sql

I created a cheat sheet for the Git Command Line Interface to go along with my Git tutorial for SQL Change Automation video.

I find the Git CLI to be very friendly and easier to learn than a GUI interface.

PASS Summit 2019 starts up next Monday with pre-conference sessions. I’ve got my schedule all set, and I’m going to be busy: I’m speaking in two full-day pre-conference sessions, giving two regular sessions, judging the ever-exciting Speaker Idol competition, and also spending time at the Redgate booth in the expo hall. Oh, and I scored a little PASS-TV interview to talk about Redgate right before the keynote on the first day.

It’s just ten days until PASS Summit 2019 begins in Seattle. The schedule is up and there are loads of good sessions. Here’s what I’m putting on my calendar to make sure that I don’t miss it – along with some things that I wish I could attend that I’ll be sure to catch the videos of afterwards.

I’m really excited for Redgate’s new SQL Change Automation plugin for SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). SQL Change Automation lets DBAs and developers use a migrations-first approach to create precise scripts to apply changes to your database. If you’re curious about what I mean by “migrations-first”, read more about this approach, and how it compares to a state-first approach here.

Sometimes you keep a classic around.

You’re a DBA, and your development team is all-in on doing DevOps, and they want to include the database. Should your DBA team limit the permissions or options for automation? Or should you instead re-think how your two teams work together?

Today I was looped in on an email thread about the pros and cons of attending a specific event. One person on the thread asked if any of us had attended the event in the past, and whether or not event attendees were engaged with presenters and vendor representatives.

My immediate thought was: of course the attendees were engaged, because the event is a SQL Saturday.  I’ve never been to a SQL Saturday where the attendees weren’t engaged.

But, I realized that it’s a fair question.

I recently realized that I’m in the early stages of burnout.

One of the cool things that I do as an Evangelist at Redgate is to periodically visit company headquarters in Cambridge. The other Evangelists and I get to meet with every software developer, product manager, and UX designer at Redgate over a series of meetings. That’s really cool. We talk about things that they’ve released lately, what they’re looking at doing in the near future, and we get to give feedback based on what we hear from the community and from folks in the sales process. We also get to share what we personally think should happen in these products now.

I’m excited to be teaching a full day session with Steve Jones at the SQL PASS Summit on Tuesday, November 5, in Seattle.

Steve and I will be discussing proven patterns to version and deploy changes successfully.

I’ve recently published an article, “Why You Shouldn’t Hardcode the Current Database Name in Your Views, Functions, and Stored Procedures,” over on Simple Talk.

Are you interested in speaking at the Professional Association for SQL Server’s annual Summit conference? The call for speakers is now open, and you may submit up to three sessions between now and March 31, 2019.

I love breaking technology.

I love breaking technology on purpose, in a place where it’s not going to slow anyone else down. It’s a great way to learn more about how everything works and what your options are to fix the situation when things go sideways.

I’m excited to have just clicked ‘publish’ on four new videos in the brand new Advocate playlist on Redgate’s YouTube channel.

One controversial topic in database development is how to properly store and deploy database changes.

This is generally described as choosing between two options, which are approximately as easy to understand as Greek philosophy:

• State based - A Platonic view of the database as a snapshot of a set of forms in a given state at a point in time
• Migrations - An Aristotelian view of the database defined as a series of scripts which generate change over time

A magical thing happened this week in the SQL Community Slack (it’s free to join, by the way, sign up here).

I recently got together with fellow Microsoft Data Platform MVPs Steve Jones, Kathi Kellenberger and Grant Fritchey to discuss the highlights of innovations we’ve seen in 2018 and predictions for 2019.

One of the things that brings Microsoft MVPs together each year is complaining about reporting community contributions to Microsoft.

When I began working with databases, nobody talked about DevOps. It was a few years before I heard the words ‘Agile’ and ‘Extreme Programming’, (which I still read as “EXTREEEEEEMMMMME programmin!"). A lot has changed since then. But a lot hasn’t changed as well.

Please help us track the history of how we work with databases by taking the Redgate State of Database DevOps survey today. I believe it’s helpful to our whole community to participate in this survey, and this post explains a few reasons why. 

Update: The survey is now closed, thanks folks!

There was a time when I saw PowerPoint as a necessary evil - a way of conveying ideas that I wasn’t crazy about, but which worked. These days, my perspective has changed quite a bit.