Voice of the DBA

Tag: SQL in the City

SQL in the City Comes to Seattle in 3 Days

Last week I spoke at SQL in the City 2015 in London, and it was a great event. We had a wonderful event, and I’m looking forward to Seattle. Lots of good questions and comments in my version control talk, good feedback on the keynote, which I really enjoyed. I thought our end of day panel was outstanding, and I wish we had 2 hours for that as the questions were amazing.

I’m looking forward to a duplication of SQL in the City in Seattle on Monday, just a few days away. We’re going to be at the Hyatt in downtown Seattle, and we’d love to have you come. You can register and join us, but please don’t register unless you can come.

There are also a few workshops in Seattle on Tuesday, so if you want hands on practice, come sign up for on of these.

October 23, 2015
Traveling in Wales

It’s SQL Relay Cardiff day today. This is my first time in Wales, and it’s a busy day at SQL Relay. It’s a bit of deja vu with me delivering the same session on Version Control today that I presented 18 ours ago at SQL Relay Bristol.

It’s interesting being on part of the SQL Relay tour, with some of the same speakers, some different, the rapid travel from one city to the next, and orienting myself in a new environment. The venues are much different, with a set of hotel conference rooms yesterday and a large arena facility (the Motorpoint Arena) today. It’s surprisingly confusing trying to find toilets, speaker rooms, and more.

However the people are nice, and friendly, although quiet. I got lots of good questions both days, on a semi-confusing topic, and that will help me revisit the session and make some changes over the next few days.

I get to help on a second session today as we have a speaker that’s ill. Then it’s some work as I prep for travel back to London and SQL in the City in London on Friday.

October 14, 2015
A Long Trip Ahead

This is my last day at home for a long time. At least long by my standards. I head to the airport tomorrow for a ten day trip, not returning to CO until Saturday, Oct 17. I rarely travel more than 4 or 5 days at the most, so this is one of my longer ones.

My first stop is Orlando. I’m heading over to help teach a DLM workshop for Redgate Software on Friday. This is our Database Source Control workshop that covers some in depth work with SQL Source Control and version control systems. I’ve done a few of these, so this should be easy for me.

Saturday is SQL Saturday #442 in Orlando. I haven’t been to a SQL Saturday in Orlando in a long time, so I’m excited to get back to the place where these all started. I’ve got one talk on Saturday, talking Encryption, around which I’ll be hanging out with friends and trying to learn a few SQL things along the way.

Sunday I travel, though at a relaxed pace. I’ll spend the day making my way to Houston before an overnight flight to London on the Dreamliner. It’s a leisurely day, where I’ll probably spend time catching up on Python work because Monday is crazy.

Monday is a day I dread a bit. I land in London and immediately drive to Cambridge for a few meetings. I’ve got some SQL in the City rehearsals planned before I turn around and head back to London to catch the fun bus to Bristol for SQL Relay. If you map this out, it seems silly, but that’s what I got myself talked into somehow.

Tuesday is SQL Relay in Bristol. I’ll be previewing my talk for SQL in the City, so I’ll apologize in advance if things aren’t 100% set. However after a day at the conference, I’ll be heading over to Cardiff where I’ll get dinner and try to fix all the things I did wrong during the talk.

Wednesday is SQL Relay Cardiff. A repeat of Tuesday in a new city. I’m not sure if everything is the same, but I’ll be (hopefully) delivering a better talk on Wednesday. Wednesday night Grant and I aren’t doing anything, so it’s a few hours to unwind.

Thursday morning we make our way back to London. Hopefully we manage the train system fine because we have lunchtime and afternoon meetings with people coming down from Redgate during the day. This is the final SQL in the City prep time, as well as a few other in person events, including seeing my boss for only the 3rd time this year.

Friday is SQL in the City 2015 London. Redgate puts on a great event, and I’m looking forward to another exciting day. Three times on stage for me, so I’m sure when things wrap up around 5 I’ll be quite tired. However no rest, I head to Heathrow for a night in my 5th hotel on this trip.

10 days. Orlando, Cambridge, Bristol, Cardiff, London.

I have the feeling I won’t be doing much on Saturday night or Sunday when I return.

October 7, 2015
Simple Merges KDiff3 at SQL in the City

One of the hassles of working in a development team is that you will have conflicts between your code and another developer’s. That’s fine, and it’s a natural effect of allowing each person to work on parts of a database independently.

However resolving conflicts can be a pain. Fortunately there are some nice utilities that can help make the process easier.

If you want to see this live, come to SQL in the City 2015 in London or Seattle this October.

Here’s a quick example. I was simulating two developers, each with their own database, but linked to a common Git VCS repository. I went to commit a change and got this:

SQL Source Control detects a conflict before committing the stored procedure on the left. As you can see, it has more fields in it, while the version in my VCS has a TOP clause. I can keep my version or update mine with what’s in VCS.

Or, if you look to the right, you can see I have the option to “Merge” code. If I click Merge, then I’ll open KDiff3, which is installed on my system. SQL Source Control has detected this and given me the chance to resolve the issue.

I get a message that there are 3 conflicts, and none of them could be resolved. If there are places where the code can be merged automatically, KDiff3 will do that.

Once I acknowledge this, I see my code. This looks like what I saw in SQL Source Control. My code is on the left, and the version from VCS is on the right. Below is the merged code, which has some placeholders where the code conflicts.

If I right click the first conflict, I get some choices. In this case, I’ll take the line from the left, which has no TOP clause.

This gets inserted into my code and I can move on to the second conflict. In this case, I’ll take the version on the right, which has nothing.

For the last conflict, I’ll also take the missing fields from the right.

If I now save and close KDiff3, I’ll get the merged code in SSMS and SQL Source Control.

Not the “Keep mine” is selected. I’ll commit this, which will be the most up to date version in our VCS. Other developers can update their code with this version, and if they have conflicts, SQL Source Control and KDiff3 make them easy (ier) to resolve.

I’ll be showing you some basics of using a VCS with your database at SQL in the City 2015 this October. You can see this and more in London on October 16 or Seattle on October 26. If you can come to either event, register today and come pick up a few tips and tricks.

September 21, 2015