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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, May 22, 2014

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, May 22, 2014Popular ReleasesTerraMap (Terraria World Map Viewer): TerraMap 1.0.5: Added support for the new Terraria v1.2.4 update. New items, walls, and tiles Added the ability to select multiple highlighted block types. Added a dynamic, interactive highlight opacity slider, making it easier to find highlighted tiles with dark colors. Added ability to find Enchanted Swords (in the stone) and Water Bolt books Fixed Issue 35206: Hightlight/Find doesn't work for Demon Altars Fixed finding Demon Hearts/Shadow Orbs Fixed installer not uninstalling older versions T...MDX Parser,Builder,DOM and OLAP visual controls with Writeback for Silverlight: Ranet.UILibrary.Olap-2.5.434.0: Issue hot fixed: 102.127666 - Incorrectly formed command EXCEPT () in MDX query for the exclusion of several elements among of the subordinates 102.132877 - Incorrectly generate MDX query with using VisualTotals, the function HIERARCHIZE - should be inside 102.132887 - If in the MemberChoice select an item with child, and then delete one of the child, the parent misses the result build the test project (...\Users\Public\Documents\Ranet.UILibrary.Olap-2.5 Samples\UILibrary.Olap\Cs\Ranet...R.NET: R.NET 1.5.13: R.NET 1.5.13 is a beta release towards R.NET 1.6. You are encouraged to use it now and give feedback. See the documentation for setup and usage instructions. Main changes for R.NET 1.5.13 Changed the nuget packaging to distribute via nuget.org at R.NET Community and R.NET FSharp Utility. Without entering into details, this was necessary to facilitate the distribution of the packages. You are strongly encouraged to use nuget to manage the dependency of your work on R.NET, rather than the bin...Adaptive Access Layers: AAL 2.0: Major rework with breaking changes. Much more flexible registration of implementation strategy and support for methods, properties and events.Google Analytics SDK for Windows 8 and Windows Phone: Google Analytics SDK 1.2.08: Recommended for Xaml/C# developers: Download the package through NuGet. Recommended for JS and C++ developers: Download the new native vsix (Visual Studio SDK) package above. NEW FEATURES & FIXESSee the full list of changes since the last public release SHOUT OUTSDacianMujdar for the pull request to add support for campaigns. aclassen for the pull request to add support for resolved phone models in the WP7 & 8 Silverlight versions. Alan Mendelevich for great open source library PhoneNam...DbSharp: DbSharpApplication (Binary files): A zip file that include DbSharpApplication.exe. Initial release.Multiwfn: Multiwfn 3.3.3: Multiwfn 3.3.3WebExtras: v1.4.0-Beta-1: Enh: Adding support for jQuery UI framework Enh: Adding support for jqPlot charting library Dropping dependency on MoreLinq library Note: Html.LabelForV2(...) extension method has now been deprecated. You should use Html.RequiredFieldLabelFor(...) extension method instead. This extension method will be removed in future versions.????: 《????》: 《????》(c???)??“????”???????,???????????????C?????????。???????,???????????????????????. ??????????????????????????????????;????????????????????????????。MISAO: Ver. 5.4: Fix bugs (Nicovideo viwer add-in) Add Masakari option (Nicovideo viwer add-in)QuickMon: Version 3.11: This release adds some major changes to the core monitoring engine. 1. Polling overrides: Each collector entry can specify a minimum time updating is allowed for it and dependent collector entries. 2. Polling frequency sliding: Additional to polling overrides a collector entry can specify 'sliding' polling frequency if the state remains the same. This means the frequency slows down reducing overhead of polling on a stagnant resource. 3. The monitor pack has an overriding frequency. If used...Mini SQL Query: Mini SQL Query (1.0.72.457): Apologies for the previous update! FK issue fixed and also a template data cache issue.WordMat: WordMat v. 1.06: Check WordMat.blogspot.com for a complete description of new features.Wsus Package Publisher: Release v1.3.1405.17: Add Russian translation (thanks to VSharmanov) Fix a bug that make WPP to crash if the user click on "Connect/Reload" while the Report Tab is loading. Enhance the way WPP store the password for remote computers command.MoreTerra (Terraria World Viewer): More Terra 1.12.9: =========== = Compatibility = =========== Updated to account for new format 1.2.4.1 =========== = Issues = =========== all items have not been added. Some colors for new tiles may be off. I wanted to get this out so people have a usable program.LINQ to Twitter: LINQ to Twitter v3.0.3: Supports .NET 4.5x, Windows Phone 8.x, Windows 8.x, Windows Azure, Xamarin.Android, and Xamarin.iOS. New features include Status/Lookup, Mute APIs, and bug fixes. 100% Twitter API v1.1 coverage, Async, Portable Class Library (PCL).CS-Script for Notepad++ (C# intellisense and code execution): Release v1.0.26.0: Added access to the Release Notes during 'Check for Updates...'' Debug panels Added support for generic types members Members are grouped into 'Raw View' and 'Non-Public members' categories Implemented dedicated (array-like) view for Lists and Dictionaries http://download-codeplex.sec.s-msft.com/Download?ProjectName=csscriptnpp&DownloadId=846498ClosedXML - The easy way to OpenXML: ClosedXML 0.70.0: A lot of fixes. See history.SFDL.NET: SFDL.NET (2.2.9.2): Changelog: Neues Icon Xup.in CnL Plugin BugfixSEToolbox: SEToolbox 01.030.008 Release 1: Fixed cube editor failing to apply color to cubes. Added to cube editor, replace cube dialog, and Build Percent dialog. Corrected for hidden asteroid ore, allowing rare ore to show when importing an asteroid, or converting a 3d model to an asteroid (still appears to be limitations on rare ore in small asteroids). Allowed ore selection to Asteroid file import. (Can copy/import and convert existing asteroid to another ore). Added progress bars to common long running operations. Fixed ...New Projects<a href="jAvAsCrIpT&colon;alert&lpar;69&rpar;">CLICK HERE TO GET FREE MONEY</a>: <a href="jAvAsCrIpT&colon;alert&lpar;69&rpar;">CLICK HERE TO GET FREE MONEY</a> canopyazure: canopyazureCI&T ULS Log Viewer: Ferramenta para ajudar o desenvolvedor Sharepoint analisar os arquivos de log.EmissorCTE: E uma DLL que ira enviar, receber e cancelar o CTE, também ira fazer geração do DACTEF5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: A .NET wrapper for F5 iControl service-enabled management API.Hydrodesktop Excel-Addin: HydroDesktop ExcelPage Manifest Extractor: Extract a Sharepoint Page Manifest/XMLProject Euler Solutions By multiple1902: Project Euler Solutions in FSharp. By Weisi Dai (multiple1902) <weisi@x-research.com>VerySimpleBackup: Simple command line tool for backup any directory (using Volume Shadow Copy), using archiving (ZIP) with optional password and copy it to FTP (cycle supported).Waf Music Manager: The Waf Music Manager is a simple and fast application that makes fun to manage the local music collection.?????-?????【??】?????????: ??????????????????,???,??????????、???????????????????。??????,????、????,??????! ?????-?????【??】?????????: ????????,???????????,??????????,????:??,????,???????? ??????????,????????。??????! ?????-?????【??】?????????: ?????????????????????,??????,???????????,????????????????,????????.??????. ?????-?????【??】?????????: ????????????,????,?????、???、?????,???????,?????,???????????100%。??????! ?????-?????【??】?????????: ???????????????????????,????,????“???、???、???”?????,?????,?????????????????。??????! ?????-?????【??】?????????: ??????、??????????????????,???????.??????????,????????。 ?????-?????【??】?????????: ??????????????,????????????,????????,???,???????????,????,????。?????,??????. ?????-?????【??】?????????: ??????、??????????????????,???????.??????????,????????。 ?????-?????【??】?????????: ????????,???????????,??????????,????:??,????,???????? ??????????,????????。??????! ??????-??????【??】??????????: ??????????????,????????????,????????,???,???????????,????,????。?????,??????. ?????-?????【??】?????????: ?????????????????????,??????,???????????,????????????????,????????.??????. ??????-??????【??】??????????: ???????????????:??????!?????!???:????、????、????、????。??,??????????!??????. ?????-?????【??】?????????: ???????????????,??????,??????,??????、??????,??????、??,????,??????! ?????-?????【??】?????????: ????????????,????,?????、???、?????,???????,?????,???????????100%。??????! ?????-?????【??】?????????: ?????1992?,????????????????。??????????????????????。????????????,????,????????! ?????-?????【??】?????????: ???????????????????????,???????????,??????,??????????????...????????。??????!

