• Sunday Surprise - Introducing new Transact-SQL eBook!

    Posted 11 months ago
    by Naomi N}

    Good Sunday to you all,

    As you may all remember, at the end of November Gokan Ozcifci published this blog post First TechNet Wiki Ninjas eBook: "The Wiki Ninjas Guide to SharePoint 2013". I really liked the idea of creating that book and immediately thought that we may want to follow this great initiative and create a Transact-SQL e-book. I added a comment to that blog post and was very pleasantly surprised a few days later by being contacted by Saeid Hasani who offered his help in book preparation.

    So, I decided I'll take a role of the boss and let Saeid work on preparing the book :) which he did splendidly. Several weeks later we were discussing this new e-book in Skype Group and when Durval Ramos heard about our plans with the book, he got very excited about the idea and also joined our team.

    UPDATE. After we published the first version of this eBook we found that two articles were inadvertently missing. So we added them back and published the eBook again. At this stage Ronen Ariely joined our team and helped us to fix all the Guest Authors profiles to be direct links.  

    So, now I am very happy to introduce our first Transact-SQL eBook which is created by combining many great SQL Server articles in TechNet Wiki.

    This eBook now consists of 51 articles written by 18 authors! Special thanks to all the TechNet Wiki Community authors who contributed articles in this eBook:

    You can also find the alphabetical list of authors on the Gallery download page: Transact-SQL by TechNet Wiki Community

    I hope you will enjoy this book, which you can Download here (click on the link).

    Happy reading!

  • TechNet Wiki Community Council Spotlight: Progress with Portals

    Posted 11 months ago
    by Ed Price - MSFT}

    Over on the council, we have these focus thingies... TechNet Wiki Community Council: Areas of Focus

    Lately Richard has been leading us in Focus Area #2...

    2. Portal Growth - Richard Mueller (& Yagmoth, Ed Price, Naomi)

    • Focus: The Adoption and Evangelism of Wiki Portals.
    • One specific best practice that affects navigation is Portal Growth.
    • Are all the right technologies and articles represented on the portals?
    • Do we have the best story for navigation from the portals?
    • Do we need to add more portals?
    • Should we cross-link portals better?
    • Example: We need to update all the portals with links to current content.
    • Example: We need to cross-link the portals better.

     

    We were making so many portals that I started this tag:

    And then Richard put together a portal portal for us...

    Wiki: Portal of TechNet Wiki Portals

     

    We divided the portal sections by technology, but we also have...

    General Technology

     

    That's where the portals actually include all the technologies and they are more about something that applies to many techs, like Troubleshooting articles.

     

    And then this is also an interesting section:

    Other Subjects

    Those are mostly like portals around Microsoft social technologies. And User Groups. =^)

    Anyway, the bottom section on the page is really cool... all our international portals...

    Non-English Language Portals

    General Technology

    SQL Server

    Development

    Other Subjects

     

     

    And Durval even translated this portal article!

    Others Languages

     

    So go give this article a look through, check out the portals, and make them better (or don't; nobody's forcing you until we are)...

    Wiki: Portal of TechNet Wiki Portals

     

     

    What goes up, must go Wiki.

       - Ninja Ed

  • Interview with Wiki Ninja and SQL Server Power BI TechNet Guru Winner - Tim Pacl

    Posted 11 months ago
    by Naomi N}

    Good day, everybody!

    Today I want to introduce Tim Pacl - many times SQL Server BI and Power BI category TechNet Guru Winner.

    Let's start the interview, shall we?

    Who are you, where are you, and what do you do? What are your specialty technologies?

    I am a pretty average guy living near Austin, Texas. I am a college drop-out who spent nearly 20 years in the United States Navy as an electrician and nuclear propulsion plant operator aboard submarines, retiring in 1996. I started my career in the computer industry doing tech support for Dell in 1998. I left in 2006 for a short period as a developer for Razorfish. Now I am now back at Dell as a TFS Architect. My specialties are C#, Team Foundation Server, and SQL Server Reporting Services. If anyone still has an old instance of Microsoft CMS Server 2002 running, I can do that too.

     

    What is TechNet Wiki for? Who is it for?

    It is for sharing knowledge about Microsoft technologies, of course. Sharing implies both those that are relaying information, the authors, and those that are consuming it. In some cases, they are one and the same. So TechNet Wiki is for anyone with, or in need of, knowledge about Microsoft products and technologies. Let’s face it, with the popularity of Microsoft products worldwide, especially Windows, that makes this wiki a valuable tool for most everyone.

     

    What do you do with TechNet Wiki, and how does that fit into the rest of your job?

