Brian (and Infragistics) is having a theme give-away... As in giving away some of their WPF and Silverlight themes

Brian Lagunas - FREE Metro Light and Dark Themes for WPF and Silverlight Microsoft Controls

The quest for a good application theme never ends.  You spend hours scouring the realms of Google and Bing looking for a clean, modern, and touch friendly theme to use in your application.  That is, until now!  If you have been looking for a free Metro theme for WPF and Silverlight, then look no further.

Infragistics ships a number of great themes with their NetAdvantage for WPF and Silverlight products.  As the Product Manager for these controls, I started asking myself, “Why should we keep these great themes to ourselves?”.  If you know me, you know I am a hard core XAML developer and I am all about community.  Heck, I single handedly wrote the most popular Extended WPF toolkit in the world, and I provided it to everyone for free.  So starting today, I am excited to announce that I am going to be giving away, all of our themes for the standard WPF and Silverlight Microsoft controls.  Yes, I said GIVING AWAY, as in FREE.

There is a catch though.  We will NOT support every single Microsoft control.  Why?  Well, because we would prefer for you to use our controls instead.  For example, we will not be providing a style for the Microsoft DataGrid because we have a much better xamDataGrid control.  You get the idea.  Also,  I am not going to give them to you all at once.  I am going to release them a one at a time.  Why?  Well, I want to see what kind of response I get from the community.  If I get zero response or support from the community, then there is no need to keep releasing themes.  I don’t want to waste my time, or the developers who create these themes time.  On the other hand, if the community gives me an overwhelming show of support, then I will be releasing more themes.  Seems fair, wouldn’t you agree?

Today’s free theme is a clean, modern, touch friendly theme in the form of the Infragistics’ Metro Theme.  You will be getting both a Light and Dark version. ...

...

Silverlight

You can see the full list of supported controls in the list below.

• Accordion
• AutoCompleteBox
• BusyIndicator
• Button
• CheckBox
• ComboBox
• Expander
• GridSplitter
• Label
• ListBox
• PasswordBox
• ProgressBar
• RadioButton
• Rating
• RepeatButton
• Slider
• TabControl
• TextBox
• ToggleButton
• Tooltip

...

WPF

Next up is the WPF version of the Infragistics’ Metro Theme.  Just like the Silverlight version, we are providing you with styles for the primitive WPF controls that appear in the Visual Studio toolbox, as well as some controls in the WPF Toolkit.  Just like for the Silverlight version, we organized the themes by their respective source so that if you don’t use the WPF toolkit, there will be no need for your code to take a dependency on it..

Here is the full list of support controls:

• Accordion
• AutoCompleteBox
• Button
• CheckBox
• ComboBox
• Expander
• GridSplitter
• GroupBox
• Label
• ListBox
• PasswordBox
• ProgressBar
• RadioButton
• Rating
• RepeatButton
• Slider
• TextBox
• ToggleButton
• Tooltip

...

..."

This made me chuckle, "There is a catch though.  We will NOT support every single Microsoft control.  Why?  Well, because we would prefer for you to use our controls instead..." GOT to love that kind of clear and honest answer. Will that me everyone happy? No, it's the internet. I'm sure someone will whine... But hey, what do you want for free, your money back?

I applaud them for looking at their stuff and saying, "you know, this isn't directly revenue generating and we could do something nice for the community by giving some of our theme's away." Or they could have been thinking, "OMG the WPF app's I'm seeing are pretty darn fugly. Maybe if we gave our themes away..." Or more likely, "Brian, will you shut the heck up and stop bugging us about 'community' if we give something away? Like maybe our themes?"

Anyway, no matter what they were thinking, I'm glad they are doing it.

Finally I also like that it's a a little WPF and Silverlight love... :)

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MarraLAB for Visual Studio, your new DDE (Debugging, Deployment Environment)

Visual Studio Gallery - MarraLAB for Visual Studio

Traditionally, esoteric knowledge on how to tear down, troubleshoot and debug applications has been difficult to surface, discover and reuse among teams: MarraLAB solves this problem. MarraLAB helps teams graphically surface solution-specific scripts, processes and workflows ...

CREATED BY: Grey Ham (BrekIT)

SUPPORTS Visual Studio 2012

LAST UPDATED 5/31/2013

VERSION 0.5

...

Please see the extensive Getting Started guide which covers most of the functionality of MarraLAB in a Walkthrough / Tutorial style.

