This week I finally managed to release dbdesc 2.0. This version adds a couple of features that will make dbdesc much more useful.

The first one is that you can choose exactly which objects you want to document. Until now you had the option to not document tables, views, etc. but it was an all or nothing option.

The second one is that dbdesc has a built-in extended property editor. Now, it is very easy to add descriptions to your objects (a really painful and time-consuming task using the Enterprise Manager or the Query Analyzer). The editor allows you to manage not only the classic MS_Description but to add and manage your own extended properties.

By the way, this version coincides (more or less) with the first anniversary of dbdesc. I have lots of exciting features planned to keep improving the product but, as always, I look forward to hear your comments and suggestions.

I’ve finally managed to upgrade my blog to the latest version of WordPress (I was still running 1.5.2!). I’ve also updated the blog theme to match the look of my products.

Just to be sure to not break anything and because I had a VM with MySQL and Apache that I setup some time ago, I first tried the upgrade locally. The upgrade process has been straightforward as my blog was not heavily customized nor I was using any plug-in. I’ve been able to upgrade directly from 1.5.2 to 2.0.4.

The feed has been refreshed so you will probably receive my latest posts again. Sorry about that! I think everything is working but if you detect any problem please send me an email (contact at dbdesc.com).

I’m always more than happy to see how dbdesc users customize dbdesc templates for their own needs. Last week, Jasper Verweij posted a comment sharing his idea of building tag clouds using database objects.

It’s indeed a very useful idea because it shows which objects are “more important” on your database. After a couple of email exchanges he was able to put in place a tagcloud of referenced tables. That is, the more referenced a table is, the bigger is its name. This picture shows the effect:

This is just a proof of concept. He is working on more tagclouds… In his own words:

The next thing I’ll try to make, is a flexible function to make the tagcloud functionality available for various items of a database, like:
- Tagcloud by UDF dependencies
- Tagcloud by SP dependencies
- Tagcloud Tables by View
- Tagcloud Tables by Table Size
- Tagcloud Tables by Row count
- Tagcloud Tables by Index Size
-Tagcloud by data type (which datatypes are used the most)
etc.

After this setup another trick could be tried: combination of tagclouds. A big table (with loads of rows) with a primary key which used a lot as foreign key might be more important than a table which has 5 rows and 1 foreign key.

If anyone is interested in the code to add this tag clouds to dbdesc templates just drop me an email.

This may be old news for you, but I’ve just discovered that MSDE will not be supported on Vista. After thinking about it, it is not a big surprise. Microsoft is promoting SQL Server 2005 really hard. Indeed, SQL Server 2005 Express edition seems a lot better than the old MSDE. It has no workload governor for example.

However, that means that a lot of applications out there that relies on MSDE will be broken on Vista. Most of my custom projects use MSDE/SQL Server 2000 as the database engine and, although users are instructed to install the database on a dedicated server, I’m sure that at some point, some of them will try to install the database on Vista.

The good news is that most apps will work by default on SQL Server 2005. However, some install scripts and documentation will need to be updated. (Not to mention that those apps should be tested again; especially the database connection code).

More info from Microsoft: MSDE on Windows Vista FAQ

Last week I checked out TiddlyWiki as it has been mentioned several times on JoS forums recently.

I’m impressed. It so useful and easy to use that I’m using it as the main way to communicate my progress on a custom development project I’m working on.

It’s basically a self-contained wiki. Just one html file. No setup required, no server side configuration, nothing. It looks like an AJAX app but it is not; it’s just JavaScript.

I showed it to my wife and she has become addicted to it. She is using it and sharing it with her office mates.

Nice piece of software.

A new version of both dbdesc (1.6) and dtsdoc (1.2) is now available. These upgrades are (as usual) free for registered customers.

These are the main features added to dbdesc 1.6:

• Create statements for tables
• List of “dependent tables” which have foreign keys referring to the table
• View’s fields documented
• Triggers on views documented
• INSTEAD OF triggers
• Stored procedure parameters documented
• Index properties added: IS_UNIQUE and IS_CLUSTERED
• New option to include/exclude object definitions
• New option to insert a page break after each object in the built-in report
• Added key-accelerators to dbdesc GUI
• Improved error handling
• XSL templates updated

About dtsdoc 1.2:

This version adds only one new main feature, but I think it’s going to be really useful for some of you so I decided to release it early.

dtsdoc now generates an image with the parent/child relationships among your packages. It looks for your DTSExcutePackage tasks and tries to navigate them to build the image.

I’ve included some minor bug fixes and enhancements as well, like additional links and package labeling in the report.

I’ve downloaded Microsoft Consolas Font and it looks great!

This font is optimized for ClearType. The installation package will install the font in the system and it will set the default font for Visual Studio 2005 to Consolas automatically. However, if you want to use it in VS 2003 you have to manually change the settings.

The picture shows the look of Consolas font (10px and ClearType enabled).

I’ve just uploaded the first revision of dtsdoc. This new version fills some gaps on the documentation and enhances the usability of the tool.

As a quick summary of the new features added to this version, dtsdoc now documents the workflow scripts, step precedence constraints and extracts basic properties from OlapProcess and Prediction tasks. I’ve added a new section that should help take a general overview of the task execution sequence. It lists the steps that will be called when OnCompletion, OnSuccess and OnFailure events are triggered.

It also adds ‘nice-to-have’ features like syntax highlighting on SQL, JScript and VBScript code, multiple package documentation in one file and a nicer HTML template with images support.

Yesterday Mike Gunderloy posted a small review of dbdesc 1.5 on Larkware site. (dtsdoc was reviewed last month).

Mike highlights the ease of use of the tool and the power of the command-line interface. First version had, in fact, no GUI at all.

I’m very happy with the review and hopefully it will increase the product visibility.

Yesterday I have uploaded a new point release of dbdesc. It can be downloaded from here.

These are the main changes since last version: New features

<li>New HTML template with cleaner design and images support (<a href="http://www.dbdesc.com/output_samples/html_northwindimages.html">check this example</a>)</li>
<li>Extended properties are now documented</li>
<li>Numeric fields now show precision </li>
<li>Object permissions documented for tables, views, stored procedures and UDF </li>
<li>Application roles marked as such</li>
<li>Case-sensitive databases support </li>
<li>New command-line switches to exclude database objects </li>
<li>Index size on table's summary on internal report</li>
<li>Syntax highlighter performance improved </li>
<li>Updated XSLT templates to handle the new sections</li>

• Overlapped long user names on some reports
• Error when multidotted table names present on SQL Server 2000 databases
• Missing check constraints sections on Word 2003 and RTF templates
• Some other minor bugs fixed

I want to thank everyone that has been sending me feedback about dbdesc. It is getting better with each release. Keep the feedback coming!