The April CTP is Here and No Beta 3

SQL Server 2005 is on everyone's mind, especially with SQL Server 2000 almost 5 years old. On Monday, April 18, Microsoft made an announcement that the April CTP was available, but there would be no Beta 3. Read Steve Jones take on this announcement as well as a few more details.

BDS SQL Digger 2 Released

Have you ever needed to find something in a stored procedure or function and found yourself trying to wade through syscomments? Ever want to know which views reference a table, but you don't trust sysdepends? BDS has released SQL Digger 2.0, a utility designed to help you search through your schema and code to find what you need.

Obtaining Query Execution Plans Through SQL Profiler Traces

Did you know that you can obtain the execution plans for your SQL Server 2000 queries using Profiler? It is an interesting concept, especially when you need to troubleshoot the queries on a system that you did not develop and cannot obtain source code for. SQL Server guru andy Dyess brings us the technique you can use to find those queries and execution plans.

Using Ranking and Windowing Functions in SQL Server 2005

SQL Server 2005 is chock full of new features. You may have heard that you can write stored procedures in a CLR language like C# or VB .NET, but TSQL is here to stay. One new great feature adds the functionality of a Ranking expression that can be added to your result set that is based on a ranking algorithm being applied to a column that you specify. This will come in handy in .NET applications for paging and sorting in a grid as well as many other scenarios. We are going to take a look at the Ranking functions new to SQL Server 2005 using the new AdventureWorks database on the February 2005 Community Tech Preview.

Maintained by man and dog

As the online news service called NewsScape moves into its sixth year, it exhibits a lot of the characteristics of a child at the same age: It has a huge appetite for information, grows by leaps and bounds each year, and makes those who oversee it wonder if they can maintain control as it gets bigger. It is maintained by "a man and a dog – an aging golden retriever named Sambucus," according to the man, Andrew Clarke.

SQL Server 2000 Backup and Restore

This paper discusses the types of backups that are available in SQL Server 2000 and how backup functionality can be used in a disaster recovery plan. It includes general recommendations on how to improve backup and restore throughput and several case scenarios.

A Guide to SQL Server 2000 Transactional and Snapshot Replication

Two MVPs at one shot in this one. SQL Server MVP Hilary Cotter has written a book on replication, one of the very few there are on this topic. And it's presented as a review by MVP Adam Mechanic, a regular visitor to SQLServerCentral.com. If you're looking for replication help, check out this book.

Extending Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services with Custom Cod

This article presents an excerpt from the book, Microsoft Reporting Services in Action, by Teodor Lachev. Learn how to implement advanced report functionality using custom code.

Importing The Latest File In A Folder Via DTS

Using the Dynamic Properties Task in SQL Server 2000 DTS is a great way to build a flexible package that can handle a variety of situations. Things are much improved in SQL Server 2005 Integration Services, but many of you will need to solve a common problem until you can upgrade. New author David Jackson brings us a technique for finding and processing the latest file in a folder.

Deliver User-Friendly Reports from Your Application with SQL Server Re

Flexible reporting capabilities are a requirement for most business applications and their integration into Web apps makes them more versatile than ever. With the recent release of SQL Server™ 2000 Reporting Services, you can easily add reporting from diverse data sources. In this article I will introduce report authoring using Visual Studio® and Reporting Services and demonstrate how to integrate reports into your Web applications.

Reporting Services is a server-based reporting platform that is built on the .NET Framework and integrated with SQL Server 2000, so you can integrate rich reporting features into your apps using an extensive Web services-based API. Although the report server uses SQL Server as the repository for reports, any data source with an OLE DB, ODBC, or ADO.NET provider can be used to supply data to the reports, making Reporting Services a great choice for reporting in diverse enterprise environments.