLl[/li][li]#SSC2K5Sec - SQL 2005 Security[/li][/ul]Nic

How to add a signature to forum posts.

Gavin Landon — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 09:55:13 GMT

I'm searching all over and don't see anything for profile. I see my account, but that only has the ability for me to change my name and password. I see others with signatures or is that someone pasting from notepad each time?Gavin

Mreging forum accounts

Regan Galbraith — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 06:49:00 GMT

Embarrassingly, I appear to have registered, over time, with more than 1 account. Searching for "merge forum accounts" brought up ton's on merge repliciation, and the ,erge statement, but nothing to help me.Not sure if I'm the only one silly enough to have done this - would be great to "de-dup"/"merge" my accounts together...Thoughts? Links to where to do this if it is already possible

SQL Azure

Dugi — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:38:57 GMT

Hi!I think that it would be better if we have also the section for the SQL Azure in SQL Server 2008 forum, because we know that SQL Azure will be the Cloud Database Server in the near future, also the SQL Server R2 has done some changes especially for SQL Azure purposes!I think that many users have seen the articles and news for the SQL Azure, and maybe they want to know more about or to explain anything that is avaiable with SQL Azure & SQL Server 2008 R2 etc.Finally I suggest one section for SQL Azure, in SQL Server 2008!;-)

New code IFCode

opc.three — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:05:17 GMT

Add IFCode support for:> PowerShell: [code="ps"] or [code="powershell"]> Windows Cmd Shell: [code="windows-cmd"] or [code="cmd"]I know it's been posted before in this forum but it would also be great to get [url=http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Skins/Classic/Dialogs/InsertIFCode.aspx?ControlID=txtPost]this page[/url] updated to show all currently available IFCodes (e.g. C# is still missing).

Who's On link

Evil Kraig F — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:05:22 GMT

Please remove anonymous and google.com from displaying in the who's on list. They're useless to end users who just want to poke around and see if certain people are active or not, and they bloat the list to near unusability.

Question of the Day Suggestions

Duncan Pryde — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:33:25 GMT

Hi everyoneI've submitted a few QotDs now and some have proved more popular than others. I'd therefore be interested to know what sort of questions people like, any formats they prefer, subject matter they like and so on. That way people who feel like submitting questions have some idea as to what might be useful or interesting to others.If anyone has criticisms of questions that would be interesting too, although it would be better to keep it constructive!Duncan

Unable to Start SQL Server service for SQL 2005 Server

hidayath — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:40:26 GMT

Hi,Not able to start the SQL server service its throwing an error in log file asError :3414,Severity :21 ,State:2An error occured during recovery, preventing the databese 'Master' (databse ID 1) from restarting.Diagnose the recovery errors and fix them, or restore from a known good backup.I don't have the backup and not even able to get login as the sql server service itself is not starting.Thanks.

Subscribed Topics list

Evil Kraig F — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:01:29 GMT

We've got recent posts and the like, but I'd like to see an option that would bring up my 'subscribed topics', say with the last four pages of them in recent postings. I seem to lose posts a lot (recent posts/daily don't always show everything) and that would help me keep track of the posts I've responded to.

SQL Architecture Articles

Chand00 — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:23:10 GMT

Hi, I did not find any articles related to sql server 2005 architecture here. Even in the forums when a user ask about the sql architecture I had seen replies that ask the user to refer BOL. But why dont we have an article which explains sql server architecture. Because most people rely on SSC rather than BOL and in BOL it is difficult for a newbie to understand the architecture.

Suggestion: Tweet this topic button

Shawn Melton — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 21:23:36 GMT

I have seen the SSC twitter account post some of the topic questions that have gotten posted but not alot of answers too, or that where interesting. I would do the same thing every-now-and-then as well if I learned something from the post or new someone on twitter that may have had the same issue.I don't know if you could do it where it would post automatically to the user's Twitter account with some default message like "Hey you should check this SSC topic out: link", or just offer us a short URL link to copy to Tiwtter.com, Seesmic, or TweetDeck.Just a thought late at night...