MarraLAB tightly integrates into Visual Studio to help developers automate their repetitive programming and debugging tasks when working across physical/virtual machines and devices.

...

Do I need MarraLAB?

• Would you like to 'Attach to Process...' with a single click on local and remote processes?
• Would you like to build and deploy projects by dragging a Visual Studio Project onto a running machine?
• Would you like to be able to run complex scripts to setup target machines for debugging?
• Would you like to automate mundane development and debugging tasks and allow your development team to easily reuse that knowledge?

If your answer to any of those question is "Yes", then consider trying MarraLAB. This version is FREE!

What does MarraLAB do?

MarraLAB associates rules and scripts with files, filetypes (ie: by extension or file pattern) or Visual Studio Projects. When projects or files are dropped onto a target device (thumbnail) you are given the choice of executing any associated scripts.

That's it!

These scripts are written by yourself (with lots of help from MarraLAB) and might include building a project and deploying it to the drop target. The script might know that dropping a .REG file onto a device means to import its contents into the remote registry. That a file with a .MSI extensions needs to be installed. And as the scripts are written in PowerShell, there is no limit to what you can do: with creativity, you can use the same principles to deploy troubleshooting tools and configuration changes to a remote machine.

And all of this knowledge can be surfaced graphically and shared with your team.

...

Some examples please...

For example: out of the box, MarraLAB provides a generic 'copy' Rule that knows how to deploy any File or Folder dropped on a target device - the user is given the option of which script to execute for the matched file pattern:

MarraLAB can also be used to automate the building and deploying of a Visual Studio Project/Solution or the installation of your common Troubleshooting Tools. For example:

...

To get the best out of MarraLAB, it is recommended the MarraLAB Agent (provided inside the VSIX download) be installed on your target machines (Vista SP2+). The Agent is a lightweight, native C++/ATL/COM/HTTPS-based System Service that provides a much better experience for developers using MarraLAB: instead of worrying about configuring file permissions, opening ports and modifying your system to cater for remote administration, the Agent opens up a single port on the remote test machine and provides powerful file transfer, process and session management functionality.

...

Supported Operating Systems

The MarraLAB Visual Studio Package is supported on Visual Studio 2012 Professional and above. MarraLAB will not work with Visual Studio 2012 Express.

The MarraLAB Agent (optional - but recommended for devtest machines) is supported on all operating systems from Windows Vista SP2+ and above.

Future Development

This is the first Beta release of MarraLAB. An entirely free version of MarraLAB with unlimited usage rights will always be available in future that provides "at least" the functionality available in this Beta.

A paid "Professional" Version will be made available around August/September 2013 that will provide much more functionality. More on that and what it will contain nearer the time.

..."

Don't see something like this, with this level of features, every day. Looks pretty darn cool and I like the option for the Agent. I've been there, done that, where creating a local agent as a command proxy is just so much easier than trying to get remote admin stuff all configured and working.

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TechEd Reveal - Looks like BizTalk ain't dead yet... BizTalk Services on Azure to be announced next week?

Winson's Technical Multiverse - BizTalk Services (on Windows Azure) prequel

Once the NDA lifts, I will be able to provide additional information on what is known as BizTalk Services.

This should be in early next week. ...

Interesting! Good to see BizTalk isn't dead and is being "cloudified"... Depending on price, options, etc, this might spur adoption. Then again, thinking about how I've heard of BizTalk being used, getting the biz to buy off on it being in the cloud might be interesting. Then again, it might be a no brainer too.

Looks like next week's going to be an interesting week.

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From A to W... The US Gov goes Git (and API crazy too). There's an insane about of data, API's and OSS projects from the US Government...

Nextgov - White House Releases New Tools for Digital Strategy Anniversary

The White House marked the one-year anniversary of its digital government strategy Thursday with a slate of new releases, including a catalog of government APIs, a toolkit for developing government mobile apps and a new framework for ensuring the security of government mobile devices.

Those releases correspond with three main goals for the digital strategy: make more information available to the public; serve customers better; and improve the security of federal computing.

...

