Microsoft Releases Synchronization Services CTP

The Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET v1.0 CTP release appeared without fanfare on January 22, 2007. The release contains "v1.0 early CTP" bits for the ADO.NET sync framework and and an updated SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition (SSCE) v3.5, the Orcas successor to the SSCE v3.1 RTM bits, which Microsoft released on January 11, 2007. Sync Services for ADO.NET's goal is to enable synchronization between any pair of data sources that have ADO.NET managed providers. The current code name for Sync Services is OCS (for Occasionally Connected Systems).

According to the download details:

Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET provides the ability to synchronize data from disparate sources over two-tier, N-tier, and service-based architectures. Rather than simply replicating a database and its schema, the Synchronization Services application programming interface (API) provides a set of components to synchronize data between data services and a local store.

Applications are increasingly used on mobile clients, such as laptops and devices, that do not have a consistent or reliable network connection to a central server. It is crucial for these applications to work against a local copy of data on the client. Equally important is the need to synchronize the local copy of the data with a central server when a network connection is available.

The Synchronization Services API, which is modeled after the ADO.NET data access APIs, gives you an intuitive way to synchronize data. It makes building applications for occasionally connected environments a logical extension of building applications where you can count on a consistent network connection.

The OCS installation folder is \Program Files\Microsoft Synchronization Services\ADO.NET\v1.0\, which contains Microsoft.Synchronization.Data.dll, Microsoft.Synchronization.Data.Server.dll, Microsoft.Synchronization.Data.Client.dll, and ReadMeSyncServices_ENU.htm. ReadMeSyncServices... has no useful content.

Documentation, Support and Sample VS 2005 Sync Projects

The download includes no white papers, tutorials, or other documentation for programming Sync Services. Microsoft says to expect documentation here for Sync Services in early February 2007.

In the meantime, there's a new Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET forum and an MSDN The Synchronizer blog run by Rafik Robeal. Rafik's blog has a link to Offline AppDemo-BuilderV1.1.zip, which contains a C# demo application that works with SQL Server.

Tip: If you install and run the Offline AppDemo.sln project be sure to read the readme.txt file in the ...\setup folder, select and run only the specified part of the demo.sql script with SSMS[X], add \SQLEXPRESS to the Server Machine text box if you're running SQLX, and click the Synchronize button to create the clientdb.sdf database in the location specified in the Client Database text box before you click any other buttons.

Steve Lasker mentioned in his January 23, 2007 "Sync Services for ADO.NET (OCS) CTP Now Available" post that the Orcas February CTP will include a Sync Designer and that he plans to "post a screen capture of the designer soon." If you check out Rafik's demo project, you'll see why the Sync Designer is a must. (Too much code required for a simple, two-table project.)

SSCE Backward Compatibility

The download details state that the SSCE v3.5 runtime bits install side-by-side with SSCE v3.1 on desktop, laptop, and Tablet PCs. The two SSCE installation folders are \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition\v3.1\ (RTM) and \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition\v3.5\ (CTP).

I've confirmed that complex (1,000+ lines) WinForm apps created with SSCE v3.1 RTM (file v3.0.5300.0, assembly v9.0.242.0) work fine with SSCE v3.5 from the Orcas January 2007 CTP (file v3.5.5277.0, assembly v3.5) and v3.5 in the OCS CTP (file v3.5.5305, assemby v3.5). Upgrading current SSCE 3.1 projects to v3.5.5305 requires removing the current System.Data.SqlServerCe reference, and adding a new v3.5.5305 reference by browsing to \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition\v3.5\System.Data.SqlServerCe.dll.

Note: The 3.5.5305 version installs as expected with Windows Vista running under Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 CTP. This configuration isn't explicitly listed as supported by SSCE v3.5 in ReadmeSSCE35_ENU.htm. Version 9.0.242.0 failed to install completely under virtual Vista.

New v3.5 SSCE Features in the CTP Release

The SSCE v3.5 ReadmeSSCE35_ENU.htm file's "New Features in SQL Compact Edition 3.5 CTP" section list the following enhancements to v3.1:

• Support for the timestamp datatype
• Nested queries in the SELECT FROM clause
• CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY operators
• CAST function and TOP clause
• Support for the ADO.NET Entity Framework and LINQ to Entities with System.Data.SqlServerCe.Entity.dll (under Orcas)
• Enhanced table editor for VS Orcas can add foreign key constraints
• Support for local transaction scope

Note: The enhanced table editor for VS Orcas didn't appear in my installation of the Orcas January CTP. A later Orcas build (February CTP?) probably is required.

Surprisingly, the new features did not include the expected removal of the 4-GB database size limit. The ssce:Max Database Size range remains 16 to 4091 kB.

The bits appear to me to be a stealth release. As of today (1/27/2007), there was no mention of Sync Services on the SSCE main page and there were no posts about Sync Services in the SQL Server Compact Edition forum until I added a message with a link. Microsoft might be waiting for initial documentation to be completed before promoting Sync Services.

Update 1/28/2007: Minor clarifications and corrections.

Technorati tags: SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition, SQL Server Compact Edition, SQL Server CE, SQLce, SSCE, SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition, SQL Server Everywhere, SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition, SQL Server Mobile, MSSQL, Orcas, Occasionally Connected Systems, OCS, Microsoft Synchronization Services, Sync Services, Entity Framework, LINQ to Entities.

