beyondrelational.com

Technology Is No Longer the Analysis Bottleneck for Business Users

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

The business computing always occurs in enterprises, which plays an important role in enterprises operations, and mainly handled by the business users. The key business computing is usually characterized with timeliness and weak predication. There is no ready answer in the ERP, CRM, and other business systems. For example, find out the materials whose inventory level is below the warning limit for 3 consecutive days in the recent 2 weeks. Among those materials, which are used to produce the top 5 Halloween best-sellers? In another example, find out the agents contributing to the 60% of the total sales. Assign those agents in proper order to the salespersons whose performances rank ahead of others in the year-end sales promotion.

Most business users have no IT experience. They can only rely on the business spreadsheet software to complete such computing. However, the traditional business spreadsheet software is weak in calculation, which will bring about errors in the calculation process.

Considering the above examples, you must filter or sort the summary values and detail values. But, the traditional business spreadsheet software is only fit for the 2D sheet computing, and lacks the further processing capability on the grouped data. The manual operations are usually required to implement computing with such spreadsheet and the process is error-prone.

In order to solve the above problems, the set operation capability to some degree is also required. But the business spreadsheet software has no concept of sets, and no business association between cells is available. The set operation can only be handled via the complicated search & find formula, which adds to the computing difficulty virtually, and thus a higher technical competence is required.

In this case, the sheets from multiple data sources need to be merged. But in the traditional business spreadsheet software, users can only copy the data, and is unable to merge the data at various levels or in the uncertain orders according to a certain relation. This is usually achieved through manual operation or complex formula.

esCalc, the desktop BI software, introduces the concept of “homocell”. It is the ideal spreadsheet to solve the above-mentioned problems. The core concept of esCalc is to treat the cells of various business statuses differently, and treat the cell of the same business status uniformly. In esCalc, filtering the summary value will not affect the detail data. The formula entered in the detail data section will be copied and pasted to other homocells automatically, while not the summary section. The homocell relationship between cells ensure both of them being in a same set, so users can seek the intersection set and union set conveniently; Multiple sheets can be merged through the join or union operation according to the homocell relation, even for the data at various levels and in the uncertain orders.

Visual Studio 2008 Report RDL line object on top of a chart not appearing outside of development

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I have some line objects where i base their visibility on a date. These lines are placed on top of a chart (line graph) object. The lines appear and disappear exactly as I want them to when I am in development. When I deploy the RDL the lines are hidden behind the graph, so they aren't appearing. I tried changing the zindex in the xml, tried putting the lines in another rectangle and trying to make that rectangle be the highest layer by giving it a high zindex. Nothing is working. Is it possible to place a line object directly over a chart area so it won't be hidden? I am confused why it works in development but not when deployed. Thanks for any help on this.

#0264 - SQL Server - How to check if a database belongs to your product?

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

One question that I often face from teams is:

Given a set of SQL server databases, how do we identify that a given database belong to our product?

There are various mechanisms that can be used, depending upon how the underlying database design is. I have two mechanisms that I use frequently.

Check for the existance of a particular table (a table that stores your product version or some table which holds product-specific static data)

Many database designs (especially those derived from legacy systems) are such that all tables have a column that is used for various generic purposes (to indicate whether a particular record was modified as part of a data clean-up, or a GUID column to facilitate replication, etc)

In such database designs, one can check if all tables have the particular column. Pseudo-code to achieve this check efficiently is shown below:

USE AdventureWorks2008R2 ;
GO
IF NOT EXISTS ( SELECT  st.*
                FROM    sys.tables AS st
                        LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.columns AS sc ON st.object_id = sc.object_id
                                                             AND sc.name  = 'BusinessEntityId'
                WHERE   st.type = 'U'
                        AND st.object_id IS NOT NULL
                        AND sc.object_id IS NULL ) 
    BEGIN
        PRINT 'All tables contain the column - BusinessEntityId.' ;
    END
ELSE 
    BEGIN
        PRINT 'Some or all tables do not contain the column - BusinessEntityId.' ;
    END
GO

The benefit of the above query is that it queries the meta-data and is therefore faster than a custom iterative mechanism

I trust this post was helpful. I would also like to know what is the method you use for detecting your product database?

Until we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.

Getting Started with Windows Azure - Part 8: Deploy ASP.NET MVC application to the Windows Azure Cloud using Visual Studio 2012

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

**Introduction:** In this article, we are going to see how to deploy as ASP.NET MVC application to the Windows Azure Cloud services from Visual Studio 2012 IDE. In our earlier article we have seen how to analyze and capture a Virtual Machine Image and store it to the Cloud VHD. ASP.NET MVC 3 gives a powerful, patterns and framework based way to build dynamic websites that enables a clean separation of data and the views and that gives you full control over markup for enjoyable, agile development. ASP.NET MVC includes many features that enable fast, Test driven Development friendly development for creating sophisticated applications that use the latest web standards. ASP.NET MVC on windows Azure provides a greatest support with the web roles that are available to make the development much easier and quicker. Let us see the step-by-step process on how to develop an application and deploy the application directly to the Windows Azure Cloud Services. **Steps:** Open Visual Studio 2012 IDE in administrator mode and create a new Windows Azure Cloud Project by Clicking on New Project and selecting Cloud template tab as shown in the screen below. Note to open the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) in administrator mode as Microsoft Windows Azure projects need to take some control over the emulators, which needs the administrator privileges. ![new project][1] Clicking on OK and proceeding to the next step, we can see a window with the list of available roles that can be used across different programming languages. Since in our example we are going to see how to develop an ASP.NET MVC3 app that will be deployed to the Microsoft Azure website, select the ASP.NET MVC3 web role and move it to the Windows Azure Cloud Services Solution to proceed to the next step as shown in the screen below: ![Windows Azure Cloud Services Solution][2] We can see a new windows which the list of options that are required to configure the application, here we can select the application is going to be an Empty app, Intranet App or an Internet App. Since we are going to make it available over the internet we will select the application as Internet application and click on OK as shown in the screen below. If we need to create a unit test we can select the option that is available as a checkbox in the same screen. ![project template][3] We can see the application project is created and the list of files will be loaded to the solution explorer. Now we will make some small changes in the application to showcase the application that is designed for this sample. So make changes in the views and build the application to view it locally as shown in the screen below: ![changes in view][4] Now our next step is to start packaging and upload the application to the Windows Azure cloud services, to start with first right click on the application project and select the option Package. First we will package the application and upload the package to the Windows Azure Cloud Services using the available tools. Normally on creating a package, we will get two files namely a configuration file and a package file as shown in the screen below: ![package][5] Clicking on Package option will get a small popup asking for the package configuration options like selecting the mode of the build configuration and the type of the service configuration to select based on our requirement as shown in the screen below: ![package configuration][6] After selecting the appropriate option click on Package will start preparing the package (Service and Configuration files), we can see the status of the package preparation at the output window of the Visual Studio 2012 IDE. After successful creation of the package we can see a folder will be opened with the 2 files created for the application. Basically the folder will be created in the bin folder of the application project under the build option mode; here we selected the Release version so the package files will be created in the Release folder as shown in the screen below: ![Release folder][7] Now we can see the package is ready to use, our next step is to publish the package to the Microsoft Windows Azure Environment. To start with login to the portal using the link [www.windowsazure.com][8]. On successful login select the option New Windows Azure Cloud Services as shown in the screen below. In the Windows Azure Cloud Services provide the valid Service name and select the appropriate region name and subscription to start creating the environment. ![valid service name][9] Now we can see the services are created and clicking on the service name, we can see the option to start uploading the package. Click on the upload production package will open windows where we need to enter the deployment package name and select the appropriate package (i.e. the package file and the service configuration file) as shown in the screen below: ![upload a package][10] Once all the files are selected click on proceed to process further, we can see the upload starts and it will take some time to provision based on the size of the package we deploy. Once the package is uploaded successful, we can see the environment ready and accessible as shown in the screen below: ![environment ready][11] To access the application navigate to the URL [http://f5debugbrmvc.cloudapp.net/][12] and we can see our application online which is hosted on the Windows Azure Cloud environment. The URL can be fetched from the Dashboard of the application, which we uploaded as shown in the screen below: ![URL][13] **Conclusion:** Therefore, in this article we have seen how to upload an ASP.NET MVC application, which is designed and developed in Visual Studio 2012 IDE with the help of inbuilt packaging tools for Windows Azure. [1]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=f313d4690c544bd191d7bf2b4e6065fd&w=628&h=0 [2]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=46a5c0634ae34f0b8b99a64ac76a7470&w=628&h=0 [3]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=0d282ad99cc74ed3944d3a0fa09a563b&w=628&h=0 [4]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=e8288e1f858b468b9bbec02d4d9ba700&w=628&h=0 [5]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=6e8982c13f224ad7a337ba26520b2aae&w=628&h=0 [6]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=0c930427d7c94602868a2137874464e1&w=628&h=0 [7]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=06955dd788a54a59b4616a335daaad34&w=628&h=0 [8]: www.windowsazure.com [9]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=c62dc677659e4459a75a1a3781c655a0&w=628&h=0 [10]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=6cb96dc62f9d4862a75f027c350f2ebd&w=628&h=0 [11]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=51cf80d9e0174c60b7f09e17a27e8b85&w=628&h=0 [12]: http://f5debugbrmvc.cloudapp.net/ [13]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=8af00f66fbcc4e70a7ed07a17a74a418&w=628&h=0

Ehh, What’s up, SqlJason?

