SQL Server TechNet/MSDN Web Updates : TechNet and MSDN

Moving on...

chriskil — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:31:00 GMT

One thing that is constant at Microsoft is change and I am moving on to support a different web site here on TechNet, so I will no longer be supporting the SQL Server Tech and Developer Centers and maintaining this blog.

Thank you for reading along and suggesting improvements to the sites - it's been a pleasure and I'll see you on our other sites!

Best regards,

Chris

What's New on the SQL Server Tech and Dev Centers - 7 April, 2008

chriskil — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:55:00 GMT

Greetings from the damp and cold Pacific Northwest, U.S.!

Today, 41 degrees F and raining. So much for Spring. (But the moss is looking gorgeous!)

It's the first Monday of the month, and per usual, we have a new monthly theme, Trusted Data Platform. You can learn about the features in SQL Server 2008 that make it a more secure place to store your data.

We've also added twelve new MVP blogs to our blogs page - are there any other blogs or SQL Server web sites we should be listing in our community area?

SP2 is important, but we thought it was time to change our featured download for SQL Server 2005. If you have legacy data or need to corral Access databases that have popped up in your organization, you'll want to explore the SQL Server Migration Assistant for Microsoft Access.

Here's hoping the Spring has come to you in the Northern Hemisphere, and that Autumn is warm enough to go to the beach in the Southern.

Cheers!

What's new on the SQL Server Tech and Developer Centers - 19 Mar., 2008

chriskil — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:01:00 GMT

Spring is here in the Seattle area. The cherry blossoms are out and the rhododendrons, azaleas and moss are beginning to bloom. Of course, between the brilliant flashes of light peeking through the clouds which we think is coming from the sun, we're also having the regular mid-40's F and rain going on. All that moss doesn't get green without water, so it balances out. :-)

In case you missed it, we quietly launched a new tab on the sites, Product Information, which is an aggregation of SQL Server 2008 product information links. These links are handy to orient you to SQL Server 2008 if you're new to it or to share with others that want to understand why they should consider buying it when it becomes available.

Our new monthly theme, Productive Data Platform, rolled out this week, and links to information about why SQL Server 2008 will help to reduce the cost of managing your data.

Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP, posted about the SQL Server script repository and the comments thread highlights how hard it can be to find useful information on the sites. I'd love to hear any thoughts you might have about how I can help make the information you're looking for easier to find.

Chris

New technical team blog link added to blogs page

chriskil — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:54:00 GMT

Email is a funny thing. It's asynchronous nature makes it easy to postpone a request to a later time, but that can come back to bite you later, as it did me, today.

I had received a request from a member of the SQL Server Engine team to add a link to their blog, SQL Server Storage Engine, to the blogs page back in November, but the email thread was about something different, so I put it in my "to-do later" bucket and promptly forgot it. Ugh. My bad - I'm sorry.

This is a great technical blog and I hate that I sat on this, so check out their blog!

Chris

Whew! (Or, what a global web launch looks like.)

chriskil — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:55:00 GMT

Yesterday was nuts around here as my team worked to execute on a global web launch to support the SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 worldwide launch. Local launch events are happening worldwide for the next month if you'd like to pick up some launch SWAG and get up close with these products.

Across all three product sites on TechNet, MSDN and WWW:

1,840 pages were pushed live
762,380 words were translated
11 languages supported

Add in the hundreds of people who had a part on the product, site management, web production, localization, and project management teams, and you can imagine what quality control was like yesterday. :-)

("What about Italian?" "The Russian pages need a quick fix!" "Who has the German pages checked out for editing?" etc., etc.)

Anyway, we made it, and my team had a well-earned company-provided lunch yesterday to celebrate. Thanks to everyone who helped with SQL Server!

So, how did we do? Do you feel like there is enough information on the Microsoft web about these products? Any glaring gaps?

What's new on the SQL Server Tech and Developer Centers - 22 Feb., 2008

chriskil — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:43:00 GMT

Yes, the home page changed again and there are some new SQL Server 2008 pages. :-)

What pages are new/updated?

· The home page (TechNet/MSDN)

o The top panes are redesigned utilizing a Featured Resources RSS (headline) feed, and the Downloads and How Do I? sections use content rotators to cycle different content in. (Try refreshing the page a few times to see what changes.)

o We’ve added headers to the blog and forum posts, as well as displaying the last post time and providing an RSS link. This should hopefully make it easier for you to figure out what you're reading and who's writing it.

· A SQL Server 2008 product page

· A SQL Server 2008 downloads page

· The Learn page is now featuring 2008 learning content

· The Versions page now links to the new product page, instead of the 2008 monthly theme page

How'd we do?

