BI Reporting - Dundas for Microsoft Products

Dear Friends,

Today I will try to explain which Dundas components is included with the “new version” of SQL 2008 Katmai. I used new version in commas because Microsoft is preparing another new version for 2010 with the name Killimanjaro.

Dundas makes our job easier with a complete line of data visualization tools for Microsoft technologies. These award-winning products includes charts, gauges, maps and calendars for Microsoft .NET, SQL Reporting Services and SharePoint

I always avoided 3rd party components, not only because is needed extra payment but also because in the companies I worked they doesn’t accept 3rd party installations. But Dundas has a big potencial in data visualization with hundreds of components, and for that reason Microsoft include it in the new 2008 products. But I was a little disappointed because only a few components are included with these Microsoft 2008 products… Only the gauges… that is very useful for balanced scorecards and other type of reports that has KPI’s… but if you want to add some dundas charts, maps or calendars, you must pay! Bbbbrrr…

For SQL Reporting Services 2008, I made a simple’s screenshots to make you more familiar with Dundas AddIn. (left image the free features and the right image the payed features)

If you need to do some specific and complex charts or gauges and have some budget, Dundas is a very good solution. Go to www.dundas.com and download a trial version that comes with a lot of examples.

I will try to write some words about other excellent 3rd party components that I heard for the first time in the ‘SQLBits’ conference last September in London, the XLCubed that acquires BonaVista Systems, the developer of MicroCharts.

Regards!

Pedro

BI Conference - SQLBits - Birmingham (UK) - After

Dear Friends,
I’m just arriving from Birmingham (UK) and I only have one Word to describe the experience: FANTASTIC! I have several things to write but if you weren’t there you missed a fantastic day!
As you already know, I’m currently living in Portugal but last Friday I pick my girlfriend and went to Birmingham (UK) to attend the SQLBits conference and back to the city where I’ve finished my degree some years ago. Microsoft Portugal is not investing too much in SQL BI tools, and in the last summer it had only one person specialized in these tools… To prove it, the next TechDays 2008 in Portugal there will be just a few sessions in SQL BI tools and probably too basic… The possibility to hear some “gurus” and the authors of my preferred books from Wrox and Wiley, it was an opportunity that I couldn’t missed!
I will describe in general how it was this journey to Birmingham and I will detail my preferred sessions on detail in a next post.

The Conference
There was several sessions in this conference, and I attended the sessions related with Business Intelligence MS SQL tools. Darren Green, Allan Mitchell and Chris Webb didn’t disappointed me in their sessions, and the money expended in this journey was a very good investment on my career and a good opportunity to “open my eyes” more and more to the world.

Allan Mitchell Session
Allan spoke about the new features of SSIS 2008 and compares it with the SSIS 2005. He shows some details that usually some developers don’t pay much attention, the performance… he show some details behind the scene, and in my opinion he done it good!
MultiCast
Pipeline Limiter
LookUp Component (Cache Options)
Data Profiling Task
Change Data Capture

Chris Webb Session
This session was very interesting… I expecting to see something about new features and good advantages of SSRS, and what I saw was the opposite and I’m totally in agree with him and this session prove that this type of events are not to sell products but is a place where we can receive very good and sincerely tips and tricks from developers to developers. And Microsoft was one of the sponsors…

Darren Green Session
Darren session was very cool and he spoke about a subject that I normally in SSIS avoid but after the session I will take more attention… and the subject is custom data components. I bought the WROX book that Darren wrote and refer this subject but I didn’t read those chapters… But is really interesting , not only to understand better the pipeline engine but also to develop more specific and complex transformations.

The City and BullRing
As I told you before, I finished my degree in Birmingham some years ago. There are several improvements in the city but it still beauty! A very good improvement was the BullRing Center that is a big shopping place with an area equivalent to 26 football stadiums!!!





The Hotel
Normally, hotels in England are not comfortable or modern, but this Hotel is very modern and I knew a Portuguese man that works there!



The NightLife
The night bars and discos are incredible on pressure of safety guards…

So... in resume, was a fantastic journey!! I will try to detail more about the conference in a next post!

Cheers!!

BI Conference - SQLBits - Birmingham (UK)

Dear Friends,
Today I'm very happy!! I received the confirmation for the next SQLBits conference in Birmingham(UK). And I'm happy for several reasons...