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:30:00 GMT

It’s been more than a month since the last post and you might be wondering – what’s up with SqlJason? Well, let me tell you that the last one month has been really busy and I thought of filling you guys in with some of the juicy stuff that’s been happening!

1) Speaking Events
Last year April was when I started my first speaking assignment in the USA and it was great to have so many different opportunities to present last year. This year April also turned out to be the starting month for my presentations, and I can’t believe that I already presented at five different places this month.

The PASS BA Conference was the first stop, and this was my first experiencing presenting in a big stage. Looks like it went good from the session evaluations (got a 4.6, my session ranks in the top 15 out of the 60+ sessions in the conference)

The attendance was also pretty decent, managed to pull in 98 people which is the highest I have ever got in any of my sessions.

I had lots of fun with my #sqlfamily and also got to meet a lot of new people. Overall, a very fun experience and I am definitely going to attend PASS BA Conference next year. Next stop was SQL Saturday Chicago and this was just the next day after PASS BA Con. After all the partying and the awesome speaker dinner at the previous night, speaking was always going to be difficult task but luckily, everything including the demos went fine. I also got to see some great sessions by Mark V & Doug Lane, Julie Koesmarno, Leonard Murphy. In short, another great experience and a very well organized event. Next on the list was SQL Saturday Jacksonville which took place 2 weeks after the Chicago event. The Jacksonville event was one of my favourites from last year and it turned out to be even better this year as it was the first time all four of us CBIG buddies (me, Javier, Melissa and Rafael) got selected to speak at the same event. And I must say Jacksonville didn’t disappoint me, great crowd as usual and highly interactive (and very generous with the session evals too hehe). A couple of days later, I started off for my first user group speaking event of the year – Triad SQL BI User Group at Winston Salem. A big thanks to the user group leaders (Katherine Fraser and Doug Purnell) for giving me the opportunity, really enjoyed interacting with the user group members there. The next speaking event was the Carolina Code Camp 2013 which was in Charlotte itself (finally a home event! ). Unlike the other four events, the majority of the attendees was from a non-SQL Server background. So it was fun speaking to a different profile of attendees and I must say that this was one of those sessions where the attendees laughed at all of my jokes (either they got all of my jokes or were being REALLY nice with me ).

I remember someone saying that event speaking is really addictive, I couldn’t agree more! Just to prove that, I have 2 more events coming up in the next week:-

a) SQL Saturday Atlanta – I will be speaking on the topic “GeoSpatial Analytics using Microsoft BI” at 1 pm, this weekend. This is going to be another really great event with registrations hitting record levels for a SQL Saturday (800+ including waiting list). If you are coming for the event, definitely drop by and introduce yourself, I would love to meet you.

b) Mariner Webinar – If you are not able to attend my session at SQL Saturday Atlanta, don’t worry. I am doing the same session (“GeoSpatial Analytics using Microsoft BI”) as a Webinar for my company - Mariner on May 21, 2013 12:00 PM-01:00 PM Eastern. You can register for this FREE event by clicking on this link - Click to Register

2) CBIG Updates

As some of you recall, me and three others (Javier, Melissa and Rafael) started a new BI user group this year in Charlotte – CBIG. We are having a great run with attendees steadily increasing from 35 in the first meeting to 50+ in the last meeting (65 being the highest as of now). Even though five meetings are too early to call the user group a success, the popularity of CBIG is evident from the 87 registrations (including waiting list) we received in our fifth meeting (where our seating capacity is only 60). We had already moved from the initial meeting room after our second meeting (where our seating capacity was 30) and now, due to the increasing number of registrations, we are moving our venue from New Horizons to the Microsoft Campus (which has a seating capacity of 85) in July. That said, the numbers are secondary. The primary aim for us is to cultivate a culture in CBIG which mainly revolves around the community spirit as well as a passion for technology. If you are in or around Charlotte, don’t miss out on our user group meetings on the first Tuesdays of every month. We have got meetings lined up till September as of now and the RSVP links can be found at http://charbigroup.com/. Also, don’t hesitate to contact me if you want to speak at our user group, we are always looking for speakers!

3) SQL Saturday Charlotte – BI Edition Announced

And yes, we have also announced the date for SQL Saturday Charlotte – BI Edition. The event will take place on Saturday, October 19, 2013 (which happens to be the Saturday after the PASS Summit 2013, which also is in Charlotte). The planning is going on full steam and we are confident that we will have a great event laid out for all of you guys. Ensure that you register today to extend your PASS Summit 2013 experience.

4) And now the BIG one - Personal Updates

For those of you who know me personally, this might be old news. And for the others, you might recall me saying at the start of the year that I might not match up to my previous year’s activities this year due to personal reasons. Well, the personal reason is given below.

Yups, I am going to be a father to a baby girl this August 12 and I have no shortage of adjectives to describe my condition right now – excited, anxious, nervous, hyperactive, charged and so on. I am looking forward to those sleepless nights and all the other joys that come with parenthood. For the moment, I am going to stop writing and enjoy a good night’s sleep when I can.

SSIS Execute Process Task

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Hi... I am getting an error while using Execute Process Task, The senario is that i have an application called RG, where the CVS file had to upload to get the download with certain codes attached to it which is required for analysis. My collegue has written a batch file as cd E:\Grouper\Executables\2012_13_LP HRGGrouper -i E:\Grouper\Input\2012_13\AE_Input.csv -o E:\Grouper\Output\2012_13\AE_Output.csv -d E:\Grouper\RDF\2012_13\EM.rdf -l em_v45lp -h which runs fine, but when i try to replicate the same, it gives the error as "The process exit code was "1" while the expected was "0". can you please advise what could be the problem... Thanks

Display style of field based on expression

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Hi ,

I am having difficulties to display color style of field in report based on expression.

input field datatype : bigint

input field value format example : 20120111 (it'sYYYYMMDD)

I need to display this field as "green" id it is greater or equal to date "01/01/2012".i wrote following expression and try other ways but no success.

=IIF(

(

FormatDateTime(

MID(StrConv(Fields!Service_From_Date.Value,vbProperCase),1,4) + "-" +

MID(StrConv(Fields!Service_From_Date.Value,vbProperCase),5,2) + "-" +

MID(StrConv(Fields!Service_From_Date.Value,vbProperCase),7,2),DateFormat.ShortDate)

)

>= (FormatDateTime('2012-01-01', DateFormat.ShortDate)),"Green","Black")

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Pavan Patel

8 important C# Interview questions on IL code, JIT, CLR, CTS, CLS and CAS

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Introduction

This article will revise 6 important c#/.NET interview questions around concepts like IL code, just in time compiler, common type system; common language specification, code access security and common language run time. Now many .NET developers would frown at the article saying this is basic and simple.

But what I have seen is as you climb up the ladder you get engrossed in to projects, production issues, or you start doing too many non-technical activities and you start forgetting fundamentals. It’s not that you do not know, you have just forgotten. And if you are not able to answer questions around these topics how much ever senior you are, it sends a very bad message to the interviewer.

What is IL code?

IL code is a partially compiled code.

Why it is partially compiled and why not full compiled?

When a compiler compiles a code he takes in to consideration things like operating system version, hardware etc and then compiles a optimized code as per those environmental data.

Now let’s say your compiler has compiled an optimized code as per “Windows 98” operating system. Now this code when run on windows server will not probably run in a optimized manner.