    I am like many, both an author and consumer of TechNet Wiki. I started as a consumer of information both in TechNet Wiki and MSDN forums. I began “authoring” by answering forum posts first. I  ventured into authoring in the Wiki when I saw a post in the “SQL Server Reporting Services, Power View” forum for the TechNet Guru competition. That is when I wrote my first articles based on some of the forum posts I had answered. In my job as a TFS Administrator, I maintain an internal Team Foundation Server wiki for my customers. I also started an internal blog for those that were engaged in TFS report writing to share my lessons learned. I am moving more and more of this private content into TechNet Wiki and simply linking to it from my internal site. Doing this will allow me to leverage the broader community’s knowledge within my organization.

     

    What is it about TechNet Wiki that interests you?

    It is the community. TechNet Wiki would be far less valuable if it were only written by Microsoft employees. It might even be indistinguishable from MSDN Library. Don’t get me wrong, there is certainly great value in the authoritative information presented by the experts at Microsoft that is available in MSDN Library but the real value in TechNet Wiki is the diversity of authors and therefore the diversity of their experiences reflected in the many articles. It is not uncommon for people to adapt a Microsoft product to a task its creators had not considered. These people experience interesting problems whose solutions may be adapted to even more scenarios. This is what you find in the extensive array of articles in TechNet Wiki. That is something that is only available in this medium.

     

    What are your favorite Wiki articles you’ve contributed?

    SSRS: Converting Between Tablix Controls is probably my favorite. This topic is one of the epiphanies that has fueled my interest in SSRS. It was such a great “aha!” moment when it clicked that they were all the same underlying control. Runners up include SSRS: Chaining Parameters and Using Custom Code in SSRS Reports for Advanced String Operations. Having come from a background as a developer I appreciate the power of custom code. The advanced string operations article is a custom code entry point for report developers. There is so much more that can be done with code in reports. Chaining parameters explores what I consider the hidden power of report parameters. This is just one of those hidden capabilities.

     

    How did your passion for SQL Server BI develop?

    I started with SSRS reports out of necessity. As a TFS Administrator, I received several requests to modify the out-of-box SSRS reports. The most common request was to exclude weekends from the Sprint Burndown report. Out of that necessity, I learned enough about SSRS and the associated technologies to make the requested changes. Others had tried but I had succeeded. That brought with it some job satisfaction. With new reporting requests coming in all of the time,  I began to learn more and more about SSRS but it was a series of epiphanies that really fanned it into a passion. The first was the Rectangle control. I thought this was in essence a border control early on. When I realized it was actually a canvas… wow! When I discovered that the apparent three table like controls were actually three presentations of the same control (tablix), wow again! That understanding enabled me to quickly convert these controls on the fly and led to a deeper understanding of SSRS. Then I really started doing some interesting things with parameters. One after another “aha!” moment and as my understanding grew, my excitement over the newly learned capabilities of SSRS grew with it. Who knew you could do so much with SQL Server Reporting Services! 

     

    What could we do differently on TechNet Wiki?

    One of the greatest features of a wiki is its growth through community contribution. One of the greatest shortcomings of a wiki is its growth through community contribution. The community contribution has fueled a wealth of documented innovation and information but has left it in a vast pool called “TechNet Articles”. There is little structure that would allow someone to browse to the article they need. We don’t always know the keyword(s) that best describe the information we seek so search will not always get us to it. As a community, we need to be better about linking our articles into the organizational structure that has already been provided.

     

    Do you have any tips for new Wiki authors?

    Don’t be afraid to jump right in but start your jump from the right platform to avoid a mess. There are several useful articles on authoring wiki articles that I missed when I wrote my first article. Here are three that I recommend all potential authors read before they start:

    The “See Also” section in these articles will point you to dozens of other helpful articles but if you start with these three, you are more likely to make a big splash than to execute a belly flop.

     

    I would also leave you with this thought, when you publish an article it does not mark its completion. It simply turns over ownership to the community, of which you are a part. Others may update your article with additional information or to correct obsolete information but they will never have the same stake in that article as you do. Their names will only be on it until the next revision but as long as the article exists, your name is on it as its creator. Revisit your articles now and again to keep them relevant and valuable.

     

    ---------------------------------

    I like Tim's advice to us all about keeping our articles current - this is very important. 

    I hope you enjoyed the interview as much as I did and congratulate Tim on his great accomplishments. Let us know any additional questions you have for Tim or your comments.

  • WINNERS of the 2013 TechNet Wiki Translation Challenge!!! - Find out who won: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, or Turkish!!!

