Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Feature in Focus – Annotate Your Data

Even the most well crafted data can sometimes fall short when it comes to telling the whole story or providing proper context. That is why SQL Sets allows you to add annotations to your data sets (Portable Data Set Documents) to clarify a point or point out a particular issue. This proves to be a valuable feature when you need to share this data set with business partners or co-workers for testing, auditing or simple analysis.

Here's how it works:

1) Select some data from your database.  In this case we'll run a query that returns two result sets.

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2) Right-click on on a row and select "Add Annotation". Do this several times. The Annotations appear just below the actual data row. These Annotations would also be included in Excel if the data was exported.

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3) As Annotations are added to specific rows in your result sets, they are also added to the right-hand Annotation Navigator pane so they can easily be navigated to in the case of large documents.

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At this point you can Save this as a Portable Data Set Document and share it which whomever you choose. The Annotations add a context and texture to the data that was not there before. Business partners can also add their own Annotations and the Portable Data Set becomes a living, collaborative document.

That’s it……nothing earth shattering or particularly clever, but a nice way for you, co-workers and business partners to work with your data more closely.

Mike

Friday, January 22, 2010

Feature in Focus – On-the-Fly Grouping

Often times when taking a quick look at rows of data it would be nice if there was an easy way to group certain columns to help put it into context and make it easier to digest. This is a built in feature of SQL Sets and allows for on-the-fly Grouping and Ungrouping of columns.

A normal result set would look something like the following…… your traditional rows and columns view:

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With SQL Sets we can manipulate this result set to make groupings and patterns more obvious….as follows:

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We simply dragged the OrganizationID and ProgramID columns to the Grouping Pane up top and now have a much different view of our result set. This gives us a whole new perspective on the data. Go ahead and give it a try!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Get SQL Sets for Free - The Portable Data Set Document Software!

In an effort to get the word out about SQL Sets (http://sqlsets.com) and what it can do to help you with your day to day work, we're offering free licenses to user groups and certain groups of techies. These include:
  • If you run a technical/.NET related User Group of any sort we can provide free licenses for you to raffle off at your meetings. Email us a link to your group's web site for more info.
  • If you are a technical blogger or author and would be willing to review SQL Sets, send us an email with a link to your blog or magazine/emagazine and we will send you a license.
  • If you are geek who simply loves technology and would be willing to present to a group of 15 or more at your company, a conference or a local user group, send us an email with your plan and we'll send you a license.
  • If you are a Microsoft MVP, please email us us a link to your MVP profile and we'll send you a license.

If you don’t exactly fit into any of the categories above but consider yourself what Seth Godin calls a sneezer, drop us an email telling us a little bit about yourself and you may qualify for a free license!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

SQL Sets 1.5 Featured in MSDN Magazine

The August 2009 issue of MSDN Magazine features a review of SQL Sets 1.5 in Scott Mitchell’s ToolBox section….click here to check it out!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

SQL Sets 1.5.0.3 Released

Latest release of SQL Sets has been published:

Bug Fixes

  • Make sure strings are Trim()ed before display on grid (#21)
  • Excel export row count limit of 65537 handled (#47)
  • Maintain column type fidelity when data is bound to grid (#14)

Enhancements

  • Export annotations to Excel (#31)

Please provide any feedback you might have!

Mike

Monday, May 4, 2009

SQL Sets 1.5.0.2 Released

SQL Sets 1.5.0.2 was released today. The biggest enhancement is the ability to specify what “types” of rows are included in the results of a Compare Set. Rows that have changed, rows added, rows deleted, unchanged and any combination thereof. This will reduce the size of the Compare Set while allowing you and your business partners to focus on the differences you care about. A screenshot of the new Compare Set filtering is shown below:

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Bug Fixes

  • Fixed issues around null database connection when changing db connection for a set with Connections Dropdown control (#18)

Enhancements

  • Compare Set (#9)
    ** When creating Compare Set allow user to determine which rows are included in the resulting Compare Set:
    ** Rows that are the SAME
    ** Rows only in First Set
    ** Rows only in Second Set
    ** Rows that are in both but have CHANGED
  • Provide warning that Bookmarks/Annotations are wiped out on refresh of set (#13)
  • Make the "Execute" button more intuitive
    When Simple Query or Deep Fetch has already been executed at least once, the label reverts to Refresh Set

Thanks and please continue to provide feedback!

Mike

Saturday, April 18, 2009

SQL Sets 1.5.0.1 Maintenance Release

This release of SQL Sets is a maintenance release that addresses mostly usability issues as well as general bug fixes. The most notable enhancement is the addition of the Annotation Preview row added to the data window. This can be easily toggled on/off via the Annotation Preview button on the View menu. Thanks to Martin W. for all his great feedback.

 Annotatoin Preview

 Bug Fixes

  • Hide DropDown Connection in SQL Reader - No database connections allowed in Reader
  • Fix issue where Query Text window is minimized when app is minimized and then opened again
  • Fixed issue with “short” column names and index out of range
  • Fixed Best Fit/Best Fit All operation so that it applies algorithm to ALL rows in table
  • Update of Max Row Count on set options so that it saves correctly

Enhancements

Annotations 

  • By default, an "Annotation Preview" is shown for all rows that have Annotations. This can be toggled on/off.
  • On Mouseover of Annotation icon in grid, text of annotation appears in Tooltip
  • Esc key closes Annotation modal window
  • If Annotation has changed and Cancel or Esc is pressed, a confirmation dialog is displayed
  • Allow renaming annotations by clicking on them twice in the Annotations list

Bookmarks

  • Allow renaming bookmarks by clicking on them twice in the Bookmarks list

Row Detail

  • Esc Key closes window

Main Data Grid

  • ** When Enter key is pressed on Grid, the Row Detail dialog is displayed for currently selected row