Nuwan Online - Nuwan Weerasinghe’s Web Log

After another eventful year Sri-Lanka and the Whole world will welcome 2006 in roughly about 6 1/2 hrs by now. As a country we are rising from the tears and destruction caused by the Tsunami. Also the year saw a new Executive president being elected.

But I should not end this note without a word of tribute to all our galant soldiers who risk their own lives to protect someone elses. Many gave their lives in the struggle to protect mother lanka and Sri-Lankans and they continue to do so. There fore the whole Sri_lankan Nation owes you for your invaluable service.

May the Blessings of the Tripple Gem be with all our Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim Brothers and Sisters who are serving in our forces to defend our country and all it’s people.

You’ll will always be remembered.

May my Country and all it’s people have the courage and will to stand and unite against all Odds to achieve a better year 2006.

Ayubowan.

It took me more time than I initially anticipated. But finally I made it. I did the Microsoft .NET Architecture exam 70-300 today and got through in the fist attempt. So now I’m a MCSD in .NET.

I now plan to try and specialize in few tech areas in the coming year, and this blog will hold proof to that in the coming days and months. I’ve set my target very clear. MVP.

I would like to say THANK YOU to my Parents for all the courage and for being the wind behind my wings.
Also My Brother, all my friends, Yaseer (My Boss) and last but not the least, Dammika.
Dammika was always influential and wanted to see me succeed in this.

I owe all of you’ll a big Thank you.

Couple of weeks before, we had a serious discussion at the office regarding a client requirement on a very comprehensive Business Intelligence Module for their requested software. I was’nt very clear about the overall gravity (scope) of this requirement and also was not sure How to incoporate BI into a Microsoft Application.

So I did some RAD over the weekend on available/proposed Microsoft support for BI, and Here’s what I found.

First, BI is the ability to INTEGRATE, ANALYSE and REPORT on our existing data.
For the above purposes Microsoft has SQL Server Integration Services, SQL Server Analysis Services and SQL Server Reporting Services. These are allready there in SQL Server 2000 and improved/enhanced in 2005.

1. SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
This will collate data from different data sources. In SQL Server 2000, this was essentially Data Transformation Services (DTS). In SQL Server 2005 this is much improved. SSIS will prepare and Integrate data much easily than DTS which is then sent to a merge engine. This inserts data into the Data Warehouse.

2. SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS)
SSAS will manipulate the information that has been brought together in the Data Warehouse from various data sources. SSAS is the next version of SQL Serevr 2000 Analysis Services and has revolutionized the data cube concept.Microsoft has also added XML for Analysis (XML/A) to improve accessability for clients and applications. Introduction of XML will standardize the interface to allow any application to import data for analysis.

Also a new plug-in interface is available for companies to develope their own Data Mining Algorithms and put them in place with the existing ones. The use of these algorithms are also simplified. The Logic is accessed through SQL querys and results are returned as DataSets.

3. SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)
There’s a new report builder tool with new support for XML and Web Services. Within a report, now you can link to web sites and external data. Microsofthas also opened up the interface for charting to allow third party plug -ins for clients.
Also it is noteable that Office 12 which is due to be shipped next year also has extensive integration to BI tools.

Suggested/Further Reading:
1. SQL User Group White Papers: www.sswug.org/whitepapers

2. Delivering Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2005. Publisher- Osborne McGraw Hill

3. SQL MSDN www.msdn.microsoft.com/sql

4. Pro SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services : Publisher- APress

5. SQL Team: www.SQLteam.com

I’m still trying to figure out what this is all about.

This is a week old post, as I was continuosly struggling to find time to update my blog. December .NET User group meeting was well attended as the topics were “Hot”. It was timely I thought that the Group starts concentrating on Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and beyond.

Since Visual Studio 2005 with SQL Server 2005 is already a buzzword among developors and enthusiats, I thought the two presentations by Manzi and Wella were serving the purpose of getting everyone interested in the new fetaures and stuff.
The Project which we are expecting (it’s still under negotiations) is expected to push our skills and also our development platform (.NET 1.1) to an ultimate maximum. One key concern is the inevitable use interactions with the system, which will end up in so many server calls. As this would also have an effect on the Overall Usability of the System (with constant refreshing of the Browser), we were having high hopes to migrate our existing code to VS 2005 and Try and Accommodate ATLAS
features to take advantage of the Asynchronous model. (Call it AJAX if you like).

Honestly, I was diappointed to learn that ATLAS is not available in the coming VS 2005. So I can really hope and wish that Microsoft Puts it out pretty quickly for us to go ahead with our plans.