More LINQ to XSD Rumblings

It's been quiet on the LINQ to XSD (a.k.a. "l2xsd") front since Microsoft Data Programmability Team program manager Ralf Lämmel announced the public preview on November 27, 2006 with the release of the Alpha 0.1 version.

Mike Champion gave LINQ to XSD a boost in his "Convergence Zones" 2007 preview for the future of XML post:

The better the XML is hidden, the more the bulk of the world likes it. Being out of sight, it's also out of mind. Few noticed that "Asynchronous JavaScript And XML" actually refers to the XmlHttpRequest API much more than XML content, so the substitution of JSON for XML as the typical bits on the wire format caused little concern. Actually that understates the case—most people are happy to use more familiar technologies instead of XML or in front of XML. What might we predict from this pattern?

• I'll make a (self serving!) prediction that the LINQ approach of focusing on what is common across data formats will get more mainstream traction than will the notion that users want specialized tools for their XML data.
• Tools that make it relatively easy to consume XML directly into programming objects such as LINQ to XSD will continue to mature technically and be adopted by pragmatic developers.

Helping LINQ to XSD to "continue to mature technically" is a new technical paper, "Programming with Triangular Circles," by Ralf Lämmel and Dave Remy, presented at the XML 2006 conference in Boston on December 5, 2006. Here's the introduction and abstract:

When deriving object types from schema types, developers are impaired by the infamous X/O impedance mismatch. We deliver a typed programming approach for XML that greatly reduces the impairment by leveraging rather than abandoning XML semantics.

Given the capabilities of OO programming, its maturity and generality, it is a sane expectation to adopt OO as the paradigm of choice for XML processing. To serve that expectation, one would map XML schemas to object models so that XML data can be processed through familiar objects. The first generation of mapping technologies has been somewhat disappointing and the term X/O impedance mismatch has been coined in this context. By devising a mapping that caters for XML-aware objects as typed views on untyped XML trees (as opposed to plain objects with fields), and by leveraging functional OO programming, one can actually deliver on the expectation to adopt the (enriched) OO paradigm for XML processing.

Ralf's "Style Normalization for Canonical X-to-O Mappings" paper for the ACM SIGPLAN 2007 Workshop on Partial Evaluation and Program Manipulation (PEPM 2007), held in Nice, France, on January 15 and 16, 2007 tackles "normalization of schema-organization styles and its support by automated transformations." Here's the first paragraph of the Introduction and the abstract:

This paper deals with the overall problem of mapping XML schemas to object models. (We use the term X-to-O mapping from here on.) More specifically, this paper devises transformations for normalizing styles of schema organization as a separate aspect of X-to-O mappings. This separation of concerns is helpful in attacking the so-called X/O impedance mismatch—the overall difficulty of viewing domain-specific XML data as objects of a schema-derived object model in a satisfactory manner.

An X-to-O mapping takes an XML schema as input and returns an object model as output; this object model is meant for programmatic, schema-aware access to XML data. The provision of X-to-O mappings involves various challenges; one of them is addressed by the present paper: variation in style of schema organization, which should not unduly affect the outcome of X-to-O mappings. We devise transformations for style normalization (and conversion); these transformations operate at both levels of the X-to-O mapping: schemas and object models. An important byproduct of the present work is to showcase functional OO programming as a viable setup for devising software transformations.

Ralf also presented at XML 2006 the LINQ to XML-based "API-based XML Streaming with FLWOR Power and Functional Updates" paper with this introduction and abstract:

We enable streaming for an in-memory XML API so that a convenient (declarative) programming model is preserved. Some restrictions are to be imposed on the streaming mode of the API, thereby achieving also predictability and controllability of the streaming power.

The size of XML trees that can be processed by an XML API for declarative, in-memory processing is bound by the available memory. As a result, certain scenarios involving huge trees or many processes on large trees may fail to be feasible with (declarative) in-memory processing; lower-level APIs for XML parsing and unparsing must be reconsidered. As a remedy, we enable streaming for an in-memory XML API so that the convenient (declarative) programming model of the baseline API is preserved. Some restrictions are to be imposed on the streaming mode of the API, thereby achieving also predictability and controllability of the streaming power. The presented development uses LINQ to XML (formerly called XLinq) as the baseline API and works out one particular API extension for a streaming-enabled LINQ to XML API. As an important byproduct of this effort, functional updates are proposed, which complement the existing, imperative updates of the LINQ to XML API.

Lets hope both these technologies make Visual Studio's Orcas release. A post RTM add-on might suffice for the streaming API, but LINQ to XSD definitely deserves the resources required to make the VS vNext cut.

Technorati Tags: LINQ to XSD, LINQ to XML, XLinq, C# 3.0, VB 9.0, XML, XSD, XML Schema, Orcas

New SQL Server CE Technical Articles and Tutorials

Microsoft released in the last week five tutorials that cover the most important developer features of SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition (SSCE). For a welcome change, tutorials with code come in VB and C# versions. The following sections provide links to both versions, where applicable, and a copy of Microsoft's summary for each.