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, May 29, 2014

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, May 29, 2014Popular ReleasesQuickMon: Version 3.13: 1. Adding an Audio/sound notifier that can be used to simply draw attention to the application of a warning pr error state is returned by a collector. 2. Adding a property for Notifiers so it can be set to 'Attended', 'Unattended' or 'Both' modes. 3. Adding a WCF method to remote agent host so the version can be checked remotely. 4. Adding some 'Sample' monitor packs to installer. Note: this release and the next release (3.14 aka Pie release) will have some breaking changes and will be incom...fnr.exe - Find And Replace Tool: 1.7: Bug fixes Refactored logic for encoding text values to command line to handle common edge cases where find/replace operation works in GUI but not in command line Fix for bug where selection in Encoding drop down was different when generating command line in some cases. It was reported in: https://findandreplace.codeplex.com/workitem/34 Fix for "Backslash inserted before dot in replacement text" reported here: https://findandreplace.codeplex.com/discussions/541024 Fix for finding replacing...VG-Ripper & PG-Ripper: VG-Ripper 2.9.59: changes NEW: Added Support for 'GokoImage.com' links NEW: Added Support for 'ViperII.com' links NEW: Added Support for 'PixxxView.com' links NEW: Added Support for 'ImgRex.com' links NEW: Added Support for 'PixLiv.com' links NEW: Added Support for 'imgsee.me' links NEW: Added Support for 'ImgS.it' linksXsemmel - XML Editor and Viewer: 29-MAY-2014: WINDOWS XP IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED If you need support for WinXP, download release 15-MAR-2014 instead. FIX: Some minor issues NEW: Better visualisation of validation issues NEW: Printing CHG: Disabled Jumplist CHG: updated to .net 4.5, WinXP NO LONGER SUPPORTEDSPART (SharePoint Admin & Reporting Tool): Installation Kit V1.1: Installation Kit SPART V1.1 This release covers, • Site Size • Count - Sites, Site Collection, Document • Site collection quota information • Site/Web apps / Site collection permission which seeks URL as input/ • Last content change for sites which displays the time stampPerformance Analyzer for Microsoft Dynamics: DynamicsPerf 1.20: Version 1.20 Improved performance in PERFHOURLYROWDATA_VW Fixed error handling encrypted triggers Added logic ACTIVITYMONITORVW to handle Context_Info for Dynamics AX 2012 and above with this flag set on AOS Added logic to optional blocking to handle Context_Info for Dynamics AX 2012 and above with this flag set on AOS Added additional queries for investigating blocking Added logic to collect Baseline capture data (NOTE: QUERY_STATS table has entire procedure cache for that db during...Toolbox for Dynamics CRM 2011/2013: XrmToolBox (v1.2014.5.28): XrmToolbox improvement XrmToolBox updates (v1.2014.5.28)Fix connecting to a connection with custom authentication without saved password Tools improvement New tool!Solution Components Mover (v1.2014.5.22) Transfer solution components from one solution to another one Import/Export NN relationships (v1.2014.3.7) Allows you to import and export many to many relationships Tools updatesAttribute Bulk Updater (v1.2014.5.28) Audit Center (v1.2014.5.28) View Layout Replicator (v1.2014.5.28) Scrip...Microsoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 5.10: Fix for Issue #20875 - echo switch doesn't work for CSS CSS should honor the SASS source-file comments JS should allow multi-line comment directivesClosedXML - The easy way to OpenXML: ClosedXML 0.71.1: More performance improvements. It's faster and consumes less memory.Dynamics CRM Rich UX: RichUX Managed Solution File v0.4: Added format type attribute so icons, CSS and colors may be defined by the retrieved entity record. Also added samples in documentation on setting up FetchXML and tabs. Only for demo / experimenting. Do not use in production without extensive testing. Please help make this package better by reporting all issues.Fluentx: Fluentx v1.4.0: Added object to object mapper, added new NotIn extention method, and added documentation to library with fluentx.xmlVK.NET - Vkontakte API for .NET: VkNet 1.0.5: ?????????? ????? ??????.Kartris E-commerce: Kartris v2.6002: Minor release: Double check that Logins_GetList sproc is present, sometimes seems to get missed earlier if upgrading which can give error when viewing logins page Added CSV and TXT export option; this is not Google Products compatible, but can give a good base for creating a file for some other systems such as Amazon Fixed some minor combination and options issues to improve interface back and front Turn bitcoin and some other gateways off by default Minor CSS changes Fixed currenc...SimCityPak: SimCityPak 0.3.1.0: Main New Features: Fixed Importing of Instance Names (get rid of the Dutch translations) Added advanced editor for Decal Dictionaries Added possibility to import .PNG to generate new decals Added advanced editor for Path display entriesTiny Deduplicator: Tiny Deduplicator 1.0.1.0: Increased version number to 1.0.1.0 Moved all options to a separate 'Options' dialog window. Allows the user to specify a selection strategy which will help when dealing with large numbers of duplicate files. Available options are "None," "Keep First," and "Keep Last"SEToolbox: SEToolbox 01.031.009 Release 1: Added mirroring of ConveyorTubeCurved. Updated Ship cube rotation to rotate ship back to original location (cubes are reoriented but ship appears no different to outsider), and to rotate Grouped items. Repair now fixes the loss of Grouped controls due to changes in Space Engineers 01.030. Added export asteroids. Rejoin ships will merge grouping and conveyor systems (even though broken ships currently only maintain the Grouping on one part of the ship). Installation of this version wi...Player Framework by Microsoft: Player Framework for Windows and WP v2.0: Support for new Universal and Windows Phone 8.1 projects for both Xaml and JavaScript projects. See a detailed list of improvements, breaking changes and a general overview of version 2 ADDITIONAL DOWNLOADSSmooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows 8 Applications Smooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows 8.1 Applications Smooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows Phone 8.1 Applications Microsoft PlayReady Client SDK for Windows 8 Applications Microsoft PlayReady Client SDK for Windows 8.1 Applicat...TerraMap (Terraria World Map Viewer): TerraMap 1.0.6: Added support for the new Terraria v1.2.4 update. New items, walls, and tiles Added the ability to select multiple highlighted block types. Added a dynamic, interactive highlight opacity slider, making it easier to find highlighted tiles with dark colors (and fixed blurriness from 1.0.5 alpha). Added ability to find Enchanted Swords (in the stone) and Water Bolt books Fixed Issue 35206: Hightlight/Find doesn't work for Demon Altars Fixed finding Demon Hearts/Shadow Orbs Fixed inst...DotNet.Highcharts: DotNet.Highcharts 4.0 with Examples: DotNet.Highcharts 4.0 Tested and adapted to the latest version of Highcharts 4.0.1 Added new chart type: Heatmap Added new type PointPlacement which represents enumeration or number for the padding of the X axis. Changed target framework from .NET Framework 4 to .NET Framework 4.5. Closed issues: 974: Add 'overflow' property to PlotOptionsColumnDataLabels class 997: Split container from JS 1006: Series/Categories with numeric names don't render DotNet.Highcharts.Samples Updated s...Extended WPF Toolkit™ Community Edition: Extended WPF Toolkit - 2.2.0: What's new in v2.2.0 Community Edition? Improvements and bug fixes Two new free controls: TimeSpanUpDown and RangeSlider 15 bug fixes and improvements (See the complete list of improvements in v2.2.0). Updated Live Explorer app available online as a Click Once app. Try it now! Want an easier way to install the Extended WPF Toolkit? The Extended WPF Toolkit is available on Nuget. .NET Framework notes:Requires .NET Framework 4.0 or 4.5. A build for .NET 3.5 is available but also requires ...New Projects2112110026: OOP- Lê Th? Xuân HuongASP.Net Controls Extended: ASP controls' look modified and behavior extended.Audio Tools: The project is intended to capture common knowledge about popular audio file formats and related stuff.Dnn Bootstrap Helpers: Dnn Bootstrap helpers ( Tabs, Accordion & Carousel )itouch - JS touch library for browser: this project hosts a JavaScript library which enables you to handle user's touch gestures like swiping, pinching, clicking on your web app cross platform/deviceMySQL Powershell Library: This PowerShell Module attempt to provide a convenient methods for working with MySQL. It make use of the Oracle MySQL .Net connector version 6.8.3Performance Analyzer for Microsoft Dynamics: Performance Analyzer for Microsoft Dynamics is a toolset developed by Premier Field Engineering at Microsoft for resolving performance issues with Dynamics PRISA NEW: LIBRERIA PRISAQFix Rx: This project aims at enabling Rx based programming for Quick FIX / n API by pushing events to Quick FIX / n API and subscribing to to event feeds from the API.Riccsson.System a C# .NET library for C++: Riccsson.System is a C#-like library for C++ with support of Events, Delegates, Properties, Threading, Locking, and more. For easier to port C# libraries to C++SusicoTrader: A F# / C# based trading API with connections to IB and QuickFix/n API. TestCodePlex: testTP2Academia.net: .net projectoTypeScriptTD: TypeScriptTD is a tower defense game written in TypeScript with help of the Phaser game engine. It is a port of ScriptTD http://scripttd.codeplex.com/Universal Autosave: Universal Autosave (UA) is extension for DNN Platform. It allows easy and fast to configure autosave functionality for any form/control without any coding.WeatherView: A universal Windows app written in C# demonstrating geolocation and webservices.

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, August 24, 2014

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, August 24, 2014Popular ReleasesCS-Script for Notepad++ (C# intellisense and code execution): Release v1.0.31.0: Fixed problem with menu item 'Plugins->CS-SCript->Debug' invoking 'Run' instead of 'Debug'.Media Companion: Media Companion MC3.599b: New:* MC - Remember last monitor Media Companion Ran on, and re-open there if available. * MC - If notepad++ installed, use for opening nfo XML files. * Movie - Fix: Fanart & Poster searching using 'Google Search' button opened multiple browser tabs, one per search word. * Movie - Allow Re-scrape with XBMC TMDB Scraper, if IMDB Id is present. * TV - added option to save Season Poster into season folder as folder.jpg Fixed:* Movie - Table view error if a row header was selected. * Movie - Tab...ASP.NET Identity 2.0 Azure Table Storage: Release 1.2.5.2: Optimizing the login and email index queries. Optimizing IsInRoleAsync operation. 100% unit test pass and 100% code coverage. Full sample source available as a download or in the source branch /Releases/1.2.x.x/sample. Sample code doesn't require an Azure account but does require the Azure SDK with the Storage Emulator at a minimum for running locally. Full suite of unit tests against this assembly at 100% pass rate against the Azure Local Emulator and against a live Azure Storage acc...BugNET Issue Tracker: BugNET 1.6.327: This release contains fixes and enhancements from the previous 1.6.315 release. Please read our release notes for BugNET 1.6.327: http://blog.bugnetproject.com/2014/08/23/bugnet-1-6-327-and-bugnet-pro-1-5-99-released/DIII Save Editor: ROS Alpha 1.2.14.100: initial Ros alpha release please report all bugsSEToolbox: SEToolbox 01.044.014 Release 2: Fixed Ship name not saving. Fixed broken cubes view Bug. Fixed cast VRage.MyFixedPoint error when opening games with Meteors. Added checkbox when Importing 3d model to Export ship, to fill it as solid.CS-Script Source: Release v3.8.5: Fixed problem with the warnings getting hidden in case of the successful compilation cs-script.7z - CS-Script Suite (binaries, documentation, samples) cs-script.ExtensionPack.7z - CS-Script Extension Pack (additional binaries and samples) cs-scriptDocs.7z - CS-Script DocumentationMagick.NET: Magick.NET 7.0.0.0002: Magick.NET linked with ImageMagick 7babelua: 1.6.7.0: V1.6.7.0 - 2014.8.21New feature: add a file search window ( ctrl+1 or ALT+L ), like The file search in VC Assistant; Stability improvement: performance improvement when BabeLua load/unload; performance improvement when debugger load lua files;XboxConsole: XboxConsole 2.0.40820.0: Updated release with added support for: - August XDK - Party API (See updated documentation) Supports the following XDK versions: April 2014 May 2014 June 2014 (all QFEs) July 2014 (all QFEs) August 2014Open NFe: RDI Open NFe 3.0 (alpha): Atualização para o layout 3.10 da NFe.AssaultCube Reloaded: Release 2.6.1: Windows XP USERS must download the patch in addition to the Windows package. Some changes couldn't make it to 2.6, and a recode was started before 2.6.1 could be released. However, the version 2.6.1 is used to represent the first beta release of 2.7. Changelog: Recoded on AC 1.2 as the base version (likely less crashes) Class manager Simpler killfeed, removed kill messages Hide KILL indicator in classic, update at 4 second intervals Disable spawn protection upon firing the first sh...SysLog Server: SysLogServer: This is not a commersial product, use on your own responsibilityMolGridCal & MolCal: MolGridCal tutorial v1.1: Update the contents for grid computing virtual screening.MSSQL Deployment Tool: Microsoft SQL Deploy Tool v1.3.1: MicrosoftSqlDeployTool: v1.3.1.38348 What's changed? Update namespace and assembly name. Bug fixing.SharePoint 2013 Search Query Tool: SharePoint 2013 Search Query Tool v2.1: Layout improvements Bug fixes Stores auth method and user name Moved experimental settings to Advanced boxCtrlAltStudio Viewer: CtrlAltStudio Viewer 1.2.2.41183 Alpha: This alpha of the CtrlAltStudio Viewer provides some preliminary Oculus Rift DK2 support. For more details, see the release notes linked to below. Release notes: http://ctrlaltstudio.com/viewer/release-notes/1-2-2-41183-alpha Support info: http://ctrlaltstudio.com/viewer/support Privacy policy: http://ctrlaltstudio.com/viewer/privacy Disclaimer: This software is not provided or supported by Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life.HDD Guardian: HDD Guardian 0.6.1: New: package now include smartctl 6.3; Removed: standard notification e-mail. Now you have to set your mail server to send e-mail alerts; Bugfix: USB detection error; custom e-mail server settings issue; bottom panel displays a wrong ATA error count.VG-Ripper & PG-Ripper: VG-Ripper 2.9.62: changes NEW: Added Support for 'MadImage.org' links NEW: Added Support for 'ImgSpot.org' links NEW: Added Support for 'ImgClick.net' links NEW: Added Support for 'Imaaage.com' links NEW: Added Support for 'Image-Bugs.com' links NEW: Added Support for 'Pictomania.org' links NEW: Added Support for 'ImgDap.com' links NEW: Added Support for 'FileSpit.com' links FIXED: 'ImgSee.me' linksCMake Tools for Visual Studio: CMake Tools for Visual Studio 1.2: This release adds the following new features and bug fixes from CMake Tools for Visual Studio 1.1: Added support for CMake 3.0. Added support for word completion. Added IntelliSense support for the CMAKEHOSTSYSTEM_INFORMATION command. Fixed syntax highlighting for tokens beginning with escape sequences. Fixed issue uninstalling CMake Tools for Visual Studio after Visual Studio has been uninstalled.New ProjectsDnn Picasa Image Gallery: The DnnC Picasa Image Gallery module allow you to display your Picasa web albums and there photos within your Dnn website.Hot Mess: Hot Mess game software and arduino firmware.Kinect HD Face Sample in unmanaged C++: This is a C++ unmanaged project which is based on the Kinect For Windows v2 SDK sample: FaceBasics. Instead of using the Face source, it utilizes the HDFaceModbus Master: A MODBUS Master application for Windows supporting all MODBUS function codes, a plugin interface and scripting interface.Path Finding on Wireless Sensor Network: Path Finding on Wireless Sensor Networkperilla: enhanced c++ templateXiamiSigLite-Silent: ???????,??Win7??。

