Some T-SQL, XML, DGML and Visual Studio 2010 and you get a very cool SQL Server Dependency Graph

Sev17 - SQL Server Object Dependency Viewer Revisited

“A year ago I blogged about building a SQL Server 2008 Object Dependency Viewer based on a script by PowerShell MVP, Doug Finke (Blog|Twitter). Since then Doug has created an alternative solution based on the new Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout features in Visual Studio 2010. The approach Doug takes builds a DGML XML file using PowerShell which then can be opened in Visual Studio 2010.

I thought it would be interesting to create an updated version of the SQL Server Object Dependency Viewer using DGML. Rather than simply running Doug’s script as-is I decided to develop an alternative solution targeted for SQL Server. Because the new solution only requires creating a DGML XML file and SQL Server can emit XML natively I used the following T-SQL/XQuery (no PowerShell required! Nonetheless I included a one-liner at the end of this post)

…

…”

One of my past beefs/whines with Data Dude (aka Database Professional, Database Projects, etc) was the lack of diagramming or visualization. I like seeing my table relationships visually and it bugged me that I had to us other tools to see them. Data Dude is just SO close, and it’s not like there isn’t like a billion different diagramming things already in the project… yada, yada, whine, whine.

So anyway…

Chad’s work feels like the starting point for creating our own database visualization/diagramming capability… This screams out to be implemented as a Visual Studio Extension, doesn’t it? :)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
NodeXL, PowerShell and building a visual SQL Dependency Graph

Seventh Blog-aversary!

Seven years, 4,425 posts (with this post), 1.6 million visits, 2.2 million page views, 2.5K feed subscribers… and one big thank you!

In the past I’ve sometimes used this annual post to reflect on things I’ve learned in the past year or so. This year? I think just saying thank you is enough…

I’m glad that I’m able to give back to the community in my little way. We all stand on the shoulders of giants and this blog is my way to give back to those giants, to help highlight  their cool contributions, to pay it forward. The fact that you find a little value in what I do is really just gravy, just icing on the cake.

So again, thank you

And please remember that just about everyone I curate is doing it as their passion, as a hobby, in many cases in their spare time, to give for the sake of giving, so “please tip your food servers…” If you find content you like and they have a few ad’s, actually LOOK at the ads and see if there’s anything remotely pertinent to you and if so click on through… I.e. “tip them”. I’m not promoting click fraud or anything like that, I am just saying to show your appreciation to those that I blog about, when you hit their posts, don’t ignore their ads. “Worth a read, worth a click.”

That’s it for now… See you in the coming year… :)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Six years just seemed to fly by… It’s my Sixth Year Blog-aversary!
Five Year Blog-aversary, and 500K+ Visit Milestone
Four Year Blog-aversary
Three Year Blog-aversary...
Two Years and Counting...

“Creating High Performance Silverlight Applications for Windows Phone” - 1 zip, 6 samples and 26 pages

Microsoft Downloads - Creating High Performance Silverlight Applications for Windows Phone

“This download includes a document and samples that illustrate tools, tips, and examples that you can use to make a Silverlight for Windows Phone application run faster and be more responsive.

File Name:	SilverlightForWindowsPhonePerformance.zip
Version:	7.0
Date Published:	8/6/2010
Language:	English
Download Size:	4.0 MB

Compared to a desktop or laptop PC, a Windows Phone 7 device has a more limited amount of CPU and GPU (graphics processing unit) power. To make Silverlight run well on a Windows Phone 7 device, many changes have been made to the Silverlight graphics engine and other parts of the platform. This download includes a document and samples that illustrate tools, tips, and examples that you can use to make a Silverlight for Windows Phone application run faster and be more responsive.

…”

Here are some content snaps;

O’Matrix… “OData Helper for WebMatrix” [Beta]

James Senior's Blog - Announcing the OData Helper for WebMatrix Beta

“I’m a big fan of working smarter, not harder.  I hope you are too.  That’s why I’m excited by the helpers in WebMatrix which are designed to make your life easier when creating websites.  There are a range of Helpers available out of the box with WebMatrix – you’ll use these day in, day out when creating websites – things like Data access, membership, WebGrid and more.  Get more information on the built-in helpers here.

