SiteCrafting Blah Blah Blog

Mar. 31, 2008 at 11:40am

Got API?

An API reference does a method's body good...

gotAPI.com is one of the most useful online resources I've come across, primarily because it places resources spread all over the internet into one simple site. I've been using this for quite some time, and have for the most part I have taken its usefulness for granted. Then it occurred to me that I might not be the only one that could find this tool useful (I know, it was a big 'DUH!' moment). So now I will share this gem with others...

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Comments (1) | Posted in ASP.NET 2.0, CSS, From the Workbench, Javascript, MS SQL Server, MySQL, PHP, Review, Software Engineering, XHTML by Nick Williams

Oct. 3, 2007 at 3:59pm

A GUI Mess, or a Productivity Booster?

What's your take on the database admin debate?

While writing up a review on a database tool I discovered today, I was inspired to spark a discussion about database GUIs in general. The value of GUI tools for administering database systems like MySQL has been a topic of much debate.


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Comments (6) | Posted in Deep Thoughts, MS SQL Server, MySQL by Nick Williams

Nov. 3, 2006 at 10:51am

How To Full-Text Search

Inspired by Joe's MySQL Cross Table Content Search


Here's a quick how-to on implementing Full-Text Searching using Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Originally, I planned on just using LIKE statements in the WHERE clause of an sql query, however, this would not be possible since, as I posted earlier in MS SQL Server 2005 text and ntext, that string functions do not work on text and ntext data types.

That's when I remembered Joe's blog entry about Cross Table Content Search, which he also mentioned in the office a couple of times before his entry. After that, I've been wanting to implement the Cross Table Content Search, and did not get the opportunity until developing the search page for the Pierce County Library.
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Comments (0) | Posted in ASP.NET 2.0, From the Workbench, MS SQL Server by Ken Foubert

Oct. 27, 2006 at 11:25am

MS SQL Server 2005 text and ntext

text, ntext, and image data types have been deprecated

How I discovered that text, ntext, and image data types have been deprecated and replaced by varchar(max), ntext(max), and varbinary(max).

Recently, I needed to perform a query to update a number of links for the Pierce Count Library website. I thought I could use a simple REPLACE() string function, unfortunately, this turned out not to be the case. In order to update text and ntext datatypes using a query you're limited to a few functions, in my case I would be forced to use SUBSTRING() or UPDATETEXT().

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Comments (1) | Posted in ASP.NET 2.0, Coding Techniques, From the Workbench, MS SQL Server by Ken Foubert

Oct. 24, 2006 at 9:41am

Group By Queries for MS SQL Server

Applying MySQL Wizardry to MS SQL Server

Back in the day, we worked on developing a specialty application that was basically a lead generation system with a database that stored over 200,000 records, with a potential for a lot more. The web application displayed numerous reports that calculated totals from disparate sources. We discovered that once our client began adding all their data that those reports were running slower and slower and slower.

The problem was that we had one primary query to pull the records out, then, as the code looped through each record, several other queries were needed to calculate the disparate totals. That resulted in numerous database calls that slowed the entire web application. That's when Mike discovered MySQL Wizardry, that used the SUM(IF()) and the GROUP BY clause, problem solved.
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Comments (4) | Posted in Coding Techniques, MS SQL Server, MySQL by Ken Foubert