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Application Deployment with Shared and Private Deployments (VB) Application Deployment with Shared and Private Deployments (C#) Summary: In this tutorial, you will learn about two different deployment scenarios available for deploying SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition with your applications: centrally installing SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition and privately installing SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition as part of your application. You will be using Visual Basic.NET in this tutorial. (22 printed pages)

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Rapid Application Development Using SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition and Visual Basic.NET Rapid Application Development Using SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition and Visual C#.NET Summary: In this tutorial, you will learn how to leverage the design capabilities integrated into Visual Studio 2005 in order to rapidly develop applications that use data stored in a SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition database. You will be using Visual Basic.NET in this tutorial. (21 printed pages)

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SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Data Access with the SqlCeResultSet and Visual Basic.NET SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Data Access with the SqlCeResultSet and Visual C#.NET Summary: In this tutorial, you will learn how to leverage the design capabilities integrated into Visual Studio 2005 in order to rapidly develop applications that use data stored in a SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition database. You will be using Visual Basic.NET in this tutorial. (21 printed pages)

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Configuring Internet Information Services for SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Remote Data Access and Merge Replication Summary: Learn how to configure Internet Information Services (IIS) for both remote data access (RDA) and merge replication, two technologies that you can use to synchronize data between a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 back-end database and a local Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition database. This tutorial covers everything that you must do to configure a server for data synchronization using RDA. To perform data synchronization with merge replication, you must also configure SQL Server 2005. Remote Data Access Synchronization with SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition and Visual Basic.NET

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Remote Data Access Synchronization with SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition and Visual Basic.NET Remote Data Access Synchronization with SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition and Visual C#.NET Summary: In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a Microsoft Windows Forms application using Microsoft Visual Basic.NET that synchronizes data between a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database and a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition database using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Remote Data Access (RDA). (48 printed pages)

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The tutorials claim that Windows XP SP2, Visual Studio 2005 SP1 (not Visual Studio Express), and SSCE components are required to run the tutorials. I plan to test them with Windows Vista Ultimate, VS 2005 SP1 with Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta, SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition SP2 December CTP for replication. Stay tuned for my results. Update 1/17/2007: There's a new "What's New in SQL Server Compact Edition" whitepaper and updated "An introduction to SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition" Knowledge Base article available. Technorati tags: SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition, SQL Server Compact Edition, SQL Server CE, SQLce, SSCE, SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition, SQL Server Everywhere, SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition, SQL Server Mobile, MSSQL, Remote Data Access, RDA, Merge Replication

Microsoft Releases Orcas January 2007 CTP

Microsoft posted on January 10, 2006 at about 8:30 p.m. PST the long-awaited Microsoft Pre-release Software Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" - January 2007 Community Technology Preview (CTP), formerly known as the Orcas December 2006 CTP. The download is available as an extractable executable, consisting of VSDec2006CTP.part1.exe and six VSDec2006CTP.part#.rar files (4.21 GB). Alternatively, you can create a Virtual Server 2005 or Virtual PC 2004 image (.vhd file) by combining the self-extracting base image (VSCTPBase.exe, 1.12-GB) with VSDec2006CTP.part01.exe and seven VSDec2006CTP.part0#.rar files (4.91 GB). Notice the 0 prefix that distinguishes the executable from the virtual server files. The Virtual Server OS is Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Editon SP1, not Windows server 2003 R2. The virtual machine files extract to Base01.vhd (2.86 GB), VSDec2006CTP.vhd (11.45 GB), and VSDec2006CTP.vhc (13 kB). Starting the virtual machine adds Base01.vmc (11 kB) and VSDec2006CTP.vsv saved-state file (1.51 GB). Thus you need about 22 GB of free disk space for starters.

Orcas January CTP Shortfalls

The January CTP's LINQ components (especially LINQ to SQL) aren't fully cooked, as evidenced by the following comment from a January 12, 2006 post to Charlie Calvert's C# Community Blog:

This build of Orcas has good support for LINQ to Objects and only shaky support for LINQ to SQL. There has, however, been good support for LINQ To SQL in the internal builds I've seen in the last few days. These internal builds all target the February CTP.

The January 2007 CTP Release Notes state:

• ADO.NET Entities in this current drop do not support LINQ—The private CTP of ADO.NET (ADO.NET August CTP) does offer a preview of LINQ integration but that functionality does not work with the Orcas January 2007 CTP.
• No ADO.NET tools support for the Orcas January 2007 CTP—There is a publicly available ADO.NET Tools CTP. Please note these tools work with the ADO.NET August CTP and not the Orcas January 2007 CTP.
• You can’t import Whidbey SDM Designer files in Orcas—No workaround is available for this issue.

The "Overview" section of the download page states that the January CTP includes SQL Server Compact Edition; it doesn't. You'll find that the CTP installs a Microsoft SQL Server Everywhere Edition\v3.5 folder that contains outdated Sqlce*30.dll runtime files, not the Sqlce*31.dll files from January 2007's SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Web (RTM) release. However, Visual Studio's Choose Data Source dialog opened from the Data Source Configuration Wizard does have an SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition choice. Erwyn van der Meer raises the issues of missing developer support for .NET 3.0—no documentation, project templates, or visual designers—or AJAX in ASP.NET. He also found that the WPF, WCF, and CardSpace versions are close to 200 builds earlier than RTM. Note: The Release Notes also describe the numerous problems that occur if you install the "VS 2007" bits side-by-side on a machine running VS 2005. There are three references to "VS 2007" in the Release Notes; Add/Remove Programs includes "Microsoft Document Explorer 2007" and "Microsoft Visual Studio 2007 Tools for Office Runtime," which would indicate that the Orcas team is confident of releasing VS vNext this year. .NET Framework 3.5 (GreenBits) is a 9.62-MB addition to .NET Fx 3.0. Data-intensive developers might want to delay extensive testing of LINQ features (other than LINQ to Objects) until the Orcas February [?] 2007 CTP. Installation Issues with Virtual Server 2005 R2 I attempted to install the extracted bits on the Virtual Server 2005 R2's Windows Server 2003 R2 standard edition in accordance with the download page's instructions. However, the following virtual machine setup instructions for Virtual PC 2003 don't work with Virtual Server 2005 R2. 6. Click the New button to launch the “New Virtual Machine Wizard”. 7. Navigate to the Options page and select "Add An existing Virtual Machine" radio button. 8. Click the Browse button and navigate to the location you extracted the files to and select VSODec2006CTP.vmc [sic] image 9. You will be prompted for the location of the base image and you should point to the Base01.vhd that you extracted earlier and click OK 10. Clear the “When I finish, open settings” checkbox and click OK 11. Select the new image entry and click Start You receive a message such as the following when you attempt to start the virtual machine:

