Beginning SQL Server 2008 for Developers: From Novice to Professional
Author: Robin Dewson
SQL Server 2008 is a first–rate database management system. It offers more capability than any previous release of SQL Server. More than just a classic relational database management system, SQL Server 2008 includes exciting and powerful features that make it useful for everything from large corporate data warehouses to ad hoc departmental databases. You’ll find enhanced support for XML, new support for spatial data, transparent data encryption, a policy–based management system, and more.
Author and developer Robin Dewson will show you the way from beginner to SQL Server 2008 professional. Learn to install SQL Server 2008 and navigate around Management Studio before getting right to the heart of mastering fundamental SQL Server 2008 tasks: creating tables, storing data, securing data, and retrieving it again. Dewson ensures you’ll be fully prepared to use all the basics and create a solid foundation for your own projects.
Don’t forget about backups! Your database will house important data, so backing up is essential to protect yourself from inevitable hardware failure. Dewson walks you through SQL Server 2008’s easy–to–use backup and recovery feature set, giving you the grounding that you need in order to set up a reliable plan for recovery in your own environment.
Learn to use Transact–SQL, a full–blown procedural language that is built right into the database system. Transact–SQL is the key to unlocking everything that SQL Server 2008 has to offer. Using Transact–SQL, you can write centrally encapsulated business logic through the use of stored procedures, automatically trigger processing through theuse of triggers, and manipulate data within the server without having to move data back and forth across the network.
Finally, you’ll learn a bit about SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services, a powerful tool that allows enterprise reporting. Reporting Services enables you to develop and serve reports across your organization and even to business partners outside your company. Reporting Services also gives end users the ability to create their own reports, helping them transform business data into valuable, usable information to guide their day–to–day decisions.
What you’ll learn
- Install and manage SQL Server on your system.
- Create and secure tables.
- Store and query data; use indexes to improve query performance.
- “Sleep when the wind blows,” because you have a solid backup and recovery process.
- Run procedural code inside your database in the form of Transact–SQL procedures and triggers.
- Serve up business reports to in–house users and outside business partners via SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services.
Who is this book for?
Developers new to SQL Server 2008. If you are just beginning to develop software using SQL Server 2008, or if you are planning to do so in the near future, this book will set you on the road to success.
About the Apress Beginning Series
The Beginning series from Apress is the right choice to get the information you need to land that crucial entry–level job. These books will teach you a standard and important technology from the ground up because they are explicitly designed to take you from “novice to professional.” You’ll start your journey by seeing what you need to know--but without needless theory and filler. You’ll build your skill set by learning how to put together real-world projects step by step. So whether your goal is your next career challenge or a new learning opportunity, the Beginning series from Apress will take you there—it is your trusted guide through unfamiliar territory!
Related Titles
- Applied Mathematics for Database Professionals
Books about: Downward Dogs and Warriors or TAI CHI CHUAN
Time Management for System Administrators
Author: Thomas Limoncelli
Time is a precious commodity, especially if you're a system administrator. No other job pulls people in so many directions at once. Users interrupt you constantly with requests, preventing you from getting anything done. Your managers want you to get long-term projects done but flood you with requests for quick-fixes that prevent you from ever getting to those long-term projects. But the pressure is on you to produce and it only increases with time. What do you do?
The answer is time management. And not just any time management theory--you want "Time Management for System Administrators," to be exact. With keen insights into the challenges you face as a sys admin, bestselling author Thomas Limoncelli has put together a collection of tips and techniques that will help you cultivate the time management skills you need to flourish as a system administrator.
"Time Management for System Administrators" understands that an Sys Admin often has competing goals: the concurrent responsibilities of working on large projects and taking care of a user's needs. That's why it focuses on strategies that help you work through daily tasks, yet still allow you to handle critical situations that inevitably arise.
Among other skills, you'll learn how to:
Manage interruptions
Eliminate timewasters
Keep an effective calendar
Develop routines for things that occur regularly
Use your brain only for what you're currently working on
Prioritize based on customer expectations
Document and automate processes for faster execution
What's more, the book doesn't confine itself to just the work environment, either. It also offers tips on how to apply these timemanagementtools to your social life. It's the first step to a more productive, happier you.
Table of Contents:
| 1 | Time management principles | 1 |
| 2 | Focus versus interruptions | 12 |
| 3 | Routines | 32 |
| 4 | The cycle system | 48 |
| 5 | The cycle system : to do lists and schedules | 58 |
| 6 | The cycle system : calendar management | 80 |
| 7 | The cycle system : life goals | 92 |
| 8 | Prioritization | 101 |
| 9 | Stress management | 115 |
| 10 | Email management | 124 |
| 11 | Eliminating time wasters | 133 |
| 12 | Documentation | 145 |
| 13 | Automation | 157 |
