All posts by: Joel Ewald
HIPPA (PII/PHI) and software development
We try to build most of our products on sanitized data. However, some things rely on some set of customer data in order to make sure our data extract, transform, and load processes are working for a particular site. Since...
Scripting Data from a table doesn’t have to be like pulling teeth
Sometimes you need to be able to script the data out of a table and it is easier than you might think. I commonly do this when I am generating automated tests or updating a product with system data for...
Improving Project Success
There was a timely editorial posted this morning on SQL Server Central by Steve Jones concerning Successful Projects. In his post he references Kevin Whitson’s The Kevin Test for Successful Projects, which was inspired by The Rands Test and Joel...
SQL Server 2016 coming June 1st (And free stuff)
Microsoft announced the June 1st release date for SQL Server 2016. Read to the end for other big news. From the breakdown of Features Supported for SQL 2016 by Edition there are a couple new features that will make their...
SQL Server Discontinued Features and Items marked for deprecation
With each version of SQL server certain items are discontinued (removed) from that release, and other items are marked for deprecation (removal in a future release). Earlier this week I saw some code that I remembered being on the deprecation...
Project Pre-Kickoff Road-mapping and Scoping
In many cases we are asked to give a WAG for a project very early in the process. This typically includes the assumptions we made, and any known risks. As the project progresses it is usually necessary to spend some...
Hiding the SSRS Breadcrumbs from Users
It is common when rolling out our SSRS prototypes that different onsite users will be interacting with the different products. This means that typically different user groups will be setup and certain groups will have access to specific SSRS report folders...
SSRS Error – ReportServerDatabaseUnavailableException
We recently had a customer trying to upgrade an SSRS solution and they were receiving some of the errors below. Some were from when they were trying to deploy the new reports and some were when they tried to go...
SSDT Deployment Optimization for Table Constraints and Calculated Columns
Calculated columns on tables can be helpful. For example let’s assume you have a table with Name Fields and you have a formula for FullName. You typically want that formula in a single spot. A common way to handle that...
Avoiding deployment grief from database drift
*Movie guy voice* In a world where applications are developed and shipped to multiple customers. One company effectively saves money and has happier customers by understanding database drift. I was once talking to a friend at a SQL Server Users...