It’s also possible to create your own helpers (more on that in a future blog post) to enable other people to use your own services or widgets.  We are are currently working on a community site for people to share and publicize their own helpers – stay tuned for more information on that. 

Today we are releasing the OData Helper for WebMatrix.  Designed to make it easier to use OData services in your WebMatrix website, we are open sourcing it on CodePlex and is available for you to download, use, explore and also contribute to.  You can download it from the CodePlex website.

…

…”

CodePlex - OData Helper

“The OData Helper for WebMatrix and ASP.NET Web Pages allows you to easily retrieve and update data from any service that exposes its data using the OData Protocol.

Get Started in 60 seconds

1. Download the OData Helper DLL
2. In your WebMatrix project, create a folder named "bin" off the root
3. Copy the OData Helper DLL there
4. Check out the documentation
5. Start writing queries!

…”

A couple of my favorite things… OData, example of extending a development environment, and the courage to release source code… :)

BTW, if you haven’t checked it out recently, you should wonder by the OData Primer wiki. This wiki is currently a curated list of resources, links and information about OData (for example, I added the above post to it before writing this… ;) It’s OData for the community by the community.

(via Channel 9 - Announcing the OData Helper for WebMatrix)

Related Past Post XRef:
A WebMatrix Roundup

OData Primer – A collaborative effort to gather and share OData information and resources

Four chapters that didn’t make the “"Visual Basic 2010 Unleashed” book are being given to you free...

Alessandro Del Sole's Blog - Free chapters from my book "VB 2010 Unleashed"

“I would like to let you know that you can download for free the "web-only" chapters from my book "Visual Basic 2010 Unleashed". These are chapters that we could not include in the printed book for space reasons. They are available in PDF format from the following links:

Chapter 56: Advanced IDE Features.

Chapter 57: Introducing the Visual Studio Extensibility.

Chapter 58: Advanced Analysis Tools.

Chapter 59: Testing Code with Unit Tests, Test-Driven Development, and Code Contracts.

In these chapters I discuss the Visual Studio extensibility, advanced IDE features (such as code snippets and templates), analysis tools like IntelliTrace and Code Analysis but also unit testing, test driven development and the new Code Contracts library. All against Visual Basic 2010 applications. I hope they are useful for your work!” [GD: Post leached in full. Click through for the PDF download links]

What I liked about this was that the chapters were not preview chapters of stuff already in the book, but extra, above and beyond, content. The PDF’s are professional/publish grade content, 100 pages of it…

[Fun] Halo 2600 (and other Halo stuff)

Sarah In Tampa - Get Halo Desktop Customization Tools

“With Halo:Reach’s launch only weeks away (it arrives Sept. 14th), when I came across the How-To Geek’s latest regarding a complete desktop customization guide for Halo fans, I thought it was worth sharing.

…

In the meantime, while you wait for Halo:Reach, check out Halo 2600. It’s an free online version of the game, designed as if it was for the Atari 2600. Awesome!”

Halo 2600

Come on… you know you think that’s awesome! :P

Visual Studio Lab Management 2010 goes RTM by the end of month. Also available will be rollup of TFS fixes/updates since its RTM

bharry's WebLog - Lab Management News

“There’s some exciting news about Visual Studio Lab Management today.  You may recall that when we released VS/TFS 2010, we declared the Lab Management capability to be “Release Candidate” quality rather then “Released” quality.  I’ve mentioned before that the reason for this was that we just hadn’t gotten enough customer feedback to feel really confident that it was 100% ready for prime time.  In truth, it really wasn’t usable in Beta 1.  In Beta 2, it wasn’t bad but it relied on adoption of TFS and the new Visual Studio Test Professional capabilities and we just didn’t see enough people get that far before VS was ready to release.  Over the past several months, we’ve been working with early adopters, diagnosing any issues they hit and fixing all the bugs.  In all we’ve fixed a few dozen since the Release Candidate.