    Posted 11 months ago
    by Ed Price - MSFT}

    First, here were our previous blog posts for this contest:

    1. 11/30 - The 2013 TechNet Wiki Translation Challenge!!! BATTLE TIME!!! Who will win? Portuguese, Turkish, Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian, German, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Norwegian, Indonesian, Farsi, Chinese, or Vietnamese?
    2. 12/06 - 2013 TechNet Wiki Translation Challenge Update! The early lead goes to Portuguese, German, and French!
    3. 12/13 - 2013 TechNet Wiki Translation Challenge Update: Japanese and Russian join the battle!!!
    4. 12/21 - TechNet Wiki Translation Challenge Update!!! Hezequias contributes to two languages!!! French team up to close the gap with Portuguese!

     

    The total results were 205 articles translated into 8 languages by 11 translators in just 7 weeks!

     

    This contest started on November 30, 2013.

    Here's a funny story from the challenge - Hezequias (who writes in Portuguese, French, and English), started going full speed ahead in translating in French (with a few in Portuguese). Durval left this comment on the Wiki page, TechNet Wiki Translation Challenge: November 2013 to January 2014: "Hezequias !!! You have to translate to "Portuguese"  =^s"

    And then the next day Durval left this comment: "Thanks Benoit, your PS script helped find an article of Hezequias translated into Portuguese!  ; ^ D"

     

    Well, Hezequias and Benoit gave it a good shot for French, but Durval translated so many Portuguese articles!

    And now it's time to crown our winners!

     

    First, here's the contest for the most overall articles per language. Portuguese wins!!!

     

    1. Portuguese - 95 articles!

    2. French - 64 articles!

    3. German - 34 articles!
     

    4. Japanese - 5 articles

    5. English - 3

    • All 3 are from ! He's not from the USA, but we'll still use that flag! =^)

     

    6. Italian - 2 articles

    7. Russian - 1

    7. Turkish - 1
     

     

    Russian and Turkish are tied for 7th place!

     

    And here is what the Portuguese community wins...

    Top Translated Language - Your language wins a Friday post that focuses directly on your contributions and on who your team members are and what they contributed. Second, I'll make your team a Wiki Ninja stick figure image for your country! =^)  -- Since we already have one with your country's flag, we can make one that represents your country in some way, like the Wiki Ninja stick figure playing a sport, at a landmark, or doing a favorite activity.

    So Durval, Heqequias, and Marcelo, what would you like your Brazil stick figure to look like? =^)

    UPDATED - Language Prizes:

    1. Friday International Update - The Portuguese Winning Translations!
    2. Wiki Ninjas Stick Figures - The Soccer Collection!!! (for Brazil winning the Translation Challenge)

     

     

    And now it's time to crown the winners of the individual contest!!!

    1.  - 94 articles (Portuguese and English)
    2. - 45 articles (French)
    3. - 34 articles (German)
    4. - 21 articles (French and Portuguese)
    5. Tomoaki Yoshizawa - 5 articles (Japanese)
    6.  - 1 article (Portuguese)
    7. Yagmoth555 - 1 article (French)
    8.  - 1 article (Italian)
    9. Carmelo La Monica - 1 article (Italian)
    10. Dmitri Plotnikov! - 1 article (Russian)
    11.  - 1 article (Turkish)

    So thank you to all our contributors, even those who just contributed one article... every translation helps the community, and so we thank you for your help!

    Let's see what Durval won!

    Top Individual Translator - The person who individually translates the most articles will get a Monday interview blog post (Interview with a Wiki Ninja - Durval already did this, but I'll give him some new interview questions), a post that explains all your Wiki contributions (I think I'll just combine this with the Portuguese post), and I'll make Durval a customized Wiki Ninja stick figure image! =^)

    So Durval, what would you like your Wiki Ninja Stick Figure to look like?

    UPDATED: Individual Prizes:

     

    The grand total numbers:

    • 205 articles!
    • Translated into 8 languages!
    • By 11 translators!
    • In just 7 weeks!

     

    And what did they translate? See this list of all 205 articles here:

     

    TechNet Wiki Translation Challenge: November 2013 to January 2014

          

    Thanks again to everyone who contributed, and thanks to all the Wiki Ninjas who are...


       - Ninja Ed

     

  • Top Contributors Awards! Removals, Archives, Avengers, Portals, Gurus, sounds like a movie in the making! :D

    Posted 11 months ago
    by XAML guy}

    Welcome back for another analysis of contributions to TechNet Wiki over the last week.

    First up, the weekly leader board snapshot...

     

    Sensational work by Ninja Gokan! Great to see you up there matey!

    Other than Gokan's heroic work, quite a quiet start to the new year, obviously!

