SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP November with some nice visualization features.

The feature complete build of SQL 2008 R2 is available for download. This November CTP build fixes the issue I blogged in the past: The report definition has an invalid target namespace 'http://schema.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/ 2009/01/reportdefinition' which cannot be upgraded.

Now it is possible to install SQL 2008 R2 Reporting Server on a machine which you uses to build and deployed SQL 2008 reports. Please read the details about how you can use an installation of SQL 2008 R2 on a machine with SQL 2008:

- RDL files: In the SQL Server 2008 R2 version of Business Intelligence Development Studio, you can work with both SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 versions of report definitions and Report Server projects.


If you open, update, and then save a SQL Server 2008 report definition, it is saved as SQL Server 2008 report definition unless you added features that are new SQL Server 2008 R2.

- SSRS projects: You can add and open SQL Server 2008 Report Server projects to solutions that you create using the SQL Server 2008 R2 version of Business Intelligence Development Studio.

However , if you save the SQL Server 2008 Report Server project it saved as SQL Server 2008 R2 Report Server project and you can no longer open it in the of Business Intelligence Development Studio

 
Enjoy using SQl 2008 R2 with next nice data visualization features:

Maps to visualize of for instance your customers. Read: How to enrich your account data with longitude, latitude and geography data.











Indicators

 
 
 













Sparklines

Data bars

Exact Synergy Enterprise certified for Windows Server 2008 R2

As of product update 240, Exact Synergy Enterprise is certified for the latest  Microsoft server platform Windows Server 2008 R2. This is another great step of Exact in supporting the latest technology of Microsoft. Exact Synergy Enterprise can be used in 32 bits or 64 bits mode.
Exact Synergy Enterprise and Exact Globe now supports the latest available Microsoft operatings systems like Windows 7, SQL2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

My favorite SQL Server Management Studio settings

I work a lot with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). From a performance perspective I'm not so happy with the default settings of this application. Therefor I made some changes to the settings of SSMS.

To made changes to the setting of SSMS start SSMS and select Tools, Options in the menu.

1. Startup with an empty environment. (Environment, General, At startup: Open empty environment)
2. To avoid to lock other users when you execute long running SELECT queries. Set the default transaction isolation level to: READ UNCOMMITTED (Query Execution, SQL Server, Advanced, SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL)
3. Include column headers when copying or saving results. (Query Results, SQL Server, Result to Grid)
4. Quote strings containing list seperators when saving to .csv results. (Query Results, SQL Server, Result to Grid)
5. Word wrap. This is a setting which I changed a lot depending on the kind of queries I'm analyzing. (Text editor, Plain Text, General, Settings)

Enjoy using SSMS