Note: Click the images for full size versions or click here for a Web page with a set of larger images.

To set up the virtual machine on Virtual Server 2005 R2, substitute these steps after extracting the :

1. Click the Virtual Machine group's Add button to open the Add Virtual Machine page.

2. Type the d:\full path\VSDec2006CTP.vmc file in the Fully Qualified Path to File text box:

3. Click Add to create the new virtual machine from VSDec2006CTP.vmc.

4. Click the Virtual Disk group's Inspect button to open the Inspect Virtual Hard Disk page, and select d:\full path\VSDec2006CTP.vmc from the the Known Virtual Hard Disks list.

5. Click Inspect to open the "VSDec2006CTP.vhd" Virtual Hard Disk Properties page, which displays the error message in the Parent Virtual Hard Disk(s) text box:

6. Click the red error message to open the Update Virtual Hard Disk Parent page, and select the d:\full path\Base01.vhd item in the Parent Virtual Hard Disk Path text box:

7. Click Update Parent Path to return to the "VSDec2006CTP.vhd" Virtual Hard Disk Properties page, which now shows d:\full path\Base01.vhd in the Parent Virtual Hard Disk(s) Path text box. 8. Click Master Status. If VSDec2006CTP doesn't appear in the Remote View list, click Add, select d:\full path\VSDec2006CTP from the list, and click Add. 9. In the Master Status page, hover the mouse over VSDec2006CTP and select Configure to open the configureation page. Set the Memory, CD/DVD and Network Adapters values. 10. Hover the mouse over VSDec2006CTP and select Turn On. After a minute or two, Windows Server 2003's logon dialog appears. 11. 13.306 isn't the correct set of Virtual Machine Additions for this relase, so click Virtual Machine Additions to open the page of the same name, mark the Install Virtual Machine Additions check box and click OK. 12. Click the thumbnail to turn on remote operation. Type your Administrator credentials to open the "VSDec2006CTP" Remote Control page. 13. Log on with Right Alt + Del, accept Administrator as the user name and type P2ssw0rd as the password.

New LINQ Resources While you're waiting for the Orcas February 2007 CTP, take the time to explore these new LINQ-related resources:

Microsoft's Wes Dyer has produced an eight-part treatise on LINQ queries:

1. Comprehending Comprehensions—What are queries? How are queries treated by the compiler?
2. Transparent Identifiers—How are local variables introduced by queries?
3. Thus Quoth the Humble Programmer—What are expression trees? What are lambdas translated into?
4. Reading and Writing Queries—What mental models are useful in reading and writing query expressions? What are the scoping rules for queries?
5. A Model for Query Interpretation—How can we think about query evaluation? Is it possible to think of queries in terms of the queries and not the rewrites? What is the conceptual model for Linq to Objects queries?
6. How Linq to Objects Queries Work—What causes Linq to Objects queries to be lazily evaluated? How are the results computed? What underlies the conceptual model for Linq to Objects? Why do queries exhibit their debugging behavior?
7. Having Trouble with Queries—What constitutes good error messages? How are effective error messages for queries generated in the face of type inference and significant syntactic sugar?
8. Another Model for Query Interpretation—Are there other models for query interpretation besides an imperative one? Why are some queries declarative and others not?

Eric Lipper discusses lambdas in the following two recent posts:

• Lambdas vs Anonymous Methods Part I
• Lambdas vs Anonymous Methods Part II

Australian .NET developer Troy Magennis's Hooked on LINQ wiki is up to 88 pages. All of the preceding resources are C#, but the query syntax is quite similar in VB.

Updated: January 15, 2007

Technorati Tags: Orcas, ADO.NET vNext, Entity Framework, Entity Data Model, LINQ, LINQ to Entities, LINQ to XML, LINQ to SQL, Entity SQL, eSQL, DLinq, XLinq, C# 3.0, VB 9.0

SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition RTM Available

Microsoft delivered its Web release of SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition (SQLceSSCE) on January 11, 2006. The Web release finally eliminates previous references to Windows Mobile and SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition.

SSCE is a lightweight, single-user relational database engine designed for client-side data storage on Windows desktops, laptops, and devices. Its query engine supports a subset of SQL Server 2005 data types and T-SQL.

