Connect Digest : 2009-05-30 : please vote!

AaronBertrand — Sat, 30 May 2009 16:47:00 GMT

Here are some issues I came across recently; most involve SSMS in some way, though Erland's assertion suggestion is a great one. And just to be clear, since I am seeing some accusations of distorting the fairness of Connect by "asking for votes," I am not asking anyone to vote blindly on these items (and it's clear from last week's results that people are NOT doing that). I'm asking you to take a look at these issues and -- if they affect you and you care enough to do so -- vote on them.

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ASSERTIONS

Erland brought up a great suggestion to add true assertions to DML statements, which would have several benefits over triggers or rolling your own rollback mechanisms.

#459383 : Add assertion clause to DML statements
http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=459383
Current rating: 4.2 (6 votes)

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Object Explorer problem during attach operation

Last week I was attaching a largish database (~300GB) using CREATE DATABASE ... FOR ATTACH. Unlike when restoring a database, where you can see the "Restoring..." state next to the database name in Object Explorer (and can still access other online databases), during this time, I would receive an ugly error message if I tried to expand or refresh the database list. I believe this is because the attach operation places an exclusive lock on the table(s) underlying the sys.databases catalog view, and the *ad hoc SQL* that SSMS issues to display the list does not use snapshot or lower isolation. I'm not sure why it has to behave this way.

#459208 : SSMS : Object Explorer fails to show database list during attach
http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=459208
Current rating: N/A (1 vote)

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Various Activity Monitor issues

Many people have complained about the way the new Activity Monitor replaced the previous version. While there are many new and helpful ways in which the new feature works, a crowd has gathered complaining about some of the things that are still missing (or were taken away).

#423019 : SQL Server 2008 Activity Monitor Enhancements
http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=423019
Current rating: 4.7 (13 votes)

#352596 : SSMS: Activity Monitor is no longer in Treeview
http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=352596
Current rating: 4.7 (6 votes)

#361102 : [SSMS 2008 RTM] Restore 2000 Activity Monitor
http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=361102
Current rating: 3.8 (6 votes)

#350734 : SSMS : Activity Monitor column headers are too fragile
http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=350734
Current rating: 4.3 (3 votes)

#350736 : SSMS : Activity Monitor queries replace white space with ugly boxes
http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=35073 6
Current rating: 3.9 (2 votes)

#350726 : SSMS : Activity Monitor "Kill Process" more dangerous than it sounds
http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=350726
Current rating: N/A (1 vote)

#350729 : SSMS : Activity Monitor process details dialog hard to use
http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=350729
Current rating: N/A (1 vote)

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And here are the changes I've observed over the past 7 days for the entries in my post from last week:

#127219 : CREATE OR REPLACE
Rating last week: 4.7 (84 votes)
Current rating: 4.7 (103 votes) +17

#273938 : sp_helptext : option for generating ALTER
Rating last week: N/A (1 vote)
Current rating: 4.5 (3 votes) +2

#291300 : Option for sp_helptext to add 'GO'
Rating last week: N/A (1 vote)
Current rating: N/A (1 vote) no change

#362453 : SSMS RTM Table Limit
Rating last week: 4.7 (13 votes)
Current rating: 4.7 (17 votes) +4

#453982 : Bizarre XML Performance
Rating last week: 4.7 (3 votes)
Current rating: 4.7 (7 votes) +4

Connect Digest : 2009-05-23 : please vote!

AaronBertrand — Sat, 23 May 2009 16:02:00 GMT

Here are the items from this week that I feel deserve some attention. I'm also adding a little bit of analysis to this. I am always curious if my vote-pimping has any effect, so I am going to start taking a note of the ratings at the time I publish the post, and then compare them when I publish the next post. This will give me some idea about whether my efforts here are worth it.

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CREATE OR REPLACE syntax

We've been asking for this syntax for several versions now, and it finally looks like they're seriously considering it. To the point that they are narrowing down which DDL commands to support in the first round (since they don't pretend to be able to support all of them in one go). This item already has a lot of votes, so if you have already voted, you could add comments indicating which items you would prefer be supported initially.

#127219 : CREATE OR REPLACE
http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=127219
Current rating: 4.7 (84 votes)

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sp_helptext improvements

Because of the missing syntax for create or replace, I filed two items in 2007 that would allow for improved usability with the system procedure sp_helptext. One is to allow an option that would append 'GO' to the end of the script, and the other is to allow an option to script ALTER instead of CREATE. While arguably these options are much less useful if they implement CREATE OR REPLACE functionality, that is still not guaranteed, so some other extensions might be helpful. So far, I am the only person who has voted for either of these items.

#273938 : sp_helptext : option for generating ALTER
http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=273938
Current rating: N/A (1 vote)

#291300 : Option for sp_helptext to add 'GO'
http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=291300
Current rating: N/A (1 vote)

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Object Explorer tree limits

Object Explorer has a known limitation where, if you have too many objects in a single database, expanding a relevant node will yield the error message: "See Object Explorer Details for objects in this folder." Using Object Explorer Details instead of the Object Explorer tree adds some functionality (like sorting and viewing additional properties); however, at the same time, it takes some important functionality away (like expanding multiple items at the same level and dragging column name lists onto query windows). Now it seems that fixing this issue means they will also have to fix the underlying OS, but I say by all means do it. If I want to wait 15 minutes for my crappy desktop PC to display a tree, I should be able to make that choice myself.

#362453 : SSMS RTM Table Limit
http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=362453
Current rating: 4.7 (13 votes)

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Bizarre XML Performance

Fellow MVP and sqlblog.com blogger Adam Machanic discovered some illogical performance when constructing and slightly changing queries involving XML and TVFs.

#453982 : Bizarre XML Performance
http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=453982
Current rating: 4.7 (3 votes)

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Search results matching tags 'T-SQL' and 'product enhancements'

Connect Digest : 2009-05-30 : please vote!

Connect Digest : 2009-05-23 : please vote!