After the announcement of the Azure Services platform at PDC 2008 in LA, James Conard and the Microsoft DPE Team has just released the Azure Services Training Kit. I’m proud to say that I was part of the team at Southworks who helped them achieving this amazing milestone

The kit includes labs for:

• Windows Azure
• SQL Data Services
• Live Services
• .Net Services: including labs for the Service Bus, Access Control, and Workflow Services

 Download the training kit here.

The training kit also references to the Azure Services Management Tools. These tools include an MMC SnapIn and Windows PowerShell cmdlets that enable a user to configure and manage several Azure Services including: SQL Data Services, .NET Access Control Services, and the .NET Workflow Services. These tools can be helpful when developing and testing applications that use Azure Services. For instance, using these tools you can easily browse and query data in SQL Data Services, view and change .NET Access Control Rules, and deploy and view workflows.

Vittorio Bertocci used these tools during one of his sessions at PDC: Identity Roadmap for Software + Services

You can download the management tools source code here.

Hi everyone,

Johnny and I in conjunction with the SQL Server guys Zach, Anthony and Moe have been working hard towards tomorrow Tech Ed kick off. It’s all set and we are ready to go. During our rehearsals we’ve met some fellows around and bellow you’ll find some pictures:

 
 From left to right: Johnny, Dave Campbell (Technical Fellow - SQL), and me

 
 From left to right: me, Tim, S. Somasegar (Sr. VP Dev Division), and Johnny

We’ll be waiting for you tomorrow at 8:30 am at the Hall A1 where the last Bill Gates keynote will take place.

Thanks,
Lito

Hi everyone,
During the past two weeks I’ve been working in Microsoft Redmond getting ready for Tech Ed 2008. This was my first time in MS Corp. and it was an extremely valuable experience.

This week I’ll be pretty busy attending Tech Ed 2008 as part of the SQL Booth staff with Johnny and Tim, but I’m planning to share with you more info after the event. In the meantime I can share with you some pictures of this amazing trip:

If your are planning to attend, come to visit us at the SQL booth. This is our schedule:

Staffing Commitments
	TLC/Green/DAT- SQL Server Upgrade & SQL Server Data Services	June 03	11:45 AM	2:45 PM
	TLC/Green/DAT- SQL Server Upgrade & SQL Server Data Services	June 04	8:15 AM	11:45 AM
	TLC/Green/DAT- SQL Server Upgrade & SQL Server Data Services	June 05	8:15 AM	11:45 AM
	TLC/Green/DAT- SQL Server Upgrade & SQL Server Data Services	June 06	8:15 AM	11:45 AM

Stay tuned!

Thanks,
Lito

Microsoft Architecture Strategy Team has just shipped a new version of their LitwareHR Sample Application. I’m proud to say that I was part of the team who helped them to achieve this amazing milestone

Among other things, this release includes:

You can download the sample application from Codeplex using this link.

Eugenio Pace has also published a series of posts where describes the "behind the scenes" behavior of the sample application, including code, screenshots, and a end to end demo video.

1. SQL Server Data Services - SSDS - New version of LitwareHR
2. LitwareHR on SSDS - Part I - Multi-tenancy & Flexibility
3. LitwareHR on SSDS - Part II - The data access layer
4. LitwareHR on SSDS - Part III - Data access enhancements 1: caching
5. LitwareHR on SSDS - Part IV - Data access enhancements 2: developing offline
6. LitwareHR on SSDS - Part V - Searching across Containers
7. More on parallel queries across containers in SSDS
8. LitwareHR on SSDS - Part VI - Unit of Work support
9. Paging in SSDS & Parallel Queries
10. End to end demo of LitwareHR on SSDS

Also you can find more information in this post by Gianpaolo Carraro.
Stay tuned to Gianpaolo’s and Eugenio’s blog for more information.

Thanks,
Lito

Last weekend I’ve been researching and learning about the new features in SQL Server 2008. I’ve focused my research on features like Sparse Columns and specially, Spatial Data. In this post you’ll find the results of my research with useful links and information.

Note: By the time this was posted, SQL Server 2008 latest release was February 2008 CTP.

