MSDN Magazine: Data Points All MSDN Magazine Columns Data Points: SQL Server Management Objects John Papa - June 2007 SQL Server Management Objects offer developers a robust toolset for backing up and restoring databases, and issuing DDL commands, as John Papa explains. Data Points: Disabling Constraints and Triggers John Papa - April 2007 What to do when you need to disable triggers and constraints to perform data synchronization and other tasks with an offline database. Data Points: Data Bound Applications with ADO.NET and Custom Objects John Papa - February 2007 In this column see how to bind a custom list of business entities using the binding tools in the .NET Framework 2.0. Data Points: Column Expressions, DataRelations, and Computations John Papa - January 2007 This month John Papa fields some of his favorite questions regarding data manipulation with ADO.NET. Data Points: RSS Feeds on a Smartphone John Papa - December 2006 John Papa builds a Windows Mobile 5.0 application that reads RSS feeds and loads them into an ADO.NET DataSet. Data Points: Revisiting System.Transactions John Papa - November 2006 The System.Transactions namespace of the Microsoft .NET Framework makes handling transactions much simpler than previous techniques. Read all about it this month. Data Points: Report Controls in SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services John Papa - July 2006 Reporting has always been one of the dark arts of development. The tools typically seem to do just enough to get you to a certain point, then leave you to find workarounds to solve more complex issues. Data Points: Designing Reports with SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 John Papa - June 2006 Many applications require some degree of integration with a reporting tool. A good solution, SQL Server™ Reporting Services 2005, provides Web-based reports and can be integrated into both Windows® Forms and Web-based applications. Data Points: SQL Server 2005 XML Support, Exception Handling, and More John Papa - May 2006 SQL Server 2005 includes several important improvements to the Transact-SQL (T-SQL) language. One added feature is a new kind of trigger that fires when data definition language (DDL) statements run. Data Points: Using XQuery, New Large DataTypes, and More John Papa - March 2006 SQL Server 2005 introduces a lot of new features, but it also enhances the popular and oft-used Transact-SQL (T-SQL) language. Changes include the introduction of new datatypes to store large values using the MAX indicator, the integration of enhanced XML querying and data modification with XQuery, and the new XML datatype. Data Points: SqlConnectionStringBuilder, DataView, and More John Papa - January 2006 Several significant enhancements have been made to ADO. NET 2. 0 in the areas of improved performance, increased flexibility, and added features. In my last column (Data Points: DataSet and DataTable in ADO. Data Points: DataSet and DataTable in ADO.NET 2.0 John Papa - November 2005 ADO. NET 2. 0 sports some exciting enhancements to the core classes found in ADO. NET 1. x and introduces a variety of new classes, all of which promise to improve performance, flexibility, and efficiency. Data Points: The Enterprise Library Data Access Application Block, Part 3 John Papa - October 2005 E nterprise applications can have a wide variety of data update requirements. Sometimes you need to save multiple rows of changes at once within a single transaction. Other times, the user must be allowed to enter multiple rows of data, send them to the database in a batch; and if a row or two fails, only the rows that succeeded should be committed and remain committed. Data Points: The Enterprise Library Data Access Application Block, Part 2 John Papa - August 2005 Last month I explored the foundation of the Enterprise Library Data Access Application Block (DAAB) including how it all fits into an architecture (see Data Points: The Enterprise Library Data Access Application Block, Part 1). Data Points: The Enterprise Library Data Access Application Block, Part 1 John Papa - July 2005 A solid data access later (DAL) can benefit an application by hiding redundant tasks, helping handle exceptions more gracefully, helping clean up resources more efficiently, and providing a layer of abstraction from the database. Data Points: XML Features in SQL Server 2000 John Papa - June 2005 SQL Server™ 2000 includes several XML features that let you transform relational rowsets into hierarchical XML documents, read XML documents, and bulk load data via XML. For example, you can pass an XML document to a stored procedure, join the XML to some tables and return a rowset, or even modify data in the database. Data Points: Data Access Strategies Using ADO.NET and SQL John Papa - May 2005 When your goal is a scalable and efficient enterprise solution, you need to develop an efficient data-access strategy. You can't just do some testing on your production machines and rely on the results. Data Points: ADO.NET and System.Transactions John Papa - February 2005 The Microsoft® . NET Framework versions 1. 0 and 1. 1 represented major changes in software development. However, one important thing that did not change much was support for distributed transactions. Data Points: Data Source Controls in ASP.NET 2.0 John Papa - January 2005 ASP. NET 2. 