The Web release consists of the following four downloadable components:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Runtime (SQLServerCE31-EN.msi) installs the SQLce redistributable components to a specific location (\Program Files\SQL Server Compact Edition\v3.1\) on the destination computer which enables future replacement by Windows Update.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Developer SDK (SSCE31SDK-ENU.msi) installs files required to set up SQLce on mobile devices, and desktop and tablet PCs, Books Online for SQLce, and the Northwind sample application.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Tools for Visual Studio 2005 SP 1 (SSCE31VSTools-ENU.exe) installs Click Once support for SQLce applications, updates the Smart Device Development components in VS 2005 SP1 with the SQLce design-time UI and dialogs and device CAB files.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Server Tools (Sqlce30setupen.msi) installs the SQL Server Replication Components on the machine running IIS. It isn't required if SQL Server 2000 or 2005 is on the same machine as the IIS replication instance.

SQLce30setupen.msi—the only file that doesn't use the SSCE abbrevation—apparently didn't need updating from the SQL Server Mobile 3.0 version.

Support: SSCE's main page is here and the newsgroup is here. There's an SQL Server Compact Edition blog and Steve Lasker's blog has links to many SSCE resources. Steve is the SQL Server Program Manager/Technical Lead for Smart Client and Occasionally Connected Systems.

Programming and Managing SSCE

The SqlServerCe namespace provides data access classes similar to ADO.NET's SqlClient. Installing the runtime also registers an OLE DB driver for applications running unmanaged code. Data files (*.sdf) are stored in the file system and are compatible with Windows Mobile 3.0 applications. SSCE 3.1 is ideally suited for Click Once installation of data-driven Windows forms apps. See my May 1, 2006 "SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition Goes Everywhere" Special Report for an early look at SSCE. The SQL Server Management Studio [Express] SP2 December 2006 CTP or later (SSMS[X] SP2) is required to manage SSCE if you aren't running Visual Studio 2005 SP1 because the VS Express editions don't include Server Explorer. But you'll find SSMS[X] SP2 to have somewhat better management tools than VS 2005 SP1.

Note: Download SSMSX December 2006 CTP here or the full SSMS version here.

Use SSMS[X] or VS 2005 SP1's or T-SQL DDL scripts to create and modify SSSCE's *.sdf data files, which store character-based data in Unicode only. You'll need to use DDL for operations other than creating databases and adding, deleting and modifying tables.

For an in-depth look at programming SSCE with Visual Basic .NET, download a copy of SQL Server guru and author Bill Vaughn's Hitchhiker's Guide to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition eBook (a bargain at the US$9.95 introductory price).

Replicating SSCE

SSCE supports merge replication and Remote Data Access synchronization scenarios with SQL Server 2000 SP3 and later. The next version (3.5) of SSCE will scheduled to include a new Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET (code-named OCS for Occasionally Connected Systems) in Visual Studio Orcas. A pre-release version of SSCE v3.5 is included in the Microsoft Pre-release Software Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" - January Community Technology Preview (CTP).

Update 1/27/2007: Microsoft released on January 22, 2007 a Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET CTP, which also includes support for SSCE LINQ to Entities.

For more details on SQL Server <-> SSCE replication technologies, see the "ADO.NET Sync Framework for Occasionally Connected Systems" post. An SQL Server Client Access License (CAL) is required for replication between SQL Server and SSCE. (SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SSX) has the same CAL requirement for replication.)

Note: Microsoft says Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 is not a supported system for SSCE. This might explain my problem with installing the runtime on "virtualized Vista" but not the lack of problems with "virtualized Windows Server 2003 R2" installation.

Update 1/15/2007: Abbreviation changed from SQLce to SSCE. Google shows 124,000 hits for the SQLce and 14,000 for SSCE abbreviations, but Microsoft appears to have standardized on SSCE. SSCE is consistent with use of SSX for SQL Server Express and SSMS[X] for SQL Server Management Studio [Express].

Update 1/27/2007: Updated for OCS CTP and added links to SSMS[X] downloads.

Technorati tags: SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition, SQL Server Compact Edition, SQL Server CE, SQLce, SSCE, SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition, SQL Server Everywhere, SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition, SQL Server Mobile, MSSQL, Orcas, Occasionally Connected Systems, OCS, Microsoft Synchronization Services, SyncServices

Problem Installing SQLce RC1 on Virtual Windows Vista

I've attempted to install SQL Server Compact Edition RC1 on Windows Vista Ultimate (RTM) running under Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta 2 (1.1.531.0 EE R2 SP1) as Administrator. SQLServerEv31-EN.msi (dated 12/19/2006) creates the \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server Everywhere Edition\v3.1 folder but only adds the System.Data.SqlServerCe.xml file.

None of the sqlce*30.dll runtime files, System.Data.SqlServerCe.dll, or EULA_EN.rtf appear in the ...\v3.1 folder. However, the 3.1 version of System.Data.SqlServerCe.dll appears to install because 1) it's in the GAC and 2) the [DataDirectory] macro works in a connection string. We've tried installing with or without UAC to no avail.

There's no problem running SQLServerEv31-EN.msi with a "concrete" Vista Ultimate instance on an ordinary partition. SQLServerEv31-EN.msi also installs correctly on a virtual Windows Server 2003 R2 instance. In either of these two cases, all expected SQLce files are present and accounted for.

Has anyone else seen this problem? Yes or no, please leave a comment.

Update 1/15/2005: Microsoft says that Virtual Server 2005 R2 isn't a supported platform for SSCE.

Previous posts on SQLce: ADO.NET Sync Framework for Occasionally Connected Systems (11/9/2006) and SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition RC1 Available (11/8/2006)

P.S.: So far, I haven't yet encountered any other issues with SQL Server 2005 Express with Advanced Services SP2 or Visual Studio 2005 SP1 with the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta running under Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta 2.