SQL Server 2008 Overview

Here you’ll find the product’s overview with a complete list of new features included in SQL Server 2008. In the meantime take a look at all the improvements made under the topic “Store any information”:

DATE/TIME

SQL Server 2008 introduces new date and time data types:

• DATE—A date-only type
• TIME—A time-only type
• DATETIMEOFFSET—A time-zone-aware datetime type
• DATETIME2—A datetime type with larger fractional seconds and year range than the existing DATETIME type

The new data types enable applications to have separate data and time types while providing large data ranges or user defined precision for time values.

HIERARCHY ID

Enable database applications to model tree structures in a more efficient way than currently possible. New system type HierarchyId can store values that represent nodes in a hierarchy tree. This new type will be implemented as a CLR UDT, and will expose several efficient and useful built-in methods for creating and operating on hierarchy nodes with a flexible programming model.

FILESTREAM Data

Allow large binary data to be stored directly in an NTFS file system, while preserving an integral part of the database and maintaining transactional consistency. Enable the scale-out of large binary data traditionally managed by the database to be stored outside the database on more cost-effective storage without compromise.

Integrated Full Text Search

Integrated Full Text Search makes the transition between Text Search and relational data seamless, while enabling users to use the Text Indexes to perform high-speed text searches on large text columns.

Sparse Columns

NULL data consumes no physical space, providing a highly efficient way of managing empty data in a database. For example, Sparse Columns allows object models that typically have numerous null values to be stored in a SQL Server 2005 database without experiencing large space costs.

Large User-Defined Types

SQL Server 2008 eliminates the 8-KB limit for User-Defined Types (UDTs), allowing users to dramatically expand the size of their UDTs.

Spatial Data Types

Build spatial capabilities into your applications by using the support for spatial data.

• Implement Round Earth solutions with the geography data type. Use latitude and longitude coordinates to define areas on the Earth’s surface.
• Implement Flat Earth solutions with the geometry data type. Store polygons, points, and lines that are associated with projected planar surfaces and naturally planar data, such as interior spaces.

Take a look at this nice diagram showing the SQL Server 2008 Improvement Pillars.

Sparse Columns

Sparse columns are ordinary columns that have an optimized storage for null values. Sparse columns reduce the space requirements for null values at the cost of more overhead to retrieve non-null values.
Because sparse columns have many null-valued rows, they are especially appropriate for filtered indexes. A filtered index on a sparse column can index only the rows that have populated values. This creates a smaller and more efficient index

• Using Sparse Columns
• SQL Server 2008 Sparse Columns
• SQL Server and Sparse Columns

Spatial Data Support

Spatial data represents information about the physical location and shape of geometric objects. These objects can be point locations or more complex objects such as countries, roads, or lakes.

SQL Server supports two spatial data types: the geometry data type and the geography data type. Both data types are implemented as .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) data types in SQL Server.

Jason Follas has published a series of posts where he describes in detail the concepts behind spatial data and how to use the SQL Server 2008 implementation:

1. SQL Server Spatial Data Part 1
2. SQL Server Spatial Data Part 2
3. SQL Server Spatial Data Part 3
4. SQL Server Spatial Data Part 4
5. SQL Server Spatial Data Part 5
6. SQL Server Spatial Data Part 6

More links related to SQL Server Spatial Data:

• Working with Spatial Data (Database Engine)
• Microsoft Shares Details on SQL Server 2008 Spatial Support
• Microsoft Readies SQL Server CTP-5 with Spatial Datatype Support

Hope this helps! And stay tuned since I will be posting more about SQL Server 2008 features.

If you need to change the proxy settings for the any of the system account like Network Service you can use the “bitsAdmin” command as shown in the following example:

bitsAdmin /Util /SetIEProxy NETWORKSERVICE MANUAL_PROXY [myProxy]:[myPort]

You can find the complete reference for this command at: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-US/library/aa362813.aspx

Thanks,

Lito

Last week I faced an issue when trying to download a clickOnce application using IE7. After browsing the download link, IE did nothing but showed a blank page, or actually it got closed.

