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Db4o is the open source object database that enables Java and .NET developers to slash development time and costs and achieve unprecedented levels of performance. The unique design of db4o's native object database engine makes it the ideal choice to be embedded in equipment and devices, in packaged software running on mobile or desktop platforms, or in real-time control systems - in short: in all Java and .NET environments, where no DBA is present.

Save your database diagrams *outside* the database in a Transact-SQL text file, for backup and/or source-control

When crafting a query in SQL, there are often times when we may need to operate over a set of data that doesn't inherently exist within the system. For example, the database for an eCommerce web application would have the standard tables - Products, Customers, Orders, OrderDetails, and so on - but we may need to run reports on a particular subset of the data or against aggregate data across these tables. Or the reporting queries we need might need to group or filter by results returned by scalar subqueries. Typically, views are used to break down complex queries into digestible chunks or to provide scalar subquery results that can be grouped and filtered. Views, however, are sometimes overkill, as they are permanent objects at the system-level. If we only need to reference this complex query in a single stored procedure or UDF, another option is to use a derived table. Unfortunately, derived tables muddle the readability of the query and must be repeated for each use in a statement..

This article describes using NHibernate with multiple databases concurrently.

.NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005 combine in Query Notifications to notify applications when critical data changes occur and eliminate the need to repeatedly ask the database, "Has it changed yet?"

Here is a tool to help you build your NHibernate ORM applications.

Do more with less code is the slogan of Visual Studio 2005.When it comes to reducing the amount of written code, wizards are definitely a viable option. Visual Studio 2005 has a lot of wizardry in it, especially to generate data access code. Any code that gets silently injected in your project follows a strict logic and a well-known design pattern. A full understanding how Visual Studio 2005 does it puts you on the right track to modify and extend the code to build your made-to-measure data access layer. This article dissects the code behind table adapters and binding source components to unveil patterns and best practices.

A lot of articles have been written about database concurrency conflict detection and the various ways of handling them.Unfortunately most of these articles, and accompanying solutions, have one major flaw in that they focus on the technical issues and database implementation instead of real-world data and how people use the data. In this article, I will try to show the difference between focusing on the database implementation and on the real-world data. I will show some possible approaches on how to solve these concurrency issues.

In SQL Server 2005, XML becomes a first-class data type. Developers can make minor remote modifications to stored XML documents easily, taking advantage of new support for XML schema-based strong typing, and server-based XML data validation.

If you use DataAdapters and love their automatic connection-opening and closing capabilities—and ever use transactions, you should first understand what's really going on underneath the covers.