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, August 23, 2014

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, August 23, 2014Popular ReleasesDIII Save Editor: ROS Alpha 1.2.14.100: initial Ros alpha release please report all bugsSEToolbox: SEToolbox 01.044.014 Release 2: Fixed Ship name not saving. Fixed broken cubes view Bug. Fixed cast VRage.MyFixedPoint error when opening games with Meteors. Added checkbox when Importing 3d model to Export ship, to fill it as solid.CS-Script Source: Release v3.8.5: Fixed problem with the warnings getting hidden in case of the successful compilation cs-script.7z - CS-Script Suite (binaries, documentation, samples) cs-script.ExtensionPack.7z - CS-Script Extension Pack (additional binaries and samples) cs-scriptDocs.7z - CS-Script DocumentationOutlook 2013 Backup Add-In: Outlook Backup Add-In 1.3: Changelog for new version: Added button in config-window to reset the last backup-time (this will trigger the backup after closing outlook) Minimum interval set to 0 (backup at each closing of outlook) Catch exception when data store entry is corrupt Added two parameters (prefix and suffix) to automatically rename the backup file Updated VSTO-Runtime to 10.0.50325 Upgraded project to Visual Studio 2013 Added optional command to run after backup (e.g. pack backup files, ...) Add...babelua: 1.6.7.0: V1.6.7.0 - 2014.8.21New feature: add a file search window ( ctrl+1 or ALT+L ), like The file search in VC Assistant; Stability improvement: performance improvement when BabeLua load/unload; performance improvement when debugger load lua files;Open NFe: RDI Open NFe 3.0 (alpha): Atualização para o layout 3.10 da NFe.MSSQL Deployment Tool: Microsoft SQL Deploy Tool v1.3.1: MicrosoftSqlDeployTool: v1.3.1.38348 What's changed? Update namespace and assembly name. Bug fixing.SharePoint 2013 Search Query Tool: SharePoint 2013 Search Query Tool v2.1: Layout improvements Bug fixes Stores auth method and user name Moved experimental settings to Advanced boxCtrlAltStudio Viewer: CtrlAltStudio Viewer 1.2.2.41183 Alpha: This alpha of the CtrlAltStudio Viewer provides some preliminary Oculus Rift DK2 support. For more details, see the release notes linked to below. Release notes: http://ctrlaltstudio.com/viewer/release-notes/1-2-2-41183-alpha Support info: http://ctrlaltstudio.com/viewer/support Privacy policy: http://ctrlaltstudio.com/viewer/privacy Disclaimer: This software is not provided or supported by Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life.HDD Guardian: HDD Guardian 0.6.1: New: package now include smartctl 6.3; Removed: standard notification e-mail. Now you have to set your mail server to send e-mail alerts; Bugfix: USB detection error; custom e-mail server settings issue; bottom panel displays a wrong ATA error count.VG-Ripper & PG-Ripper: VG-Ripper 2.9.62: changes NEW: Added Support for 'MadImage.org' links NEW: Added Support for 'ImgSpot.org' links NEW: Added Support for 'ImgClick.net' links NEW: Added Support for 'Imaaage.com' links NEW: Added Support for 'Image-Bugs.com' links NEW: Added Support for 'Pictomania.org' links NEW: Added Support for 'ImgDap.com' links NEW: Added Support for 'FileSpit.com' links FIXED: 'ImgSee.me' linksExchange Database Recovery With and Without Log Files is Possible: Exchange Recovery Application: This Exchange Recovery Software comes with free trial edition which helps users to inspect the working capability of the recovery process. Download free demo version and repair inaccessible mailboxes from EDB file without any obstructions.Linq 4 Javascript: Version 2.4: Minor Changes Made Added Count() and Count(with where clause) Distinct will now use a dictionary instead of a custom dictionary object Organize the unit tests. The variable names will actually make sense and won't be 2 letters. SelectMany will now use the queryable logic.Office / SharePoint 2013 Continuous Integration with TFS 2012: 1.1.0.1: Fixed the following issues in TfsDropDrownloader: Updated to make it work with VS 2013 (including VS 2013 updates) in addition to VS2012. Extend the timeout of downloading drops from 100 seconds to 1 hour. Added more trouble shooting information in the output.CRM Solution CommandLine Helper: CRM Solution Cmd Helper 1.0.0.4: Includes : - Bug fix = Export argument validation : check directory path existence (thanks mszlapa)Office To PDF: OfficeToPDF 1.4: Adds support for additional file types: * mpp (requires MS Project >= 2010) * vsdx, vsdm (requires MS Visio >= 2013) * csv * odt, odc, odp * pot, potm, potx Improves stability and clean removal of COM objects. Adds new flags: * /verbose - to be more verbose when running * /markup - to allow document markup in the PDF when converting Word documents * /excel_max_rows - adds a maximum limit on the number of rows a worksheet can contain when converting Excel documents * /pdfa - crea...MongoRepository: MongoRepository 1.6.6: Installing using NuGet (recommended)MongoRepository is now a NuGet package for your convenience. Step-by-step instructions can be found in Installing MongoRepository using NuGet Installing using BinariesYou can also choose to download the binaries instead of using NuGet. There are 2 downloads: mongorepository_full.x.x.x contains all binaries required (MongoRepository and the 10gen C# driver) mongorepository.x.x.x contains only the MongoRepository binary Make sure you reference MongoReposit...Cryptography Enumerations JavaScript Shell: Cryptography Enumerations JavaScript Shell 1.0.0: First ReleaseCMake Tools for Visual Studio: CMake Tools for Visual Studio 1.2: This release adds the following new features and bug fixes from CMake Tools for Visual Studio 1.1: Added support for CMake 3.0. Added support for word completion. Added IntelliSense support for the CMAKEHOSTSYSTEM_INFORMATION command. Fixed syntax highlighting for tokens beginning with escape sequences. Fixed issue uninstalling CMake Tools for Visual Studio after Visual Studio has been uninstalled.GW2 Personal Assistant Overlay: GW2 Personal Assistant Overlay 1.1: Overview1.1 is the second 'stable' release of the GW2 Personal Assistant Overlay. This version includes just a couple of very minor features and some minor bug fixes. For details regarding installation, setup, and general use, see Documentation. Note: If you were using a previous version, you will probably want to copy over the following user settings files: GW2PAO.DungeonSettings.xml GW2PAO.EventSettings.xml GW2PAO.WvWSettings.xml GW2PAO.ZoneCompletionSettings.xml New FeaturesAdded new "No...New Projects3D Projectile: A 3D Projectile program showing the motion of a ballASP.NET Web Application Starter Kit: This project template is an ASP.NET solution skeleton for a typical web application or single-page application (SPA).Behaving - Behaviour Tree for C#: Behaviour is a Behaviour Tree implementation in C#.Kinect Stream Saver Application _SDK 2: This application is developed based on a sample called "ColorBasics-D2D C++" developed by Microsoft corporation. (Compatible with SDK 2: K4W v2 Dev Preview)MVC Bootstrap Paginator: The MVC Bootstrap Paginator is lightweight and easy to use. It's works out of the box and requires minimal configuration.NuGet Reference Switcher: NuGet Reference Switcher is a Visual Studio extension which can be used to automatically switch NuGet DLL references to project references and vice-versa. QKit: A WP8.1 library that provides various controls and classes that will help developers quickly and easily augment their apps to behave more like native apps.SharePoint 2013 Document Icon Linker: Links the document icon in library views to the document.SharePoint Autocomplete People Search: SharePoint People SearchWADM: WADM

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  • Laissez les bon temps rouler! (Microsoft BI Conference 2010)

