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Saturday, September 30, 2006
Add to del.icio.us button
Last weekend I added a "Add to del.icio.us" link to the bottom of all posts both on this blog, and on Brighton Bloggers.
I made use of 3spots: 30 Social Bookmarks 'Add to' footer links for blogs to get the scripts I needed and combined it with the del.icio.us script. I then made use of the image
that they've used on that page. I didn't really want to have another text link at the bottom of each post, so this suits me just fine. I figured that anyone using del.icio.us will recognise the graphic.
I made use of 3spots: 30 Social Bookmarks 'Add to' footer links for blogs to get the scripts I needed and combined it with the del.icio.us script. I then made use of the image
that they've used on that page. I didn't really want to have another text link at the bottom of each post, so this suits me just fine. I figured that anyone using del.icio.us will recognise the graphic.Labels: del.icio.us, Development
// posted by Jane @ 11:08 AM
Comments:
Nabaztag!
I like the idea of emotional gadgets, things that let you know when other people are thinking about you, or things that are just fun to have around. The nabaztag bunny is just such a thing but the £72 price tag is quite steep for something that is just a cute gadget. But last weekend I read Tom's blog and he's found a business justification for having one. So, its obviously time to get my thinking cap on and start finding more practical uses for a nabaztag.
Labels: Development
// posted by Jane @ 11:04 AM
Comments:
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Brighton Sussex Geek Dinner
Simon has organised a Brighton based Sussex Geek Dinner for Wednesday October 4th at the Black Horse. You can sign up for it at upcoming.org although I recommend leaving a comment on Sixth Sussex Geek Dinner - Brighton as well to ensure he gets enough food in :-)
Labels: Development, Geek Dinner, sussexdigital
// posted by Jane @ 7:44 PM
Comments:
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
SSIS Variables and Deadlock
I've been having problems with deadlock on SSIS variables. The main issue is that I have a script item, which has a readwrite variable of strErrorDescription. In the case of a problem this gets populated. I have an onError event tied to this script item. That event uses strErrorDescription to populate the reason for the error. The onError event triggers before the script item finishes properly, and so before the variable gets released. After a bit of headscratching I found this post on the MSDN forums which describes the problem, and a workaround. I've added Dts.Variables.Unlock() to the code, just after the variable is written to, and this seems to do the trick.
Labels: Development, SSIS
// posted by Jane @ 12:29 PM
Comments:
SSIS - Can't debug script code in event handlers
I was struggling to find a way to debug event handler scripts in SSIS, and thought I was missing something obvious (as did Jamie). Thanks to Daniel Read (again) I now know that I'm not the only one:
b) Cannot debug script tasks in event handlers. This appears to be a bug. I can't get the debugger to stop on a line of code in a script task in an event handler. Strangely, if I set a break point in a script task in an event handler, a VBA code window will pop up for the first script task in the package (even though the breakpoint is not set in that task), but there will never be a break in the task where I set my breakpoint
b) Cannot debug script tasks in event handlers. This appears to be a bug. I can't get the debugger to stop on a line of code in a script task in an event handler. Strangely, if I set a break point in a script task in an event handler, a VBA code window will pop up for the first script task in the package (even though the breakpoint is not set in that task), but there will never be a break in the task where I set my breakpoint
Labels: Development, SSIS
// posted by Jane @ 11:17 AM
Comments:
Friday, September 15, 2006
d.construct 06
As mentioned before, I didn't make it to this years d.construct, hopefully next year. Andy has written an excellent debrief on the event from an organisers perspective, which is quite interesting reading and a change from the attendees perspective that I've mainly been reading. There is a wide variety of material out there, from videos and photos, through presentation slides and the podcasts which are apparently coming soon.
Labels: Development, sussexdigital
// posted by Jane @ 6:55 PM
Comments:
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
SQL Server 2005 Upgrades
I've been running our usual deployment scripts against a SQL 2005 database to see what the damage was. Not too bad as it turns out, 2 procedures which used alias.columnname in the ORDER BY clause, 2 logons where the password wasn't secure enough, and 2 DTS packages which aren't deployed due to :
SQL Server blocked access to procedure 'sys.sp_OACreate' of component 'Ole Automation Procedures' because this component is turned off as part of the security configuration for this server. A system administrator can enable the use of 'Ole Automation Procedures' by using sp_configure. For more information about enabling 'Ole Automation Procedures', see "Surface Area Configuration" in SQL Server Books Online.
I want to use sp_configure to achieve this, as our product is deployed mainly automatically, including the database scripts. Most of the help I could find revolved around the SQL Server Surface Area Configuration and using either the SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration tool or even the command line sac Utility. I decided to initially take a look at the tool to get an idea, and on investigation, the option I need falls under Surface Area Configuration for Features and is listed under OLE Automation. After a bit more digging, I found that the sp_configure option is Ole Automation Procedures and so the code is:
EXEC sp_configure 'Ole Automation Procedures';
GO
but this results in the following:
Msg 15123, Level 16, State 1, Procedure sp_configure, Line 51
The configuration option 'Ole Automation Procedures' does not exist, or it may be an advanced option.
and so needs to be paired with the Show Advanced Options setting, and so the following is required:
sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO
sp_configure 'Ole Automation Procedures', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO
This results in the following:
Configuration option 'show advanced options' changed from 0 to 1. Run the RECONFIGURE statement to install.
Configuration option 'Ole Automation Procedures' changed from 0 to 1. Run the RECONFIGURE statement to install.
and when I re-run the deployment scripts I get no errors. Hurrah!
SQL Server blocked access to procedure 'sys.sp_OACreate' of component 'Ole Automation Procedures' because this component is turned off as part of the security configuration for this server. A system administrator can enable the use of 'Ole Automation Procedures' by using sp_configure. For more information about enabling 'Ole Automation Procedures', see "Surface Area Configuration" in SQL Server Books Online.
I want to use sp_configure to achieve this, as our product is deployed mainly automatically, including the database scripts. Most of the help I could find revolved around the SQL Server Surface Area Configuration and using either the SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration tool or even the command line sac Utility. I decided to initially take a look at the tool to get an idea, and on investigation, the option I need falls under Surface Area Configuration for Features and is listed under OLE Automation. After a bit more digging, I found that the sp_configure option is Ole Automation Procedures and so the code is:
EXEC sp_configure 'Ole Automation Procedures';
GO
but this results in the following:
Msg 15123, Level 16, State 1, Procedure sp_configure, Line 51
The configuration option 'Ole Automation Procedures' does not exist, or it may be an advanced option.
and so needs to be paired with the Show Advanced Options setting, and so the following is required:
sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO
sp_configure 'Ole Automation Procedures', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO
This results in the following:
Configuration option 'show advanced options' changed from 0 to 1. Run the RECONFIGURE statement to install.
Configuration option 'Ole Automation Procedures' changed from 0 to 1. Run the RECONFIGURE statement to install.
and when I re-run the deployment scripts I get no errors. Hurrah!
Labels: Development, SQLServer2005
// posted by Jane @ 5:22 PM
Comments:
taras_96 that's an interesting question, and after a bit of searching I believe it should be allowed.
The MSDN article for "ORDER BY Clause (Transact-SQL)" (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188385.aspx) states amongst the definition for order_by_expression that
"Column names and aliases can be qualified by the table or view name."
which would imply that that warning/error is invalid.
Perhaps it was an option I used at the time.
The MSDN article for "ORDER BY Clause (Transact-SQL)" (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188385.aspx) states amongst the definition for order_by_expression that
"Column names and aliases can be qualified by the table or view name."
which would imply that that warning/error is invalid.
Perhaps it was an option I used at the time.
