Using Source Control to Develop Smarter

Veteran and novice developers alike need source control management (SCM). Also known as asset management, and source code management, SCM helps you (and your team) manage development projects, and the components and code that make up the project.

There are many benefits to using source control management, most notably the ability to develop code faster, smarter and more accurately. Source control management tools help you control your code; especially in multiple developer projects.

SQLH2: The Free Health, History and Performance Monitoring Tool

One of the strengths and powers of the SQL Server platform over others is the shear number of things that are available free from Microsoft besides the relational platform. DTS, Reporting Services, SQLAgent, and more are included with the product. One of the newer utilities is SQLH2, a performance monitoring tool that is reviewed here by Kathi Kellenberger.

The Trustworthy Computing Security Development Lifecycle

This paper discusses the Trustworthy Computing Security Development Lifecycle (or SDL), a process that Microsoft has adopted for the development of software that needs to withstand malicious attack. The process encompasses the addition of a series of security-focused activities and deliverables to each of the phases of Microsoft's software development process. These activities and deliverables include the development of threat models during software design, the use of static analysis code-scanning tools during implementation, and the conduct of code reviews and security testing during a focused "security push". Before software subject to the SDL can be released, it must undergo a Final Security Review by a team independent from its development group. When compared to software that has not been subject to the SDL, software that has undergone the SDL has experienced a significantly reduced rate of external discovery of security vulnerabilities. This paper describes the SDL and discusses experience with its implementation across Microsoft software.

All about the 'Case'

When installing SQL Server, regardless of versions and editions, SQL Server database administrators tend to choose the default collation and sort-order, which is SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. Though case insensitiveness makes the life of the database developers and database administrator's easy, there are situations where case sensitivity should be enforced just as password checking is enforced.

In this article, I would like to discuss different methods for achieving case sensitivity in a case insensitive database/server.

Automating DTS Execution

Database Transformation Services (DTS) in SQL Server 200 was a breakthrough tool, really paving the way for a low-cost, easy to use, ETL tool. However, it was not a true robust programming environment and contains quite a few quirks that are apparent as you get into more detailed packages. New author Gus Carnu addresses one of those issues with a look at the ExecutePackage task.

Customizing SQL Server Reporting Services with .NET Code

With the release of Reporting Services, Microsoft has provided a truly enterprise-level reporting solution. Reporting Services provides support for the entire reporting life cycle including report authoring, report management, and report delivery

An Identity Crisis

SQL Server includes autonumber of identity columns despite the fact that they are not SQL-92 compliant. There is quite a bit of debate over the use of them in your database, but if you do decide to use them, you should be aware of potential problems. New author Troy Ketsdever brings us a story about his identity crisis and how it was solved.

SQL Server 2005 Security - Part 4

In this article, we will conclude our coverage of security related changes in SQL Server 2005 Beta 2 (although we will continue discussion of improvements in other functionality areas throughout the reminder of this series). The topics we will focus on here are code and module signing, modifications of SQL Server Agent and SQL Profiler operations, as well as monitoring and auditing changes.

Migration to Production

SQL Server is an easy to use product in many ways, much better than the other major RDBMSs out there. However it's source control and ease of moving changes from development to production needs some work. Having a solid process is as important as good tools and new author Grant Fritchey brings us his proven method for moving changes through QA into production.

Creating a User Defined Aggregate with SQL Server 2005

SQL Server doesn't have a Product aggregate function. A recent blog post by Karen Watterson pointed out that Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q89656: Simulating a PRODUCT() Aggregate Function discusses how to achieve the Product aggregate functionality using the POWER function. We e-mailed about it and she challenged me to create a Product aggregate in SQL Server 2005. I decided to accept the challenge.