    - by smisner
    "Laissez les bons temps rouler" is a Cajun phrase that I heard frequently when I lived in New Orleans in the mid-1990s. It means "Let the good times roll!" and encapsulates a feeling of happy expectation. As I met with many of my peers and new acquaintances at the Microsoft BI Conference last week, this phrase kept running through my mind as people spoke about their plans in their respective businesses, the benefits and opportunities that the recent releases in the BI stack are providing, and their expectations about the future of the BI stack. Notwithstanding some jabs here and there to point out the platform is neither perfect now nor will be anytime soon (along with admissions that the competitors are also not perfect), and notwithstanding several missteps by the event organizers (which I don't care to enumerate), the overarching mood at the conference was positive. It was a refreshing change from the doom and gloom hovering over several conferences that I attended in 2009. Although many people expect economic hardships to continue over the coming year or so, everyone I know in the BI field is busier than ever and expects to stay busy for quite a while. Self-Service BI Self-service was definitely a theme of the BI conference. In the keynote, Ted Kummert opened with a look back to a fairy tale vision of self-service BI that he told in 2008. At that time, the fairy tale future was a time when "every end user was able to use BI technologies within their job in order to move forward more effectively" and transitioned to the present time in which SQL Server 2008 R2, Office 2010, and SharePoint 2010 are available to deliver managed self-service BI. This set of technologies is presumably poised to address the needs of the 80% of users that Kummert said do not use BI today. He proceeded to outline a series of activities that users ought to be able to do themselves--from simple changes to a report like formatting or an addtional data visualization to integration of an additional data source. The keynote then continued with a series of demonstrations of both current and future technology in support of self-service BI. Some highlights that interested me: PowerPivot, of course, is the flagship product for self-service BI in the Microsoft BI stack. In the TechEd keynote, which was open to the BI conference attendees, Amir Netz (twitter) impressed the audience by demonstrating interactivity with a workbook containing 100 million rows. He upped the ante at the BI keynote with his demonstration of a future-state PowerPivot workbook containing over 2 billion records. It's important to note that this volume of data is being processed by a server engine, and not in the PowerPivot client engine. (Yes, I think it's impressive, but none of my clients are typically wrangling with 2 billion records at a time. Maybe they're thinking too small. This ability to work quickly with large data sets has greater implications for BI solutions than for self-service BI, in my opinion.) Amir also demonstrated KPIs for the future PowerPivot, which appeared to be easier to implement than in any other Microsoft product that supports KPIs, apart from simple KPIs in SharePoint. (My initial reaction is that we have one more place to build KPIs. Great. It's confusing enough. I haven't seen how well those KPIs integrate with other BI tools, which will be important for adoption.) One more PowerPivot feature that Amir showed was a graphical display of the lineage for calculations. (This is hugely practical, especially if you build up calculations incrementally. You can more easily follow the logic from calculation to calculation. Furthermore, if you need to make a change to one calculation, you can assess the impact on other calculations.) Another product demonstration will be available within the next 30 days--Pivot for Reporting Services. If you haven't seen this technology yet, check it out at www.getpivot.com. (It definitely has a wow factor, but I'm skeptical about its practicality. However, I'm looking forward to trying it out with data that I understand.) Michael Tejedor (twitter) demonstrated a feature that I think is really interesting and not emphasized nearly enough--overshadowed by PowerPivot, no doubt. That feature is the Microsoft Business Intelligence Indexing Connector, which enables search of the content of Excel workbooks and Reporting Services reports. (This capability existed in MOSS 2007, but was more cumbersome to implement. The search results in SharePoint 2010 are not only cooler, but more useful by describing whether the content is found in a table or a chart, for example.) This may yet be the dawning of the age of self-service BI - a phrase I've heard repeated from time to time over the last decade - but I think BI professionals are likely to stay busy for a long while, and need not start looking for a new line of work. Kummert repeatedly referenced strategic BI solutions in contrast to self-service BI to emphasize that self-service BI is not a replacement for the services that BI professionals provide. After all, self-service BI does not appear magically on user desktops (or whatever device they want to use). A supporting infrastructure is necessary, and grows in complexity in proportion to the need to simplify BI for users. It's one thing to hear the party line touted by Microsoft employees at the BI keynote, but it's another to hear from the people who are responsible for implementing and supporting it within an organization. Rob Collie (blog | twitter), Kasper de Jonge (blog | twitter), Vidas Matelis (site | twitter), and I were invited to join Andrew Brust (blog | twitter) as he led a Birds of a Feather session at TechEd entitled "PowerPivot: Is It the BI Deal-Changer for Developers and IT Pros?" I would single out the prevailing concern in this session as the issue of control. On one side of this issue were those who were concerned that they would lose control once PowerPivot is implemented. On the other side were those who believed that data should be freely accessible to users in PowerPivot, and even acknowledgment that users would get the data they want even if it meant they would have to manually enter into a workbook to have it ready for analysis. For another viewpoint on how PowerPivot played out at the conference, see Rob Collie's observations. Collaborative BI I have been intrigued by the notion of collaborative BI for a very long time. Before I discovered BI, I was a Lotus Notes developer and later a manager of developers, working in a software company that enabled collaboration in the legal industry. Not only did I help create collaborative systems for our clients, I created a complete project management from the ground up to collaboratively manage our custom development work. In that case, collaboration involved my team, my client contacts, and me. I was also able to produce my own BI from that system as well, but didn't know that's what I was doing at the time. Only in recent years has SharePoint begun to catch up with the capabilities that I had with Lotus Notes more than a decade ago. Eventually, I had the opportunity at that job to formally investigate BI as another product offering for our software, and the rest - as they say - is history. I built my first data warehouse with Scott Cameron (who has also ventured into the authoring world by writing Analysis Services 2008 Step by Step and was at the BI Conference last week where I got to reminisce with him for a bit) and that began a career that I never imagined at the time. Fast forward to 2010, and I'm still lauding the virtues of collaborative BI, if only the tools will catch up to my vision! Thus, I was anxious to see what Donald Farmer (blog | twitter) and Rita Sallam of Gartner had to say on the subject in their session "Collaborative Decision Making." As I suspected, the tools aren't quite there yet, but the vendors are moving in the right direction. One thing I liked about this session was a non-Microsoft perspective of the state of the industry with regard to collaborative BI. In addition, this session included a better demonstration of SharePoint collaborative BI capabilities than appeared in the BI keynote. Check out the video in the link to the session to see the demonstration. One of the use cases that was demonstrated was linking from information to a person, because, as Donald put it, "People don't trust data, they trust people." The Microsoft BI Stack in General A question I hear all the time from students when I'm teaching is how to know what tools to use when there is overlap between products in the BI stack. I've never taken the time to codify my thoughts on the subject, but saw that my friend Dan Bulos provided good insight on this topic from a variety of perspectives in his session, "So Many BI Tools, So Little Time." I thought one of his best points was that ideally you should be able to design in your tool of choice, and then deploy to your tool of choice. Unfortunately, the ideal is yet to become real across the platform. The closest we come is with the RDL in Reporting Services which can be produced from two different tools (Report Builder or Business Intelligence Development Studio's Report Designer), manually, or by a third-party or custom application. I have touted the idea for years (and publicly said so about 5 years ago) that eventually more products would be RDL producers or consumers, but we aren't there yet. Maybe in another 5 years. Another interesting session that covered the BI stack against a backdrop of competitive products was delivered by Andrew Brust. Andrew did a marvelous job of consolidating a lot of information in a way that clearly communicated how various vendors' offerings compared to the Microsoft BI stack. He also made a particularly compelling argument about how the existence of an ecosystem around the Microsoft BI stack provided innovation and opportunities lacking for other vendors. Check out his presentation, "How Does the Microsoft BI Stack...Stack Up?" Expo Hall I had planned to spend more time in the Expo Hall to see who was doing new things with the BI stack, but didn't manage to get very far. Each time I set out on an exploratory mission, I got caught up in some fascinating conversations with one or more of my peers. I find interacting with people that I meet at conferences just as important as attending sessions to learn something new. There were a couple of items that really caught me eye, however, that I'll share here. Pragmatic Works. Whether you develop SSIS packages, build SSAS cubes, or author SSRS reports (or all of the above), you really must take a look at BI Documenter. Brian Knight (twitter) walked me through the key features, and I must say I was impressed. Once you've seen what this product can do, you won't want to document your BI projects any other way. You can download a free single-user database edition, or choose from more feature-rich standard or professional editions. Microsoft Press ebooks. I also stopped by the O'Reilly Media booth to meet some folks that one of my acquisitions editors at Microsoft Press recommended. In case you haven't heard, Microsoft Press has partnered with O'Reilly Media for distribution and publishing. Apart from my interest in learning more about O'Reilly Media as an author, an advertisement in their booth caught me eye which I think is a really great move. When you buy Microsoft Press ebooks through the O'Reilly web site, you can receive it in any (or all) of the following formats where possible: PDF, epub, .mobi for Kindle and .apk for Android. You also have lifetime DRM-free access to the ebooks. As someone who is an avid collector of books, I fnd myself running out of room for storage. In addition, I travel a lot, and it's hard to lug my reference library with me. Today's e-reader options make the move to digital books a more viable way to grow my library. Having a variety of formats means I am not limited to a single device, and lifetime access means I don't have to worry about keeping track of where I've stored my files. Because the e-books are DRM-free, I can copy and paste when I'm compiling notes, and I can print pages when necessary. That's a winning combination in my mind! Overall, I was pleased with the BI conference. There were many more sessions that I couldn't attend, either because the room was full when I got there or there were multiple sessions running concurrently that I wanted to see. Fortunately, many of the sessions are accessible for viewing online at http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica along with the TechEd sessions. You can spot the BI sessions by the yellow skyline on the title slide of the presentation as shown below. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Oracle BI Server Modeling, Part 1- Designing a Query Factory