0 introduces a series of new tools that improve data access including several data source and data bound controls. The new assortment of data source controls can eliminate a ton of repetitive code that was required in ASP. Data Points: Efficient Coding With Strongly Typed DataSets John Papa - December 2004 Someone once said to me that the hallmark of a good developer is the desire to spend time efficiently. Developers are continually pursuing ways to make coding easier and faster, and to reduce the number of errors. Data Points: Updating Data in Linked Servers, Information Schema Views, and More John Papa - November 2004 Every day a developer somewhere needs to write code to iterate through SQL Server™ system objects, query and update tables in linked servers, handle optimistic concurrency, and retrieve column and stored procedure metadata. Data Points: Handling Data Concurrency Using ADO.NET, Part 2 John Papa - October 2004 Enterprise development has been moving towards a discon-nected model in recent years and ADO. NET development is no exception. While the disconnected model of the ADO. NET DataSet offers great flexibility, that adaptability also means looser control over data updates than you get with a connected data access model. Data Points: Handling Data Concurrency Using ADO.NET John Papa - September 2004 One of the key features of the ADO. NET DataSet is that it can be a self-contained and disconnected data store. It can contain the schema and data from several rowsets in DataTable objects as well as information about how to relate the DataTable objects—all in memory. Data Points: Migrating from ADO to ADO.NET, Part 2 John Papa - August 2004 As you move forward with your use of ADO. NET, you'll need to know how to approach situations that you previously learned to handle in ADO and now have to tackle with ADO. NET. Just as n-tiered solutions developed using Visual Basic®, C++, and ASP often rely on ADO for their data access needs, Windows® Forms, Web Forms, and Web services rely on ADO. Data Points: Migrating from ADO to ADO.NET John Papa - July 2004 In recent years ADO has taken the lead as the preferred method for implementing data access in Windows®-based applications. Huge numbers of ADO applications are in use today and many developers are well versed in ADO development. Data Points: Contrasting the ADO.NET DataReader and DataSet John Papa - June 2004 Data Points: Saving Parent-child Data in a Multitiered App Using ADO.NET John Papa - May 2004 Data Points: Creating Audit Tables, Invoking COM Objects, and More John Papa - April 2004 Dealing with error handling between T-SQL and a calling application, evaluating when a field's value has changed, and creating auditing tables in SQL Server™ are all common issues that developers must tackle. Data Points: Exception-handling Techniques John Papa - March 2004 Data Points: Exploring SQL Server Triggers: Part 2 John Papa - January 2004 Data Points: Exploring SQL Server Triggers John Papa - December 2003 Data Points: SQL Server User-defined Functions John Papa - November 2003 Data Points: Exploring the ADO.NET DataRow John Papa - October 2003 Data Points: Developing Apps with the .NET Compact Framework, SQL Server CE, and Replication John Papa - September 2003 Data Points: Managing Hierarchical Inserts in ASP.NET and ADO.NET John Papa - July 2003 Data Points: Techniques in Filling ADO.NET DataTables: Performing Your Own Analysis John Papa - June 2003 How do you know which technique is best for retrieving data and populating a DataSet in ADO.NET?. Since the Microsoft .NET Framework offers so many choices on how to write the code, many developers are now taking a close look at the different options. See what they are. Data Points: Techniques for Managing Rowset Paging John Papa - May 2003 There are a number of ways to handle paging in Web applications. This month I'll examine several paging techniques and weigh their pros and cons. John Papa discusses how to manage paging and caching issues through the lower tiers of an n-tiered architecture, including how to make SQL Server manage the paging on your app's behalf. Data Points: Expressions in ADO.NET John Papa - January 2003 Managing relations in a database became a whole lot easier with ADO. NET. Instead of returning a single rowset to a data store, you can return a series of rowsets and relate them within a DataSet. There are numerous advantages to using related DataTables in ADO. Data Points: DataRelations in ADO.NET John Papa - November 2002 One of the biggest differences between traditional ADO and ADO. NET is that the rowsets stored within ADO. NET can be truly relational. For example, a DataSet can store one DataTable containing customers and another DataTable containing the customers' orders. Data Points: Five Ways to Rev up Your SQL Performance John Papa - July 2002 Data Points: Building a Tiered Web App Using the DataSet and the ASP DataGrid John Papa - May 2002 Data Points: Establishing Relationships Between Rowsets with ADO.NET John Papa - February 2002 Data Points: Using the ADO.NET DataSet for Multitiered Apps John Papa - January 2002 Data Points: Abstracting ADO.NET John Papa - November 2001 Data Points: ADO to XML: Building a Data Access Tier with the DataManager Component John Papa - August 2001 Data Points: Revisiting the Ad-Hoc Data Display Web Application John Papa - June 2001 Data Points: Accessing Data from a Mobile Application John Papa - January 2008 This month John Papa takes a look at developing a mobile application that can access data on your application server. Data Points: Data Binding in WPF John Papa - December 2007 WPF is one of the most important new technologies in the .NET Framework 3.0. This month John Papa introduces its data binding capabilities. Data Points: Designing an Entity Data Model John Papa - February 2008 With the Entity Framework, developers are given more flexibility by being able to design around a conceptual model rather than a relational data model. To get started, you need to know how to design an Entity Data Model. John Papa walks you through that process. Data Points: Standard Query Operators with LINQ John Papa - March 2008 LINQ to Objects and LINQ to Entities have an arsenal of Standard Query Operators that operate on sequences to perform a wide variety of operations. Data Points: Common Table Expressions John Papa - October 2007 In T-SQL, views and derived tables serve similar purposes and have their advantages. But when working with SQL Server 2005,there's a third option--using Common Table Expressions (CTEs). John Papa explains. Data Points: ADO.NET Entity Framework Overview John Papa - July 2007 The new Entity Framework in ADO.NET will let you manipulate data using an object model. John Papa explains.