Category Archives: SQL News

Pragmatic Works Release Doc xPress Server Edition

This month marks the official release of Pragmatic Works’ Doc xPress Server Edition! While everyone knows that Doc xPress gives you the capability to document your SQL Server databases, SSIS packages, SSAS cubes, and SSRS reports in way like no other tool. But with the release of the Server Edition, you can now host your documentation to a hosted web application making it now easier than ever to share documentation, lineage, and data dictionary information across your organization. Imagine being able to provide your technical users as well as your business users a one-stop-shop to all of your organization’s technical documentation without requiring anything to be installed on their desktop! Doc xPress Server Edition provides that capability!

Being able to view your Doc xPress-generated documentation online means that your technical team can quickly and easily assess the impact of changes in your BI environment by conducting a thorough lineage and impact analysis. What SSIS packages, SSRS reports, or SSAS cubes will be affected if I change a single column? Now you know!

How many times have you wondered what your environment looked like in the past? With Doc xPress, you can periodically snapshot your environment and compare snapshots over time so you can quickly and easily assess any changes that have occurred. And now you can view the documentation in your web browser without the need for any desktop configuration or installation.

If Doc xPress Server Edition sounds interesting and you’d like more information on the software, Pragmatic Works is presenting a free online webinar on the technology July 30th at 1:00 pm EST! Head over to PragmaticWorks.com (you’ll need to scroll down a screen or two) to get signed up and registered for the event.

Adventure Works Sample Databases for SQL 2012 RC0 Released

Early last week Microsoft released the Adventure Works samples for SQL Server 2012 RC0. Head over here to get the download. These sample databases only work with SQL Server 2012 RC0.

I love using these sample databases in my blog posts since they’re available to download for free and it makes it easy for those trying to follow along. The Adventure Works samples are also great for trying to recreate difficult issues my clients may be facing so I can have a better understanding of how to tackle the problem. If you’re serious about learning MS BI and SQL Server, you should definitely have some kind of sample database to play around with and test, so why not the AW sample since everyone has access to it.

The AW samples released for SQL Server 2012 RC0 use the AdventureWorks2008R2 and AdventureWorksDWDenali databases. There are no schema or data changes for in this release of the samples, except for additional date data in the DimDate table and an extra fact table, FactProductInventory, which contains inventory table. Download the sample databases here.