    - by bob.ertl(at)oracle.com
      Welcome to Oracle BI Development's BI Foundation blog, focused on helping you get the most value from your Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (BI EE) platform deployments.  In my first series of posts, I plan to show developers the concepts and best practices for modeling in the Common Enterprise Information Model (CEIM), the semantic layer of Oracle BI EE.  In this segment, I will lay the groundwork for the modeling concepts.  First, I will cover the big picture of how the BI Server fits into the system, and how the CEIM controls the query processing. Oracle BI EE Query Cycle The purpose of the Oracle BI Server is to bridge the gap between the presentation services and the data sources.  There are typically a variety of data sources in a variety of technologies: relational, normalized transaction systems; relational star-schema data warehouses and marts; multidimensional analytic cubes and financial applications; flat files, Excel files, XML files, and so on. Business datasets can reside in a single type of source, or, most of the time, are spread across various types of sources. Presentation services users are generally business people who need to be able to query that set of sources without any knowledge of technologies, schemas, or how sources are organized in their company. They think of business analysis in terms of measures with specific calculations, hierarchical dimensions for breaking those measures down, and detailed reports of the business transactions themselves.  Most of them create queries without knowing it, by picking a dashboard page and some filters.  Others create their own analysis by selecting metrics and dimensional attributes, and possibly creating additional calculations. The BI Server bridges that gap from simple business terms to technical physical queries by exposing just the business focused measures and dimensional attributes that business people can use in their analyses and dashboards.   After they make their selections and start the analysis, the BI Server plans the best way to query the data sources, writes the optimized sequence of physical queries to those sources, post-processes the results, and presents them to the client as a single result set suitable for tables, pivots and charts. The CEIM is a model that controls the processing of the BI Server.  It provides the subject areas that presentation services exposes for business users to select simplified metrics and dimensional attributes for their analysis.  It models the mappings to the physical data access, the calculations and logical transformations, and the data access security rules.  The CEIM consists of metadata stored in the repository, authored by developers using the Administration Tool client.     Presentation services and other query clients create their queries in BI EE's SQL-92 language, called Logical SQL or LSQL.  The API simply uses ODBC or JDBC to pass the query to the BI Server.  Presentation services writes the LSQL query in terms of the simplified objects presented to the users.  The BI Server creates a query plan, and rewrites the LSQL into fully-detailed SQL or other languages suitable for querying the physical sources.  For example, the LSQL on the left below was rewritten into the physical SQL for an Oracle 11g database on the right. Logical SQL   Physical SQL SELECT "D0 Time"."T02 Per Name Month" saw_0, "D4 Product"."P01  Product" saw_1, "F2 Units"."2-01  Billed Qty  (Sum All)" saw_2 FROM "Sample Sales" ORDER BY saw_0, saw_1       WITH SAWITH0 AS ( select T986.Per_Name_Month as c1, T879.Prod_Dsc as c2,      sum(T835.Units) as c3, T879.Prod_Key as c4 from      Product T879 /* A05 Product */ ,      Time_Mth T986 /* A08 Time Mth */ ,      FactsRev T835 /* A11 Revenue (Billed Time Join) */ where ( T835.Prod_Key = T879.Prod_Key and T835.Bill_Mth = T986.Row_Wid) group by T879.Prod_Dsc, T879.Prod_Key, T986.Per_Name_Month ) select SAWITH0.c1 as c1, SAWITH0.c2 as c2, SAWITH0.c3 as c3 from SAWITH0 order by c1, c2   Probably everybody reading this blog can write SQL or MDX.  However, the trick in designing the CEIM is that you are modeling a query-generation factory.  Rather than hand-crafting individual queries, you model behavior and relationships, thus configuring the BI Server machinery to manufacture millions of different queries in response to random user requests.  This mass production requires a different mindset and approach than when you are designing individual SQL statements in tools such as Oracle SQL Developer, Oracle Hyperion Interactive Reporting (formerly Brio), or Oracle BI Publisher.   The Structure of the Common Enterprise Information Model (CEIM) The CEIM has a unique structure specifically for modeling the relationships and behaviors that fill the gap from logical user requests to physical data source queries and back to the result.  The model divides the functionality into three specialized layers, called Presentation, Business Model and Mapping, and Physical, as shown below. Presentation services clients can generally only see the presentation layer, and the objects in the presentation layer are normally the only ones used in the LSQL request.  When a request comes into the BI Server from presentation services or another client, the relationships and objects in the model allow the BI Server to select the appropriate data sources, create a query plan, and generate the physical queries.  That's the left to right flow in the diagram below.  When the results come back from the data source queries, the right to left relationships in the model show how to transform the results and perform any final calculations and functions that could not be pushed down to the databases.   Business Model Think of the business model as the heart of the CEIM you are designing.  This is where you define the analytic behavior seen by the users, and the superset library of metric and dimension objects available to the user community as a whole.  It also provides the baseline business-friendly names and user-readable dictionary.  For these reasons, it is often called the "logical" model--it is a virtual database schema that persists no data, but can be queried as if it is a database. The business model always has a dimensional shape (more on this in future posts), and its simple shape and terminology hides the complexity of the source data models. Besides hiding complexity and normalizing terminology, this layer adds most of the analytic value, as well.  This is where you define the rich, dimensional behavior of the metrics and complex business calculations, as well as the conformed dimensions and hierarchies.  It contributes to the ease of use for business users, since the dimensional metric definitions apply in any context of filters and drill-downs, and the conformed dimensions enable dashboard-wide filters and guided analysis links that bring context along from one page to the next.  The conformed dimensions also provide a key to hiding the complexity of many sources, including federation of different databases, behind the simple business model. Note that the expression language in this layer is LSQL, so that any expression can be rewritten into any data source's query language at run time.  This is important for federation, where a given logical object can map to several different physical objects in different databases.  It is also important to portability of the CEIM to different database brands, which is a key requirement for Oracle's BI Applications products. Your requirements process with your user community will mostly affect the business model.  This is where you will define most of the things they specifically ask for, such as metric definitions.  For this reason, many of the best-practice methodologies of our consulting partners start with the high-level definition of this layer. Physical Model The physical model connects the business model that meets your users' requirements to the reality of the data sources you have available. In the query factory analogy, think of the physical layer as the bill of materials for generating physical queries.  Every schema, table, column, join, cube, hierarchy, etc., that will appear in any physical query manufactured at run time must be modeled here at design time. Each physical data source will have its own physical model, or "database" object in the CEIM.  The shape of each physical model matches the shape of its physical source.  In other words, if the source is normalized relational, the physical model will mimic that normalized shape.  If it is a hypercube, the physical model will have a hypercube shape.  If it is a flat file, it will have a denormalized tabular shape. To aid in query optimization, the physical layer also tracks the specifics of the database brand and release.  This allows the BI Server to make the most of each physical source's distinct capabilities, writing queries in its syntax, and using its specific functions. This allows the BI Server to push processing work as deep as possible into the physical source, which minimizes data movement and takes full advantage of the database's own optimizer.  For most data sources, native APIs are used to further optimize performance and functionality. The value of having a distinct separation between the logical (business) and physical models is encapsulation of the physical characteristics.  This encapsulation is another enabler of packaged BI applications and federation.  It is also key to hiding the complex shapes and relationships in the physical sources from the end users.  Consider a routine drill-down in the business model: physically, it can require a drill-through where the first query is MDX to a multidimensional cube, followed by the drill-down query in SQL to a normalized relational database.  The only difference from the user's point of view is that the 2nd query added a more detailed dimension level column - everything else was the same. Mappings Within the Business Model and Mapping Layer, the mappings provide the binding from each logical column and join in the dimensional business model, to each of the objects that can provide its data in the physical layer.  When there is more than one option for a physical source, rules in the mappings are applied to the query context to determine which of the data sources should be hit, and how to combine their results if more than one is used.  These rules specify aggregate navigation, vertical partitioning (fragmentation), and horizontal partitioning, any of which can be federated across multiple, heterogeneous sources.  These mappings are usually the most sophisticated part of the CEIM. Presentation You might think of the presentation layer as a set of very simple relational-like views into the business model.  Over ODBC/JDBC, they present a relational catalog consisting of databases, tables and columns.  For business users, presentation services interprets these as subject areas, folders and columns, respectively.  (Note that in 10g, subject areas were called presentation catalogs in the CEIM.  In this blog, I will stick to 11g terminology.)  Generally speaking, presentation services and other clients can query only these objects (there are exceptions for certain clients such as BI Publisher and Essbase Studio). The purpose of the presentation layer is to specialize the business model for different categories of users.  Based on a user's role, they will be restricted to specific subject areas, tables and columns for security.  The breakdown of the model into multiple subject areas organizes the content for users, and subjects superfluous to a particular business role can be hidden from that set of users.  Customized names and descriptions can be used to override the business model names for a specific audience.  Variables in the object names can be used for localization. For these reasons, you are better off thinking of the tables in the presentation layer as folders than as strict relational tables.  The real semantics of tables and how they function is in the business model, and any grouping of columns can be included in any table in the presentation layer.  In 11g, an LSQL query can also span multiple presentation subject areas, as long as they map to the same business model. Other Model Objects There are some objects that apply to multiple layers.  These include security-related objects, such as application roles, users, data filters, and query limits (governors).  There are also variables you can use in parameters and expressions, and initialization blocks for loading their initial values on a static or user session basis.  Finally, there are Multi-User Development (MUD) projects for developers to check out units of work, and objects for the marketing feature used by our packaged customer relationship management (CRM) software.   The Query Factory At this point, you should have a grasp on the query factory concept.  When developing the CEIM model, you are configuring the BI Server to automatically manufacture millions of queries in response to random user requests. You do this by defining the analytic behavior in the business model, mapping that to the physical data sources, and exposing it through the presentation layer's role-based subject areas. While configuring mass production requires a different mindset than when you hand-craft individual SQL or MDX statements, it builds on the modeling and query concepts you already understand. The following posts in this series will walk through the CEIM modeling concepts and best practices in detail.  We will initially review dimensional concepts so you can understand the business model, and then present a pattern-based approach to learning the mappings from a variety of physical schema shapes and deployments to the dimensional model.  Along the way, we will also present the dimensional calculation template, and learn how to configure the many additivity patterns.

