(Joe Gregorio) You need to understand HTTP caching. No, really, you do. I have mentioned repeatedly that you need to choose your HTTP methods carefully when building a web service, in part because you can get the performance benefits of caching with GET. Well, if you want to get the real advantages
Other News
Customized XML Reader Creation
The following is an example showing how to extend the XmlTextReader to create a reader that converts attributes to elements. The overridden Read provides the logic to track the current node type, and if an attribute, exposes this as an element node type using the XmlNodeType.Name and XmlNodeType.Val
Adding Column Names to an Unload File
(Craig S Mullins) I received an e-mail from a reader asking an interesting question. She wanted to know if any of the DB2 unload utilities are able to include the column names in the same file as the unload output data. This was a requirement because one of the applications her company was planning
Comparing Open Source Licenses: GPL vs. BSDL
(David Chisnall) This article compares the two most popular software licenses in the free and open source software (F/OSS) communities: the GNU General Public License (GPL) and the Berkeley Software Distribution License (BSDL). Each has advantages, but the distinctions are sometimes quite subtle.
TechTip: Use SQL Columnar Functions for Statistics, Summing, and Counting
(Mike Faust) One thing that makes SQL such a powerful language is the ability to do statistical analysis and create a summary in a single SQL statement. This can be achieved through the use of aggregate or columnar functions, which allow you to create total- or subtotal-level summaries. Subtotal-lev
What?!? Callbacks Are Not Just for Sending Strings?!?
(Miguel A. Castro) Like many buzz-words that have circulated our community in the last couple of years, the term AJAX has crept in almost every web discussion taking place. The funny thing is that AJAX concepts and technology are not really new. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a while for good SDK
XML Basics Handbook
(Itech Consulting) This handbook contains basics of xml. The examples given in this handbook can be executed using Notepad, Altova’s XML Spy or EditPlus software. This handbook focuses on basic concepts of xml and targets the novice xml audiences. Also some portions tend to be for intermediate xml p
A user-defined function for culturally correct collation in DB2 UDB
(Doug Doole) When storing multilingual data in a DB2 UDB database, Unicode is often the only encoding that can accommodate the entire range of data. While DB2 can store and process Unicode data, its collation (sorting) capabilities are restricted to binary collations and three cultural collation
Columns and objects to support a surrogate key architecture
(Brian Walker) My previous article described how and why to use a surrogate key structure, as an alternative to natural data keys, to implement relationships between tables. It also provides eight stored procedures to support the architecture. This article builds on that foundation with a framew
Importing UNFORMATTED Excel Sheets using .Net – Part II
(Samuel Isaac) Okay, the more I think about this, the more I feel the title is wrong. The excel sheets I deal with are not entirely unformatted.