Archive of posts filed under the SQL Server category.

Silverlight 4 + COM + SQL Server = Cool!

Posted by Sergey Barskiy on 13 February 2010, 5:53 pm

Today is the day to talk about COM possibilities in Silverlight 4.  One would question the titles of my post.  COM and Cool in the same sentence?  Let me proof this title to you.

First, let me take a closer look at COM.  In order to access COM, you must install Silverlight application on a local machine.  The access to COM is not enabled when a Silverlight application is run in the browser.  So, first of all you have to enable this by checking “Enable running application out of browser” checkbox in project properties.  Second of all, you have to check “Require elevated trust…” checkbox in “Out-of-browser settings” area in project properties.  Now, you are ready to install you application and test COM support.  How about Word automation:

Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application word = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application();



var doc = word.Documents.Add();



var paragraph = doc.Paragraphs.Add();



paragraph.Range.Text = "Some text";

Now, let’s talk about database access.  Parts of System.Data.SqlClient namespace are not exposed to COM by default.  So, to enable database access we must write an assembly that is exposed to COM that wraps database access.  To do so, check the property “Register for COM Interop” in project properties for the .NET (NOT Silverlight) based project that will fire off database queries for us.  Once the assembly is built, I can just use RegAsm to register my DLL with COM on a machine.  Of course, this would be a prerequisite to use Silverlight application for local data access.  The other prerequisite is to have .NET Runtime installed on that machine as well.  I could write an install project of course to make this process easier.

The next step is to write a Silverlight assembly that would use COM Interop similar to the one above for Word to talk to my database access .NET based assembly.

dynamic sqlDB = ComAutomationFactory.CreateObject("COMSQLClient.COMSqlDatabase");

Now the most exciting part.  I created and published the project on CodePlex that does exactly what I just talked about.  Check out the project and let me know what you think.  You can download the source code and look into the implementation details.  Here is the link to it:

http://silverlight4sqllib.codeplex.com/

Thanks.

Filed under Data, SQL Server, Silverlight.
2 Comments

Talk at GGMUG

Posted by Sergey Barskiy on 16 January 2010, 7:57 pm

As always I had fun presenting at Gwinnett Georgia Microsoft Users Group on Thursday.  The subject of my talk was “Getting started with SQL Azure”.  I documented all the steps in this blog post.  There are also useful links that I mentioned in this post to help you get started.

There are many advantages to use SQL Azure.  Number of reason is probably the fact that one can eliminate the need to house expensive hardware and software on premises.  As long as you are fine with living with certain limitations of SQL Azure compared to SQL Server 2008, you can take advantage of this great technology.  The primary limitation is probably the size of the database.  You cannot have a database bigger than 10 GB.

Feel free to ask any questions on the topic.

Filed under Azure, Data, SQL Server.
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Windows Azure Application

Posted by Sergey Barskiy on 13 November 2009, 9:58 pm

This is purely a bragging post :-)

I just deployed a test application to the cloud (Microsoft Azure): http://rolodex.cloudapp.net/

Here is the technology stack for it:

  1. Windows Azure
  2. SQL Azure
  3. CSLA 3.8.1
  4. Silverlight
  5. Entity Framework
  6. WCF
  7. Prism (Composite Application Guidance)
  8. Silverlight Toolkit

I promise to write a blog entry in the near future, the steps one has to follow through to create an Azure application.

Filed under Azure, Data, SQL Server, Silverlight, WCF.
2 Comments

SQL Saturday #25

Posted by Sergey Barskiy on 11 October 2009, 3:42 pm

I spoke yesterday at SQL Saturday event in Gainesville, GA.  My topic was CLR Integration in SQL Server. 

CLR stands for Common Language Runtime or .NET Framework.  This SQL Server 2005 or higher feature allows developers to write .NET assemblies and deploy them in SQL Sever.  You can implement scalar and table-values functions, stored procedures, triggers, user defined types and aggregates.

In my talk I spoke of features that I worked or had a need for.  Those included interacting with OS, such as file access or registry access.  I also talked about implementing fuzzy matching logic, creating custom bitmaps and utilizing them in SSRS reports.

You can download the sides and sample project here.

Thank you.

Filed under Community, SQL Server.
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SQL Saturday Presentation

Posted by Sergey Barskiy on 25 April 2009, 2:57 pm

My talk at SQL Saturday just ended. My topic was CLR integration – Integrating CLR assemblies to support custom image creation and encompassing complex business logic in SQL server/SSRS.  I posted all the code and slides here

As always it was a pleasure to talk in front of my fellow developers.

Filed under Community, SQL Server.
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