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, May 23, 2012

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, May 23, 2012Popular ReleasesChristoc's DotNetNuke Module Development Template: 00.00.08 for DNN6: BEFORE USE YOU need to install the MSBuild Community Tasks available from http://msbuildtasks.tigris.org For best results you should configure your development environment as described in this blog post Then read this latest blog post about customizing and using these custom templates. Installation is simple To use this template place the ZIP (not extracted) file in your My Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual C#\Web OR for VB My Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Te...Microsoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.53: fix issue #18106, where member operators on numeric literals caused the member part to be duplicated when not minifying numeric literals ADD NEW FEATURE: ability to create source map files! The first mapfile format to be supported is the Script# format. Use the new -map filename switch to create map files when building your sources.Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Database: AdventureWorks 2008 Analysis Services Project: AdventureWorks 2008 Analysis Services sample database project files. Project files for Analysis Services 2008 sample cubes (standard and enterprise). Lessons 1 to 10 tutorial files.HigLabo: HigLabo_20120522: Bug fix of EncodeToMailHeaderLine method when TransferEncoding is QuotedPrintable and Encoding is not ASCII.BlackJumboDog: Ver5.6.3: 2012.05.22 Ver5.6.3  (1) HTTP????????、ftp://??????????????????????LogicCircuit: LogicCircuit 2.12.5.22: Logic Circuit - is educational software for designing and simulating logic circuits. Intuitive graphical user interface, allows you to create unrestricted circuit hierarchy with multi bit buses, debug circuits behavior with oscilloscope, and navigate running circuits hierarchy. Changes of this versionThis release is fixing start up issue.Internals Viewer (updated) for SQL Server 2008 R2.: Internals Viewer for SSMS 2008 R2: Updated code to work with SSMS 2008 R2. Changed dependancies, removing old assemblies no longer present and replacing them with updated versions.Orchard Project: Orchard 1.4.2: This is a service release to address 1.4 and 1.4.1 bugs. Please read our release notes for Orchard 1.4.2: http://docs.orchardproject.net/Documentation/Orchard-1-4-Release-NotesVirtu: Virtu 0.9.2: Source Requirements.NET Framework 4 Visual Studio 2010 with SP1 or Visual Studio 2010 Express with SP1 Silverlight 5 Tools for Visual Studio 2010 with SP1 Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools (which includes XNA Game Studio 4) Binaries RequirementsSilverlight 5 .NET Framework 4 XNA Framework 4SharePoint Euro 2012 - UEFA European Football Predictor: havivi.euro2012.wsp (1.0): New fetures:View other users predictions Hide/Show background image (web part property) Installing SharePoint Euro 2012 PredictorSharePoint Euro 2012 Predictor has been developed as a SharePoint Sandbox solution to support SharePoint Online (Office 365) Download the solution havivi.euro2012.wsp from the download page: Downloads Upload this solution to your Site Collection via the solutions area. Click on Activate to make the web parts in the solution available for use in the Site C...Metadata Document Generator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: Metadata Document Generator (2.0.0.0): New UI Metro style New features Save and load settings to/from file Export only OptionSet attributes Use of Gembox Spreadsheet to generate Excel (makes application lighter : 1,5MB instead of 7MB)Audio Pitch & Shift: Audio Pitch And Shift 4.2.0: Backward / Forward buttons Improved features for encoding, streaming, menu Bug fixesSilverlight socket component: Smark.NetDisk: Smark.NetDisk?????Silverlight ?.net???????????,???????????????????????。Smark.NetDisk??????????,????.net???????????????????????tcp??;???????Silverlight??????????????????????callisto: callisto 2.0.28: Update log: - Extended Scribble protocol. - Updated HTML5 client code - now supports the latest versions of Google Chrome.ExtAspNet: ExtAspNet v3.1.6: ExtAspNet - ?? ExtJS ??? ASP.NET 2.0 ???,????? AJAX ?????????? ExtAspNet ????? ExtJS ??? ASP.NET 2.0 ???,????? AJAX ??????????。 ExtAspNet ??????? JavaScript,?? CSS,?? UpdatePanel,?? ViewState,?? WebServices ???????。 ??????: IE 7.0, Firefox 3.6, Chrome 3.0, Opera 10.5, Safari 3.0+ ????:Apache License 2.0 (Apache) ??:http://bbs.extasp.net/ ??:http://demo.extasp.net/ ??:http://doc.extasp.net/ ??:http://extaspnet.codeplex.com/ ??:http://sanshi.cnblogs.com/ ????: +2012-05-20 v3.1.6 -??RowD...Dynamics XRM Tools: Dynamics XRM Tools BETA 1.0: The Dynamics XRM Tools 1.0 BETA is now available Seperate downloads are available for On Premise and Online as certain features are only available On Premise. This is a BETA build and may not resemble the final release. Many enhancements are in development and will be made available soon. Please provide feedback so that we may learn and discover how to make these tools better.PHPExcel: PHPExcel 1.7.7: See Change Log for details of the new features and bugfixes included in this release. BREAKING CHANGE! From PHPExcel 1.7.8 onwards, the 3rd-party tcPDF library will no longer be bundled with PHPExcel for rendering PDF files through the PDF Writer. The PDF Writer is being rewritten to allow a choice of 3rd party PDF libraries (tcPDF, mPDF, and domPDF initially), none of which will be bundled with PHPExcel, but which can be downloaded seperately from the appropriate sites.GhostBuster: GhostBuster Setup (91520): Added WMI based RestorePoint support Removed test code from program.cs Improved counting. Changed color of ghosted but unfiltered devices. Changed HwEntries into an ObservableCollection. Added Properties Form. Added Properties MenuItem to Context Menu. Added Hide Unfiltered Devices to Context Menu. If you like this tool, leave me a note, rate this project or write a review or Donate to Ghostbuster. Donate to GhostbusterEXCEL??、??、????????:DataPie(??MSSQL 2008、ORACLE、ACCESS 2007): DataPie_V3.2: V3.2, 2012?5?19? ????ORACLE??????。AvalonDock: AvalonDock 2.0.0795: Welcome to the Beta release of AvalonDock 2.0 After 4 months of hard work I'm ready to upload the beta version of AvalonDock 2.0. This new version boosts a lot of new features and now is stable enough to be deployed in production scenarios. For this reason I encourage everyone is using AD 1.3 or earlier to upgrade soon to this new version. The final version is scheduled for the end of June. What is included in Beta: 1) Stability! thanks to all users contribution I’ve corrected a lot of issues...New ProjectsAits HRM: Human Resource ManagermentBeeWix Toolkit: The toolkit is a set of classes we are using here at Beewix for our Social Network project. Church Management: Simple Church Management Software By Lalit Kumar & Ivan Lewis.Client Center for ConfigurationManager: The tool is designed for IT Professionals to troubleshoot SCCM/CM12 Client related Issues. The Client Center for Configuration Manager provides a quick and easy overview of client settings, including running services and Agent settings in a good easy to use, user interface.Common Instance Factory: Provides an abstraction over dependency injection and IoC containers using the abstract factory design pattern. It was created as an alternative to the Common Service Locator, but it does not use the service location anti-pattern and it provides support for releasing instances. Adapters are available for various dependency injection containers, such as Ninject and SimpleInjector, with more to come shortly. There are also WCF extensions available for decoupling services from DI containers.ConfigMgrRegistrationRequest: ConfigMgrRegistrationRequest allows you to simulate a client using System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Client SDK Basically, this project allows you to create Fake CM12 Clients, ideal when you need test load, reports, etc... when you run the tool (as a local Administrator), it will - Open a csv file and send request to register a new client to sccm - Send a update client id to sccm - Request policy - Send a ddr message - Send hinv more info on my blog at http://wmug.co.uk/w...COSC 320 TWIN System v2.0: Migration of previous version due to one month server limitationCultiv Photometadata for Umbraco: The PhotoMetaData package will extract meta data from images that you upload in your Umbraco media section. Dependency Injection Service Provider (DISP): Dependency Injection Service Provider (DISP) is a wrapper or an interface that aim to allow .NET developers use one of the inversion of control (IoC) containers out there such as StructureMap or Ninject from a high level of abstraction, using the same interface and classes without having to worry about the concrete implementation of each of the IoC containers. DISP provides an interface that will create and instance of an IoC container of your election, and provide generic interface to co...DirectPOS.NET: DirectPOS is a set of classes that bypasses OPOS and other libraries to talk to POS devices directly currently focusing on support for Bixolon, Samsung, and Epson thermal printers and some other devices.Dodongo's Quest: Roguelike in C# and XNAEpicCms: epiccms is only a name. The underlying system consists of two components: an api data service that replicates database tables, views, and procedures directly by url routes; a web interface that is very lightweight and purposed only to directly edit database table data. It is the intention that users will have full control over their data, how it is distributed, who has access, and when or how long anything(anyone) has access to all single pieces of data. It is also the intention that users wi...Find Duplicate file: This application is developed in WPF. you can find duplicate files from the file impression not from file size of from file name. Although this process is very time consuming. You can search and delete the similar file from the application itself. you can also open file location and delete manually from windows explorer. HoleFilling: We present a new image completion algorithm powered by a huge database of photographs gathered from the Web. The algorithm patches up holes in images by finding similar image regions in the database that are not only seamless but also semantically valid. Our chief insight is that while the space of images is effectively infinite, the space of semantically differentiable scenes is actually not that large. For many image completion tasks we are able to find similar scenes which conta...ILCC: A C compiler made in C# that generates .NET CIL code, XML, YAML and .NET PInvokeKendo UI framework for Orchard: This is a common location for kendo UI framework and related script libraries to use with Orchard CMS.MASAS SharePoint: This project is all about creating a SharePoint 2010-based capability to use the Multi-Agency Situational Awareness System (of systems) - MASAS. MASAS is focused on the exchange of structured information. This module is focused on using that information in your SharePoint 2010-based applications. Think of it this way - MASAS is an information bucket. MASAS allows you to share structured information by putting information into the bucket and by pulling information out of the bucket. ...MCP History: History Module for CB websiteMediaWikiSPMigrator: This project is aimed to make it easier to migrate from Mediawiki wiki's into SharePoint. The big differentiator is that it will allow you to map templates into a specific content type in SharePoint. NConf - Advanced Configuration Manager: NConf is an advanced configuration system for .Net projects. It's written out of the need for more advanced configuration than what .Net provides. The key features it supports is multiple configuration sources, simple to use syntax, the ability to reload/update configuration at runtime, and the easy ability to implement custom configuration sources.NMEA Interpreter: NMEA Interpreter is a class library created for one of my projects. It's main function is to parse NMEA sentences into usable easy to read and display data.Occupado: Time management for the School enviroment.OmahaMTG Site: Omaha MTG SiteProject Bloodlust Fury: Group project for CIS 375Radar IoC container: Very simple, fast and easy to use IoC container. Don't have any dependencies on external libraries - just pure .NET 4 Client Profile. Minimal size (~18kB in release build) makes it suitable to use in any project type.Service Request System: Service Request System (SRS) is a lightweight application for submitting and managing Service Requests of any type. The application is written in ASP.net (C#), and can utilize any type of database.Sign In As A Different User: Running your browser (IE) in a corporate environment will give you single sign on to web applications running in your intranet. But in some cases you need to access an URL with different credentials (admin purpose, etc.). Applications like SharePoint will provide you a solution right out of the box, but if this is not available the SignInAsADifferentUser project may help you. We as Glück & Kanja Consulting AG deployed such configurations in relation to Microsoft Lync components. Searching the...SimIn - Simulate Input in Your .NET Applications: SimIn is a light-weight .NET library which allows You to send user input to another applications. You can use SimIn in two modes: simulating user input (SendMessages), or control Your mouse. It supports DirectX input simulation, which means you can send mouse or keyboard messages to any DirectX game you want, and the game will register it correctly. SocialVeris: Este projeto consiste em uma rede social da instituição de ensino Veris IBTA. É um projeto de conclusão do curso de Análise e Desenvolvimento de Sistemas.Sprocket: Web application to management tasks in small company. TheList: A web an mobile application oriented to users that need a support in the creation of the supermarket list.Turntable Enhanced: TT Enhanced is a Turntable.fm Chrome extension used for giving the Turntable.fm website a bit of a face-lift. It adds cosmetic changes to the website, room moderation, drop down lists for easier usability, and much more.Web Part Collector: WebPart collector will help you identify any webpart or all webparts that are located inside your site collection

