New SelectViews Show Posted
The Weekly SQL Server show about all sorts of different things from how-to to commentary has been updated. This weeks show:
Replication Troubleshooting, Managing SQL Server as a Part-Time DBA, Web 2.0 Book(s) Reviewed, Noise and News in the DB world. Also, the 60-Second SQL Server Tip of the Day, Upcoming Events and Information About the Virtual Conference. Lots on the Show!
Altova Has Updated XMLSpy
Just releaesed – XMLSpy 2008. If you want to use the industry-standard XML editor and IDE, this is it. Altova’s interface lets you quickly, easily and visually work with XML files, making it a snap to understand what you need to do with information to make it work for your applications. From markup to testing and everything in between, you can’t beat XMLSpy. Check it out here.
Images in the Database
Mark wrote in with some great feedback and experience putting images in the database (vs. storing them on disk and then putting a reference to their location in the database) – you can send in your thoughts here.
"I am always of the opinion that related data should be stored together. If the images are data, and the related data is in a database, then the images need to be stored in the database. The overriding concern is too minimize the potential for conflicting data states by having different data sources out of sync. Having images files separate from the related data in the database opens the likelihood that the image files can be changed/moved/renamed/deleted independent of the related data in the database.
His example, the ecommerce site, with product images to be displayed, is a good example. If the ecommerce site is building product pages from database queries, the images should be stored in the database and retrieved for display when the pages are built for display. If the site has static HTML pages, with the product information “hard-coded” in the web page, the images should be stored near the web pages.
I have worked with a document management application that stored tens of thousands of image files in SQL Server. The primary purpose of the system was to store emergency room physicians reports on patients. This reports were faxed or emailed in, and stored as jpeg images in varbinary columns. It was critical that these images were stored in the database, for 1) security (since it was patient medical data, it needed to be protected and restricted access), 2) storage (it’s more efficient to store in database tables that inefficient disk clusters), and 3) archival (easier and better to archive the document images with the rest of the patient/site visit data). For efficient storage, it was better to have these images not only in a table by itself (with the foreign key to the visit records), but also but the table in a separate filegroup. That helped to efficiently keep the image data from fragmenting the rest of the data, especially when page splits cause extents."
Last Day: Survey Closes Tonight
If you have a minute or two – we have a new concept we’d like to first explain to you, then get your feedback on. I need to know what you think of it, what you’d like to see, what type of experiences you’ve had, etc. I’ve created a short video explaining the idea, then we have a survey. Now, I know, I know. Surveys are not everyone’s favorite thing, but I really need to get your feedback and know what you think about this.
We’ve added some incentive too for the survey – by filling out the survey, you’re automagically entered in the drawing for a prize! The prizes are sure to be of interest, it’s cold hard cash. We’ll have one (1) $200 grand prize, one (1) $100 second prize and three (3) prizes at $50. So, you have *5* chances to win.
This all hinges on feedback we receive, so we’ll be running this for a few weeks here to get as much feedback as possible.
Click here to see the video and take the survey – and please do let others know about this. I’m not trying to generate traffic (no login or membership is required) – but I do need to hear from as many people as possible.
*Thanks* for your help! (If you have any trouble with the page or the survey, please email me and let me know).
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SQLCMD — Part IV — Concatenating string with a Scripting Variable
(Vadivel Mohanakrishnan) In this article we would look into the way to concatenate strings into a scripting variable and reuse them for multiple purpose. Target audience: Basic to intermediate level developers.
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