I’ve previously blogged about how I was going to detail how I build and deploy my Microsoft BI projects and to be honest, I’ve been putting it off. The main reason is my work has been looking at Visual Studio Team Services, formally Visual Studio Online and I was looking at using the Build functionality that is included. This should make the whole setup process a lot easier for anyone else trying to replicate my setup....
Anyone working with SQL Server will be well aware of the mountains of training material, blog posts, videos, code snippets, events and other helpful resources that helps anyone who comes into contact SQL Server regardless if they are a beginner or a seasoned veteran (even MVPs!). One of the pools of knowledge is SQL PASS. is an independent, not-for-profit organization run by and for the community. With a growing membership of more than 100K, PASS supports data professionals throughout the world who use the Microsoft data platform....
Today, my pull request for the SSAS deployment script was merged into the Octopus Deploy Community Library. So what is Octopus Deploy and why should I care? Octopus is a friendly deployment automation tool for .NET developers. But don’t be fooled. Octopus Deploy isn’t just limited to .NET developers deploying hip new cloud based applications, it can do much, much more. I currently use Octopus to deploy Jasper reports to our 6 HR environments, I also use it to deploy our HR interfaces which are a series of SSIS packages and SQL objects which uses Microsoft SQL Server 2008....
Todays problem was brought to you by a highly customizable system with poor user validation and a user who doesn’t know the difference between data and formatting. First the system. The supplier has created a highly user customizable system, they can for example create a web form with zero coding – 100% user config. The problem is, technically, it creates a mess. So your nice new form with a number of questions stores all its answers in a single table with the data going into a nvarchar(max) column – which is fine for free-text columns, but not so good for integer fields....
On Friday, I had a problem raised, they want to change one of the automatic rename jobs which renames and moves export files to a shared drive. Lucky, I had created a SSIS package, which was a SQL Job that runs on a scheduled every 15 mins, which uses a script task to perform the logic. Because we also used OctopusDeploy, this really was going to be a 5 min change....
For a while now I’ve been going to the Cambridgeshire SQL Server User Group, which I have found really useful especially as we are at moving towards a more self-service model across IT which requires IT to be a bit more cleverer. Beyond the informative speaker talks you get a really good networking opportunity. The group is run by Mark Broadbent (@retracement) and has recently merged with SharePoint Saturday Cambridge. Although Cambridge is about the same time on the train as London....
I’ve spent a while today trying to change the text direction (orientation) of a header on a SSRS report – the option was rather oddly placed in Visual Studio – the option is within the properties (for the text) Localization > Writing Mode > then change from Default to either Rotate270 or Vertical. I was hoping it would be within the Font options. Guess that would be too easy 😉
Todays problem, missing the reporting data toolbox in Visual Studio 2013 – once again, a different menu options. Open the actual report (.rdl) View > Report Data Alternatively press Ctrl + Alt + D
Stupidly today, I accidently closed the SSIS toolbox. After a bit of unsuccessful searching in the Visual Studio menus, I gave up and done the IT norm and Google it – hoping I wouldn’t have to reinstall. Luckily I found James Serra had already blogged about it, the only difference is Microsoft has changed the icon, its still in the same place at least So when is a Visual Studio Toolbox, not a Toolbox?...
One really annoying bug in SSIS when using Visual Studio 2013 / SQL Server 2014 is the object jumping, so when you drag an object like a sequence container down the object shoots to the bottom. Thankfully the fix is simple. Close Visual Studio and apply SQL Server 2014 SP1 to your machine.
One of the problems we have is documentation and how to keep it up-to-date. We tend to deliver a new batch of reports as part of a CR (Change Request) then make changes as part of BAU (Business as usual) unless its a particularly complex or time consuming change. The problem is often BAU changes happen rapidly often within a short time frame and time isn’t always allocated to updating documentation....
I’ve been working on SQL Server 2014 lately and one of the annoying problems I’ve stumbled across using SSMS is that F5 no longer means execute the SQL query, it now means Debug. Which brings up an annoying popup (least for me) about configuring my Windows Firewall. This can be changed in SSMS by going Tools > Customize… > Keyboard… The default is: Debug.Start (F5 (Global)) And the traditional is:...
So in my last blog post I asked, are you ready for IPv6? The post came about when I was looking at Schools MIS data, which Graham, Joshua and myself have being look at to see who are the big movers and shakers in the Schools administration software (MIS) arena. Data is collected by what software suppliers a school uses to submit the School Census (in England) which is requested under the Freedom of Information (FOI) from Department of Education(DfE) (saving having to FOI every individual school)....
Well my day is finally coming to an end, my bed is calling me after a long day. If I had thought about it more I would have packed a few cans of Pepsi Max and probability took a half day at work, as it was I spent my lunch break by coming home and taking my son to the park*, then heading off to Cambridge after work for mine and my colleagues first Cambridgeshire SQL Server User Group....
Another little gem, clearing out those pesky recent projects from your menu on Visual Studio 2012. Fire up RegEdit and navigate to: Files: HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Visual Studio\11.0\FileMRUList\ Proj: HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Visual Studio\11.0\ProjectMRUList\ Usual disclaimer http://nathondalton.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/clear-visual-studio-recent-project-and-files/
I’ve created a new SQL user along with a new role in our warehouse db project using Visual Studio 2012. CREATE LOGIN [newuser] WITHPASSWORD=’{{ RANDOM PASSWORD }}’,DEFAULT_DATABASE=[Database] GO CREATE USER [newuser] FORLOGIN [newuser] WITHDEFAULT_SCHEMA=[dbo] GO ALTER ROLE [newrole] ADD MEMBER [newuser] GO Problem is, the user is disabled. When you do it manually via SQL Management Studio, it’s enabled and working. Manually enabling the account doesn’t allow it connect either. A quick Google revealed:...
In my day job I’ve been looking at SQL Server 2012 recently (I know SQL Server 2014 out before you say anything!), I’ve had a developer license for a while but unfortunately other priorities have been consuming my time and I’ve only managed to get a dev server build, SQL 2012 installed and not much else up till a few days ago. Our current Business Intelligence platform is using SQL Server 2008 (not R2) for the database backend and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) BIDS for the ETL....