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  • Laissez les bon temps rouler! (Microsoft BI Conference 2010)

    - by smisner
    Laissez les bons temps rouler" is a Cajun phrase that I heard frequently when I lived in New Orleans in the mid-1990s. It means "Let the good times roll!" and encapsulates a feeling of happy expectation. As I met with many of my peers and new acquaintances at the Microsoft BI Conference last week, this phrase kept running through my mind as people spoke about their plans in their respective businesses, the benefits and opportunities that the recent releases in the BI stack are providing, and their expectations about the future of the BI stack.Notwithstanding some jabs here and there to point out the platform is neither perfect now nor will be anytime soon (along with admissions that the competitors are also not perfect), and notwithstanding several missteps by the event organizers (which I don't care to enumerate), the overarching mood at the conference was positive. It was a refreshing change from the doom and gloom hovering over several conferences that I attended in 2009. Although many people expect economic hardships to continue over the coming year or so, everyone I know in the BI field is busier than ever and expects to stay busy for quite a while.Self-Service BISelf-service was definitely a theme of the BI conference. In the keynote, Ted Kummert opened with a look back to a fairy tale vision of self-service BI that he told in 2008. At that time, the fairy tale future was a time when "every end user was able to use BI technologies within their job in order to move forward more effectively" and transitioned to the present time in which SQL Server 2008 R2, Office 2010, and SharePoint 2010 are available to deliver managed self-service BI.This set of technologies is presumably poised to address the needs of the 80% of users that Kummert said do not use BI today. He proceeded to outline a series of activities that users ought to be able to do themselves--from simple changes to a report like formatting or an addtional data visualization to integration of an additional data source. The keynote then continued with a series of demonstrations of both current and future technology in support of self-service BI. Some highlights that interested me:PowerPivot, of course, is the flagship product for self-service BI in the Microsoft BI stack. In the TechEd keynote, which was open to the BI conference attendees, Amir Netz (twitter) impressed the audience by demonstrating interactivity with a workbook containing 100 million rows. He upped the ante at the BI keynote with his demonstration of a future-state PowerPivot workbook containing over 2 billion records. It's important to note that this volume of data is being processed by a server engine, and not in the PowerPivot client engine. (Yes, I think it's impressive, but none of my clients are typically wrangling with 2 billion records at a time. Maybe they're thinking too small. This ability to work quickly with large data sets has greater implications for BI solutions than for self-service BI, in my opinion.)Amir also demonstrated KPIs for the future PowerPivot, which appeared to be easier to implement than in any other Microsoft product that supports KPIs, apart from simple KPIs in SharePoint. (My initial reaction is that we have one more place to build KPIs. Great. It's confusing enough. I haven't seen how well those KPIs integrate with other BI tools, which will be important for adoption.)One more PowerPivot feature that Amir showed was a graphical display of the lineage for calculations. (This is hugely practical, especially if you build up calculations incrementally. You can more easily follow the logic from calculation to calculation. Furthermore, if you need to make a change to one calculation, you can assess the impact on other calculations.)Another product demonstration will be available within the next 30 days--Pivot for Reporting Services. If you haven't seen this technology yet, check it out at www.getpivot.com. (It definitely has a wow factor, but I'm skeptical about its practicality. However, I'm looking forward to trying it out with data that I understand.)Michael Tejedor (twitter) demonstrated a feature that I think is really interesting and not emphasized nearly enough--overshadowed by PowerPivot, no doubt. That feature is the Microsoft Business Intelligence Indexing Connector, which enables search of the content of Excel workbooks and Reporting Services reports. (This capability existed in MOSS 2007, but was more cumbersome to implement. The search results in SharePoint 2010 are not only cooler, but more useful by describing whether the content is found in a table or a chart, for example.)This may yet be the dawning of the age of self-service BI - a phrase I've heard repeated from time to time over the last decade - but I think BI professionals are likely to stay busy for a long while, and need not start looking for a new line of work. Kummert repeatedly referenced strategic BI solutions in contrast to self-service BI to emphasize that self-service BI is not a replacement for the services that BI professionals provide. After all, self-service BI does not appear magically on user desktops (or whatever device they want to use). A supporting infrastructure is necessary, and grows in complexity in proportion to the need to simplify BI for users.It's one thing to hear the party line touted by Microsoft employees at the BI keynote, but it's another to hear from the people who are responsible for implementing and supporting it within an organization. Rob Collie (blog | twitter), Kasper de Jonge (blog | twitter), Vidas Matelis (site | twitter), and I were invited to join Andrew Brust (blog | twitter) as he led a Birds of a Feather session at TechEd entitled "PowerPivot: Is It the BI Deal-Changer for Developers and IT Pros?" I would single out the prevailing concern in this session as the issue of control. On one side of this issue were those who were concerned that they would lose control once PowerPivot is implemented. On the other side were those who believed that data should be freely accessible to users in PowerPivot, and even acknowledgment that users would get the data they want even if it meant they would have to manually enter into a workbook to have it ready for analysis. For another viewpoint on how PowerPivot played out at the conference, see Rob Collie's observations.Collaborative BII have been intrigued by the notion of collaborative BI for a very long time. Before I discovered BI, I was a Lotus Notes developer and later a manager of developers, working in a software company that enabled collaboration in the legal industry. Not only did I help create collaborative systems for our clients, I created a complete project management from the ground up to collaboratively manage our custom development work. In that case, collaboration involved my team, my client contacts, and me. I was also able to produce my own BI from that system as well, but didn't know that's what I was doing at the time. Only in recent years has SharePoint begun to catch up with the capabilities that I had with Lotus Notes more than a decade ago. Eventually, I had the opportunity at that job to formally investigate BI as another product offering for our software, and the rest - as they say - is history. I built my first data warehouse with Scott Cameron (who has also ventured into the authoring world by writing Analysis Services 2008 Step by Step and was at the BI Conference last week where I got to reminisce with him for a bit) and that began a career that I never imagined at the time.Fast forward to 2010, and I'm still lauding the virtues of collaborative BI, if only the tools will catch up to my vision! Thus, I was anxious to see what Donald Farmer (blog | twitter) and Rita Sallam of Gartner had to say on the subject in their session "Collaborative Decision Making." As I suspected, the tools aren't quite there yet, but the vendors are moving in the right direction. One thing I liked about this session was a non-Microsoft perspective of the state of the industry with regard to collaborative BI. In addition, this session included a better demonstration of SharePoint collaborative BI capabilities than appeared in the BI keynote. Check out the video in the link to the session to see the demonstration. One of the use cases that was demonstrated was linking from information to a person, because, as Donald put it, "People don't trust data, they trust people."The Microsoft BI Stack in GeneralA question I hear all the time from students when I'm teaching is how to know what tools to use when there is overlap between products in the BI stack. I've never taken the time to codify my thoughts on the subject, but saw that my friend Dan Bulos provided good insight on this topic from a variety of perspectives in his session, "So Many BI Tools, So Little Time." I thought one of his best points was that ideally you should be able to design in your tool of choice, and then deploy to your tool of choice. Unfortunately, the ideal is yet to become real across the platform. The closest we come is with the RDL in Reporting Services which can be produced from two different tools (Report Builder or Business Intelligence Development Studio's Report Designer), manually, or by a third-party or custom application. I have touted the idea for years (and publicly said so about 5 years ago) that eventually more products would be RDL producers or consumers, but we aren't there yet. Maybe in another 5 years.Another interesting session that covered the BI stack against a backdrop of competitive products was delivered by Andrew Brust. Andrew did a marvelous job of consolidating a lot of information in a way that clearly communicated how various vendors' offerings compared to the Microsoft BI stack. He also made a particularly compelling argument about how the existence of an ecosystem around the Microsoft BI stack provided innovation and opportunities lacking for other vendors. Check out his presentation, "How Does the Microsoft BI Stack...Stack Up?"Expo HallI had planned to spend more time in the Expo Hall to see who was doing new things with the BI stack, but didn't manage to get very far. Each time I set out on an exploratory mission, I got caught up in some fascinating conversations with one or more of my peers. I find interacting with people that I meet at conferences just as important as attending sessions to learn something new. There were a couple of items that really caught me eye, however, that I'll share here.Pragmatic Works. Whether you develop SSIS packages, build SSAS cubes, or author SSRS reports (or all of the above), you really must take a look at BI Documenter. Brian Knight (twitter) walked me through the key features, and I must say I was impressed. Once you've seen what this product can do, you won't want to document your BI projects any other way. You can download a free single-user database edition, or choose from more feature-rich standard or professional editions.Microsoft Press ebooks. I also stopped by the O'Reilly Media booth to meet some folks that one of my acquisitions editors at Microsoft Press recommended. In case you haven't heard, Microsoft Press has partnered with O'Reilly Media for distribution and publishing. Apart from my interest in learning more about O'Reilly Media as an author, an advertisement in their booth caught me eye which I think is a really great move. When you buy Microsoft Press ebooks through the O'Reilly web site, you can receive it in any (or all) of the following formats where possible: PDF, epub, .mobi for Kindle and .apk for Android. You also have lifetime DRM-free access to the ebooks. As someone who is an avid collector of books, I fnd myself running out of room for storage. In addition, I travel a lot, and it's hard to lug my reference library with me. Today's e-reader options make the move to digital books a more viable way to grow my library. Having a variety of formats means I am not limited to a single device, and lifetime access means I don't have to worry about keeping track of where I've stored my files. Because the e-books are DRM-free, I can copy and paste when I'm compiling notes, and I can print pages when necessary. That's a winning combination in my mind!Overall, I was pleased with the BI conference. There were many more sessions that I couldn't attend, either because the room was full when I got there or there were multiple sessions running concurrently that I wanted to see. Fortunately, many of the sessions are accessible for viewing online at http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica along with the TechEd sessions. You can spot the BI sessions by the yellow skyline on the title slide of the presentation as shown below. 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  • Office 2010: It&rsquo;s not just DOC(X) and XLS(X)