    C'mon folks, your festive break is over, back to work! ;)

     

    As always, here are the results of another weekly crawl over the updated articles feed.

     

    Ninja Award Most Revisions Award  
    Who has made the most individual revisions

     

    #1 Gokan Ozcifci with 363 revisions.

      

    #2 Richard Mueller with 88 revisions.

      

    #3 Maheshkumar S Tiwari with 62 revisions.

      

    Just behind the winners but also worth a mention are:

    #4 Durval Ramos with 51 revisions.

      

    #5 ZechKit with 48 revisions.

      

    #6 Naomi N with 45 revisions.

      

    #7 Davut EREN - TAT with 33 revisions.

      

    #8 JoeyDj with 29 revisions.

      

    #9 i.biswajith with 24 revisions.

      

    #10 Benoit Jester - MTFC with 22 revisions.

      

     

    Ninja Award Most Articles Updated Award  
    Who has updated the most articles

     

    #1 Gokan Ozcifci with 281 articles.

      

    #2 Richard Mueller with 55 articles.

      

    #3 Maheshkumar S Tiwari with 39 articles.

      

    Just behind the winners but also worth a mention are:

    #4 ZechKit with 22 articles.

      

    #5 Durval Ramos with 21 articles.

      

    #6 Naomi N with 19 articles.

      

    #7 Benoit Jester - MTFC with 12 articles.

      

    #8 Davut EREN - TAT with 10 articles.

      

    #9 Tomoaki Yoshizawa with 8 articles.

      

    #10 Hasan Dimdik - TAT with 7 articles.

      

    Ninja Award Most Updated Article Award  
    Largest amount of updated content in a single article

     

    The article to have the most change this week is simply entitled "updated" by Sanjay Kumar Sinha

    This week's reviser was Sanjay Kumar Sinha,

    This is an article that Sanjay wrote nearly four years ago. It received three pages of great comments and appreciation, and in 2014, he has returned to remove the article, presumably because he has posted a more updated version.

     

    Ninja Award Longest Article Award  
    Biggest article updated this week

     

    This week's largest document to get some attention is Archive - Wiki Ninjas Blog Authoring Schedule , by Peter Geelen - MSFT

    This week's reviser was Durval Ramos,

    This is something I also considered, but luckily Peter has beaten me to it. The author schedule article was getting far to long and unmanageable, so Peter has hived off the old stuff to it's own historical article. Great work Peter.

     

    Ninja Award Most Revised Article Award  
    Article with the most revisions in a week

     

    This week's most fiddled with article is a regular winner, Turkish Avengers Team Council Center, by Gokan Ozcifci. It was revised 33 times last week. Revisers listed below.

    Great to see the TAT coming out fighting strong in the new year! 

     

    So I also mention this week's second most fiddled with article is WIKI üzerinden yazilan Türkçe makalaler (tr-TR), by Gokan Ozcifci. It was revised 19 times last week.

    This week's reviser was Gokan Ozcifci,

    This is a portal (or curated list) of all the best Turkish articles, covering all the essential categories. Great work, as always Gokan!

     

    Ninja Award Most Popular Article Award  
    Collaboration is the name of the game!

     

    The article to be updated by the most people this week is as above, Turkish Avengers Team Council Center, by Gokan Ozcifci

    This week's revisers were Asil MUTLU - TAT, Davut EREN - TAT, DavutEREN, Hasan Dimdik - TAT, Faik GENÇ -TAT, Mehmet PARLAKYIGIT-TAT, Ugur Demir - TAT, Baris Aydogmusoglu & Gokan Ozcifci

    We salute the TAT! :D 

    The second article to be updated by the most people this week is another regular, TechNet Guru Contributions for January 2014, by XAML guy (me)

    Great to see January filling up with some excellent contributions! Good luck everyone!

    This week's revisers were chilberto, Richard Mueller, Mr X, Shanky_621, litdev, Rene Brauwers & XAML guy

     

    So, also worth mentioning is the third article to be updated by the most people this week is When Using DBCC SHRINKFILE for log files can we use TRUNCATEONLY OPTION, by Shanky_621

    This week's revisers were Richard Mueller, Benoit Jester - MTFC, ZechKit & Shanky_621

    Collaboration in action here, nice to see an article evolve and shine. 

     

    Ninja Award Ninja Edit Award  
    A ninja needs lightning fast reactions!

     

    Below is a list of this week's fastest ninja edits. That's an edit to an article after another person.

    A nice slow start to the new year, as it seems we do all have lives outside the wiki! 

    I am looking forward to seeing who the new names that arrive and make their mark in 2014 will be. 

    Will that be you? :D

     

    Best regards,
    Pete Laker