DATA.Gov - Developer Resources

Government Open Source Projects

That list of API's and projects just blows my mind... I mean... wow. If you're looking to wander through some code, there HAS to be something here that you'll find interesting. There's something for every language, platform and interest, I think...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Happy Birthday Data.gov. You’ve grown so in the last year… (from 47 to 272,677 datasets)

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Windows 8.1 Pre-beta WinRT API Spelunking (Think, "What's new in the Win8.1 WinRT API's" or "Wow, this is a ton of information..." or "OMG, Justin needs a life..." ;)

Justin Angel - Pre-beta Windows 8.1 WinRT Developer APIs

In this article we’ll review new developer WinRT features that’ll be released in the upcoming Windows 8 release (dubbed “Windows 8.1” / “Windows Blue”). Microsoft recently announced that during June 2013’s BUILD conference a developer preview of Windows 8.1 will be released for download. In the meanwhile many Windows 8.1 “leaked” images are available online. These “leaked” images allows us to get a sneak preview of the featuresets that’ll be announced in BUILD conference. For the length of this article we’ll go over those features.

Methodology: How was this research done?

Windows 8.1 images contain WinMD files describing their embedded Windows 8.1 developers APIs. It’s possible to get to Win8.1’s WinMD files and then compare them to the existing Windows 8 RTM WinMD files. This entire article is based upon using Reflection to see those API differences.

1. Download the latest Windows 8.1 “leaked” image. This article was based on an image named “9385.0.FBL_PARTNER_OUT17.130415-2049_X86FRE_CLIENT_EN-US-PL-PL-RU-RU.ISO”.
2. Create a bootable USB drive from the ISO file and Install it on a nearby machine.
3. Win8.1’s WinMD files can be found under the following directory: C:\Windows\System32\WinMetadata
4. Using Microsoft’s Framework Design Studio it’s then possible to compare the WinMD files from a WIndows 8.1 “leaked” image and Windows 8 RTM. 

...

Table of Contents

1. Bluetooth 4.0 RfComm and GATT support
2. Point of sale: Barcode scanners and Magnetic card readers
3. Smart Cards
4. Lock screen Image Apps
5. VPN support for Metro apps
6. Scanner APIs and apps
7. Support for any External / USB device
8. Native PDF rendering in apps
9. Multiple screens projection support in apps
10. XAML/WinJS: New resolution scaling support / Super-high resolution tablets
11. Camera: Low-lag cameras / HDR
12. New Metro App Types: Appointments, LockScreen, Contacts and GeoLoc
13. New App Type: GeoFenced activation
14. New App Type: Lock screen call
15. New App Type: Appointments Provider
16. Text-to-speech
17. Read-write access to Camera roll, Saved pictures and playlists
18. XAML/WinJS: new SearchBox control
19. XAML/WinJS: Hubs for SemanticZoom
20. XAML: DatePicker and TimePicker
21. XAML: Flyout, MenuFlyout and SettingsMenuFlyout
22. XAML: AppBar simplification
23. XAML: DataBinding Improvements
24. Globalization: Currencies, Numeral systems and Numerical formatters
25. Other minor but important Win8.1 features
26. How to code Win8.1 C# apps before public beta?
27. How to develop Win8.1 WinJS apps before public beta?
28. Disclaimer: Please don’t sue me

This is a book length, "omg, this looks like a ton of work" look at the unreleased Windows 8.1 WinRT changes

 

(via Windows Enterprise Desktop - Analysis of Windows 8.1 “Blue” APIs Reveals Cool Coming Attractions)

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Edward Farley and the Fantastic Library - A 12 part tale of the Entity Framework Code First

Software Meadows - Edward Farley and the Fantastic Library Part 1

1) Preface
2) Introduction
3) A Simple Table
4) One to One or Many
5) Zero or One to Zero or Many
6) One to Zero or Many
7) One to Zero or One
8) One to One
9) Many to Many, Simple
10) Many to Many with Payload
11) Enumerables
12) Inheritance

Entity Framework 5 Code First Relationships

Preface

When I started this series about Entity Framework, I needed a good metaphor for the database relationships. I decided on a library, but soon realized my examples were becoming contrived. I was “fitting facts to suit theories.”* And yet I liked the library story.

Imagination floated in--as she often does--and in that kind yet firm tone said, “Why constrain yourself to reality? Why not invent?”

I listened, and after assembling all the material, wrote the light story of of a boy, Edward Farley, and his desire to learn. Following Netflix’s example with House of Cards, I’m releasing all the parts at once.

What follows is an opinionated (in the positive sense) set of examples for creating EF 5 Code First Relationships. It’s for me, the way I like to do them, and if it helps you, wonderful.

