(Mike Gold) A while ago I wrote an article on a strategy for extending the string class in the .NET Framework. The problem with extending many .NET 2.0 classes was that they were sealed, so you could not inherit from them, making extending them painful. Well it looks like Microsoft has waved their
Other News
The JOIN is the Cornerstone of Powerful Queries
(Kenneth Downs) Last week we started a new sub-series on queries. Today we are going to see one of the most important parts of any query, the JOIN clause. The JOIN is the fundamental mechanism for combining data from different tables.
Comparing Objects (Pointer Equality) in VB.NET
(srego) It was not readily obvious to me how to compare references (pointers) to an object to see if both references are pointing to the same object in VB.NET.
PBXT, or how to really exploit the plugin architecture
(Giuseppe Maxia) MySQL 5.1 introduces the plugin interface, a series of API that allow the load and unload of server components at runtime. The idea behind this architecture is to make MySQL server really expandable.
Remote DBA Services
(Alex Polishchuk) Remote database administration (DBA) is one of hottest trends in the market these days. Numerous companies in various industries rely more and more on external database administrators to support their production, development and QA systems. These companies range from small size com
Working with XML
(Nelson Kosta Souto) The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) has seen widespread adoption throughout almost every industry in recent years. Its ability to allow applications to exchange data in a standardized format through web services and XML documents, and its adoption by SQL Server 2005 and most of
SQL Server Tracing: An Automated and Centralized Solution
(Shawn McGehee) SQL Server auditing has never been my favorite aspect of a DBA’s work. In order to get a complete picture of your server at a transactional level, you need either full time Profiler tracing, or to enable C2 level auditing; both of which come at a cost that my clients and I are not wi
Implementing Access Controls on SQL Server Data
(Ivan Pepelnjak) Most relational databases provide fine-tuned access controls to various objects in the database, including tables, views, and indices, but lack the support for individual row (record) access control. It’s similar to how an operating system would provide access control to directories
SQL Server 2008 security and compliance features reduce security risks
(Kevin Beaver) With the SQL Server 2008 release here (and the official shipment coming in Q3), there’s a lot of buzz around the more visible features and selling points of Redmond’s latest. Things like the new data platform, business intelligence, and database consolidation are certainly appealing –
Handling Slowly Changing Dimensions in SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) Packages
(Ray Barley) We have experimented with the Slowly Changing Dimension (SCD) Data Flow Transformation that is available in the SSIS designer and have found a few issues with it. Our major concern is the use of the OLE DB Command Data Flow Transformation for all updates (inferred, type 1 and type 2) t