    - by andrewbrust
    Office 2010 has released to manufacturing.  The bits have left the (product team’s) building.  Will you upgrade? This version of Office is officially numbered 14, a designation that correlates with the various releases, through the years, of Microsoft Word.  There were six major versions of Word for DOS, during whose release cycles came three 16-bit Windows versions.  Then, starting with Word 95 and counting through Word 2007, there have been six more versions – all for the 32-bit Windows platform.  Skip version 13 to ward off folksy bad luck (and, perhaps, the bugs that could come with it) and that brings us to version 14, which includes implementations for both 32- and 64-bit Windows platforms.  We’ve come a long way baby.  Or have we? As it does every three years or so, debate will now start to rage on over whether we need a “14th” version the PC platform’s standard word processor, or a “13th” version of the spreadsheet.  If you accept the premise of that question, then you may be on a slippery slope toward answering it in the negative.  Thing is, that premise is valid for certain customers and not others. The Microsoft Office product has morphed from one that offered core word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and email functionality to a suite of applications that provides unique, new value-added features, and even whole applications, in the context of those core services.  The core apps thus grow in mission: Excel is a BI tool.  Word is a collaborative editorial system for the production of publications.  PowerPoint is a media production platform for for live presentations and, increasingly, for delivering more effective presentations online.  Outlook is a time and task management system.  Access is a rich client front-end for data-driven self-service SharePoint applications.  OneNote helps you capture ideas, corral random thoughts in a semi-structured way, and then tie them back to other, more rigidly structured, Office documents. Google Docs and other cloud productivity platforms like Zoho don’t really do these things.  And there is a growing chorus of voices who say that they shouldn’t, because those ancillary capabilities are over-engineered, over-produced and “under-necessary.”  They might say Microsoft is layering on superfluous capabilities to avoid admitting that Office’s core capabilities, the ones people really need, have become commoditized. It’s hard to take sides in that argument, because different people, and the different companies that employ them, have different needs.  For my own needs, it all comes down to three basic questions: will the new version of Office save me time, will it make the mundane parts of my job easier, and will it augment my services to customers?  I need my time back.  I need to spend more of it with my family, and more of it focusing on my own core capabilities rather than the administrative tasks around them.  And I also need my customers to be able to get more value out of the services I provide. Help me triage my inbox, help me get proposals done more quickly and make them easier to read.  Let me get my presentations done faster, make them more effective and make it easier for me to reuse materials from other presentations.  And, since I’m in the BI and data business, help me and my customers manage data and analytics more easily, both on the desktop and online. Those are my criteria.  And, with those in mind, Office 2010 is looking like a worthwhile upgrade.  Perhaps it’s not earth-shattering, but it offers a combination of incremental improvements and a few new major capabilities that I think are quite compelling.  I provide a brief roundup of them here.  It’s admittedly arbitrary and not comprehensive, but I think it tells the Office 2010 story effectively. Across the Suite More than any other, this release of Office aims to give collaboration a real workout.  In certain apps, for the first time, documents can be opened simultaneously by multiple users, with colleagues’ changes appearing in near real-time.  Web-browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote will be available to extend collaboration to contributors who are off the corporate network. The ribbon user interface is now more pervasive (for example, it appears in OneNote and in Outlook’s main window).  It’s also customizable, allowing users to add, easily, buttons and options of their choosing, into new tabs, or into new groups within existing tabs. Microsoft has also taken the File menu (which was the “Office Button” menu in the 2007 release) and made it into a full-screen “Backstage” view where document-wide operations, like saving, printing and online publishing are performed. And because, more and more, heavily formatted content is cut and pasted between documents and applications, Office 2010 makes it easier to manage the retention or jettisoning of that formatting right as the paste operation is performed.  That’s much nicer than stripping it off, or adding it back, afterwards. And, speaking of pasting, a number of Office apps now make it especially easy to insert screenshots within their documents.  I know that’s useful to me, because I often document or critique applications and need to show them in action.  For the vast majority of users, I expect that this feature will be more useful for capturing snapshots of Web pages, but we’ll have to see whether this feature becomes popular.   Excel At first glance, Excel 2010 looks and acts nearly identically to the 2007 version.  But additional glances are necessary.  It’s important to understand that lots of people in the working world use Excel as more of a database, analytics and mathematical modeling tool than merely as a spreadsheet.  And it’s also important to understand that Excel wasn’t designed to handle such workloads past a certain scale.  That all changes with this release. The first reason things change is that Excel has been tuned for performance.  It’s been optimized for multi-threaded operation; previously lengthy processes have been shortened, especially for large data sets; more rows and columns are allowed and, for the first time, Excel (and the rest of Office) is available in a 64-bit version.  For Excel, this means users can take advantage of more than the 2GB of memory that the 32-bit version is limited to. On the analysis side, Excel 2010 adds Sparklines (tiny charts that fit into a single cell and can therefore be presented down an entire column or across a row) and Slicers (a more user-friendly filter mechanism for PivotTables and charts, which visually indicates what the filtered state of a given data member is).  But most important, Excel 2010 supports the new PowerPIvot add-in which brings true self-service BI to Office.  PowerPivot allows users to import data from almost anywhere, model it, and then analyze it.  Rather than forcing users to build “spreadmarts” or use corporate-built data warehouses, PowerPivot models function as true columnar, in-memory OLAP cubes that can accommodate millions of rows of data and deliver fast drill-down performance. And speaking of OLAP, Excel 2010 now supports an important Analysis Services OLAP feature called write-back.  Write-back is especially useful in financial forecasting scenarios for which Excel is the natural home.  Support for write-back is long overdue, but I’m still glad it’s there, because I had almost given up on it.   PowerPoint This version of PowerPoint marks its progression from a presentation tool to a video and photo editing and production tool.  Whether or not it’s successful in this pursuit, and if offering this is even a sensible goal, is another question. Regardless, the new capabilities are kind of interesting.  A greatly enhanced set of slide transitions with 3D effects; in-product photo and video editing; accommodation of embedded videos from services such as YouTube; and the ability to save a presentation as a video each lay testimony to PowerPoint’s transformation into a media tool and away from a pure presentation tool. These capabilities also recognize the importance of the Web as both a source for materials and a channel for disseminating PowerPoint output. Congruent with that is PowerPoint’s new ability to broadcast a slide presentation, using a quickly-generated public URL, without involving the hassle or expense of a Web meeting service like GoToMeeting or Microsoft’s own LiveMeeting.  Slides presented through this broadcast feature retain full color fidelity and transitions and animations are preserved as well.   Outlook Microsoft’s ubiquitous email/calendar/contact/task management tool gains long overdue speed improvements, especially against POP3 email accounts.  Outlook 2010 also supports multiple Exchange accounts, rather than just one; tighter integration with OneNote; and a new Social Connector providing integration with, and presence information from, online social network services like LinkedIn and Facebook (not to mention Windows Live).  A revamped conversation view now includes messages that are part of a given thread regardless of which folder they may be stored in. I don’t know yet how well the Social Connector will work or whether it will keep Outlook relevant to those who live on Facebook and LinkedIn.  But among the other features, there’s very little not to like.   OneNote To me, OneNote is the part of Office that just keeps getting better.  There is one major caveat to this, which I’ll cover in a moment, but let’s first catalog what new stuff OneNote 2010 brings.  The best part of OneNote, is the way each of its versions have managed hierarchy: Notebooks have sections, sections have pages, pages have sub pages, multiple notes can be contained in either, and each note supports infinite levels of indentation.  None of that is new to 2010, but the new version does make creation of pages and subpages easier and also makes simple work out of promoting and demoting pages from sub page to full page status.  And relationships between pages are quite easy to create now: much like a Wiki, simply typing a page’s name in double-square-brackets (“[[…]]”) creates a link to it. OneNote is also great at integrating content outside of its notebooks.  With a new Dock to Desktop feature, OneNote becomes aware of what window is displayed in the rest of the screen and, if it’s an Office document or a Web page, links the notes you’re typing, at the time, to it.  A single click from your notes later on will bring that same document or Web page back on-screen.  Embedding content from Web pages and elsewhere is also easier.  Using OneNote’s Windows Key+S combination to grab part of the screen now allows you to specify the destination of that bitmap instead of automatically creating a new note in the Unfiled Notes area.  Using the Send to OneNote buttons in Internet Explorer and Outlook result in the same choice. Collaboration gets better too.  Real-time multi-author editing is better accommodated and determining author lineage of particular changes is easily carried out. My one pet peeve with OneNote is the difficulty using it when I’m not one a Windows PC.  OneNote’s main competitor, Evernote, while I believe inferior in terms of features, has client versions for PC, Mac, Windows Mobile, Android, iPhone, iPad and Web browsers.  Since I have an Android phone and an iPad, I am practically forced to use it.  However, the OneNote Web app should help here, as should a forthcoming version of OneNote for Windows Phone 7.  In the mean time, it turns out that using OneNote’s Email Page ribbon button lets you move a OneNote page easily into EverNote (since every EverNote account gets a unique email address for adding notes) and that Evernote’s Email function combined with Outlook’s Send to OneNote button (in the Move group of the ribbon’s Home tab) can achieve the reverse.   Access To me, the big change in Access 2007 was its tight integration with SharePoint lists.  Access 2010 and SharePoint 2010 continue this integration with the introduction of SharePoint’s Access Services.  Much as Excel Services provides a SharePoint-hosted experience for viewing (and now editing) Excel spreadsheet, PivotTable and chart content, Access Services allows for SharePoint browser-hosted editing of Access data within the forms that are built in the Access client itself. To me this makes all kinds of sense.  Although it does beg the question of where to draw the line between Access, InfoPath, SharePoint list maintenance and SharePoint 2010’s new Business Connectivity Services.  Each of these tools provide overlapping data entry and data maintenance functionality. But if you do prefer Access, then you’ll like  things like templates and application parts that make it easier to get off the blank page.  These features help you quickly get tables, forms and reports built out.  To make things look nice, Access even gets its own version of Excel’s Conditional Formatting feature, letting you add data bars and data-driven text formatting.   Word As I said at the beginning of this post, upgrades to Office are about much more than enhancing the suite’s flagship word processing application. So are there any enhancements in Word worth mentioning?  I think so.  The most important one has to be the collaboration features.  Essentially, when a user opens a Word document that is in a SharePoint document library (or Windows Live SkyDrive folder), rather than the whole document being locked, Word has the ability to observe more granular locks on the individual paragraphs being edited.  Word also shows you who’s editing what and its Save function morphs into a sync feature that both saves your changes and loads those made by anyone editing the document concurrently. There’s also a new navigation pane that lets you manage sections in your document in much the same way as you manage slides in a PowerPoint deck.  Using the navigation pane, you can reorder sections, insert new ones, or promote and demote sections in the outline hierarchy.  Not earth shattering, but nice.   Other Apps and Summarized Findings What about InfoPath, Publisher, Visio and Project?  I haven’t looked at them yet.  And for this post, I think that’s fine.  While those apps (and, arguably, Access) cater to specific tasks, I think the apps we’ve looked at in this post service the general purpose needs of most users.  And the theme in those 2010 apps is clear: collaboration is key, the Web and productivity are indivisible, and making data and analytics into a self-service amenity is the way to go.  But perhaps most of all, features are still important, as long as they get you through your day faster, rather than adding complexity for its own sake.  I would argue that this is true for just about every product Microsoft makes: users want utility, not complexity.

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