Cumulative Update 6 for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 available

chriskil — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:41:00 GMT

Lost in the hoopla around the new CTP for SQL Server 2008, Cumulative Update 6 for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 was also released. We now have this linked on the home pages of the Tech and Developer Centers.

SQL Server 2008 February CTP is now available!

chriskil — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 01:34:00 GMT

Just in time for the 2/27 worldwide launch, a new CTP is available for SQL Server 2008!

IT Pro access.

Developer access.

There are also SQL Server 2008 CTP Books Online and SQL Server 2008 feature pack links on the Tech and Developer Center home pages.

Don't forget to use the TechNet and MSDN SQL Server 2008 forums for questions/answers about the CTP. I'm sure that a lot of other bloggers have much to say as well.

Have fun!

What's new on the SQL Server Tech and Developer Centers - 14 Feb., 2008

chriskil — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:05:00 GMT

I've just completely rebuilt the blogs page, organizing it by SQL Team, MSFT employee, MVPs and other.

One of my colleagues sent me a list of MVP blogs and I realized I needed to do something to the page as it was getting unwieldy. I also pruned a few stale blogs.

Any others to add?

Chris

What's new on the SQL Server Tech and Developer Centers - 13 Feb., 2008

chriskil — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:10:00 GMT

Ack! Has it been a month already?

Bad Site Manager! Bad!

Lots of new stuff in the past month:

Site search now includes Events and Errors data! A common request fulfilled. Example: http://search.technet.microsoft.com/search/Default.aspx?brand=technet&query=sql+server+error+18456&refinement=82&lang=
Updated books online for languages other than English. They're now in synch with the September 2007 English release.
Code Gallery feed on the Developer Center home page. Soma explains what it's all about.
SQL Server 2008 learning resources - check 'em out, including a FREE ebook!
Channel 9 has some great SQL Server resources, which we've linked to from our main Community page.
Speaking of community resources, I've added some new blogs and related sites. If I'm missing yours, leave me a comment.

I promise I'll get back on my weekly updates from here on out.

Cheers!

What's new on the SQL Server Tech and Developer Centers - 14 Jan., 2008

chriskil — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:49:00 GMT

One new white paper has been posted on the Best Practices page: Database Mirroring and Log Shipping Working Together. You can view the link on the TechNet or MSDN Best Practices page.

I've also been doing some clean-up on the site after the site re-launch last week. Nothing you'd really notice too much, other than trying to make sure ads for MSDN appear on MSDN, instead of the TechNet ads that slipped through. I have a few more to track down, and then you can be assured that all your ads will be property-specific. ;-)

Chris

What's new on the SQL Server Tech and Developer Centers - 9 Jan., 2008

chriskil — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:50:00 GMT

Happy New Year!

I took two weeks off from coming into the office and spent some great time with my family just relaxing. Amazingly, it actually snowed here in the Seattle area on Christmas. Our marine climate tends to make snow an infrequent occurance, usually in January and February, so it was a nice treat. But I wasn't completely disconnected from the office; I did spend some time working remotely on the SQL Server web sites.

So, what's new with the sites? Well, everything, as I have just pushed the button to launch the newly revamped SQL Server TechCenter and Developer Center!

For months (years?) you, our customers, have been asking us, "Why do you (Microsoft) force us to go to different web sites for SQL Server information?" The answer had more to do with past history and how things had been done, plush a dash of internal politics, but today, we've taken a giant leap forward in creating a more cohesive experience for you when visiting TechNet or MSDN online.

Here's what I, along with phenomenal support from my team, have done:

* Completely scoured the TechNet and MSDN sites for bad links and fixed them

* Purged/combined pages as needed

* Re-built the web site architecture from the ground up

* Categorized content (pages) that were the best fit for IT Pros, Developers or both audiences. Content pages for both audiences, which we're calling Core Content, are now shown on both sites, in the same site map location.

* Provided a cross-property TechNet/MSDN navigational link in the upper right-hand corner of the page to view the same or related page on the other site

* Added links to relevant TechNet and MSDN forums to many pages

* Added links to events, webcasts and virtual labs to relevant pages

* Updated the MSDN home page to match the look and feel of the TechNet home page

* Adding a ratings and feedback header to every page - tell us what you think of the page or site

* And a whole bunch of other little stuff you'll see and things you won't on the back-end

This now means that if you're looking for information about SQL Server 2005 Notification Services, the pages on TechNet and MSDN are exactly the same, you won't have to view them both to find all the information about the topice, and when we update the page, changes will appear on both sites at the same time.