There are some oblique database references, and more than a few links to people and things that interest me. I’ve tried hard to be error-free, but that is a path of folly.

...

Edward Farley and the Fantastic Library Part 2

Introduction

Where Edward Farley begins his quest.

When Edward Farley turned twelve years old, he announced to his family, “I’m going to the library and find out how everything works.”

You might imagine that his parents would be surprised, or puzzled. But Edward had always been like this, wondering the how and why of things. In fact, his mother and father expected a day like this.

“Well, Edward, if you really want to know, then there’s only one person to ask,” said his father.

“Who?”

“Professor Relvar.”

Edward nodded. “Which reading room is he in?”

...

Edward Farley and the Fantastic Library Part 3

A Simple Table

Professor Relvar lays the framework for learning the Framework.

First, Edward [said the Professor], we’re going to write some code that will make it easier to learn about the Framework. And we’ll always strive to be a simple as possible--but not simpler.* You’re familiar with Visual Studio, I assume? Good. We’ll create a Console Application and name it something whimsical. How about “GnomeMobile”? No? Well, then, we’ll name it “LearningEF.” Next, we’ll add the Entity Framework 5 NuGet package. We’ll use SQL Express, so that we can easily run queries using Enterprise Manager. Are you following? Good. Normally, I like a file per class, but today I feel abnormal, so we’ll put the entire schema in one file. Here is the class for our first table.

...

A very cool and interesting way to get an introduction to EF CF. Heck, you might want to read this just for the fun of reading it... :)

(via The Morning Brew - The Morning Brew #1363)

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SQL Server Database Project SqlBuildTask failing after installing SSMS 2012 SP1? Here's how to fix it (Update your SSDT)

Michael Mairegger's Blog - Error 04018: The “SqlBuildTask” task failed unexpectedly

I intend to use a SQL Server Database Project in my Visual Studio Solution to manage the database. This is a very nice feature and you should try it. Nevertheless, after upgrading the SQL Server Management Studio 2012 to SP1 I was not able to build the SQL Server Database Project anymore. I always got the following error message:

Error 2 04018: The “SqlBuildTask” task failed unexpectedly. System.MissingMethodException: Method not found: ‘Void Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.SchemaModel.DataSchemaModel.Serialize(System.IO.TextWriter, System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1<System.Type>)’. ...

After a few attempts, I found the solution. I just downloaded and installed the new version of SQL Server Data Tools and the exception has disappeared.

..."

Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools

Download SQL Server Data Tools - December 2012

The SSDT - December 2012 update contains several improvements::

• Database Unit Testing
• Integration of SSDT Power Tools
• Updated Data-Tier Application Framework
• Bug fixes to customer-reported issues

This release is available for both Visual Studio 2012 and Visual Studio 2010:

Download SSDT for Visual Studio 2012

..."

SQL Server Data Tools - December 2012 update (Visual Studio 2012)

• If you already have the Professional, Ultimate, or Premium Edition of Visual Studio 2012 and didn't opt out of installing SQL Server Data Tools during setup, then your machine has an existing installation of SSDT. Installing the SSDT - December 2012 update will replace these SSDT bits with a newer version.
• If you do not have Visual Studio 2012 Professional Edition or above, SSDT will install the Visual Studio 2012 Integrated Shell and install SSDT - December 2012 on top of it. The Integrated Shell will only contain SSDT, and does not include VS programming languages and the features that support their respective project systems. The database functionality of Express SKUs of Visual Studio 2012 will also be updated when SSDT - December 2012 is installed.

Supported Operating Systems

• Windows 7 SP1 (x86 and x64)
• Windows 8 (x86 and x64)
• Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (x64)
• Windows Server 2012 (x64)

Download and Install SQL Server Data Tools

• Download SQL Server Data Tools for Visual Studio 2012

..."

I just ran into this and Michael's post saved me hours of "what the heck" and hair pulling, so I wanted to highlight it and give him a huge shout-out. Also I wanted to cache it here because I know I'm going to need this again...

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Your plate will never be full with all the great Geek Champ Windows 8 Templates...

Geek Champ - Design Templates

Here's an example of one...

Windows 8 App Design Template: News

Project Description

News template is an emulation of a News app with placeholders for News category, article and video data.

Download package includes the following:

• Source (C# and JS)
• Package
• Snapshots
• Documentation

Enough cool templates to get you going? Maybe?