So what .NET does it only compiles the code partially. Later when the code runs the compiler kicks off, detects the environment and does a fully optimized code compiler as per that operating system and hardware.

So every time compiling on the fly can lead to performance issues?

Once the code is compiled it’s maintained in cache. So the performance hit is only for the first time when .NET application runs.

Who compiles IL code?

JIT (Just in time compiler) compiles the IL code to a fully compiled format.

Can we see IL code?

Yes, we can see the IL code by using the ILDASM tool.

What is use of CTS?

In .NET there are lots of languages like C#, VB.NET, VF.NET etc. There can be situations when we want code of one language to be called in other language. In order to ensure smooth communication between these languages the most important thing is data type compatibility. CTS (Common types system) ensures that data types defined in two different languages get compiled to a common data type.

So “Integer” data type in VB6 and “int” data type in C++ will be converted to System.int32, which is data type of CTS.

What is the use of CLS ?

CLS is a subset of CTS. CLS is a specification or set of rules or guidelines. When any .NET code adheres to these set of rules it can be consumed by any .NET language.

For instance let’s say you have a c# class which has two variables defined “I” and “i”. In other words one variable is in capital and the other is in small.

Now this is perfectly valid in c# , but if this class is consumed in VB.NET it will go for a toss. Because VB.NET is not case sensitive and will not know which “I /i” variable to choose. So if you want this c# code to be consumed in VB.NET you need to define variable with two different names. This is one of the rules of CLS, that you should not have variable with same name with case sensitive.

So in this way we have number of CLS rules which if followed will ensure that your code can be consumed in any .NET compatible language.

What is CAS?

CAS is the part of .NET security model which determines whether or not a particular code is allowed to run and what kind of resources can the code access.

What is CLR ?

CLR (Common language run time) is the heart of.NET framework and it does 4 primary important things:-

· Garbage collection

· CAS (Code Access security)

· CV (Code verification)

· IL to Native translation.

I have created this nice video here which talks about what kind of questions are asked in c# interviews. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXspVcSSKE

You can also visit my site c# and .NET interview questions where i have created range of videos on various topics of c# from interview preparation aspect.

8 important C# Interview questions on IL code, JIT, CLR, CTS, CLS and CAS

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Introduction

What is IL code?

IL code is a partially compiled code.

Why it is partially compiled and why not full compiled?

When a compiler compiles a code he takes in to consideration things like operating system version, hardware etc and then compiles a optimized code as per those environmental data.

Now let’s say your compiler has compiled an optimized code as per “Windows 98” operating system. Now this code when run on windows server will not probably run in a optimized manner.

So every time compiling on the fly can lead to performance issues?

Once the code is compiled it’s maintained in cache. So the performance hit is only for the first time when .NET application runs.

Who compiles IL code?

JIT (Just in time compiler) compiles the IL code to a fully compiled format.

Can we see IL code?

Yes, we can see the IL code by using the ILDASM tool.

What is use of CTS?

So “Integer” data type in VB6 and “int” data type in C++ will be converted to System.int32, which is data type of CTS.

What is the use of CLS ?

CLS is a subset of CTS. CLS is a specification or set of rules or guidelines. When any .NET code adheres to these set of rules it can be consumed by any .NET language.

For instance let’s say you have a c# class which has two variables defined “I” and “i”. In other words one variable is in capital and the other is in small.

So in this way we have number of CLS rules which if followed will ensure that your code can be consumed in any .NET compatible language.

What is CAS?

CAS is the part of .NET security model which determines whether or not a particular code is allowed to run and what kind of resources can the code access.

What is CLR ?

CLR (Common language run time) is the heart of.NET framework and it does 4 primary important things:-

· Garbage collection

· CAS (Code Access security)

· CV (Code verification)

· IL to Native translation.

I have created this nice video here which talks about what kind of questions are asked in c# interviews. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXspVcSSKE

You can also visit my site c# and .NET interview questions where i have created range of videos on various topics of c# from interview preparation aspect.

8 important C# Interview questions on IL code, JIT, CLR, CTS, CLS and CAS

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Introduction

What is IL code?

IL code is a partially compiled code.

Why it is partially compiled and why not full compiled?

When a compiler compiles a code he takes in to consideration things like operating system version, hardware etc and then compiles a optimized code as per those environmental data.

Now let’s say your compiler has compiled an optimized code as per “Windows 98” operating system. Now this code when run on windows server will not probably run in a optimized manner.

So every time compiling on the fly can lead to performance issues?

Once the code is compiled it’s maintained in cache. So the performance hit is only for the first time when .NET application runs.

Who compiles IL code?

JIT (Just in time compiler) compiles the IL code to a fully compiled format.

Can we see IL code?

Yes, we can see the IL code by using the ILDASM tool.

What is use of CTS?

So “Integer” data type in VB6 and “int” data type in C++ will be converted to System.int32, which is data type of CTS.

What is the use of CLS ?

CLS is a subset of CTS. CLS is a specification or set of rules or guidelines. When any .NET code adheres to these set of rules it can be consumed by any .NET language.

For instance let’s say you have a c# class which has two variables defined “I” and “i”. In other words one variable is in capital and the other is in small.

So in this way we have number of CLS rules which if followed will ensure that your code can be consumed in any .NET compatible language.

What is CAS?

CAS is the part of .NET security model which determines whether or not a particular code is allowed to run and what kind of resources can the code access.

What is CLR ?

CLR (Common language run time) is the heart of.NET framework and it does 4 primary important things:-

· Garbage collection

· CAS (Code Access security)

· CV (Code verification)

· IL to Native translation.

I have created this nice video here which talks about what kind of questions are asked in c# interviews. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXspVcSSKE

You can also visit my site c# and .NET interview questions where i have created range of videos on various topics of c# from interview preparation aspect.

8 important C# Interview questions on IL code, JIT, CLR, CTS, CLS and CAS

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Introduction

What is IL code?

IL code is a partially compiled code.

Why it is partially compiled and why not full compiled?

When a compiler compiles a code he takes in to consideration things like operating system version, hardware etc and then compiles a optimized code as per those environmental data.

Now let’s say your compiler has compiled an optimized code as per “Windows 98” operating system. Now this code when run on windows server will not probably run in a optimized manner.

So every time compiling on the fly can lead to performance issues?

Once the code is compiled it’s maintained in cache. So the performance hit is only for the first time when .NET application runs.

Who compiles IL code?

JIT (Just in time compiler) compiles the IL code to a fully compiled format.

Can we see IL code?

Yes, we can see the IL code by using the ILDASM tool.

What is use of CTS?

So “Integer” data type in VB6 and “int” data type in C++ will be converted to System.int32, which is data type of CTS.

What is the use of CLS ?

CLS is a subset of CTS. CLS is a specification or set of rules or guidelines. When any .NET code adheres to these set of rules it can be consumed by any .NET language.

For instance let’s say you have a c# class which has two variables defined “I” and “i”. In other words one variable is in capital and the other is in small.

So in this way we have number of CLS rules which if followed will ensure that your code can be consumed in any .NET compatible language.

What is CAS?

CAS is the part of .NET security model which determines whether or not a particular code is allowed to run and what kind of resources can the code access.

What is CLR ?

CLR (Common language run time) is the heart of.NET framework and it does 4 primary important things:-

· Garbage collection

· CAS (Code Access security)

· CV (Code verification)

· IL to Native translation.

I have created this nice video here which talks about what kind of questions are asked in c# interviews. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXspVcSSKE

You can also visit my site c# and .NET interview questions where i have created range of videos on various topics of c# from interview preparation aspect.

