GeekPost Weekly Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 9

Geek Post

Volume 1 Issue 9

Friday 1 December 2009

Hippolite Musings

I had a good week:

• Delivered a large project to PROD, just before Brown-Out was applied;
• Did two more practice tests.  Four down, only two more to go;
• Mastered Killer Sudoku;
• Mastered activating a Web Service from Agent Job (see below);
• Mastered activating a SFTP upload from Stored Proc (see next week);

Blessings,
James

Developer News

This was not as simple as you might hope:

• The Agent Job consists of a single step of:
  • Type: SQL Server Integration Services Package
  • Run as: SQL Server Agent Service Account
  • Package source: File system
  • Package: (fully qualified local path on PROD DB server) e.g. D:\pathname\Package.dtsx
• The SSIS package:
  • Can only be edited via the DEV or TEST servers because they've got SQL Server 2005 installed + BIDS.  PROD doesn't have BIDS.  My local doesn't have 2005, only SQL Server 2008, which tries to auto-convert it, and would thus render it useless on PROD.
  • Is password protected
  • Contains one Connection Manager and two Control Flow items, one of which is the Web Service Task
• The Web Service Task
  • You must double-click the Web Service Task to get to the Web Service Task Editor
  • On the General tab, you specify:
    • HttpConnection: HTTP Connection Manager
    • WsdlFile: (FQDN to the Web Service Definition file on the PROD IIS server) e.g. \\servername\d$\path\service.wsdl
  • On the Input tab, you specify:
    • Service: The Service Name
    • Method: The Method Name
• The WsdlFile can be generated automatically (via the Download WSDL button) or manually (via the WebService.asmx?WSDL command) but must be moved to the appropriate position (on the PROD IIS server).

That's all there is to it!

Telecom News

Hello JamesHip

I writing with an update in our plans for the GeekZone FreeView Pizza evening events. We have thing pretty much in good shape now, with two main sponsors - FreeView and Telecom New Zealand.

Freeview is sponsoring the pizza in all three events, while Telecom New Zealand is sponsoring drinks in all three events. Telecom New Zealand is also providing six XT mobile handsets as prizes, two per event.

We have closed on dates and venues - except we are still waiting to confirm the venue for AKL but it should be done this week.

We also have confirmed other sponsors - please visit the discussion http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=4&topicid=51624 to check updated information regarding spot prizes - some good ones to be won!

Good news for people wanting to attend events in other cities: Air New Zealand will give us tickets to fly three winners, one to each destination (AKL/CHC/WLG). So if you want to attend more than one event, or if you don't live in one of the three cities, enter to win those! Enter to win the tickets here http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=8599.

Mauricio Freitas
www.geekzone.co.nz

Product News

Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 2 Best Practices Analyzer is part of the Team Foundation Server PowerTools 2010 Beta 2 for validating a Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 2 deployment.

The Windows API Code Pack for Microsoft .NET Framework provides a source code library that can be used to access some features of Windows 7 that are not available to developers today in the .NET Framework. Download the Windows Azure Software Development Kit

Windows Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Windows Azure platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand computation and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft data centres. Download SDL for Agile

Included as part of the SDL 4.1a Process Guidance, SDL-Agile is a streamlined process that melds Agile methods and security. SDL-Agile will allow development teams to innovate and react quickly to changing customer needs while developing more secure software.

Partner News

A few of the business benefits these solutions can assist in driving include: improved financial performance, more efficient business processes, better compliance and accuracy in reporting giving you the ability and agility to make the right decisions. What's more they work with and like other Microsoft software you're already familiar with - speeding up adoption and increasing usage amongst your team.

To get an overview of the benefits and to see a demo take a look here. Full Details:

For any questions or for more information please contact either Stewart Gibbs stewartg@microsoft.com or Guy Orridge guyor@microsoft.com, respectively to discuss.

Situations Vacant

The times are changing and so too is the way we manage our data across Telecom's business units. Be integral in moving away from a vertically focused model as you help set the direction for an end-to-end plan across all our products, services, resources and other data domains.  Bring fresh ideas that will enable a next generation Telecom to flourish.  Be the authority on data architecture as you set policies, develop architectural principles, define data logic and build the frameworks needed.