1105 Media Acquires Fawcette Technical Publications' Assets

1105 Media, Inc., the owner of numerous print publications and related Web sites has acquired the operating assets of Fawcette Technical Publications (FTP), former publisher of Visual Studio Magazine (VSM) and producer of the VSLive!, Software Architecture Summit, Web Design World, and Web Builder 2.0 conferences, according to a January 2, 2006 Redmond Magazine news article.

Other FTP properties acquired include Java Pro, Window Server System Magazine, and Enterprise Architect online magazines, and Insight newsletters, including .NETInsight, JAVAInsight, XML & Web Services Insight, Software Architecture Insight, and Web Design & Development Insight.

The acquired properties will become part of 1105 Media's Redmond Media Group (RMG) , which publishes Redmond Magazine (formerly Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine), Redmond Channel Partner, and Redmond Developer News together with related Web sites, and produces the semi-annual TechMentor and new TechPartner conferences. RMG was formed from 101communications' properties, which 1105 Media acquired in April 2006.

See links to recent VSM articles and FTPOnline special reports below the profile section to the right.

Update 1/8/2007: Berkery, Noyes & Co., LLC represented Fawcette Technical Publications in its sale of assets to 1105 Media.

Update 1/27/2007: Zacks Research posted on 1/8/2007 a brief interview with 1105 Media CEO Neal Vitale entitled "Dealmaker Indeed."

According to a Prospectus Supplement to a Prospectus dated September 29, 2006 for the sale of 4 million shares of its common stock, MCG Capital Corp. had made the following investements in Fawcette Technical Publications Holding: Senior Debt (16.5%, Due 12/06) $12,579,000; Subordinated Debt (16.4%, Due 12/06) $4,656,000; Series A Preferred Stock (8,473 shares) $2,569,000l; Common Stock (5,010,379 shares) 36% $0.0. MCG is an "internally managed, non-diversified, closed-end investment company that has elected to be regulated as a business development company under the Investment Company Act of 1940."

Technorati Tags: Visual Studio Magazine, Redmond Magazine Group, 1105 Media, Fawcette Technical Publications, FTP

Microsoft Gives Bloggers Sub-Aero (2.8) Laptops

Edelman Public Relations, who's handling PR for Microsoft's Windows Vista Launch, gave Acer Ferrari 1000 and 5000 laptops as Christmas presents to a few A-list and other influential bloggers. San Francisco's Laughing Squid blogger Scott Beale received a free Ferrari 1000 preloaded with Windows Vista Ultimate.

(Image courtesy of IStartedSomething.com)

Scott also published a few photographs of and screen captures from his new laptop. Here's his Control Panel\System screen (cropped and sharpened for legibility):

I was surprised to see a 2.8 Windows Experience Index for a laptop that's intended to show off Windows Vista Premium's virtues, especially a premium (Ferrari), 64-bit dual-core laptop with 1-GB of DDR2 DRAM and a 160GB SATA fixed disk. The way I read the tea leaves, 3.0 is the minimum index rating to run Windows Vista Premium Edition and qualify as Windows Vista Premium Ready. Here's what the Microsoft Windows Vista blog's September 22, 2006 "Windows Experience Index: An In-Depth Look" post says about machines in the 2.0 - 2.9 range (emphasis added):

A base score of 2.0 represents the mainstream Windows Vista upgrade target system. This level of PC may run Windows Aero but users may see noticeable performance issues from time to time, especially on PCs with scores less than 2.5 and/or 64MB of graphics memory. Performance issues may also be noticeable when opening many application windows at the same time or when using very large monitors.

• PCs will run Windows Vista but in most cases will not be Aero capable.
• Types: lower end of mid-market desktops. Many slim & light laptops.

Here's the same information for machines within the 3.0 - 3.9 index range (emphasis added):

This level represents the value end of machines that will ship at the end of 2006 and into 2007. This is the lowest capability Windows Premium Logo PC that will ship with Windows Vista™ pre-installed. Windows Vista will generally enable Aero automatically on level 3 machines. Aero will perform quite well on level 3 machines with single monitors. With dual monitors (especially larger than 1280x1024), users may see noticeable performance issues from time to time, especially on machines with scores less than 3.5 and/or 128MB of graphics memory.

• Minimum specification needed to run Windows Vista Premium features, including the new Aero user interface.
• Types: value end market desktops. Slim & light laptops + desktop replacement laptops.

The Acer product and Windows Vista support pages say that the F1000 and F5000 are Windows Vista Capable and Windows Vista Premium Ready. (The F1000 is claimed to be Premium Ready if appropriately configured with 1-GB RAM and a DVD-ROM drive.) Microsoft's latest requirements for the these two labels are here.

Based on the preceding Microsoft quotes, however, a 2.8 Experience Index doesn't appear to meet minimum Windows Vista Premium requirements or qualify for shipping with Windows Vista preinstalled.

Update 12/28/2006: Microsoft Watch's Joe Wilcox appears to agree in his "How Much Oomph Does Vista Really Need?" post that a 2.8 Windows Experience Index isn't sufficient to run Windows Vista properly. He says "The stated minimum system requirements are stingy" and provides his recommendations for minimum Windows Vista hardware requirements. He notes that "Microsoft would do better by overstating rather than understating system requirements. It's one thing for the operating system to run and another for it to provide a good experience." Joe's former Jupiter Research colleague Michael Gartenberg disagrees.

