Harness SQL Server 2005’s Programmability and Optimize Performance

At SQL Live! you’ll learn to administer and program SQL Server 2005’s new features, exploit its integration with Visual Studio and Team System, and make your queries run lean and mean.  We know you have DBA responsibilities even as you continue to feed your passion to code.  Come to the conference that helps you do both parts of your job…and makes them both fun!

Andrew Brust
SQL Live! Conference Chair

Andrew Brust is Chief, New Technology at , a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in New York City. Andrew is lead author of Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (Microsoft Press), serves as Microsoft Regional Director for New York and New Jersey, is a Visual Basic MVP and a member of Microsoft’s Business Intelligence Partner Advisory Council. Andrew is a Vice-Chairman of the New York Software Industry Association (NYSIA), a member of INETA’s Speaker Bureau and is a highly rated speaker at conferences throughout the U.S. and internationally. Often quoted in the technology industry press, Andrew has over 18 years experience programming and consulting in the Financial, Public, Small Business and Not-For-Profit sectors. He can be reached at andrew..

SQL Live! – Tuesday, May 8

A First Look at SQL Server codename ‘Katmai’ Database Engine
Christian Kleinerman
10:30 a.m.
This session will provide a high level overview of some of the enhancements to the relational database engine in SQL Server code name "Katmai".

An Overview of the ADO.NET Entity Framework, Intermediate
Shyam Pather
11:45 a.m.
Most .NET database applications use ADO.NET to access and manipulate data. But rather than working on their business logic, most ADO.NET developers spend a lot of their time building custom data-access layers on top of ADO.NET to hide the complexity of database connectivity  and expose data in terms of friendly business objects. But why should every developer build such a data access layer for each application? Shouldn’t the platform make this easier? In this session we introduce the ADO.NET Entity Framework: a high-level data library that raises the level of abstraction at which application developers work when dealing with data in databases – virtually eliminating the need for custom data access layers. We’ll discuss how the framework supports conceptual modeling, the use of the object services layer to do object-relational mapping, and how great integration with LINQ (language-integrated query) brings new levels of productivity to the data-access development space.

An introduction to SQL Server for the Web Developer
3:15 p.m.
Dan Winn
An Introduction to SQL Server for the Web Developer 
If you’re a Web Developer with some basic SQL skills, this session should take you to the next level.  We’ll delve into such topics as the database service model, database security, how to debug your T-SQL code using Trace, how to improve the performance of your site by using caching and adding the right indexes (SQL can even tell you which ones to add!) and how to start taking advantage of some of the more advanced T-SQL language features that can help with web apps.  Finally, we’ll take a look at the new Database Publishing Wizard and how you can use it to upload a database to your hoster.

The Need for Speed, Intermediate
Robert Patton
4:30 p.m.
No query can run fast enough. In this session you'll learn tips and tricks to make your everyday jobs and everyday code run more effectively. Often developers place all of their focus in the execution plan to tune specific queries. Instead of relying on tuning specific queries, write better queries! Come and learn when and how you should limit rows, use output parameters, how to build a better Where clause, and how to avoid many of the more common pitfalls; such as: optimizer hints, string concatenation and cursors. From this session you are more likely to achieve better execution plans and more.

Physics For Developers
Robert Patton
5:45 p.m.
Logical Design and Normalization only carry a database system so far; in order to get the best performance out of your database system, you must understand how to leverage the database at the physical layer. Come and learn about how and where to implement indexes, columns and file groups in order to make the best use of your resources. From choosing the right data types to storage alignment of indexes on partitions to RAID and Solid State drives, the full spectrum of implementing your logical design on the physical layer will be discussed from a developer perspective.

SQL Live! – Wednesday, May 9

SQL Server Express Edition for the .NET Developer, Intermediate
Leonard Lobel
10:30 a.m.
This talk is all about SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SQL Express). We start off by comparing Express with the other editions of SQL Server. Special treatment is given to the Express vs. Everywhere (formerly known as Mobile Edition) question that developers inevitably face when building applications that require a local database.
 
Then we dive into a series of demos that showcase SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMS Express), dynamic database attachment and integration with Visual Studio. We give a detailed explanation of exactly what User Instances are (a feature available only in SQL Express), and provide demos that show how to manage User Instances in the context of other new features in SQL Server, such as SQL CLR integration. Additional demos include how to deploy your SQL Express based .NET application using ClickOnce technology, and building front end reporting applications using RDLC and the Report Viewer redistributable control. Sample code is provided as well, and is based on the Microsoft Starter Kits and Sample Applications for SQL Express.

SQL Server Notification Services: A Developer's Primer, Intermediate
Leonard Lobel
11:45 a.m.
Learn how to extend your applications with messaging capabilities using SQL Server 2005 Notification Services. We'll quickly cover the basics of this powerful middleware component, including event providers, content formatters, delivery protocol providers and subscriptions. Then the gloves come off as we build a real notification application in Visual Studio. Discover how easily you can create robust notification applications by leveraging this flexible and extensible middleware platform in this demo-packed session.

Relational Data Warehousing with SQL Server 2005 - Best Practices, Intermediate
Torsten Grabs
3:15 p.m.
Attendees of this session learn how to make best use of Microsoft technology when building data warehouses. We start with an overview of Microsoft products related to data warehousing.  The session then focuses on Microsoft SQL Server 2005. It first outlines when to use the SQL Server Relational Engine vs. SQL Server Analysis Services. Attendees learn how Microsoft SQL Server 2005 helps them to build easy-to-use and well-performing warehousing solutions.  To do so, the session dives into dimensionally modeling fact and dimension tables in a relational data warehouse based on Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Dimensional modeling provides end users with an intuitive understanding of the data warehouse schema and makes it easier for them to write well-performing queries and reports. We discuss different strategies to accommodate for new data and how to support sliding window scenarios with partitioning in Microsoft SQL Server 2005. We discuss the tradeoff between ETL performance and query performance and how to reflect this in physical design. A big part of the session is also spent on hands-on best practices to achieve high query performance. This part of the session for instance includes parallelism in the context of partitioning, designing queries for effective partition elimination, and use of aggregate tables vs. indexed views.

SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services, Intermediate    
Bill Wolff
4:30 p.m.
Learn about advanced techniques for building reports with SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services and the Visual Studio-based Report Designer. Topics include how to use the built-in expression language, report parameterization (data driven, multi-valued, and hierarchical), supporting multiple data sources (including relational, multi-dimensional, and XML), and making reports interactive. You will see the new features available to report designers in SQL Server 2005 sp2, including SharePoint 2007 integration. There will be walkthroughs of sample reports and tips and tricks for using the Report Definition Language (RDL).

Business Intelligence with Analysis Services and SharePoint 2007, Intermediate
Bill Wolff
5:45 p.m.
SharePoint 2007 provides new Business Intelligence features including dashboards, KPI lists, the Business Data Catalog, BI specific Web parts, Report Center, and a number of other new features. SQL Server Analysis Services, SQL Server Reporting Services, and Excel Services integration are presented. You can use these tools to build enterprise reporting portals.