Many times we come across situations where in due to inconsistent coding/naming standards it becomes very difficult to debug the code or to maintain the code in a long run. Especially from a maintenance standpoint it is very essential that we follow coding standards. A little extra effort/time for incorporating coding standards results in an easy to maintain code.

Defining and following Naming/Coding Conventions/Standards, helps in maintaining consistent standards accross Projects/Organization. During the process of implementing the changes/CR's/debugging, these standards make the life of developers/testers lot more simpler :-)



Here are few tips on coding standards.

• As soon as you drop a Task/Component/Transformation on the designer Name It.
• Use Standard Naming Conventions for every object in the package (Like Package, Task, Component, Transformation, Configurations, Checkpoint & Configuration files, Variable Names etc).
• Update the Descriptions for Tasks/Components/Transformations etc. Names & Descriptions will be helpful especially while debugging a package.
• Use meaningful names/phrases for Task Precedence Constraints and Output from each of the Components/Transformations within the Data Flow Task.
• Use Annotations with a brief Description/Write up at the Package level and also inside each of the Data Flow Task. This will be helpful from a maintenance standpoint and will server as a short documentation. 

This list is updated as & when there is something relevant & worth mentioning.

Here are the links to few very useful and important video tutorials. These videos are made available to the developers directly by Microsoft.

Setup Videos - These videos are very useful for successfull installation of SQL Server and to ensure that there are no installation issues during the course of development.

• Installing SQL Server 2008

Integration Services Videos - These videos explain about various componsnts of SQL Server 2008 Integration Services (SSIS). These videos will help in understanding the various features & capabilities of SSIS. 

• Creating a Basic Package 
• Designing Your SSIS Packages for Parallelism 
• Exporting SQL Server Data to Excel 
• How to: Automate SSIS Package Execution by Using the SQL Server Agent 
• How to: Call a Web Service by Using the Web Service Task  
• How to: Implement a Lookup Transformation in Full Cache Mode 
• How to: Use the Data Profiling Task 
• Measuring and Understanding the Performance of Your SSIS Packages in the Enterprise 
• Troubleshooting: SSIS Package Execution Using SQL Server Agent 
• Tuning Your SSIS Package Data Flow in the Enterprise  
• Understanding SSIS Data Flow Buffers 

Analysis Services Videos - These videos explain the basics of SQL Server Analysis Services. These are especially helpful for the beginners to understand how to create a project in SSAS, Deploy Cube, Work with Dimensions, Measures, Hierarchies etc.

• Creating an Analysis Services Project
• Defining and Deploying a Cube
• Modifying Measures, Attributes and Hierarchies

Reporting Services Videos - These videos explain the basic steps involved in the creation of a basic tabular report using a Report Wizard/Report Builder.

• Create a Basic Table Report with a Wizard (Report Builder 2.0 Video)

Note: The links posted here are just for my reference and for any beginners/anybody who is interested in learning various components of Microsoft SQL Server.

This is just for fun :-)

KT - Knowledge Transition is a very common need in the IT Industry.

New entrants to projects enjoy this :-)

Q. How to Start SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) from Run Prompt?

A. Go to Start -> Run. Type "sqlwb" and click "Ok". This will launch SQL Server Management Studio.

More Shortcuts on SQL Server Client Applications Here.

Q. How to comment multiple lines of SQL statements in SQL Server Management Studio?

A. Select the line(s) of code to be commented and then press "CTRL+K" & "CTRL+C" one after the other. This will comment the selected line(s) of SQL Statements.

Q. How uncomment multiple lines of SQL statements in SQL Server Management Studio?

A. Select the line(s) of code to be commented and then press "CTRL+K" & "CTRL+U" one after the other. This will uncomment the selected line(s) of SQL Statements.

Q. What is the Shortcut for parsing SQL Queries in SQL Server Management Studio?

A. Parsing an SQL Server will check for any syntactical errors in the selected set of SQL Statements. To parse SQL Statement(s) in SQL Server Management Studio select the SQL Statement(s) and then press "CTRL + F5"

Q. What is the Shortcut for running/executing SQL queries in SQL Server Management Studio?

A. Select the SQL Statement(s) to be executed and then press any of the following to execute the selected SQL Statement(s):

1. F5

2. CTRL + E

Q. How to navigate between query pane and results pane in SQL Server Management Studio?

A. The following are the shortcuts for navigating between the query pane and the results pane in SQL Server Management Studio:

To move from Query pane to the results pane press "F6"

To move from results pane to the Query pane press "SHIFT + F6"

Note:- The above listed shortcuts are applicable for SQL Server 2005 Management Studio. Some of these shortcuts might not work with SQL Server 2008 Management Studio.

The following are few of the questions commonly asked by many techies. Also these are the shortcuts which make techies lives easier.

Q. How to invoke SQL Server Management Studio from Run prompt ?
A. Go to Start -> Run. Type sqlwb for SQL Server 2005 Client, Type ssms for SQL Server 2008 Client and click "Ok". This will launch SQL Server Management Studio.




Q. How to invoke SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio from Run prompt ?
A. Go to Start -> Run. Type devenv and click OK. This will launch SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio (works for SQL Server 2005 Client).

Often there is a need for auto refreshing of dashboards (pages containing dashboards). This is especially needed in the public display systems containing dashboards which need to get refreshed automatically at regular intervals.

The auto refresh functionality can be easily achieved using the following method.






Place a "Content Editor" Web Part on the page, and paste the below code in the Editor (Source Editor) of "Content Editor" Web Part.

<meta equiv="refresh" content="60">

The above code will refresh the dashboard (dashboard page) every1 Min (60 Seconds).

Many times developers instead of deleting a web part from SharePoint page end up clicking on the cross (X) mark on the top right corner of the web part Chrome. This will not delete Web Part from the page instead it will hide the web part.

So now the question is "How to unhide hidden Web Parts in SharePoint Page?". This article covers the steps for unhiding/restoring the hidden/closed Web Parts. The article also covers approaches for deleting Web Part from the SharePoint Page.

To list all the closed web parts on a SharePoint page type the following in the browsers address bar:

http://MySite/Pages/Page.aspx?contents=1

In the above link replace "MySite" with name of your site.

To restore any of the closed web parts follow these steps:

1. Open the SharePoint page which has hidden/closed web parts
2. Go To "Site Actions" > "Edit Page"
3. Select "Add Web Part" in one of the web part zones on the page
4. In the "Add Web Part Page" Click on "Advanced Web Part Gallery and Options" in the bottom right corner
5. Drag the Closed Web Part(s) to the desired Web Part Zone

There are two ways for deleting a Web Part from the SharePoint page. These are as follows:

Approach 1:

1. Type http://MySite/Pages/Page.aspx?contents=1 in the browsers address bar (replacing "MySite" with the name of your site)
2. Selected the Web Part(s) which you want to delete and Click on the "Delete" button

Approach 2:

1. Open the SharePoint page which has from which you want to delete the Web Parts
2. Go To "Site Actions" > "Edit Page"
3. Click on the top right corner in the Web Part Chrome and Choose "Delete" from the drop down
4. Click "OK"