Jessica M. Moss

For the fifth year in a row, I am excited to present at the PASS Summit in Seattle, WA.  The PASS Summit is the premier SQL Server conference in the United States for anyone interested in SQL Server, SQL Server Business Intelligence, and Microsoft data technologies.  I always learn something new when I attend, and I enjoy catching up with old friends.  If you’re a new friend that I haven’t met yet, please introduce yourself to me at one of the following locations: 11/5/2012 8:30am-4:30pm SSIS Design Patterns pre-conference session 11/5/2012 6:00pm-9:00pm Networking Dinner at Gordon Biersch 11/6/2012 6:30pm-8:00pm PASS Summit 2012 Welcome Reception 11/7/2012 11:30am-12:30pm Book Signing – PASS Bookstore 11/8/2012 1:00pm-2:00pm & 3:00pm-4:00pm Book Signing – Apress Booth 11/9/2012 9:45am-11:00am Jessica’s Session: “Getting Reports on Your Schedule” 11/9/2012 11:30am-12:30pm Birds of a Feather table: Data Warehousing Hope to see you then!

Thank you to everyone who attended Michelle Ufford's and my presentation on SSIS Design Patterns for the 24 Hours of PASS session.  Michelle's demo materials can be found here: http://sqlfool.com/summit2012/ .  My demo materials for a 2012 template and some reporting can be found here: http://www.jessicammoss.com/Demo/24HOP_Demos.zip . If you missed it, the session recording is available here: http://www.sqlpass.org/24hours/fall2012/ . And if you want to see more design patterns, come see us in Seattle for a full day training session: http://www.sqlpass.org/summit/2012/Sessions/SessionDetails.aspx?sid=3159 . Enjoy!

A book, a pre-conference training session, and a webinar - oh my! The Book Over the past two years, I have been lucky enough to work with some of the great SSIS-gurus, Andy Leonard , Matt Masson , Tim Mitchell , and Michelle Ufford , on a book project that has finally been realized.  I am pleased to announce the publication of SQL Server 2012 Integration Services Design Patterns ( amazon | apress ).  Thank you to everyone who helped with the writing, editing, and reviewing of the book. The Pre-conference Training Session The PASS Summit has invited the ENTIRE author team to give a pre-conference training session on Monday, November 5, 2012.  This training session gives you the chance to ask anything you want from the author team and take home advanced knowledge that can immediately be implemented.  SSIS Design Patterns description: In this full-day session, the "SSIS Design Patterns" (Apress, 2012) author team – Matt Masson, Tim Mitchell, Jessica M. Moss,...

Thank you to everyone who attended my School of Wrox presentation "Upgrading and Overhauling Your SSIS Packages for 2012" last month.  There were many remaining questions at the end of the session that we weren't able to fit.  The questions below are the unaddressed ones asked during the session that are specific to upgrading to 2012.  Enjoy! Will SSIS 2008 package run AS IS in 2012? Yes, the SSIS 2012 service will temporarily convert the package in its 2005 or 2008 format to the 2012 format when the package runs.  The package may not execute properly if it references providers or assemblies that are not available, so upgrading the package before deploying is highly recommended.  For more information, see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb522577.aspx . Can we integrate file based execution in catalog in DB and generate reports about the executions? Storing packages for execution on the file system is only possible in the Package Deploy...

I am excited to be presenting a pre-conference session at the Atlanta SQLSaturday on April 13, 2012.  The session is entitled Learn Reporting Services in a Day! and is a full day introduction to SSRS 2008 R2.  It costs $99.00 through March 15, and $109.00 after that.  There are only 16 seats left, so don’t hesitate to sign up here: http://ssrsinaday.eventbrite.com/ In addition, there is a full slate of sessions on April 14, 2012, including my session: Report Parts: Increasing Productivity Since 2008R2. Here is the information about the pre-conference session: SQL Server MVP, Jessica M. Moss, presents an exciting, introductory, full day training session on SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2. In the three-part class, Jessica will teach you how to build reports from the ground up. In Part 1, learn the basics of report development, including picking a report development tool and creating your first report. Part 2 delves into visualizations, groupings, and dri...

One of the things we love in business intelligence is pretty pictures. We want to be able to show graphs and KPIs that really highlight information and direct people to an accurate conclusion. We also want to be able to show images that help tell a story, such as a picture of a certain location or the logo for a store. Analysis Services provides the functionality to show images, but it’s a little buried. Let’s walk through the steps of making it easier for you to access! Our final product will look like this: Setting up Analysis Services to show the image Let’s work with the AdventureWorks 2008 R2 sample database and Analysis Services cube. In the product dimension, there is already an attribute in the database and Analysis Services cube called LargePhoto with a data type of varbinary(max) . This contains an image that is associated with each product in the dimension. In fact, in the Analysis Services dimension, we can see that it has been set up so that the ValueCol...

You may not be aware of this great side of SQL Server: free Reporting Services. When I say free, I don’t even mean “comes with the SQL Server that you already paid for, so is sort of free”, I mean “any random person off the street can use it for free, as in beer” I know, the first time I heard it, I was a little skeptical too. Fortunately, it is absolutely true! SQL Server Express Edition with Advanced Services comes with the ability to create your own reports. There are some limitations of this version; for a full list see this site . A few of the larger limitations are listed here: You can only display data from the SQL Server Express databases on the same server The Reporting Services metadata will be stored in the SQL Server Express database on the same server You can only run on-demand reports, which means no subscriptions This version is a great way to try out the capabilities of Reporting Services and learn how to develop reports. And on top of that, eve...