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Okay, Okra! Windows Store Templates that make MVVM apps, and pages, easier and quicker
55+ Windows 8 App Templates... 55 "Getting Your Win8AppDev Started Kits" now on CodePlex
50! As in 50 "store ready" Windows 8 application templates (in both C#/XAML & HTML/JS)....(and free!)

Windows Store Project Templates 101

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Go long and thanks for the 1's, 2's and 3's... Lotus 1-2-3 (and SmartSuite, Organizer) is to be no more...

IBM - Software withdrawal and discontinuance of support: Lotus SmartSuite , Lotus Organizer and Lotus 123

Effective on the dates listed below, IBM® will withdraw from marketing, part numbers from the following product release(s) licensed under the IBM International Program License Agreement:

Effective on the dates listed below, IBM will withdraw support from the following product release(s) licensed under the IBM International Program License Agreement. Customers will no longer be able to receive support for these offerings after September 30, 2014. No service extensions will be offered.

ZDNet - Goodbye, Lotus 1-2-3

The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same.

On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done.

...

My first thought was, "Wow, you could still buy 1-2-3?" My second was, "Damn, I'm getting old...". Third, with my ESI/EDD hat one, was, "Oh crap, what about the billions of 1-2-3 files and such files out there. Got to grab a copy of this software and stash it..."

Still this is an end of an era. So long 1-2-3 and thanks for all the cells...

(via OSNews - Goodbye, Lotus 1-2-3)

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Many events, lots of devices, one you and your new Channel 9 Events App

Channel 9 - Stay Connected with the Ch9 Events App

No matter what device you're bringing to TechEd this year, be sure to bring the Ch9 Events app with you!

Browse all the content of the conference, follow your schedule, and stay connected throughout the event.

Download Ch9 Events for Windows 8 | Windows Phone | iOS | Android

After creating your account in the app, link it to your Channel 9 account to enable synchronization of your personalized schedule.

Windows 8 Ch9 Events

View session, speakers, venue information (including maps) and more from Build, TechEd and other Microsoft events. Plan your session attendance with or without network access (once you’ve downloaded the session catalog, it is available offline!) and your schedule is kept in sync with the same schedule available online on Channel 9.

Features

• Build your agenda for various Microsoft Channel 9 Events such as TechEd and Build
• Submit session feedback electronically
• Get the latest event news
• View the conference floor plans

Windows Phone 8 Ch9 Events

iTunes Ch9 Events

Google Play Ch9 Events

This also will support //build as soon as the sessions are announced. :)

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Extended WPF Toolkit gets all v2.0 and now includes AvalonDock too!

Extended WPF Toolkit  - Extended WPF Toolkit - 2.0.0

What's new in the 2.0.0 Community Edition?

Improvements and bug fixes

• Another 67 improvements were made for v2.0.0 Community Edition, including some new controls, almost as many as last releases' record-breaking 70. See the complete list of improvements in v2.0.0.

• New! Live Explorer app available online as a Click Once app. Try it now!

• Today only, get the Plus Edition and save 25% with coupon LAUNCH20 at shop

...

v2.0.0 Community Edition improvements and bug fixes

67 new improvements
Notable new features

• Our flexible docking window control, AvalonDock, is now part of the toolkit. Provides a system that allows developers to create customizable layouts using a dock system similar to what is found in many popular integrated development environments (IDEs). Aero, Metro, and VS2010 themes are provided for the control, in addition to the Office 2007 themes.
• WindowContainer has been added. This container can contain more than one ChildWindow at the same time.
• ChildWindow has several new properties that allow the window chrome to be styled. It also derives from the newly added WindowControl, which has various advantages over the old version.
• The MessageBox class also has several new properties that allow its chrome to be styled; furthermore, it can now be displayed in XBAP application when displayed in a WindowContainer. It also now derives from WindowControl.
• A Windows 8 theme is now supported by all of the controls in the toolkit.
• New 'Live Explorer' application with source code demonstrates all the features. See an online version here.

Minor features and Issues resolved

...

..."

There are some awesome controls in this toolkit. What kinds of controls? Here's the list...