Getting Started with Adobe After Effects - Part 8: Channels and Blending Modes

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

In this lesson, we will look at what channels our images are made from and how we can use blending modes inside of after effects. Images that display on our monitors are made of 3 channels, red, green and blue. Import a photo that you have on your computer (or from the internet) into after effects. Drag it into the New Composition button (labelled 1 in below image). ![new composition button][1] Number 2 represents which channels we are currently viewing in the composition window. By default we are seeing the red, green and blue channels combined together to create the pretty image we see in the comp window. By combined I mean literally added together on top of each other. If you run your cursor over the image, you will see the values in the info panel (labelled 3). This shows the values of the RGB channels individually from 0 to 255. To help visualise this, press the show channel icon (labelled 2) and select the red channel (hotkey alt+1). The image will look very different and is black and white, rather than red. That’s because each channel is just a greyscale image that contains values for how much of that channel should be in the image. In the red channels case, we can see that there isn’t much red in the sky, but a fair amount in the road. ![scaling image][2] Press alt+2 to go to the blue channel, you’ll notice it’s very bright in the sky. Press alt+3 to go to the green channel. To replicate the process after effects uses to combine all channels, let’s separate the image into its individual RGB channels. Duplicate the image twice, and call one layer red, one green and one blue. Now search for the effect shift channels and drag it onto all three layers. This effect allows us to isolate one channel for each layer. To do this for the red layer, set the take green and take blue to off (this will leave just the red channel). Do the same for the green and blue layers. ![isolating channels][3] Note that if you adjust the red layer whilst the green and blue layers are on top (as it is in the above image) you won’t see any changes unless you turn the visibility of the green and blue layers off. Alternatively, you can solo the layer you’re working on with the labelled button. Once all three channels have been isolated on their respective layers, we need to pre-compose them otherwise after effects won’t acknowledge the effects when we use blend modes. To pre-compose a layer, select it and press control + shift + c. Also, make sure to name it and set the “move all attributes into the new composition” option, otherwise the shift channels effect will be outside the composition. ![pre compose][4] Repeat that process for the blue and green channels. Now let’s discuss blending modes (which are a very important part of compositing). If you don’t see the blend mode options, press F4 to toggle modes and it should appear. When you click on the menu to expand it, you’ll notice there are a ton of modes. ![processing channels][5] All of these modes are mathematical operations, some are self-descriptive. For example: the add mode simply adds the numerical channel data that we were looking at in the info panel with the layers underneath. If you have a single layer and set the blending mode to add nothing will happen because it has nothing to add to. You can look up online what each of the blending modes do but here is a quick summary of the most important modes: - Screen: Adds A over B but doesn’t let the result go past a value of 255 or white (for 8 bit images) - Multiply: Multiplies A x B, very useful for removing white values from A. - Soft light: A little more complex than add, screen or multiply but can create some great results. See here: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blend_modes#Soft_Light][6] Remembering that we separated all three channels into separate layers, if we were to add these all back together we should have the same image we started with. Go ahead and set the top two layers to add (the bottom layer doesn’t need to have a blending mode). ![setting layers][7] Excellent, the image is exactly how it used to be. Now try turning off any one layer (the blue layer for example) and you’ll be able to see what the image looks like without any blue information. One other very important channel found in some images is the alpha channel. Like the red, green and blue channels it is also a greyscale or black and white channel that holds information. Unlike the R, G, B channels it does not determine colour information but opacity. If you import an image that has an alpha channel, you can view this information by pressing alt+4. The alpha information also appears in the info panel. A value of 255 alpha is opaque and a value of 0 alpha means completely transparent. ![set alpha information][8] *If you’d like to experiment with this image, type “png transparent image” into Google images and it will be the first image*. The way after effects takes this greyscale alpha channel and produces transparency is by multiplying the colour channels (R, G, B) by the alpha channel. Often this process is done for us and is called premultiplication. Sometimes in compositing, having a premultiplied image will produce incorrect results. There are ways to unpremultiply an image. An image whose colour channels have not been multiplied by the alpha channel are called “straight” or “unpremultiplied”. An interesting thing to note is that alpha channels exist even when we might not see them. For example you might not think that when we create a new solid (control + Y) that it comes with an alpha channel, but this is how after effects makes our layers transparent when we lower the opacity. The opacity (shortcut T when selecting a layer) is simply manipulating our alpha channel. Also when we isolate selections or create cut-outs with masks, we are manipulating the alpha channel. Create a mask on your solid layer and go to the alpha channel, you’ll see the information after effects is using to control which parts of the image are transparent and those that are opaque. I have added feathering to my mask to illustrate the point further. ![feathering the mask][9] In the next lesson we will look at chroma keying. [1]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=aa8a6fda3497425ebcc9f08062e8e17b&w=628&h=0 [2]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=8dd68cf0872e4e5da77ff46258ef756f&w=628&h=0 [3]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=477476ff3c384ff5a85b1b7d293a83ef&w=628&h=0 [4]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=a1771781e0994273a7fc0129b670871d&w=628&h=0 [5]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=067704a040614e768ba4203556db576c&w=628&h=0 [6]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blend_modes#Soft_Light [7]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=e3f9cef4c9054396b6fe9d102331268e&w=628&h=0 [8]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=6f9243f1d99a4b5ba4240a7f16c1350e&w=628&h=0 [9]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=fbb1fd7f339246db8cdcc903ac26b90b&w=628&h=0

Related to Stored Procedure & User Defined Function's Pre-Compiled Concepts

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Hi All,

Need Help on Bellow Mentioned Doubts

Q 1: What happens when we Submit / Execute the a Sql Statement (For Ex : select * from person )

i.e. what are the execution steps taken by the Sql Server behind the Scene.

Q 2 : What is Pre-Compiled Concept in Sql Server ?

Q 3: Is Stored Procedures in Sql Server are Pre-Compiled?

Q 4: Is User Defined Functions in Sql Server are Pre-Compiled?

Q 5: If UDF’s are not Pre-Complied , why there are not Pre- Compiled?

I Googled the above Q 3 & Q 4 , some where they say Stored Procedures are Pre-Complied but User Fined Functions are not Pre-Complied they compile only in execution time ( which indirectly say’s that UDF’s are compiled every time ? And Any Performance Degradation of UDF’s against SP’s)

I am really bit confusing between both SP’s and UDF’s Pre-Compilation concepts.

Page break inside group...

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

hi Divya, below is the link of my problem.Can u help me on that. [link text][1] looking forward for your quick response. [1]: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqlreportingservices/thread/91caa6e0-f73b-4436-9ac1-7b332ee85026/#91caa6e0-f73b-4436-9ac1-7b332ee85026 regards Msbialearner

#0263 - SQL Server - Interview Question - Script to Identify DML Triggers (Active/Disabled) and Trigger Events

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

For an entry level DBA position, some of the common interview questions around the subject of database DML triggers are:

How many triggers exist in your database?
Can you classify them into INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE triggers?

This post presents a script that answers all the questions above. The script below involves querying the Catalog Views - sys.triggers and sys.trigger_events to answer these questions:

USE AdventureWorks2008R2 ;
GO
SELECT  st.name AS TriggerName,
        OBJECT_NAME(st.parent_id) AS ParentTableName,
        st.is_ms_shipped AS IsMSShipped,
        st.is_disabled AS IsDisabled,
        st.is_not_for_replication AS IsNotForReplication,
        st.is_instead_of_trigger AS IsInsteadOfTrigger,
        te.type AS TypeId,
        te.type_desc AS TypeDescription,
        te.is_first AS IsTriggerFiredFirst,
        te.is_last AS IsTriggerFiredLast
FROM    sys.triggers AS st
INNER JOIN sys.trigger_events AS te ON te.object_id = st.object_id
WHERE st.parent_id > 0
  AND st.is_ms_shipped = 0
ORDER BY st.parent_id, te.type ASC;
GO

/* Results:
TriggerName          ParentTableName      IsMS    Is       IsNotFor    IsInstead Type Type        IsTrigger   IsTrigger
                                          Shipped Disabled Replication Trigger   Id   Description FiredFirst  FiredLast
-------------------- -------------------- ------- -------- ----------- --------- ---- ----------- ----------- ---------
dVendor              Vendor               0       0        1           1         3    DELETE      0           0
iWorkOrder           WorkOrder            0       0        0           0         1    INSERT      0           0
uWorkOrder           WorkOrder            0       0        0           0         2    UPDATE      0           0
iPurchaseOrderDetail PurchaseOrderDetail  0       0        0           0         1    INSERT      0           0
uPurchaseOrderDetail PurchaseOrderDetail  0       0        0           0         2    UPDATE      0           0
uPurchaseOrderHeader PurchaseOrderHeader  0       0        0           0         2    UPDATE      0           0
iduSalesOrderDetail  SalesOrderDetail     0       0        0           0         1    INSERT      0           0
iduSalesOrderDetail  SalesOrderDetail     0       0        0           0         2    UPDATE      0           0
iduSalesOrderDetail  SalesOrderDetail     0       0        0           0         3    DELETE      0           0
dEmployee            Employee             0       0        1           1         3    DELETE      0           0
uSalesOrderHeader    SalesOrderHeader     0       0        1           0         2    UPDATE      0           0
iuPerson             Person               0       0        1           0         1    INSERT      0           0
iuPerson             Person               0       0        1           0         2    UPDATE      0           0
*/

Here are some of the ways in which the query given above can be helpful in addition to answering interview questions:

Detemine if a trigger exists on a database
The IsDisabled flag shows whether a trigger is active or not
Is the trigger an INSTEAD OF trigger?

