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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.

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,

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

Error passing XML value to SQL Server store procedure

penphirom — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 06:12:44 GMT

When I pass the xmlDataValue to SQL server 2005 the error message show me that "[b]No mapping exists from object type System.Xml.XmlDataDocument to a known managed provider native type[/b]"This is my store procedure:CREATE PROC SaveToT1 @xml xmlAS INSERT INTO dbo.T1(F1,F2) SELECT xmlVals.rowvals.query('StaffID').value('.','nchar(3)'), xmlVals.rowvals.query('StaffName').value('.','nvarchar(30)') FROM @xml.nodes('/R1/dbo.StaffInformation') as xmlVals(rowvals)My VB.NET Code is:Public Sub SaveToT1() Dim ds As New DataSet("R1") Dim adp As New OdbcDataAdapter Dim cmd As New OdbcCommand lasspCmd.Connection = lasspConn lasspCmd.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM dbo.StaffInformation" adp.SelectCommand = lasspCmd adp.Fill(ds, "dbo.StaffInformation") Dim doc As New XmlDataDocument(ds) cmd.Connection = lasspConn cmd.CommandText = "{CALL SaveToT1(?)}" cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@xml", doc) cmd.ExecuteNonQuery() lasspCmd.Dispose() cmd.Dispose() End SubHow do I solve this Error? [b]Note[/b]: My connection I use odbcConnection with DSN Name

Accessing old 'Technical articles'

Junglee_George — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:02:03 GMT

HiHow can I access 'Technical articles' published earlier.If any links are there, please share that.I can access new 'Technical articles'from the home page

Starred topics

Junglee_George — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 02:56:03 GMT

Hi It will be very much useful if SSC introduces starring of topics in a forum.That will allow users to star the topic and the starred topics can be accessed for help for future reference in a single click.( similar to Starred mails)

SharePoint Forum

OLDCHAPPY — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 07:34:39 GMT

how about a forum for SharePoint related discussions?

New Forum

michael vessey — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 04:07:45 GMT

Hi would it be possible to set up a new forum dedicated to Testing in SQL Server.This subject seems to be on the up recently (with the rise of test driven development and microsoft vs2010's unit tests for stored procs)I suggest it would coverunit testingfunctional testingStress testingLoad testingEnvironmental testingMaintenance testingStrategiesData Rollbacks and Data consistency etc This is an area i'm currently working in and sharing expertise would be invaluable.

Edit Attachments

WayneS — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:00:47 GMT

Under the control panel, we can edit attachments. Can we add to this the ability to go to the post that has that attachment?

Change section header colors in email

upperbognor — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 09:00:09 GMT

I've noticed for the last while that headers that outline the different sections of the email have changed to a dark green font on darker blue, this makes it hard to read without highlighting each header. An improvement would be to use white font on blue background.Thanks

Provide account setting to disable forum email subscriptions

Michael Valentine Jones — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 11:48:10 GMT

I would like an account option to permanently disable forum topic email subscriptions.Occasionally, it gets turned on (not by me intentionally), and I end up with 50 or a 100 emails that I don't want.I never want email notifications, so if there was a way to completely disable them, that would be great.

Subscription Email target="_new"

Carl Federl — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 09:21:05 GMT

In the subscription emails, when you click on a link, the target page opens in the same window. Many of the target pages have links that one follows to understand the articles. This reuse of a single window makes navigation more difficult and getting back to the subscription a tedious process.A workaround is to right click the link and specify "open in a new window". but making a new window the default would be helpful.An example is from the "Database Weekly" for 10/11/2010 with element:<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.sqlservercentral.com/links/4614/176192">(more)</a>Prefered is having a target of a new window:<a rel="nofollow" target="_new" href="http://www.sqlservercentral.com/links/4614/176192">(more)</a>

Moving a forum?

Lynn Pettis — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 08:28:49 GMT

Would it be possible to move the Working with Oracle forum out of the SQL Server 7/2000 group, perhaps into its own? Seems to make sense to me, what do others think?

Performance Point 2010 forum

Raunak Jhawar — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 23:26:17 GMT

Hi,Can we have a dedicated zone where users can post and learn about the Performance Point Server 2007 and 2010 or related technologies for Business Analytics and Data Mining.