And the great news is it’s now ready for the big leagues! :)  So, announcement #1 today at VSLive! (in Dave Mendlen’s keynote) is that Visual Studio Lab Management will “RTM” by the end of August.  There will be an update available that can be applied to your TFS server, your Test Professional client and any build/lab agents that are installed.  This patch includes not only all of the Lab Management fixes but also all of the TFS improvements that we’ve made since release (I blogged a list of them here).  It's a single patch to update all of your installs and it’s such a useful patch, we are exploring putting it on Microsoft Update as an optional update to make it even easier to discover and install. [GD: Emphasis added] …”

… I mentioned the other day in a post that we have a lot of stuff coming out this summer.  Last week I talked about the roll up QFE for TFS, yesterday I talked about VS LightSwitch, today Lab Management and we’re not done yet.  There’s more I’ll be talking about in the coming weeks.  Keep your seat belt buckled.

…”

Nice. We’re in the process of moving to TFS2010 and Lab Management is one of the things we’re including (we’re in the hardware acquisition phase right now) so the timing on this is great… I am looking forward to using this in my day to day world.

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Play with the Visual Studio Lab Management without paying the piper - Visual Studio Lab Management 2010 Pre-release Hyper-V VHD

Help managing your Lab Management VM’s with the “VM Prep tool for the VS 2010 RTM”

Just because it’s virtual doesn’t mean it isn’t real… Using Visual Studio Lab Management to help virtualize your ALM

The Visual Studio 2010 Lab Management video tour – Six videos, 30 minutes, toward Lab Management guru’ism
22 Visual Studio 2010 Testing, ALM, Coded UI, Test Elements, Lab Management and more videos

Pivoting your Code, a Silverlight Pivot of your Visual Studio Solution - VS Solution PivotViewer

Silverlight driven blogging - Visual Studio Solution Pivot Viewer. Add-on for VS2010 to Visualize Code Structure

”My previous add-on for Visual Studio (Xaps Minifier) is extremely popular. Many developers and several MVPs use it in their projects already. I am going to extend its functionality to simplify developers’ life. I should say, in general, I like the way of developing extensions for Visual Studio 2010 and I am going to continue working at this area.

Several weeks ago, Sergey Zwezdin announced a brainstorming to generate a bunch of ideas for Add-ons for Visual Studio 2010. I described Xaps Minifier and proposed one more idea. The idea was to use Pivot Viewer Silverlight control to visualize source code and some aspects of it.

Abstracts

Pivot Viewer control is used for visualizing big chunk of data and allows filtering and sorting by many criteria. Source code can be used as data that should be analyzed by a developer/team lead etc  to find out bottlenecks. When I say ‘bottlenecks’, I mean classes, files, methods that should be refactored. For example, It is very difficult to maintain large classes or methods. They  should be divided into several pieces or minimized by excluding duplicated code etc.

My add-on should analyze source code, prepare data for PivotViewer and display PivotViewer control and data in it.

…

…”

I’ve heard of the Silverlight Pivot Viewer, but had played with it. Now after seeing it in “my” world, I think I’m going to have to take a closer look at it… ;)

I really like the post/story Max provides, how his addin is implemented and how he brought the different parts together to make it work.

Here’s a snap of addin’s for one of my projects;

You can get it from Visual Studio Gallery - VS Solution PivotViewer or via the Extension Manager.

(via Silverlight Show - Visual Studio Solution Pivot Viewer. Add-on for VS2010 to Visualize Code Structure)

Netduino - .NET Micro Framework, open source, electronics platform, free (software), code walk though, cool…

Make: - New in the Maker Shed: Netduino, a .NET-powered open source electronics platform

“Just in! The Netduino is an open source electronics platform using the .NET Micro Framework. The board features a 32-bit microcontroller and a rich development environment, making it a perfect solution for engineers and hobbyists alike. Here's everything you need to know to get up and running with this amazing little micro controller.

To use Netduino, you'll need to be running Windows XP or later and the free Visual Studio Express 2010 (or the full version).

The Netduino team is hard at work on a fully open source development, compiler, and deployment tool based on MonoDevelop and Mono.

You can download everything you need from the Netduino site. Here are the links you'll need:

1. Microsoft Visual C# Express 2010: http://www.microsoft.com/express/downloads/
2. Microsoft .NET Micro Framework v4.1 SDK: http://www.netduino.com/downloads/MicroFrameworkSDK.msi
3. Netduino SDK v4.1: http://www.netduino.com/downloads/netduinosdk_32bit.exe (for 32-bit Windows) http://www.netduino.com/downloads/netduinosdk_64bit.exe (for 64-bit Windows)

…

…”

As a mostly software guy, I find coding hardware stuff fascinating. From the thought of coding apps for my Zune/XBox 360, to robots (i.e. the RDS), to this, I just think it too cool writing stuff that interacts with the “real world.”