New Forum Suggestion: 2008 Integration Services

opc.three — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 13:53:38 GMT

I think we are missing a forum specific to "SQL Server 2008 Integration Services". A couple options that popped in:Option 1: a. Create a new Forum called "Integration Services" (similar to what we have for "Reporting Services") b. Move "SQL Server 2005 Integration Services" from the "SQL Server 2005" forum into this new forum c. Add new "SQL Server 2008 Integration Services" forum to this new forumOption 2: a. Add new "SQL Server 2008 Integration Services" forum to existing "SQL Server 2008" forum

SQL Beginner

Sean Anderson — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 22:05:00 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm a beginner with SQL Server 2005 and trying to complete a project with the following question, can someone please help?

Use AdventureWorks database and HumanResources.Department table.

Create a stored procedure called spDepartmentAddUpdate. This procedure accepts two parameters: Name, and GroupName. The data types are VarChar(50), and VarChar(50) respectively. Define logic in this procedure to check for an existing Department record with the same Name. If the department record exists, update the GroupName and ModifiedDate. Otherwise, insert a new department record.

Execute your stored procedure to show that the insert logic works.
Execute your stored procedure to show that the update logic works.

Note:

1. DepartmentID is an identity column.

2. You may use GETDATE() to insert or update the modified date.

Thanks in advance!

Stairway series on SQL Server Data Modelling

Junglee_George — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 00:04:24 GMT

HiPlease start a Stairway series on SQL Server Data Modelling.That will help a lot...Stairway series is a super hit..!! Thanks a lot SSC!!

Email Notification message body contents

Shawn Melton — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 15:01:30 GMT

I understand this may cause overhead but just wanted to ask anyway...The message that is received once you post to a forum tells you that someone has posted a new reply. It then goes to provide the link to see it and a link to unscribe if desired. I was curious if the body/contents of the new reply/post, either partially or in full, could be added to that email notification? An example of what I am speaking of is the email notification sent out with Ask.SQLServerCentral.com, it tells me if a new comment was added to something I posted.This is not necessarily lazyness talking but in some situations you may be viewing your emails and not be able to access SSC immediatly. If the email notification included some or all of the text in the post/reply it would help in telling you if you needed to make post a reply right then to continue helping the original poster or if it could wait. There are a few people that try to respond in a timely manner when helping someone out and I just thought it might be more efficient for us to see the response.

Original message viewable when replying

Keith Langmead — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:25:56 GMT

When replying to a message would it be possible to still be able to view the message you're replying to, so you can see the original message to refer to in your reply? An extreme example would be the Microsoft Technet forums, though I think that could be argued to be somewhat overkill with the mass of javascript / ajax they seem to use to do it. Simply including the post you're replying to at the bottom would be great.

SSRS Chart Line With Markets

adid — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 05:59:40 GMT

hello !i running .rdl report with chart line with markets.in the chart i define : series group - QCTypeIdcategroy group - timeStampvalues - valActual here is data for exaple :QCTypeId timeStamp valActual======================2 , 22/11/2010 , 52 ,23/11/2010 , 62 ,24/11/2010 , 73 ,22/11/2010 , 83 ,24/11/2010 , 10the problem is that the graph is draw all the markets but without all the lines.if i filter the report to view just the data for QCTypeId = 2 i see three points with lines between them. if i filter the report to view just the data for QCTypeId = 3 i see two points with line between them. but if i filter the report to view QCTypeId = 2, 3 i see all the points but with lines between the points with QCTypeId = 2 only. the problem is that i don't have data for QCTypeId = 3 and timeStamp = 23/11/2010. i go to properties of the chart series and set emptyPoint->color to be "Lime" color for eample and than i saw i line between the 2 points of QCTypeId = 3. the problem is that all the groups with "Missing points" will get the color "Lime" instead of random color as menthioned in the legened area. how can i fix the lines color to be randomly ?thank you,adi damty