Extended WPF Toolkit™ Community Edition (Doc's)

Controls

• AutoSelectTextBox
• BusyIndicator
• ButtonSpinner
• Calculator
• CalculatorUpDown
• CheckComboBox
• CheckListBox
• ChildWindow
• CollectionEditor
• CollectionControlDialog
• ColorCanvas
• ColorPicker
• DataGrid
• DateTimePicker
• DateTimeUpDown
• DropDownButton
• Magnifier
• MaskedTextBox
• MessageBox
• MultiLineTextEditor
• NumericUpDown - OBSOLETE! Use the NumericUpDown-derived controls (see next)
• NumericUpDown-derived controls (for decimal, double, byte, integer, long, short, and single types)
• Panel controls (SwitchPanel control provides an animated, switchable environment for children and panels)
• PrimitiveTypeCollectionEditor
• PropertyGrid
• RichTextBox
• RichTextBoxFormatBar
• SplitButton
• TimelinePanel
• TimePicker
• WatermarkTextBox
• Wizard
• Zoombox

And the price? Free! :)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Take two [AvalonDock 2.0 Tutorials] and call...
THE open source WinForm & WPF docking library gets overhauled and a new version two, AvalonDock v2's!

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Cool Kid Training from Pluralsight, that's free too! Because coding kids are cool kids, right?

Pluralsight - Kids Portal

Your kids use technology everyday. Yet schools don't teach them how to program or code. With Pluralsight, now every kid can learn the basics of programming languages and building apps. And best of all, it's absolutely free.

..."

Something to keep the kids busy this summer! THAT should have been the title of this post... lol

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Visual Studio ALM Ranger Solutions Catalog - All ALM, all awesome...

Willy's Reflections - Visual Studio ALM Ranger Solutions Catalog

The following Visual Studio ALM Rangers solutions have been developed for the ALM community:

While I usually keep ALM Ranger stuff for RadioTFS this was just too awesome a resource to not share here too. Seeing all this on one page really shows the level of cool that are the ALM Rangers and their work... I mean, like, wow...

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Just the SSMS Mama, just the SSMS... (Getting just SQL Server 2012 SQL Server Management Studio)

STRATE SQL - Get Just The Tools: SSMS Download

Ever jump on a machine to connect to a SQL Server and find out… whoops! No tools.  For some reason, the client machine doesn’t have SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) installed.  Now I’m not talking about not having the SSMS installed on the server, but on the local workstation that you need to connect to the server with.

No tools has happened to me many times and, in fact, happened to me this past week.  In the past, this would mean running around trying to get find the client’s SQL Server installation media.  Maybe downloading a 4+ GB ISO of the entire SQL Server installation from TechNet.  Or, hopefully, making sure the client had USB ports open on their machines and that I had my installation media backup drive with me.  A lot of things that were more work than one would like.

With the release of SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1, there is a new option on the table.  Instead of downloading everything, you can download just the management tools through the Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Express download page....

Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Express

 

This came in real handy today. Came in and got a question about how to get just the SSMS for 2012. Got to love the inter-tubes!

BTW, don't let the "Express" through you. As far as I can tell, it's the full thing...

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"The database is slow!" Here's a SQL Server Performance Crib Sheet [well almost book] that might help you...

simple-talk - SQL Server Performance-The Crib Sheet

Contents

• Introduction
• Overview
• Measuring Performance
  • Perfmon
    • Perfmon Counter Set
    • Using perfmon
    • Evaluating perfmon data
  • Server health
    • Memory
    • Memory Grants Pending
    • Lock Requests/Sec
    • Deadlock/Sec
  • Extended Events
  • Dynamic Management Objects
  • Third Party Tools
• Tuning Performance
  • Server Performance
  • Database Performance
    • Indexing
    • Files and FileGroups
    • Normalization
    • Data Types
    • Other Issues
  • T-SQL Performance
    • Client Access
  • Testing Performance
• Suggested Reading

...

How much performance is enough? Where do you start tuning? When do you stop tuning? Each application being developed will answer these questions in a different way. The important thing is not to establish a single mechanism for answering them. Your goal is to establish best practices and guidelines that will lead to the answers in the right way for the application under consideration.