• I will return to Birmingham where I finished my IT Degree some years ago (NewMan College 2001)
• I will attend to the sessions of Chris Webb and Darren Green that are one of my main sources of inspiration and Allan Mitchell that is one of the authors of my favorite SSIS book at WROX.
• Change knowledge with the BI comunity and see old and new friends.
  
• Learn more about BI and SQL 2008 tools
• Enjoy Birmingham lifestyle again!

I'm sure you have a lot of reasons like me to the conference. Dont waste more time, there are more than 400 people confirmed!!

For registations follow this link: http://www.sqlbits.com
There will be several sessions, I selected these ones:

Slot 1:
Master Data Management (MDM)
Taken by Sutha Thiru
Slot 2:
Extending SSIS with custom Data Flow components
Taken by Darren Green
Slot 3:
Understanding LINQ in .NET Framework V3.5 and Beyond
Taken by Mike Taulty
Slot 4:
Making more of SSIS in 2008
Taken by Allan Mitchell
Slot 5:
Using Analysis Services as a data source for Reporting Services reports
Taken by Chris Webb

The agenda: www.sqlbits.com/information/MainAgenda.aspx
I will book my flight and hotel tonight!!

And for some reason you cannot go to Birmingham, prepare to go to Glasgow on 10-May-2008... I will try to be there... so, vote in the sessions you want to see!! Follow the link image!

See you around!
Regards!

BI Tools - First look at Microsoft BI Tools

Dear Friends,
Following a suggestion of Rui Santos (master colleague), I'll try to write a draft about Microsoft BI Tools using my current BI project.
As you probably know, the current version of SQL Server 2005 has two separate environments, one for management and one for development.
The development environment is called Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) and is focused mainly in business intelligence area. Includes a module for Data Integration (SSIS), another for Data Analysis (SSAS) and another for Report (SSRS). The management environment is called SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and it’s here that you do all the work managing your databases.

I don’t know yet the other BI tools, but what I heard from community is that Microsoft tools are more “user-friendly” than others. But in my master I will try SAS tools and I will know if it’s true or not.
I’m very satisfied with Microsoft, and If today BI is more popular is because Microsoft is investing a lot in BI technologies. Why I am say this? Well… is my opinion, but there was big improvements particularly in SQL 2005, SharePoint 2007 (usually used to file share in 2003 version), the acquisition of ProClarity (tools to analyze BI data), the acquisition of Dundas software (Report tools), Office 2007… and others…

For these reasons, I think BI is the right path to our careers, particularly Microsoft! But I think if we know the BI concepts, with some extra work we can use other tools like SAS, WebFocus, SAP and others without problems.

My current BI project is very complex and the old system was too difficult to understand (http://pedrocgd.blogspot.com/2007/06/ssis-temporary-image-to-msdn-forum.html) because it seemed like a data warehouse inside excel and access files… could you imagine that?!
In overall, the big difficulties was understanding the old system and define the best architecture.
Below I will show you some screenshots of Microsoft BI tools in my project.

SSIS - SQL Integration Services
As I wrote in a previous post, the goal of BI is provide the business with high data quality using intelligence! This module provides the right tools to transform, clean and audit data from several data sources and unsure that this data will be inserted correctly and compatible with destination structure – Is my concept of ETL.

Control Flow

Control Flow (Sequence container expanded)


SSAS - SQL Analysis Services
This module consisted of two major, and complementary, pieces of functionality: OLAP and Data Mining.
In this module you can add KPI (corporate measures), perspectives, translations and you must know the language of querying multi dimensional databases, MDX.
MDX is similar to SQL but while in SQL we query data from OLTP databases, with MDX we query data from OLTP databases.

Data Source View

Cube Designer

Calculations Designer (MDX Sintax)

Cube Browser

Cube Browser with some data


SSRS - SQL Reporting Services
Using the MDX, it's possible to create queries to an OLAP database and display here inside a table, matrix or in a chart.

Data designer (wizard)

MDX Data Designer

Report Designer


Don’t forget, this is a draft about each SQL BI module. If you think a more specific description of this subject could be useful, I will describe it better. (In the right panel you could see links of my preferred books)
Regards!