.NET news » Database

Thinking of upgrading to SQL Server 2005? Or are you using SQL 2005 already and you want to learn more about the language features? Then this article may be for you! Microsoft implemented many new features in SQL Server 2005, including an impressive set of language enhancements. From new language statements for SQL-99 compatibility to new features in response to customer requests, Transact-SQL 2005 helps to increase developer productivity. In this article, I'll cover most of the new language features by posing a statement/scenario and then provide some code samples to show how you can use T-SQL 2005 to address the problem. At the end of the article, I'll talk briefly about Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals, a product that helps a development team to manage databases. Finally, I'll give you a sneak preview of some features in the next scheduled version for SQL Server (SQL Server 2008, "Katmai").

In this article we want to add a simple extension to the project seen in the CodeProject article "A GPS tracer application for Windows Mobile CE 5". We want to create a Web Service which can be invoked by the mobile application to store, on a remote SQL2005 Data Base, the path followed by different GPS devices. The easiest and fastest way to achieve this result is represented by the Web Service Software Factory (next WSSF for short). This strategy is, at the same time, the best way to build higher quality service using well known pattern and practices...

Many projects that developers work on involve writing complex SQL statements that deviate from basic SELECT/FROM/WHERE types of statements. One such scenario involves writing Transact-SQL (T-SQL) queries that use derived tables (also known as inline views) inside a FROM clause. This common practice allows a developer to grab a rowset and immediately join that rowset to other tables, views, and user-defined functions in a SELECT statement. Another option is to use a view instead of a derived table. Both of these options have their advantages and disadvantages.

When working with SQL Server 2005, I prefer a third option of using Common Table Expressions (CTEs). CTEs can help improve the readability (and thus the maintainability) of the code without compromising performance. They also make writing recursive code in T-SQL significantly easier than it was in previous versions of SQL Server...

Article describes all the problem and constraints defined to use managed code under SQL Server 2005.

Find out how to use a single DataGridView to display dynamic queries, adjusting columns automatically, and how to format individual cells exactly the way you want users to see them.

Introduction to working with LINQ and Datasets in Compact Framework 3.5 Beta 1

This article is about LINQ which I think is one of the most exciting features in Orcas. LINQ makes the concept of querying a first-class programming concept in .NET. The data to be queried can take the form of XML (LINQ to XML), databases (LINQ-enabled ADO.NET: LINQ to SQL, LINQ to Dataset and LINQ to Entities) and objects (LINQ to Objects). LINQ is also highly extensible and allows you to build custom LINQ enabled data providers (e.g.: LINQ to Amazon, LINQ to NHibernate, LINQ to LDAP).

As developers assume more of the security burden, the first web application vulnerability that many developers learn about is a particularly dangerous form of command injection known as SQL injection. Command injection in its archetypal form is any vulnerability that allows an attacker to run an unintended command on your server by providing unanticipated input that alters the way you intended the web application to run. Because it's so well-known, SQL injection attacks are common, dangerous, and pervasive. Fortunately, you can prevent SQL injection easily once you understand the problem. Even better, a new Microsoft data access technology offers .NET developers the opportunity to eliminate SQL injection vulnerabilities altogether—when used properly. That technology is called Language Integrated Query (LINQ), and it will ship in the upcoming release of Visual Studio "Orcas" and .NET Framework 3.5. This article explores LINQ's potential for hardening your web application's data access code so that it's impossible to attack through SQL Injection.

ADO.NET in the next release of Visual Studio code-named "Orcas" features the new Entity Framework. It allows developers to focus on data through an object model instead of through a logical/relational data model. The Entity Framework helps abstract the logical data schema into a conceptual model and allows for multiple ways to interact with the conceptual model through Object Services and a new data provider called EntityClient. This month’s column discusses what the Entity Framework is, how it fits into an application, and how it can be designed and programmed against.

With Microsoft SQL Server 2000 it was possible to debug stored procedures from directly within Query Analyzer (see Debugging a SQL Stored Procedure from inside SQL Server 2000 Query Analyzer for more information). With SQL Server 2005, however, this functionality was moved out of SQL Server Management Studio and into the Visual Studio IDE. Using this technique, it is possible to step into your stored procedures, one statement at a time, from within Visual Studio. It is also possible to set breakpoints within your stored procedures' statements and have these breakpoints hit when debugging your application.

All editions of SQL Server 2005 include debugging support (including the Express Edition). However, only the Team Systems and Professional editions of Visual Studio enable stored procedure debugging from within the IDE. In short, if you are using Visual Web Developer or Visual Studio Standard Edition then you cannot step through a stored procedure or enter the stored procedure via application debugging.

In this article we will examine how to debug SQL Server 2005 stored procedures through the Visual Studio IDE. We will look at both stepping into a stored procedure directly from the IDE as well as how to set breakpoints within the stored procedure that are then hit when debugging the application.