SSRS Report Viewer- How to show/hide rendering extensions (export formats)

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

This post is inspired by a question in MSDN forum about disabling certain rendering formats when setting up SSRS subscriptions. This can be achieved by changing the SSRS configuration file as explained below.

I never had a real-world scenario where I needed to disable/hide a rendering extension. However, the above question inspired me to explore the SSRS configuration settings and I could find that the following steps can disable/hide rendering extensions.

Step 1: Looking at the available rendering/export formats

I went to my SSRS 2008 R2 instance and ran a sample report to view the available export format and found the following.

From the available export options, I decided to remove “Word” format for the purpose of this experiment.

Step 2: Changing the configuration file

The rendering extensions are managed/configured through the configuration file named “RSReportServer.config” located in the “ReportServer” folder. On my laptop this file is located at C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS10_50.MSSQLSERVER\Reporting Services\ReportServer

Locate the node named render. On my configuration file, it looked like the following.

<render>
	<extension type="Microsoft....dering" name="XML" />
	<extension type="Microsoft...ring" name="NULL" visible="false" />
	<extension type="Microsoft....ng" name="CSV" />
	<extension type="Microsoft...endering" name="ATOM" visible="false" />
	<extension type="Microsoft....dering" name="PDF" />
	<extension type="Microsoft...endering" name="RGDI" visible="false" />
	<extension type="Micros...ervices.HtmlRendering" name="HTML4.0" visible="false" />
	<extension type="Microsof...ices.HtmlRendering" name="MHTML" />
	<extension type="Microsof...lRendering" name="EXCEL" />
	<extension type="Microsoft....ing" name="RPL" visible="false" />
	<extension type="Microsof...eRendering" name="IMAGE" />
	<extension type="Microsoft....WordRendering" name="WORD" />
</render>

I added an attribute Visible=”false” to the entry representing “Microsoft word” (Last element in the above example). After the above change is made, I went back to my sample report and found that the entry “Word” has been removed from the export format list in report viewer page/control.

I then went to verify that this option has been removed from the report subscription setup pages. To my surprise, I could still see “Word” appear as an option there.

After reviewing all the configuration settings several times, I realized that a restart of the reporting service is required to have the changes take effect in the subscription setup page. I restarted reporting service and after reboot, I could see that the render format “Word” has been removed.

Note

Be careful when playing with the report server configuration file. Always test your changes in the QA/Dev environment before trying on the production environment.

There is insufficient system memory in resource pool 'default' to run this query.-Error in SQL Server

Sun, 12 May 2013 18:29:00 GMT

Backup and restore database activity is common and routine task for all DBA when need to move database at another place. I did the same thing while needed to move database from one server to other server. But suddenly i encountered one issue while restoring database to destination server and it was about to memory. Earlier i posted one tips in just learned for the same memory issue but it was for replicaion. Please visit and read this link before go ahead this post. You can see that error “There is insufficient system memory to run this query” .

Now looking here too for the error while restoring database is the same but slightly with different statement as following,

“Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally.
Msg 701, Level 17, State 17, Line 1
There is insufficient system memory in resource pool 'default' to run this query.”

Error seems the same with different operation but the solution is the same.

DBCC FREESESSIONCACHE
DBCC FREEPROCCACHE
DBCC DROPCLEANBUFFERS
DBCC FREESYSTEMCACHE('ALL')

This is quick solution but I am not recommended to apply this solution because this may create an issues as it will flush all cache and may effect on performance . So it is better to find cause of memory consumption and resolve it or apply optimized way like we can increase RAM , see if any idle sessions or session with high memory usage.

In earlier post of such error with replication, received some comments which can be helpful to us. I would like you put you valuable inputs here too.

File Upload and Download to Azure Blob Storage

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

In this tutorial we will see how to upload and download a file to Azure Blob storage. Azure blob storage is a service which can be used to save any unstructured information in binary content and serve on HTTP/HTTPS. Blob storage is especially helpful for content types like Images, Documents, Audio and Video. We can manage our data with restricted permissions to keep it private along side we can expose part of data publicly.

To follow this tutorial one should have Windows Azure Account. Next step is to create a Storage account. I would recommend to follow this step by step process to create Storage Account – http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/services/storage/how-to-create-a-storage-account/. Once storage account is created, click on “Manage Keys” on bottom of the page to get relevant information of the created storage. This key information, especially Account Name and Primary key is useful in connecting to storage account from code.

Before we proceed to code, install “Windows Azure Storage” nuget (Right click Project –> Select “Manage Nuget Packages” –> Search for “Windows Azure Storage” –> Click Install –> Accept Terms and Conditions). This nuget package prepares our project for working seamlessly with Azure Storage (blobs, tables and queues).

First lets create a console application and get started by creating a model which we can use as strongly typed file –

public class CustomFile
    {
        public string FileName { get; set; }
        public byte[] FileBytes { get; set; }
        public string FileMime { get; set; }
    }

Now import the following namespaces –

   using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage;
   using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Auth;
   using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Blob;

Create a small utility class for serving connection –

internal class BlobUtilities
    {
        public static CloudBlobClient GetBlobClient
        {
            get
            {
                CloudStorageAccount storageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.Parse("DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=[Storage Account Name];"
                 + "AccountKey=[Storage Account Primary Key]");
                CloudBlobClient blobClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();
                return blobClient;
            }
        }
    }

Create a class BlobWrapper and create Upload Method as shown below –

public async Task<bool> UploadFileToBlob(CustomFile file)
        {
            // Get Blob Container
            CloudBlobContainer container = BlobUtilities.GetBlobClient.GetContainerReference("documents");
            container.CreateIfNotExists();

            // Get reference to blob (binary content)
            CloudBlockBlob blockBlob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(file.FileName);

            // set its properties
            blockBlob.Properties.ContentType = file.FileMime;
            blockBlob.Metadata["filename"] = file.FileName;
            blockBlob.Metadata["filemime"] = file.FileMime;

            // Get stream from file bytes
            Stream stream = new MemoryStream(file.FileBytes);

            // Async upload of stream to Storage
            AsyncCallback UploadCompleted = new AsyncCallback(OnUploadCompleted);
            blockBlob.BeginUploadFromStream(stream, UploadCompleted, blockBlob);

            return true;
        }

        private void OnUploadCompleted(IAsyncResult result)
        {
            CloudBlockBlob blob = (CloudBlockBlob)result.AsyncState;
            blob.SetMetadata();
            blob.EndUploadFromStream(result);
        }

Lets create a Download Method –

public async Task<byte[]> DownloadFileFromBlob(string FileName)
        {
            // Get Blob Container
            CloudBlobContainer container = BlobUtilities.GetBlobClient.GetContainerReference("documents");

            // Get reference to blob (binary content)
            CloudBlockBlob blockBlob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(FileName);

            // Read content
            using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
            {
                blockBlob.DownloadToStream(ms);
                return ms.ToArray();
            }
        }

That’s it. Now we can go ahead and test our API. For that, Lets create a Main function –

static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            UploadFile();
            DownloadFile();
        }

        private static async void UploadFile()
        {
            BlobWrapper _blobWrapper = new BlobWrapper();
            using (FileStream fs = new FileStream("123.docx", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
            {
                MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
                fs.CopyTo(ms);

                CustomFile file = new CustomFile();
                file.FileName = "123.docx";
                file.FileMime = "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document";
                file.FileBytes = ms.ToArray();

                await _blobWrapper.UploadFileToBlob(file);
            }
        }

        public static async void DownloadFile()
        {
            BlobWrapper _blobWrapper = new BlobWrapper();
            Task<byte[]> data = _blobWrapper.DownloadFileFromBlob("123.docx");
            byte[] d = await data;
        }

To check results in Azure Storage account, I would recommend following tool – http://azurestorageexplorer.codeplex.com/. Setting up of this tool is pretty straight forward, all you need is the Storage Account Name and Primary key. Once created the account, you can use Ribbon on this tool to consistently check the storage.

In my next tutorial, I am going to narrate about Azure Table Storage. Stay Tuned!!!

PEGA TutorialHow to setup PEGA PRPC system in your machine?

