Session Recommendations for SoCal Code Camp @ USC

SoCal Code Camp is coming up on November 21st & 22nd 2009 at University of Southern California, Los Angeles. There is just an incredible lineup of sessions. If you are trying to make up your mind about the sessions to attend, here are my recommendations –

1. Attend as many of Llewellyn Falco’s and Woody Zuill‘s sessions as you can. Specially, Unit Testing The Easy Way and one of the Dojo sessions. Any one of these sessions will make your entire trip worthwhile.

2.Kristian Hermansen’s Get Hacked Live ..

3. Stacey Broadwell’s Using Technology & Social Media to Target Candidates & Jobs should be very useful. I attended her recent presentation at L.A. Dot Net @ UCLA, it was very informative.

4. and of course If it walks like a Scrum … by yours sincerely.

I am planning to attend as many of the following sessions as the schedule allows –

* Algorithmic Trading in C#
scott hodson

* Automated Grid layout in Silverlight and WPF
Richard Fencel

* Building nTier Applications with Entity Framework Services
David McCarter

* Experiencing Agile Through Games
Carlton Nettleton

* Interoperability in the Cloud
Alejandro Espinoza

* Rapid Prototyping with Expression Blend
mark bosley

* One of Paul Sheriff’s WPF presentations

* SCRUM CLUB: Agile Requirements Gathering Workshop!
Amanda Abelove

See you there !

Using DbUpdater with MySql

DbUpdater can be used with mysql.

Here are the files you need to jumpstart the integration – DbUpdater-MySql.zip

1. You might need to change the path to mysql.exe in mysql-exec.bat.

2. Modify values in mysql-sample-command-line.bat.

Make sure mysql.data.dll is placed in GAC or in the same directory as DbUpdater.exe. Connector binaries can be downloaded from here –
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/6.1.html

SQL Azure Notes

My invitation code for SQL Azure CTP finally arrived. I had been waiting for this.

sqlazure-manage.png

You can create a database in from the SQL Azure Management page, shown above.

After you have created the database, of course, you can use DbUpdater with your SQL Azure databases. Here is the command-line :
DbUpdater.exe ..\SqlScripts /server:”tcp:SERVER.ctp.database.windows.net” /db:DATABASE /user:”USER@SERVER” /password:PASSWORD /confirm:true

And you will need this DbUpdater.exe.config file :

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″ ?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key=”file-prefix” value=”db” />
<add key=”file-extension” value=”sql” />
<add key=”schema-versions-name” value=”schema-versions-table.sql” />
<add key=”baseline-name” value=”baseline.sql” />
<add key=”post-script-prefix” value=”post” />
<add key=”post-script-always-apply” value=”true” />
<add key=”exe-file” value=”C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Binn\SQLCMD.EXE” />
<add key=”exe-args” value=’-U %UserName% -P %Password% -S “%ServerName%” -d %DbName% -i “%SqlFile%”‘ />
<add key=”dialect” value=”NHibernate.Dialect.MsSql2000Dialect” />
<add key=”driver_class” value=”NHibernate.Driver.SqlClientDriver” />
<add key=”connection_string” value=”Server=%ServerName%;Database=%DbName%;User ID=%UserName%;Password=%Password%;Trusted_Connection=False;” />
</appSettings>
</configuration>

You can run sqlcmd.exe directly to execute t-sql scripts on SQL Azure. Here is a sample command :
sqlcmd.exe -S SERVER.ctp.database.windows.net -U USER@SERVER -P PASSWORD -d DB -i “baseline.sql”

I received these errors when I executed my SQL Server 2005 scripts on a SQL Azure database –

  • ‘ANSI_NULLS’ is not a recognized SET option.
  • Deprecated feature ‘SET ANSI_PADDING OFF’ is not supported in this version of SQL Server.
  • Deprecated feature ‘More than two-part column name’ is not supported in this version of SQL Server.
  • Deprecated feature ‘Data types: text ntext or image’ is not supported in this version of SQL Server.
  • Deprecated feature ‘Table hint without WITH’ is not supported in this version of SQL Server.

These are not the limitations of the SQL Azure platform. SQL Azure is based on SQL Server 2008 Database Engine. The complete list of deprecated features in SQL Server 2008 are listed here along with the replacements (if any) : Deprecated Database Engine Features in SQL Server 2008 – MSDN.
After modifying the scripts to replace the deprecated features, the scripts could be executed without any further issues. All stored procedures, triggers and views were created without any errors.

The following error is a SQL Azure limitation.

  • ‘Filegroup reference and partitioning scheme’ is not supported in this version of SQL Server.

Here is more detailed information on unsupported T-SQL – Unsupported Transact-SQL Statements (SQL Azure Database) – MSDN

Switched to Thematic

I have switched to Thematic theme on this blog over the weekend. I created a child theme after playing around with the customization hooks. I added a widgetized area below main asides, did some css modifications and created a three column, flexible layout just the way I wanted. I am so glad I switched to Thematic. ThemeShaper forums are very helpful. These articles were just what I needed to get started : How to make a child theme for WordPress and How I used a WordPress Child Theme To Redesign My Blog.