Long-term, we have also unblocked some back-end issues that will make site localization easier, which means more localized content, and put the site into ship-shape for upcoming SQL Server 2008 content.

How did we do? Please use the ratings and feedback header to tell us or leave me a comment.

Best wishes for a safe and prosperous 2008!

Chris

SQL Server 2008 is coming, and so is a reorganized SQL Server site

chriskil — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:33:00 GMT

SQL Server 2008 is coming, and you can learn more about it on TechNet, MSDN or the general SQL Server product site.

If you're a regular visitor these web sites, you've noticed over past year that we've been moving content around, upgrading the look and generally working towards trying to upgrade the site experience for you. (Sometimes it's a hit, and sometimes it's...not.) Recently, to get prepared for SQL Server 2008, I've been doing quite a bit of work here with the SQL Server team to identify pages that we don't need any more, or need to be updated, or combined with other pages.

We're good about putting information up, but not always so good about putting it in the all the places we should and then pulling it down when it's out of date. We're going page by page, link by link to make sure there are no dead ends, that we're still linking to useful information and cleaning up the visual look and feel of some of the pages, (like using two columns instead of one so you don't have to scroll as much.) I did a lot of this on the TechNet site in May, when we moved to the site interface we're using on the site today, but the MSDN site needs some serious attention.

Another thing that we've consistently heard is that technical SQL Server information is spread across TechNet and MSDN and that it can be hard to locate all the information you might need to solve a problem or answer a question. We took a huge step forward on this in May when the SQL Server Books Online were made available through the TechNet Library and sharp-eyed readers noted that the monthly theme pages are exactly the same on TechNet and MSDN.

(You can see this by clicking on the TechNet and MSDN links above and opening a new tab or browser window for each and comparing the pages.)

In the very near future, you will see this ability to surface the same page on both sites taken to a whole new level on the SQL Server TechNet and MSDN sites. Couple this with the content scrub we're doing and I hope that the upcoming site changes will make it easier for you to find the information you want without having to bounce back and forth between the sites so much.

Stay tuned...

How do you like the new SQL Server TechCenter home page?

chriskil — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:59:00 GMT

If you've visited the SQL Server TechCenter home page before, you'll notice that we've shaken things up a bit in our visual design.

We've added five feature area across the top, and each contains links to content we think you're trying to get to quickly. Things like popular downloads, troubleshooting resources, how-do-I? articles, recent news and getting started. We've also added more blog and forum posts, so you can get a flavor for what's happening with SQL Server across and outside the company, and (hopefully) see something different every time you visit. These items weren't just selected at random - I used data from our web surveys and web metrics to inform the choices you see displayed on the page.

Granted, not everyone is offered a survey when they visit the site, so in the interest of providing a more direct feedback mechanism for each and every page on the site, we're finally re-adding a ratings and comments tool that appears in the upper-right hand corner of the page as a series of five starts. If you hover your mouse over the stars, they'll change to gold and you can then click on a start rating to select what you think of the page (one star = it sucks, five stars = it's great) and you have the opportunity to enter in some free-form text comments.

Why should you bother to tell us what you think of the page?

If you rate the page, I can then collect that data and share it with our design team and my managers to talk about how much you like the page in general. If you enter in comments about what you do and don't like, or suggestions for improvement, I also can then incorporate that feedback into proposed future designs. This data is taken very seriously. So seriously, that for many of us working on the sites, our performance is judged on customer satisfaction.

To set expectations on requests and suggestions, we can't always do everything everyone asks for. Visitors to the site range from beginners to experts and come for a variety of reasons at any given time. That doesn't mean we don't want to hear what you want to see! On the contrary, if enough of you ask for a specific thing (and enough can be variable from a handful to hundreds depending on the page), we'll work on trying to meet that need.

Currently, the ratings tool is only on the TechNet SQL Server home page, but I will be rolling it out site-wide on TechNet and MSDN SQL Server Centers as I work to re-organize the sites in the middle of November. I'll talk more about that in a future post.

So please take the time to rate the page and tell us what you think. As you start to see more site changes in the next few months, I want to make sure your voice is heard and that we're changing the site to meet your needs - not what I, or anybody else here, thinks your needs are.

Cheers!

Chris

What's new on the SQL Server Tech and Developer Centers - Nov. 5, 2007

chriskil — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:21:00 GMT

Here's the rundown of recent changes:

Added a new monthly theme page, Data Programmability: http://technet.microsoft.com/sqlserver/bb822044 or http://msdn2.microsoft.com/sqlserver/bb822044

Yes, it's been pretty quiet right recently.

Chris