Note: You might experience problems opening pages on the Acer site due to loss of submarine fibreoptic cables in Tuesday night's Richter 7.1 undersea earthquake off the coast of Taiwan.

For comparison, here's a capture of the Performance Information and Tools page from my Windows Vista test machine, a Gateway S-5200D with a 2.8-GHz Pentium D (2 cores), 2 GB RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GPU with 256 MB RAM, and an 180-GB SATA hard drive:

That's not to say the bloggers who received F1000's got a lump of coal in their stockings. It's just surprising that a PR firm would send laptops with a marginal or worse Windows Experience Index to entice bloggers into promoting reviewing Windows Vista.

Last Updated: 1/4/2006.

Subsequent events: Long Zheng's I Started Something blog reports that some bloggers received Acer Ferrari 5000s. Update 12/27/2006: MSTechToday's Brandon LeBlanc, Barb's Connected World's Barb Bowman, GeekZone's Mauricio Freitas and Zen's HeavenGames have reported receiving an F5000 as of 1:00 pm PST. NotGartner's Mitch Denny got an F1000. Update 12/28/2006: Ed Bott (Windows Expertise) received an F5000, Global Nerdy's Joey deVilla and ProBlogger's Darren Rowse got an F1000, and TechCrunch/CrunchNotes' Mike Arrington and ex-TechCruncher Marshall Kirkpatrick got unidentified models directly from Microsoft Mindshare Program Manager Aaron Coldiron. Robert McLaws at Windows Now says an AMD rep was responsible for his unnumbered Ferrari.

Australia's Sandi Hardmeier (Spyware Sucks and IE-Vista) got her F5000 today (see this blog's comments). Digital Inspiration's Amit Agarwal is awaiting a Ferrari from the DHL warehouse and plans to keep it; ValleyWag's link says that Microsoft "compromises the incorruptible." Now CrunchGear's John Biggs says that "Love Will Tear Us Apart: Microsoft Wants Its Laptops Back." Joel Spolsky refused Microsoft's offer of a Ferrari laptop, and Scott Beale's auctioning his F1000 on eBay with the proceeds to go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

Michael Gartenberg weighs in with "Lessons from the Ferrari Fiasco" and Joe Wilcox adds his own take on the "fiasco" with a "Microsoft's Laptop Giveaway Is About Influence, Not Bribery" post in response to eWeek "Linux & Open Source" columnist Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols' "Bribing Bloggers" post. eWeek's John Pallato says, "Bloggers Can't Ignore Basic Journalism Ethics." 12/30/2006: GigaOm's Om Malik received his Ferrari (no model number) yesterday. (He plans to return it.) Jason Calacanis (formerly of Weblogs, Inc. and AOL) says "Microsoft Vista Ferrari Payoffs--horrible move," citing Om's post. Brandon LeBlanc reports his F5000 scores a 4.8 Windows Experience index. Should the folks who received F1000s be considered "second-class Web citizens?"

Ed Bott took issue with my use of Scott Beale's Control Panel\System screen capture that reported only the base (overall) WEI score and not the subscores. Ed also noted the need to run multiple tests to achieve an accurate value, as did Sandi Hardmeier in the first comment to this post. However, Mitch Denny's "Ferrari 1000: The Windows Experience Index (WEI)" post includes a Performance Information and Tools capture with the subscores that return the 2.8 base score—the result of a 2.8 Graphics subscore for the ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 GPU. Mitch also compares the Ferrari 1000 WEI Vista scores againsft a Fujitsu LifeBook T4210 and Dell Lattitude D820. Mitch cites Ed's post, which stresses the need to run multiple Performance Information and Tools capture to get an accurate result, so I don't believe there's an error in Mitch's data, nor do I believe that I misunderstood the WEI. A few other recipients of F1000s posting captures of their WEI scores would moot this controversy.

The plot thickens: CyberNet News' Ryan Wagner is scheduled to receive a Velocity Micro Media Center PC from Microsoft and AMD this weekend, and so is Long Zheng, who was one of the first to blog about free Ferraris. (Ryan says the specs aren't on the Velocity Micro site because it's scheduled to release on January 30, 2007, but he has a photo on his site.) 12/29/2006: Gear Live's Andru Edwards has already received his Media Center PC (see this blog's comments). Abbreviated specs from Gear Live are: "AMD Athlon FX 5000+ dual core processor, 2 GB DDR-800 RAM, two 400 GB hard drives in a RAID 1 configuration." Andru reports a 5.9 Windows Experience Index, which is the current maximum, in his blog's comments.

New twists on 12/29/2006: Microsoft apparently still has some leftover Acer Ferrari 1000 laptops that didn't get sent to bloggers. They're awarding them as lottery prizes to folks who watch Microsoft Office 2007 Webcasts. Too bad the machines don't rate a better Windows Experience Index than 2.8 (out of 5.9) for Vista. However, Microsoft's Keith Combs says Vista runs fine in its Basic color scheme (no Aero Glass) on a four-year-old Compaq Evo N620c.

Brave New Year: The New York Times takes the Ferrari bait on New Year's Day: Maria Aspen wrote a brief Technology section piece entitled "Costly Gift From Microsoft Is an Invitation to Blog." (Free registration required, copy here from CNet.) Ms. Aspen confirmed that Microsoft had sent 90 Ferraris "to bloggers who write about technology and other subjects".