First, and most important, the SQL Server system itself needs to be configured correctly. It also needs to be running on a correctly configured Windows server. This is the foundation on which the databases will be built. These same requirements do not exist when dealing with an Azure SQL Database. After the server is configured, you need to design and build the database to perform optimally. That's assuming you're building a new database. If you're trying to tune an inherited database, then you'll want to know what a good database looks like. Appropriately designing the database is even more important in Azure. Once the server and database are out of the way, you need to be concerned with the code running against it. This means the views, triggers, functions and, on local copies of SQL Server, the CLR code. It doesn't stop there because you need to be sure that the development staff is accessing the database correctly either in their general use of the database and it's code, or in their own use of ADO or whatever other client they might be using to access the system

In order to address all these concerns you need to understand how to measure and test performance. Once you've measured the performance and found it wanting, you'll need to know what to do about it. After addressing structural changes to the database or changes to the server or refactoring the T-SQL code, you'll need to have a mechanism in place to test the results in order to be sure your work is accurate

After all this, you should have a correctly functioning system that performs and scales well.

...

..."

Should be enough to get you stared at least in looking into your DB performance "issues".

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A little heritage of the BSOD

Quora - Blue Screen of Death: Who designed the original Windows Blue Screen of Death?

John Vert, ex-Windows NT kernel guyex-Windows NT kernel guy

Back in 1991 I wrote the original code for Windows NT 3.1 that put the video screen back into text mode and the routines to put text on it (and a truly gnarly bit of code it was!). I used the white on blue colors for two reasons.

• The MIPS workstations we were using for the MIPS port had firmware that presented a boot option screen in white on blue, so it made sense that the bugcheck screen would match.
• I (and many others) were using SlickEdit as our text editor and at the time its default color scheme was also white on blue.

I believe Mark Lucovsky wrote the original code that dumped a bunch of text to the screen. This was a bugcode and a stack dump, resulting in a bunch of useless hex numbers which product support would occasionally dutifully transcribe from the customers and include in the bug report.

...

Thought this was an interesting bit of trivia... I love how we dev's make decisions sometimes. "What color?" "Oh heck, I don't know, but we're looking at SlickEdit all day, so lets make it look like that" "Works for me..."

(via Looking For The Spike... - Who wrote the original BSOD (and why white-on-blue)?)

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"Hello dotPeek plugin" Creating a dotPeek plugin is New Project, NuGet easy...

JetBrains - Creating plugins for dotPeek

In a previous post, we’ve seen that dotPeek supports creating and loading plugins. The NuGet plugin for dotPeek is a good example to demonstrate how to get started creating plugins for dotPeek. Sources for this plugin are available on GitHub. But let’s create a plugin of our own!

Before we start: dotPeek does not have a formal SDK yet. However it shares a lot of commonalities with ReSharper. In fact: dotPeek is built on the same platform as ReSharper reusing the project model, PSI, navigation and so on. Which is good news: we can use the ReSharper SDK (see the downloads page) to create plugins for dotPeek. Another option is to start from a class library project and work with a small NuGet package I’ve created to help you get started.

Creating a new plugin

To create a plugin for dotPeek, we can make use of the instructions provided with the ReSharper SDK. This involves a lot of project modifications so we’ll take the easy way out: we can create a dotPeek plugin by installing a NuGet package.

In Visual Studio, we can start out with a new Class Library project, making use of .NET 3.5 or up. Next, we can install the JetBrains.DotPeek.PluginDevelopment NuGet package into the project. This NuGet package will convert the class library we have into a dotPeek plugin by adding assembly references and several attributes. Note that the NuGet package will target the latest version of dotPeek that is installed on your system (which also means we have to have a copy of dotPeek installed).

That’s everything we have to do: by running our project, dotPeek will launch with our fresh plugin loaded:

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I love products that let me extend them. Will I? Rarely, but it's the fact that I can is what draws me in...

 

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Okay, Okra! Windows Store Templates that make MVVM apps, and pages, easier and quicker

Andy On WPF, Windows 8 and Beyond - Windows Store MVVM Templates for Visual Studio

If you have ever tried to create a Windows Store application using the MVVM pattern then you will probably have found that the Visual Studio project and item templates are a bit cumbersome. I often find myself adding a new page to my projects using one of the default templates, only to need to rewrite it to follow the MVVM pattern before I can even start adding application specific logic. What if there was a way to take advantage of the selection of project and page templates provided by Visual Studio, but have them produce fully MVVM compliant code?

Well today I’d like to announce the release of a free extension for Visual Studio 2012 (including the Express editions for Windows 8) that provides just that. It is based upon the open source Okra App Framework, and provides almost all of the Visual Studio Windows Store templates in an MVVM friendly manner.

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What Templates are Provided?

There are two types of template included, project templates and item templates. The project templates are designed to get you started with a new application and provide exactly the same behaviour as the default Visual Studio templates (but written following the MVVM pattern).

