I was working with the new SQL Server Express Edition lately and was reminded that the Profiler is programmed to deny connections to this edition. Ah, I think this decision will unnecessarily challenge those who try to diagnose deployed SQL Express applications. Since you have to buy the SQL Server Workgroup (or better) edition to get the Profiler, I don’t see any reason what-so-ever to prevent its use against the Express edition. I can certainly see not including it (or some other tools) with the SSEE, but to disable the Profiler is not going to do anything but generate more PSS calls. If I had my way they would enable Profiler to access SSEE--at least to a point. It does not need all the bells and whistles, just enough to see what's getting executed T-SQL-wise.
I've also been experimenting with “User Instance=True” in the ConnectionString. In case you hadn't noticed, this option is pretty bold. What it does is create a separate (seemingly invisible) instance of SQL Server by physically copying master, model, tempdb and your user database file(s) to the user's private diskspace. This is done once--when the connection is first opened. The user can then log on as SA and do whatever they want to the database, master or whatever as it will have no effect on the “real” master etc. or other user instances. Interesting. I also noted that this option is not permitted with “non-Express” versions of SQL Server so you'll have to build a connection string specifically for your deployed SSEE target instance. This approach is interesting for scenarios where the application needs a private, stand-alone SQL Server engine a bit more robust than JET or SQL Server CE.
If I had to guess, I would say the "User Instance=True" flag was created specifically for web hosting companies, to allow clients to have there own instance of SQL with virtual no possible way to cross contaminate.
That's an interesting observation. Yes, I supposed that would be an issue, but consider that this feature only works on the Express edition and assumes the "user" would be a traditional Windows user--not an ASP client. It's designed to work with Windows XP etc...
Have you -occasionally- been working with the BI tools in Yukon or do you know blogs on MS BI?
Yes, Peter and I are working quite a bit with these tools? What's your question?
I'd love to learn to use them as they are meant to be used... My boss is pushing us to focus a bit on business intelligence in general (to impress customers). I'm not very familiar with BI actually.
Do you know about good tutorials or books about this in SQL 2005?
Peter and I are writing a book that will cover this material in depth but it won't be available until well after Whidbey and Yukon ships. We can, however, meet with your company and provide a mentoring or training session to make sure you and your managers are up to speed on the options. We aren't in the business of selling anything but information about current and future technologies.