Support Data Architecture planning that will achieve business and transformation objectives and ensure the transition to future-state is robust.  Provide and maintain a framework that is aligned to international standards. Develop a data roadmap that has a mid to long term view and provides guidance on how to evolve and optimise data dimensions that achieve effective enterprise change.  With ownership of specific data domains, you'll keep everyone informed and keep delivery expectations realistic and achievable.

With an extensive background in data design and modelling for a large complex environment you're an expert in data architecture and industry standards such as TMF NGOSS, eTOM & SID.  You're able to navigate comfortably between business and technical audiences, have influential relationships where your recommendations are sought to resolve issues and provide guidance on how to apply technology principles to the benefit of the business.     

This position can be based in either Auckland or Wellington. Join the Group Technology & Transformation Office (GTTO) team that develops and executes complete transformation strategy and plans.  They provide Transformation, Technology Strategy and Architecture leadership for Telecom.  They are a team of passionate professionals that appreciate the strengths of each other. 

Steer the direction of your Career forward. Apply Today

Training News

December 9, 2009, 10:00 A.M. Pacific Time
In this webcast, we demonstrate the new editor by examining a series of common scenarios that showcase what you can do with editor extensions. Channel 9 Video: Explore the New Features in Silverlight 4

See what's new and walk through some of the highly anticipated new features, including printing, webcam and microphone support, custom right-click, rich text, and access to local files with trusted applications. SharePoint 2010 Ignite for Developers

SharePoint 2010 provides the business collaboration platform to rapidly build solutions and respond to business needs. The training will show partners how to build custom applications with SharePoint 2010. (See details below in Events section)

Trainer News

Score: 30/44 = 68%

For Further Study:

1. How to: Insert Rows Into the Database (LINQ to SQL)
2. How to: Resolve Concurrency Conflicts by Overwriting Database Values (LINQ to SQL)
3. How to: Validate Data During Column Changes
4. Local Transactions (ADO.NET)
5. Updating Data Sources with DataAdapters (ADO.NET)
6. Distributed Transactions (ADO.NET)
7. Handling DataAdapter Events (ADO.NET)
8. Generating Commands with CommandBuilders (ADO.NET)
9. ForeignKeyConstraint Class
10. Implementing an Implicit Transaction using Transaction Scope

Score: 21/30 = 70%

For Further Study:

1. @ OutputCache
2. How to: Handle Data Conflicts and Errors
3. How to: Filter Rows and Columns
4. How to: Create Views of Data on a Client
5. Query Notifications in ADO.NET 2.0
6. Walkthrough: Adding a Local Database Cache to an N-Tier Application
7. Architecture and Classes and Server Synchronization

PASS News

By Andy Warren

Today we're pleased to feature the first issue of the newly re-launched SQL Server Standard magazine. Those of you who have been PASS members for a while will remember that the Standard served as our flagship magazine for many years until we had to halt production due to rising print costs. It's taken a while to get going again, but we're now offering it again in a much streamlined PDF format - for free to our members!

I wrote in greater detail about the history and vision for the Standard in my blog, but the short story is that it should be a place for our members to showcase their skills and provide value to our members. 

By Thomas LaRock

Imagine you are developing an application. You spend a few hours putting together some pages into a Web application, and now you want to verify that the data is getting inserted and updated correctly. You enter some data, click the Submit button, and go to the database to confirm that the data is there. Only it isn't there, at least not your data.

You then spend the next few hours debugging your code. You step through every line imaginable. You call home so your kids can hear the sound of your voice because you know they will be in bed if and when you should ever get home. And then, out of nowhere, you get an idea. Could a trigger be changing the data? Sure enough, you find that a trigger has indeed been at work all along, and your code is working as expected. You're just not seeing the expected results.

...Why no love for these seemingly benign and inanimate pieces of a database design? Because they're typically built in so that you don't even know they're there. And that results in a waste of time when trying to troubleshoot application code, for example, and I hate wasting time.

Events Schedule

In this section, I highlight dates, times and venues of events either I am presenting at, or of interest to METTLE.  I'm available for bookings.

Humour

The bartender says, "We don't serve your type here."

So they called the serif.