My next gig is DevTeach Toronto where I'm giving my popular workshop "Pragmatic Application Design". This series of sessions is designed to take a developer, architect or database administrator through the fundamentals and many of the more technical details and best practices used when designing applications using the .NET Framework, Visual Studio and SQL Server. This workshop is not about future or expected versions of Visual Studio or the unreleased tools and platforms you hear so much about—it’s about how to best use the existing, stable and trusted versions of the .NET Framework, Visual Studio and SQL Server. The sessions talk about real-world and practical solutions to the problems most companies face—especially smaller companies or smaller departments in larger companies that have to interface with existing data stores of all shapes and sizes.

This session includes a copy of my latest book "Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Studio and SQL Server (7th Edition)"

For more reasons...

Continue reading "DevTeach Comes to Toronto " »

Posted by William Vaughn at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I got back from Vegas Thursday night--tired but it was worth it. I don't know if my new book Hitchhker's Guide to Visual Studio and SQL Server was the best seller, but it was close. They sold about 45 copies and I must have signed most of them. My hand is still sore. Thanks to each and every person that walked up to me to congratuate me on the new book or to tell me how much I had helped them over the years. It's ordinary people like this that keep me going. Of course, Vegas is "interesting" as well. It's not that often that I get to walk through a casino on the way to work. I did, however, trip over someone as I was gawking at a waitress...

Continue reading "Connections--A Great Conference" »

Posted by William Vaughn at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I made two mistakes last night. First, I didn’t stand in line to get into the TechEd 2006 (Boston) keynote early enough to get a seat near the aisle. The second mistake was attending in the first place. Earlier in the day we had an MVP meeting where we heard from MVPs that Microsoft’s focus seemed to be toward the “Enterprise” and away from smaller companies. This message was pretty clear in the keynote address. Virtually all of the features demonstrated and “promised” (except Avalon) were clearly for the largest of companies. What I did hear (that was worthwhile) was the new technology that promises to encrypt the contents of a laptop’s hard drive so a nefarious thief’s only option is to reformat the drive or toss it in the East river. Unfortunately, this technology comes far too late for the veterans and active-duty military whose data was lost. Keep reading...

Continue reading "TechEd 2006 Boston--The Keynote" »

Posted by William Vaughn at 07:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So, they tell me that I'm doing a chalk-talk on the new ReportViewer control in Visual Studio. That's cool as it's one of the most interesting additions to the Visual Studio tools suite. The question is, how the heck and I going to do an hour-long presentation without a demo, or a projector to show it with? I'm thinking about bringing hand-puppets. Check the schedule for the exact times but I asked for Tuesday or Wednesday morning sometime. I'll probably get 0-dawn 30. I expect that most folks will want to know how much of the work they've invested in the Reporting Services RDL-based reports can be leveraged with the ReportViewer.

Continue reading "TechEd Boston--My Chalktalk on the ReportViewer" »

Posted by William Vaughn at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Day/Time: Wednesday, June 14 3:45 PM - 5:00 PM Room: 157 ABC
Speaker(s): William Vaughn
SQL Express is the version of SQL Server 2005 designed to replace MSDE. In some scenarios, SQL Express is a viable replacement for the JET/Access database engine - it's safer and more reliable. Because SQL Express does not behave like JET in most respects, it can be a challenge for JET developers to understand how to control SQL Express and leverage its power from their applications. This talk discusses the differences in SQL Express, MSDE, JET and the other SQL Server Editions - including the just-announced SQL Server Everywhere edition. See how SQL Server Everywhere (which builds on the proven codebase of SQL Mobile) fills a need for a lightweight DBMS where SQL Express might be overkill. The session includes an overview of the new SQL Server Management Studio Express toolset and code used to manage SQL Express (or any instance of SQL Server) including discovery, starting, stopping and pausing instances. We also demonstrate how Visual Studio leverages SQL Server Express functionality into the IDE and permits developers to create, configure and deploy SQL Server Express databases with their applications.
Track(s): Database Development and Administration
Session Type(s): Breakout Session
Session Level(s): 200

Posted by William Vaughn at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jonathan asked me to post this... I plan to go.

Hi All, we are putting together a gathering of ADO.NET, and data connectivity lumaries for an informal gathering during TechEd 2006. This will be an opportunity for everyone who lives and breaths data connectivity, ADO.NET and who is looking to get a first hand feel of everything on the horizon for ADO.NET, LINQ and .NET and meet some of the key players involved.
The date ? Meet up is on June 13, 2006
The time ? Between 4pm and 6.30pm
The where? Seaport Hotel in Boston.
If you think you are the kind of person who would be interested in this, either comment below, or shoot me an email! Of course there will be food and drink for all, so sign up fast as space is limited!
-Jonathan Bruce .NET & XQuery Program Manager
DataDirect Technologies
Jonathan Bruce [jonathan.m.bruce@gmail.com]

Posted by William Vaughn at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok, so you heard that it’s possible to use Visual Studio to create a new SQL Server database and add it to your project. As a matter of fact, you can add any number of SQL Server databases to your project and Visual Studio will be happy to comply. How happy you are with debug performance might be another matter but I’m getting ahead of myself. This practice seems to be important enough for Microsoft to include the functionality in the IDE so if
this is something you do or plan to use as an easy database deployment technique read on—especially if you’re targeting Smart Client/Windows Forms applications. I understand how this can be appealing. All you have to do is add the database file to your project and Visual Studio automatically includes it in your deployment binaries.