This article will quickly dive head first right into XML.   Read more...

The third article in a four part series, this week Andy shows how to use the command object to work with stored procedure parameters.   Read more...

So you've created a SQL Server package and now you're ready to integrate it into your Visual Basic application? In this series, Brian Knight will show you how to use the DTS object model to execute a DTS package from Visual Basic.   Read more...

How do you easily copy DTS packages from one server to another? DTS, BCP, T-SQL? Are there advantages to using one method over another? Andy did some research - read the article and see what works and what doesn't!   Read more...

Article number four in this popular series continues exposing Worst Practices! This week Andy continues his tirade by talking about why case sensitive databases should be BANNED from the planet. Is he right or just OUT OF CONTROL? Read the article and join the discussion - your comment may lead to an article, that's what generated this one!   Read more...

This article is about migrating Pocket PC applications that are written in eMbedded Visual Basic to the .NET Compact Framework. The migration includes a change from using ADO CE for accessing data in a Pocket Access database to using ADO.NET for accessing data in SQL Server CE. The sample code is supplied in both Visual Basic and C#.  Read more...

This article will quickly dive head first right into XML.   Read more...

Mindy explores the metadata stored in SQL 2000 to show you how to produce a simple and useful data dictionary!   Read more...

Andy starts a new series about Worst Practices - come find out why and read about the first one on his list - using Hungarian Notation for column names!   Read more...

Need to apply changes to customer (or internal) databases in a calm, controlled manner? Dinish proposes an alterative to standard scripts that uses XML and a small VB app.   Read more...

So you've created a SQL Server package and now you're ready to integrate it into your Visual Basic application? In this series, Brian Knight will show you how to use the DTS object model to execute a DTS package from Visual Basic.   Read more...

This article will quickly dive head first right into XML.   Read more...

DTS logging is a pretty handy feature - if you've got it enabled. Got lots of packages and want to turn it on for all of them? Thats a lot of point and click using EM, but with the code Haidong has put together, it's a snap. Other possibilities to this code as well. After all, it uses a DTS package to modify other DTS packages.   Read more...

Andy returns to the Worst Practice series this week with a short article looking at how connection strings in applications affect what you see in sysprocesses. Perhaps less controversial (in our opinion) that some of the other worst practices, this is something easy to fix and definitely worth fixing! Read the article and post a comment - explore other points of view! Readers posting a comment will be entered in a drawing for a copy of the SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit.   Read more...

Freeware! This add-in gives you some great extra features when working in VB6. It has a tab index setter, options to add a chunk of error handling code, a simple code analyzer that gives you some metrics, and my favorite - an option to identify unused code and variables. If you're still using VB6 it's worth trying.   Read more...

Andy has been busy lately on a project you'll be hearing more about soon (!), but he did manage to get part four of his managing jobs series done. This article discusses ideas for patterns to follow when building jobs, including writing to the console, setting errorlevels, and how to get them installed on the server. DBA's, if you're not developers, look at this article - this is stuff you can take to your development team and get better/more manageable jobs.   Read more...

If you're a VB.NET programmer who wants to learn database programming with ADO.NET, here's a new book that presents all the skills you need in a logical progression from the simple to the complex. Along the way, you'll learn how to use the classes, properties, methods, events, and techniques that have made this subject so hard to master. And when you're done, you'll have a reference that you'll use on the job every day. (Publisher Provided Description, not reviewed)   Read more...

This week Andy looks at where, when, and how jobs should be run and why you need to think about those items before you build the job. Part of this is deciding what runs on production servers and what doesn't.   Read more...

The first part of this series provides a road map for a very cool application using an under-utilized companion of the SQL Server 2000 database platform.   Read more...

The challenge for Robert Marda was to devise a way to keep the data available at all times while importing the new data, detect if a full or daily update was received and run appropriate data pumps, put in sufficient fail safes to ensure bad data would not get imported, and to make the process automatic including notification to pagers upon failure. Robert shows you how he did it here.   Read more...

This article is about migrating Pocket PC applications that are written in eMbedded Visual Basic to the .NET Compact Framework. The migration includes a change from using ADO CE for accessing data in a Pocket Access database to using ADO.NET for accessing data in SQL Server CE. The sample code is supplied in both Visual Basic and C#.  Read more...

DTS logging is a pretty handy feature - if you've got it enabled. Got lots of packages and want to turn it on for all of them? Thats a lot of point and click using EM, but with the code Haidong has put together, it's a snap. Other possibilities to this code as well. After all, it uses a DTS package to modify other DTS packages.   Read more...

This article will quickly dive head first right into XML.   Read more...