The Intuitive Life Business Blog's Dave Taylor concludes in his January 3, 2006 "Vista laptops for bloggers furor misses the real story" post that "There is no ethical issue associated with a vendor giving product to thought and opinion leaders in a marketplace," asks "why didn't they send out the OS and let us install it on our own computers?" and then provides his answer: "Microsoft Vista is in fact a bear to install and has prohibitive hardware requirements." CrunchGear's John Boggs agrees with Taylor, but Houston Chronicle TechBlogger Dwight Silverman doesn't. Silverman says:

Taylor's actually the one missing the point, because most users' first experience with Vista won't be via an upgrade. It will be when they buy a new machine that comes pre-loaded with it. By sending bloggers' pre-loaded notebook PCs, Microsoft is actually giving them the mainstream Vista experience . . . minus, of course, all the junkware that comes loaded onto consumer PCs.

I found Vista to be quite easy to install on my year-old Gateway desktop client (runs Aero Glass graphics, as shown above) and a two-year-old Dell server (runs Basic graphics because it has a low-end graphics card).

Backstory: Edelman Public Relations got into hot water with the blogging community when the firm designed in October 2006 the Wal-Marting Across America flog (fake Weblog) for client Working Families for Wal-Mart without disclosing Edelman's or their client's particpation in the process. Dave Taylor's "Edelman screws up with duplicitous Wal-Mart blog, but it's okay?" post on the Intuitive Life Business Blog describes the conflict between the flog and the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's ethics rules. Taylor notes that Edelman "helped craft" these rules.

Full disclosure: I make a substantial part of my living writing about Microsoft programming environments, servers, productivity applications, and operating systems in books and for magazines. I did not receive a free laptop from Edelman or Microsoft. Several years ago, I received a substantial sum of money, an Xbox, and an LCD monitor as prizes for winning the inaugural 2002 Microsoft .NET Best Web Services contest. (I donated the two AMD PCs to the Ateneo de Manila University of the Philippines). I regularly receive or download free test/evaluation software from Microsoft, and, like most other magazine writers, I receive press credentials for Microsoft Tech•Ed and the Professional Developers Conference (PDC). I don't intend to refuse free software or press credentials in the foreseeable future.

News: The OakLeaf blog made Techmeme for the first time! Search this Techmeme capture for Edelman. Robert Scoble thinks sending bloggers free laptops is PayPerPost, Update 12/27/2006: Now Robert thinks that "the Microsoft Vista giveaway is an awesome idea." Check out this 12/28/2006 Techmeme capture as the "blogger ethics" controversy became the #1 topic (OakLeaf is the next-to-last Discussion link).

Technorati tags: Windows Vista, Windows Experience Index, Edelman, Acer

SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard RC

Microsoft posted the SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard (DBPW) 1.0 Release Candidate bits on December 19, 2006. The Wizard generates a T-SQL script for the specified database that you can upload to a hosting service provider. DBPW was known on the CodePlex site as the SQL Server Hosting Toolkit during its development. According to the documentation, you can use DBPW with SQL Server 2000 or 2005 in the following modes:

1. Generate a single SQL script file which can be used to recreate the contents of a database by manually executing the script on a target server.
2. Connect to a web service provided by your hoster and directly publish the contents of a source database into a specified hosted target database.

Here's the description from the download site:

SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard enables the deployment of SQL Server databases into a hosted environment on either a SQL Server 2000 or 2005 server.

It generates a single SQL script file which can be used to recreate a database (both schema and data) in a shared hosting environment where the only connectivity to a server is through a web-based control panel with a script execution window. If supported by the hosting service provider, the Database Publishing Wizard can also directly upload databases to servers located at the shared hosting provider. Optionally, SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard can integrate directly into Visual Studio 2005 and/or Visual Web Developer 2005 allowing easy publishing of databases from within the development environment.

I downloaded and ran DBPW's installer, which adds a Microsoft SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard Start menu folder and Database Publishing Wizard command. I then gave the graphic version of the Wizard (sqlpubwiz.exe) a test drive with a copy of the Northwind sample database running on an SQL Server 2005 Express SP2 Beta test instance under Windows Vista Ultimate. The following screen captures illustrate the initial test's steps: 1. Specify the source server. Don't use 'localhost' because the Wizard runs on a named pipe connection. 2. Select the source database. 3. Specify the output folder and filename.

4. Set the publishing options (the blue blotch is a Vista screen capture glitch.)

5. Confirm your publishing spec.

6. Follow the publishing process, which required less than 15 seconds for a small database on a fast machine.

The result was a nicely-commented and formatted 4,605-line, 2.7-MB Northwind.sql T-SQL script. I tested the script by executing it from a local SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSX) instance, which took five seconds to complete. A 207,000-line, 67.7-MB script from my Oakmont sample database took about a minute to generate and 0:03:23 to execute locally.

If you just want to generate a script named Northwind.sql in the local folder with Windows integrated security and the default options, here's the syntax:

sqlpubwiz script –d Northwind

DBPW's installer also adds a Publish to Provider context menu choice to Visual Studio 2005 Server Explorer's SQL Server data connections that opens the Wizard's Select an Output Location dialog, skipping the first two steps.

Full documentation for the DBPW is available from the CodePlex sqlhost wiki.

It's too bad that DBPW doesn't include an option to generate T-SQL for SQLServer Compact Edition (SQLce).

Technorati tags: SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard, SQL Server Hosting Toolkit, SQL Server, SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, SQL Server Express, SSX