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

This article is next in series of our learning PEGA PRPC System. In this post we will learn how we can setup PEGA PRPC Exercise System on our desktop or laptop for learning purpose.

If you are new to the PEGA PRPC system it is recommended that you download the Exercise System to learn the bits and pieces of PRPC components and workflow system. To download a copy of exercise system you need to first visit PEGA Academy and register for a course. The course offered by PEGA academy is not free and one needs to pay for the course. Once you are enrolled into one of the course, PEGA academy let you download the exercise system.

To successfully run the PEGA PRPC system you need following components available to your local machine.

Once you have downloaded the Exercise System you need to install it on your desktop or laptop. The Exercise System is a standalone application which bundles into it all the required components such as operating system (Ubuntu), database (DB2), and web server to successfully run the PRPC system. It creates a Virtual Machine in your desktop. This article will show you all the steps that one needs to perform to install PEGA PRPC system.

The first step involves downloading the Exercise system. I have downloaded the required application which is a single application file. When you click on the Applications it extracts the files to your local machine. PEGA PRPC recommends that you keep 15 GB space to run the PEGA PRPC system on your machine.

Once the applications has extracted all the files you can see that it has extracted two folders ?application? and ?Server? and a text file named ?pvs_release_note?.

The second step involves running the VMware_64bit_check applications from applications folder which basically checks your system compatibility to see if it can run the PEGA PRPC system on not.

The third step involves running the VMware-player-4.0.2-591240 application file from applications folder which basically installs a virtual machine in your local machine. This VM machine has all the required components to run PEGA PRPC system.

Once the VMware Player setup is complete you can navigate to Start->Program Files->VMWare to launch the PEGA PRPC system.

To login to PRPC system you need to provide login id and password which is shown in the VMware player screen. Once you are successfully login into the system, you need to open Internet Explorer and visit to http://prpc:8080 and you will be presented with the PEGA PRPC login screen.

You can login to PEGA PRPC system using any of the credentials which is supplied to you by PEGA PRPC installation guide.

So you are all set to learn and experiment with PEGA PRPC Exercise System.

Please visit PEGA Tutorials section for articles on PEGA and PRPC

#0262 - SQL Server - Scripts to generate and parse multi-part database object names - PARSENAME() function

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

In my previous post, we looked at the various naming conventions available to us when working with database objects.

Often we may face the need to either generate three-part object names for all objects in the database, or parse a three part name into it’s constituent parts. This post provides quick scripts to achieve this.

Generating Multi-Part Names

Generating multi-part names is a simple affair of querying the sys.objects table as shown in the script below:

USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO

SELECT CAST(SERVERPROPERTY('ServerName') AS VARCHAR(100)) + '.' + 
           DB_NAME() + '.' + 
           SCHEMA_NAME(so.schema_id) + '.' + 
           so.name AS FourPartName,
       DB_NAME() + '.' + 
           SCHEMA_NAME(so.schema_id) + '.' + 
           so.name AS ThreePartName,
       SCHEMA_NAME(so.schema_id) + '.' + 
           so.name AS TwoPartName,
       so.schema_id AS SchemaId,
       so.name AS ObjectName,
       so.type AS ObjectType,
       so.type_desc AS ObjectTypeDescription
FROM sys.objects AS so
WHERE so.is_ms_shipped = 0 AND so.type IN ('U','P','V','TR')
ORDER BY so.schema_id ASC, so.type DESC;
GO

Parsing Multi-Part Names

Parsing multi-part names does not involve any fancy string manipulation, but can be easily done using a system function – PARSENAME().

The PARSENAME function accepts two parameters – the multi-part object name to be parsed and a number from 1-4 indicating the part that needs to be fetched from the supplied name, as shown below:

1 = Object Name
2 = Schema Name
3 = Database Name
4 = Server Name

If a particular name is not found in the string supplied, the PARSENAME() function returns NULL.

The query to parse multi-part names into their constituents is available below:

USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO

DECLARE @objectNames TABLE (MultiPartName VARCHAR(100));

INSERT INTO @objectNames (MultiPartName)
VALUES ('W8SQLSERVER\SQL2K12.AdventureWorks2012.HumanResources.Employee'),
       ('AdventureWorks2012.HumanResources.Employee'),
       ('HumanResources.Employee')

SELECT oname.MultiPartName AS SuppliedMultiPartName,
       PARSENAME(oname.MultiPartName,4) AS ServerName,
       PARSENAME(oname.MultiPartName,3) AS DatabaseName,
       PARSENAME(oname.MultiPartName,2) AS SchemaName,
       PARSENAME(oname.MultiPartName,1) AS ObjectName
FROM @objectNames AS oname;
GO

Notice that the PARSENAME() function returned NULL for the ServerName column when interpreting a three-part parameter. Similarly, we get NULL for ServerName and DatabaseName when working with a two-part name.

I trust the scripts above were useful to you.

Getting Started with Windows Azure - Part 7: Create a Virtual Machine Image for Windows Azure

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

**Introduction:** In this article, we are going to see how to create a Virtual Machine (VM) image and back it up in real time in Windows Azure environment. In our previous article we have seen the option to attach and detach a Virtual Machine data disk without much of the effort in maintaining. Images are nothing but a replica of an environment that is ready to use by provisioning it, initially in our previous articles, we have used a Windows Server 2008 R2 from the Gallery, which is a fresh image of the Windows Server that is made available in the list. Similarly, we can create our own Image and make it available so that we can use it whenever we need a new instance up and running. Basically in simple words we can say an Image is like a template which can be used a reference to create a number of similar instances in no time. Let us see the step-by-step approach on how to achieve this task to capture a Virtual Machine image in Windows Azure. **Steps:** Open Windows Azure Management Portal with your valid login credentials and navigate to the Virtual Machine and click on Connect to login to the machine with the credentials which we used while provisioning the machine as shown in the screen below: ![connect][1] Click on Ok and proceed to connect to the machine and login as an administrator. Now open command prompt by going to start programs and see to open the command prompt in administrator mode as shown in the screen below: ![command prompt][2] Now change the root directory to `%windir%\system32\sysprep`, and run the executable `sysprep.exe` which is a System Preparation tool kit that is used to manage the remote systems as shown in the screen below: ![system preparation tool kit][3] Running the `sysprep.exe` will open the System Preparation Tool, select the options “Enter System Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE)” and make sure that Generalize is checked. Now select the shutdown option from the dropdown as shown in the screen below: ![shutdown option][4] Click on OK and we can see the system starts shutdown and in the Windows Azure Management portal, we can see the status as Stopped as shown in the screen below: ![stopped status][5] Now select the Virtual Machine instance which we need to create an image and at the bottom menu, we can see an option Capture that is used to create an image of the virtual machine, which we are selected as shown in the screen below: ![capture][6] Clicking on Capture button will open the Capture Dialogue screen where we need to input the data, the Image name and the Virtual Machine name as shown in the screen below: ![capture dialogue box][7] Now click on the ok button to proceed further and start creating the Image to capture and we can see the status as shown in the screen below: ![capture status][8] Once the image is created we can see the list of available images in the Image tab that is available next to the Virtual machines tab and disk tab as shown in the screen below: ![image tab][9] **Conclusion:** Therefore, in this article we have seen how to manage and capture an image that can be used as a template for the virtual machines. [1]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=783bf6d0c90844a0a8b60ac835b0eadd&w=628&h=0 [2]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=76ef5143b4894fbab784cf6416a1e7a6&w=628&h=0 [3]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=0bf7ba1e90754e4da3487b31d1f0c74f&w=628&h=0 [4]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=4f1b0376308045938a96b9c8ba62a34a&w=628&h=0 [5]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=6fbe54d36fc74e87819dce36553592b0&w=628&h=0 [6]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=31784a27db234deab2c88903c1116e91&w=628&h=0 [7]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=b66c3d26273f44fea225da9629bbe9cd&w=628&h=0 [8]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=550b59631e6c460f9f71dd9797ed59a7&w=628&h=0 [9]: http://media.beyondrelational.com/images.ashx?id=4153c0687b5c47f4aa000b0c26ac2d6f&w=628&h=0

Windows Phone SDK & „System“-Icons

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Although the Metro Design focuses a lot on Typography Icons are still quite important. If you install Windows Phone SDK you will receive 36 Icons. You can find them here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v8.0\Icons

Unfortunately many Icons you might know from the common applications are not integrated. Pedro Lamas extracted 99 additional Icons from the App-Resources and offers them as a download.

new to ssis making changes to existing packages

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

hi!
I started working recently on SSIS . I was given existing packages and it includes a configuration file.
I need to make changes to these packages like changing the email server,from and to emails and the location of the reports.
I need to create an indirect configuration also using environment variable
Do I need to make any changes in the configuration file?
Any advice is greatly appreciated
Thank you
Sri

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Builds

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

The following table lists all builds of SQL Server 2008 R2 known hotfixes, service packs and KB articles that have been released by Microsoft.