• Okra Basic App - A single-page Okra App Framework project with no predefined controls or layout.
• Okra Grid App - A three-page Okra App Framework project that navigates among grouped items arranged in a grid. Dedicated pages display group and item details.
• Okra Split App - A two-page Okra App Framework project that navigates among grouped items. The first page allows group selection while the second displays an item list alongside details for the selected item.

Also included are a number of item templates that allow you to add new pages to any existing Okra App Framework based application, whether created using the project templates or not.

• Basic Page (MVVM)
• Split Page (MVVM)
• Items Page (MVVM)
• Item Detail Page (MVVM)
• Grouped Items Page (MVVM)
• Group Detail Page (MVVM)
• Search Contract (MVVM)
• Share Target Contract (MVVM)
• Settings Pane (MVVM)

...

Summary

As I have discussed the new “Windows Store MVVM Templates for the Okra App Framework” make it quick and easy to implement pages following the MVVM pattern for use in Windows Store applications. The behaviour of all the templates has been designed to be identical to the default Visual Studio templates, with the added benefit of clean separation of code, unit testability and design-time data

Thanks for the heads up on this Andy (and nice work!). I think you're right, that my readers might find this useful. And heck, if they don't I DO! :)

 

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GBoD [Geo-distributed Bunch of Data centers] or "Using Dark Fiber to Replace Diesel Generators"

Microsoft Research - Using Dark Fiber to Replace Diesel Generators

Cloud providers and other data center operators use geo-distributed data centers. But these data centers largely continue to employ the same designs as were appropriate for single data centers. These designs are wasteful because they do not take full advantage of geo-redundancy. Geo-redundancy can reduce other redundancy at multiple intermediate layers in individual data centers and decrease costs. We discuss options for changing infrastructure design to realize such savings. Our proposal opens up an exciting and novel area of investigation into the design of software that can effectively leverage such platforms.

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We claim that geo-redundancy at the data center level can reduce or obviate other redundancy within individual data centers; much like app-layer replication via distributed file systems has obviated the need for highly reliable RAID arrays, allowing individual storage servers to use JBOD in data centers. We denote a group of reduced availability data centers that collectively deliver high availability as a Geo-distributed Bunch of Data centers (GBoD). We quantify the reduction in individual data center availability that becomes possible when a geo-distributed collection of data centers acts in concert using fault tolerance mechanisms. We discuss how an individual data center’s infrastructural design can be changed to reduce its availability, such as through eliminating diesel generators, and quantify corresponding cost savings. We call attention to new research questions in configuring geo-redundant data centers to optimally manage excess compute capacity, networking costs, and correlation among their failures.

GBoD moves complexity from the underlying hardware to software layers....

This title caught my eye today and I thought it some interesting research. Useful in my day-today grind? No, but interesting non-the-less

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More on Mission Control (Coding4Fun Style) "A Flexible API for Remote Device Control"

Channel 9 Coding4Fun - MissionControl - A Flexible API for Remote Device Control

In a race to optimize everything, developers often go to extremes to build software that performs routine tasks. MissionControl is a system that allows users to program a control center that stores interfaces with attached hardware sensors, allowing the users to control any other devices that can be activated via the underlying protocol. For demo purposes, the MissionControl build at this point is compatible with the Phidgets IR hybrid sensor.

The system has two core components:

• A server application, which is a Win32 console application that handles incoming queries and returns data to the connected clients. This application runs on the desktop machine with the connected sensor.
• The Windows Phone application that sends requests to the target server and can trigger a variety of pre-programmed commands.

The Basics

Hardware and Communication Infrastructure

One of the most important parts of the project is the signal capture and replication hardware. For the purposes of this project, I decided to use a dual-mode Phidgets IR sensor. It supports both IR code capture and subsequent replication. From a user’s perspective, this device also eliminates a substantial code-learning overhead as well as the potential error rate. Instead of searching for a device-specific hexadecimal sequence that later has to be transformed in a working IR code, the user simply has to point his remote control at the sensor and press the button that he wants accessible from a mobile device. Given that the capturing software is running on the target machine, once the sensor detects that a code can be repeated within an acceptable precision range, it will be automatically captured and stored, with all required transformations worked out in the backend using the free Phidgets SDK.

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The book, errr, I mean, article, from Clint and Den is done and now out...

 

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