This article makes it seem pretty darn easy. Now all I need to do is to convince my DFO (Domestic Financial Officer… i.e. my wife ;) that I need this “for professional purposes.” LOL (Heck the base hardware is only $35! I think I can slip that in…)

Free Managed Ribbon for WPF from Microsoft (with samples, source, and MVVM… [insert “Oh My” here])

Microsoft Downloads - Microsoft Ribbon for WPF

“Managed implementation of the Ribbon for WPF. The Ribbon is designed to help you quickly find the commands that you need to complete a task.

Version:	3.5.40729.1
Date Published:	8/2/2010
Language:	English
Download Size:	1.1 MB - 3.2 MB*

This release is a managed implementation of the Ribbon for WPF. The Ribbon is a command bar that organizes the features of an application into a series of tabs at the top of the application window, is designed to help you quickly find the commands that you need to complete a task. The Ribbon user interface (UI) increases discoverability of features and functions, enables quicker learning of the application, and helps users feel more in control of their experience with the application. The Ribbon replaces the traditional menu bar and toolbars.

…

Additional Information

Note: There are a large number of design revisions in this release since the CTP version. This is mainly to facilitate MVVM-centric applications.

Design-time: The MSI will install design-time support for Visual Studio 2010 and Expression Blend 4. This includes a project template for a ‘WPF Ribbon Application’, an item template for a ‘Ribbon Window’, and Ribbon controls in the toolbox such as, RibbonButton, RibbonToggleButton, RibbonMenuButton, etc.

Sources: Ribbon source code is available for reference purposes only. Please see EULA for more information.

Samples: A few samples are also included to provide an overall view of all the available Ribbon features integrated within a WPF application. These samples include:

• RibbonWindow Wordpad Sample
  This sample illustrates a Ribbon control hosted within a RibbonWindow that emulates the Wordpad appearance. To run this scenario:
• …
• RibbonWindow MVVM Sample This sample illustrates a Ribbon control hosted within a RibbonWindow that is completely populated from a view-model collection. To run this scenario:
• …
• RibbonBrowser Wordpad sample This sample illustrates a Ribbon control hosted within a browser window that emulates the Wordpad appearance. To run this scenario:
• …
• RibbonBrowser MVVM sample This sample illustrates a Ribbon control hosted within a browser window that is completely populated from a view model collection. To run this scenario:
• …

…”

This makes adding a Ribbon to my personal open source/source available projects much easier (from a licensing point of view). Plus the design time support is very cool as are the samples, and the view pattern (i.e. MVVM) support.

Note: I had a really rough time downloading the MSI’s (I still haven’t been able to get the Source & Samples MSI). And the download page would appear to come and go… Maybe the content is still in the process of being made available? (or it could be my current connection to the Net…sigh) Anyway, if you try the link and it appears to be broken/gone, try again.

Explaining Software Design Patterns to a non-developer…

CodeProject - How I explained Design Patterns to my wife : Part 1

“Learning Object Oriented Design Patterns through some interesting conversations

Introduction

Me and my wife had some interesting conversations on Object Oriented Design principles. After publishing the conversation on CodeProject, I did get some good responses from the community and I am really inspired. So, I am happy to share our next conversation that took place on Object Oriented Design patterns. Here it is.

What is Design Pattern?

Shubho : I guess you already have some basic idea about the Object Oriented Design principles. We had some nice talks on the OOD principles (SOLID principles), and I hope you didn’t mind, I published our conversation in a CodeProject article. You can find it here:

How I explained OOD to my wife

Design patterns are nothing but application of those principles in some specific and common situations, and standardizing some of those. Let’s try to understand what design patterns are by some examples.

Farhana : Sure, I love examples.

…

…”

I thought this a cute article/post… I doubt I’m going to be having this conversation with my wife, but there are other non-developers that I know where this might come in handy.

[Humor] Facebook in the Courtroom

Case in Point - August 2nd 2010

This made me snort-laugh out loud (slol ;)