Quick Overview:

Codename	RTM/Service Pack	Build Number
Kilimanjaro	RTM	10.50.1600.1
	SP1	10.50.2500
	SP2	10.50.4000

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Builds Breakdown:

Build	File version	KB / Description	Release Date
10.50.4279	2009.100.4279.0	2830140 Cumulative update package 6 (CU) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2	April 15, 2013 *new
10.50.4276	2009.100.4276.0	2797460 Cumulative update package 5 (CU5) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2	February 18, 2013
10.50.4270	2009.100.4270.0	2777358 Cumulative update package 4 (CU4) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2	December 17, 2012
10.50.4266	2009.100.4266.0	2754552 Cumulative update package 3 (CU3) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2	October 15, 2012
10.50.4263	2009.100.4263.0	2740411 Cumulative update package 2 (CU2) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2	August 29, 2012
10.50.4260	2009.100.4260.0	2720425 Cumulative update package 1 (CU1) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2	August 1, 2012
10.50.4000	2009.100.4000.0	SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 (SP2)	July 26, 2012
10.50.3720	2009.100.3720.0	SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 Community Technology Preview (CTP)	May 13, 2012
10.50.2874	2009.100.2874.0	2828727 Cumulative update package 12 (CU12) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1	April 15, 2013 *new
10.50.2861	2009.100.2861.0	Microsoft Security Bulletin MS12-070	October 9, 2012
10.50.2869	2009.100.2869.0	2812683 Cumulative update package 11 (CU11) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1	February 18, 2013
10.50.2868	2009.100.2868.0	2783135 Cumulative update package 10 (CU10) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1	December 17, 2012
10.50.2866	2009.100.2866.0	2756574 Cumulative update package 9 (CU9) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1	November 6, 2012
10.50.2861	2009.100.2861.0	2716439 MS12-070: Description of the security update for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 QFE: October 9, 2012	October 9, 2012
10.50.2822	2009.100.2822.0	2723743 Cumulative update package 8 (CU8) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1	August 29, 2012
10.50.2817	2009.100.2817.0	2703282 Cumulative update package 7 (CU7) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1	June 18, 2012
10.50.2811	2009.100.2811.0	2679367 Cumulative update package 6 (CU6) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1	April 16, 2012
10.50.2807	2009.100.2807.0	2675522 FIX: Access violation when you run DML statements against a table that has partitioned indexes in SQL Server 2008 R2	March 12, 2012
10.50.2806	2009.100.2806.0	2659694 Cumulative update package 5 (CU5) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1	February 22, 2012
10.50.2799	2009.100.2799.0	2633357 FIX: “Non-yielding Scheduler” error might occur when you run a query that uses the CHARINDEX function in SQL Server 2008 R2	February 22, 2012
10.50.2796	2009.100.2796.0	2633146 Cumulative update package 4 (CU4) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1	December 20, 2011
10.50.2789	2009.100.2789.0	2591748 Cumulative update package 3 (CU3) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1	October 17, 2011
10.50.2776	2009.100.2776.0	2606883 FIX: Slow performance when an AFTER trigger runs on a partitioned table in SQL Server 2008 R2	October 18, 2011
10.50.2772	2009.100.2772.0	2567714 Cumulative update package 2 (CU2) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1	August 15, 2011
10.50.2769	2009.100.2769.0	2544793 Cumulative update package 1 (CU1) for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1	July 18, 2011
10.50.2550	2009.100.2550.0	Microsoft Security Bulletin MS12-070	October 9, 2012
10.50.2500	2009.100.2500.0	SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1)	July 11, 2011
10.50.1817	2009.100.1817.0	2703280 Cumulative update package 14 (CU14) for SQL Server 2008 R2	June 18, 2012
10.50.1815	2009.100.1815.0	2679366 Cumulative update package 13 (CU13) for SQL Server 2008 R2	April 17, 2012
10.50.1810	2009.100.1810.0	2659692 Cumulative update package 12 (CU12) for SQL Server 2008 R2	February 21, 2012
10.50.1809	2009.100.1809.0	2633145 Cumulative update package 11 (CU11) for SQL Server 2008 R2	January 9, 2012
10.50.1807	2009.100.1807.0	2591746 Cumulative update package 10 (CU10) for SQL Server 2008 R2	October 19, 2011
10.50.1804	2009.100.1804.0	2567713 Cumulative update package 9 (CU9) for SQL Server 2008 R2	August 16, 2011
10.50.1800	2009.100.1800.0	2574699 FIX: Database data files might be incorrectly marked as sparse in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2008 even when the physical files are marked as not sparse in the file system	October 18, 2011
10.50.1797	2009.100.1797.0	2534352 Cumulative update package 8 (CU8) for SQL Server 2008 R2	June 20, 2011
10.50.1790	2009.100.1790.0	2494086 MS11-049: Description of the security update for SQL Server 2008 R2 QFE: June 14, 2011	June 17, 2011
10.50.1777	2009.100.1777.0	2507770 Cumulative update package 7 (CU7) for SQL Server 2008 R2	June 16, 2011
10.50.1769	2009.100.1769.0	2520808 FIX: Non-yielding scheduler error when you run a query that uses a TVP in SQL Server 2008 or in SQL Server 2008 R2 if SQL Profiler or SQL Server Extended Events is used	April 18, 2011
10.50.1765	2009.100.1765.0	2489376 Cumulative update package 6 (CU6) for SQL Server 2008 R2	February 21, 2011
10.50.1753	2009.100.1753.0	2438347 Cumulative update package 5 (CU5) for SQL Server 2008 R2	December 23, 2010
10.50.1746	2009.100.1746.0	2345451 Cumulative update package 4 (CU4) for SQL Server 2008 R2	October 18, 2010
10.50.1734	2009.100.1734.0	2261464 Cumulative update package 3 (CU3) for SQL Server 2008 R2	August 20, 2010
10.50.1720	2009.100.1720.0	2072493 Cumulative update package 2 (CU2) for SQL Server 2008 R2	June 25, 2010
10.50.1702	2009.100.1702.0	981355 Cumulative update package 1 (CU1) for SQL Server 2008 R2	May 18, 2010
10.50.1617	2009.100.1617.0	2494088 MS11-049: Description of the security update for SQL Server 2008 R2 GDR: June 14, 2011	June 14, 2011
10.50.1600	2009.100.1600.1	SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM	April 21, 2010
10.50.1352	2009.100.1352.12	Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 November Community Technology Preview (CTP)	November 12, 2009
10.50.1092	2009.100.1092.20	Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 August Community Technology Preview (CTP)	June 30, 2009

Note: RTM stands for release to market edition, which is the first supported version of SQL Server 2008 R2, and SP stands for service pack. All SQL Server service packs and hotfixes are cumulative, meaning that each new service pack and hotfixes contains all the fixes that are included with previous service packs, hotfixes and new fixes issues.
Please use comment section, if you find build that is not listed here.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Builds

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

The following table lists all builds of SQL Server 2008 known hotfixes, service packs and KB articles that have been released by Microsoft.