Finally, I realized that this was caused because some security settings where missing. In order to workaround this, use the following steps:

1. Open IE
2. Go to Tools -> Internet options
3. Security Tab –> Click “Custom Level…” button for the Internet Zone

4. Enable .Net Framework-reliant components as depicted below:

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Lito

Microsoft Architecture Strategy Team has just shipped a new version of their LitwareHR Sample Application. I’m proud to say that I was part of the team who helped them to achieve this amazing milestone

Among other things, this release includes:

• Upgraded platform to VS 2008 Beta 2 and Windows Server 2008 RC0
• Upgraded codebase
• Simple RSS support
• Simple REST interfaces
• Enhanced data access for increased performance
• Integration with Silverlight Streaming for "Video Resumes" feature
• A new version of the Smart Client & integrated ClickOnce deployment

You can download the sample application from Codeplex using this link.

Also you can find more information in this post by Gianpaolo Carraro.
Stay tuned to Gianpaolo’s and Eugenio’s blog for more information.

Thanks,
Lito

When trying to install ADAM on Windows Server 2008 RC0 (aka Longhorn) Enterprise Edition, Build 6001, I faced the following error:

After doing some research, and playing around with the installation, I found the following workaround:

1.       Install ADAM on a non-Longhorn machine such as Windows Server 2003.

2.       Copy the %WINDIR%\ADAM folder that is created to the same location on your Longhorn  server

3.       Create a new registry key called HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ADAM_Shared

4.       Under this key, create a new Multi-String value called "SharedFolders"

5.       Copy the vssapi.dll file, located at %WINDIR%\System32 from the W2K3 installation, to the following destination in the Longhorn server: %WINDIR%\ADAM

6.       Now, run adaminstall.exe from your %WINDIR%\ADAM directory and follow the wizard.  Do not import any LDIF files.

7.       Finally, run ldifde.exe for each import you wanted to have in step #6.  The correct command line arguments to use are listed at the top of each .ldf file. Some examples:

%WINDIR%\adam\ldifde -i -f %WINDIR%\adam\MS-AZMan.ldf -s servername:port -k -j . -c "CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=X" #schemaNamingContext

%WINDIR%\adam\ldifde -i -f %WINDIR%\adam\MS-User.ldf -s servername:port  -k -j . -c "CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=X" #schemaNamingContext

%WINDIR%\adam\ldifde -i -f %WINDIR%\adam\MS-UserProxy.ldf -s servername:port  -k -j . -c "CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=X" #schemaNamingContext

%WINDIR%\adam\ldifde -i -f %WINDIR%\adam\MS-InetOrgPerson.ldf -s servername:port -k -j . -c "CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=X" #schemaNamingContext

8.       In order to enable the MMC “ADAM ADSI Edit” snap-in , register manually the following DLL using this command:

%WINDIR%\ADAM\regsvr32  -i  ADAM-ADSIEdit.dll

9.       Finally, add a shortcut to the MMC snap-in located at:

%WINDIR%\ADAM\ ADAM-adsiedit.msc

References:       http://dunnry.com/blog/InstallingADAMOnVista.aspx

Hope this helps!

There are situations in which you might need to use or send a message in an orchestration within an exception handler block, but get a compiler error because the message was constructed in the associated scope outside the exception handler block.

For example, consider the following orchestration:

As you can see, I’m trying to send a message that was constructed outside the exception handler block. If an exception is raised before the message is constructed (for example in "Expression_1"), the orchestration will fail sending it.

Luckily, the compiler will warn us about this situation generating the following error:

error X2110: use of unconstructed message ‘myMessage’

In order to deal with this scenario, there is an operator in BizTalk Server 2004 that can be used to determine the outcome of a transactional scope, thus providing us the ability to know if the code within that scope was successfully executed or not.  This operator is called "succeeded()". This operator receives one parameter: the Transaction Identifier of the associated scope.

In our sample, in order to know when to send the message, we should construct the message in a transactional scope, and then ask for the execution result of that scope using the "succeeded()" operator in a Decide Shape, as shown in the following orchestration:

Note: The orchestration samples shown in this article were created in order to illustrate the usage of the "succeeded()" operator. Probably, they won’t have meaning in real scenarios.

Hope this to be useful!