Quick Overview:

Codename	RTM/Service Pack	Build Number
Katmai	RTM	10.00.1600.22
	SP1	10.00.2531
	SP2	10.00.4000
	SP3	10.00.5500

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Builds Breakdown:

Build	File version	KB / Description	Release Date
10.00.5835	2007.100.5835.0	2814783 Cumulative update package 10 (CU10) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3	March 18, 2013
10.00.5829	2007.100.5829.0	2799883 Cumulative update package 9 (CU9) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3	January 23, 2013
10.00.5828	2007.100.5828.0	2771833 Cumulative update package 8 (CU8) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3	November 19, 2012
10.00.5826	2007.100.5826.0	2716435 Microsoft Security Bulletin MS12-070	October 9, 2012
10.00.5794	2007.100.5794.0	2738350 Cumulative update package 7 (CU7) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3	September 21, 2012
10.00.5788	2007.100.5788.0	2715953 Cumulative update package 6 (CU6) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3	July 16, 2012
10.00.5785	2007.100.5785.0	2696626 Cumulative update package 5 (CU5) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3	May 19, 2012
10.00.5775	2007.100.5775.0	2673383 Cumulative update package 4 (CU4) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3	March 20, 2012
10.00.5770	2007.100.5770.0	2648098 Cumulative update package 3 (CU3) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3	January 16, 2012
10.00.5768	2007.100.5768.0	2633143 Cumulative update package 2 (CU2) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3	November 22, 2011
10.00.5766	2007.100.5766.0	2617146 Cumulative update package 1 (CU1) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3	October 18, 2011
10.00.5512	2007.100.5512.0	Microsoft Security Bulletin MS12-070	October 9, 2012
10.00.5500	2007.100.5500.0	SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 (SP3)	October 6, 2011
10.00.5416	2007.100.5416.0	SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 CTP	August 22, 2011
10.00.4371	2007.100.4371.0	Microsoft Security Bulletin MS12-070	October 9, 2012
10.00.4333	2007.100.4333.0	2715951 Cumulative update package 11 (CU11) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2	July 16, 2012
10.00.4332	2007.100.4332.0	2696625 Cumulative update package 10 (CU10) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2	May 20, 2012
10.00.4330	2007.100.4330.0	2673382 Cumulative update package 9 (CU9) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2	March 19, 2012
10.00.4326	2007.100.4326.0	2648096 Cumulative update package 8 (CU8) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2	January 30, 2012
10.00.4323	2007.100.4323.0	2617148 Cumulative update package 7 (CU7) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2	November 21, 2011
10.00.4321	2007.100.4321.0	2582285 Cumulative update package 6 (CU6) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2	September 20, 2011
10.00.4316	2007.100.4316.0	2555408 Cumulative update package 5 (CU5) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2	July 18, 2011
10.00.4285	2007.100.4285.0	2527180 Cumulative update package 4 (CU4) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2	May 16, 2011
10.00.4279	2007.100.4279.0	2498535 Cumulative update package 3 (CU3) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2	March 11, 2011
10.00.4272	2007.100.4272.0	2467239 Cumulative update package 2 (CU2) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2	February 10, 2011
10.00.4266	2007.100.4266.0	2289254 Cumulative update package 1 (CU1) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2	November 15, 2010
10.00.4067	2007.100.4067.0	Microsoft Security Bulletin MS12-070	October 9, 2012
10.00.4064	2007.100.4064.0	2494089 MS11-049: Description of the security update for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 GDR: June 14, 2011	June 14, 2011
10.00.4000	2007.100.4000.0	SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2)	September 29, 2010
10.00.3798	2007.100.3798.0	SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 CTP	July 7, 2010
10.00.2850	2007.100.2850.0	2582282 Cumulative update package 16 (CU16) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	September 19, 2011
10.00.2847	2007.100.2847.0	2555406 Cumulative update package 15 (CU15) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	July 18, 2011
10.00.2821	2007.100.2821.0	2527187 Cumulative update package 14 (CU14) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	May 16, 2011
10.00.2816	2007.100.2816.0	2497673 Cumulative update package 13 (CU13) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	March 22, 2011
10.00.2808	2007.100.2808.0	2467236 Cumulative update package 12 (CU12) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	February 10, 2011
10.00.2804	2007.100.2804.0	2413738 Cumulative update package 11 (CU11) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	November 15, 2010
10.00.2799	2007.100.2799.0	2279604 Cumulative update package 10 (CU10) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	September 21, 2010
10.00.2789	2007.100.2789.0	2083921 Cumulative update package 9 (CU9) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	July 21, 2010
10.00.2787	2007.100.2787.0	2231277 FIX: The Reporting Services service stops unexpectedly after you apply SQL Server 2008 SP1 CU 7 or CU8	July 30, 2010
10.00.2775	2007.100.2775.0	981702 Cumulative update package 8 (CU8) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	May 17, 2010
10.00.2766	2007.100.2766.0	979065 Cumulative update package 7 (CU7) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	March 26, 2010
10.00.2757	2007.100.2757.0	977443 Cumulative update package 6 (CU6) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	January 18, 2010
10.00.2746	2007.100.2746.0	975977 Cumulative update package 5 (CU5) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	November 16, 2009
10.00.2740	2007.100.2740.0	976761 FIX: Error message when you perform a rolling upgrade in a SQL Server 2008 cluster : “18401, Login failed for user SQLTEST\AgentService. Reason: Server is in script upgrade mode. Only administrator can connect at this time.[SQLState 42000]“	November 24, 2009
10.00.2734	2007.100.2734.0	973602 Cumulative update package 4 (CU4) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	September 22, 2009
10.00.2723	2007.100.2723.0	971491 Cumulative update package 3 (CU3) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	July 21, 2009
10.00.2714	2007.100.2714.0	970315 Cumulative update package 2 (CU2) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	May 18, 2009
10.00.2712	2007.100.2712.0	970507 FIX: Error message in SQL Server 2008 when you run an INSERT SELECT statement on a table: “Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint ‘<PrimaryKey>’. Cannot insert duplicate key in object ‘<TableName>’”	July 21, 2009
10.00.2710	2007.100.2710.0	969099 Cumulative update package 1 (CU1) for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	April 16, 2009
10.00.2573	2007.100.2573.0	2494096 MS11-049: Description of the security update for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 GDR: June 14, 2011	June 14, 2011
10.00.2531	2007.100.2531.0	SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 (SP1)	April 7, 2009
10.00.2520	2007.100.2520.0	SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 – CTP	February 23, 2009
10.00.1835	2007.100.1835.0	979064 Cumulative update package 10 (CU10) for SQL Server 2008	March 15, 2010
10.00.1828	2007.100.1828.0	977444 Cumulative update package 9 (CU9) for SQL Server 2008	January 18, 2010
10.00.1823	2007.100.1823.0	975976 Cumulative update package 8 (CU8) for SQL Server 2008	November 16, 2009
10.00.1818	2007.100.1818.0	973601 Cumulative update package 7 (CU7) for SQL Server 2008	September 21, 2009
10.00.1812	2007.100.1812.0	971490 Cumulative update package 6 (CU6) for SQL Server 2008	July 21, 2009
10.00.1806	2007.100.1806.0	969531 Cumulative update package 5 (CU5) for SQL Server 2008	May 18, 2009
10.00.1798	2007.100.1798.0	963036 Cumulative update package 4 (CU4) for SQL Server 2008	March 17, 2009
10.00.1787	2007.100.1787.0	960484 Cumulative update package 3 (CU3) for SQL Server 2008	January 19, 2009
10.00.1779	2007.100.1779.0	958186 Cumulative update package 2 (CU2) for SQL Server 2008	November 19, 2008
10.00.1771	2007.100.1771.0	958611 FIX: You may receive incorrect results when you run a query that references three or more tables in the FROM clause in SQL Server 2008	October 29, 2008
10.00.1763	2007.100.1763.0	956717 Cumulative update package 1 (CU1) for SQL Server 2008	October 28, 2008
10.00.1750	2007.100.1750.0	956718 FIX: A MERGE statement may not enforce a foreign key constraint when the statement updates a unique key column that is not part of a clustering key that has a single row as the update source in SQL Server 2008	August 25, 2008
10.00.1600	2007.100.1600.22	SQL Server 2008 RTM	August 7, 2008
10.00.1442	2007.100.1442.32	Microsoft SQL Server 2008 RC0	June 5, 2008
10.00.1300	2007.100.1300.13	Microsoft SQL Server 2008 CTP, February 2008	February 19, 2008
10.00.1075	2007.100.1075.23	Microsoft SQL Server 2008 CTP, November 2007	November 18, 2007
10.00.1049	2007.100.1049.14	SQL Server 2008 CTP, July 2007	July 31, 2007
10.00.1019	2007.100.1019.17	SQL Server 2008 CTP, June 2007	May 21, 2007

Note: RTM stands for release to market edition, which is the first supported version of SQL Server 2008, and SP stands for service pack. All SQL Server service packs and hotfixes are cumulative, meaning that each new service pack and hotfixes contains all the fixes that are included with previous service packs, hotfixes and new fixes issues.
Please use comment section, if you find build that is not listed here.

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new to ssis making changes to existing packages

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Builds

Quick Overview:

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Builds Breakdown:

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Builds

Quick Overview:

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Builds Breakdown: