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SQL Server: Finding a good SQL Server Training Course

Microsoft's SQL Server is a popular relational database. It is used to store data for both Windows client-server applications as well as store data for database driven websites.

SQL Server Management and Server Administration Courses

Although Microsoft SQL Server has a Windows GUI based

A good course will teach delegates about how to effectively manage SQL Server, including:

• SQL Server Backups and Restores.
• How to do effective day to day management of SQL Server databases.
• How to set up new databases.
• Disaster recovery.
• Security settings.
• User management.
• Information about load balancing and distributed SQL Servers in Enterprise environments.

Database management is a complex subject, so many organisations prefer to have a dedicated member of staff for this purpose. This role is traditionally referred to as a Database Administrator (DBA). Sometimes software developers take on this role.

Database Design Courses

Being able to design a good database is a hugely important skill for application developers. A database designed properly at the start can avoid a lot of problems later on if an application or website becomes popular and performance issues start creeping in.

Database design courses will be useful for software developers, as well as technical architects and systems analysts.

Transact SQL Training Courses

For software developers and programmers, the most useful aspect of SQL Server training is learning how to write SQL code in order to access SQL Server databases from Windows applications or database-driven websites.

There are a number of transact SQL programming articles on this site, but it's useful to attend a course in order to learn the basics.

A good SQL Server training course is also essential to get started with SQL programming, as novice database programmers are at risk of writing insecure database driven applications. A database driven website or application is very susceptible to hacking attempts, particularly if the website developer did not have a good awareness of issues such as using apostrophes in SQL or avoiding SQL injection attacks.

SQL Server programmers with proper training also tend to adopt much better coding techniques, such as using stored procedures instead of writing SQL queries directly in the application code. Programmers with good transact SQL training will also tend to be much better at designing more efficient database structures which will result in much more resiliant applications.

SQL Server supports Transact SQL, so it's usually best to book a training course that covers Transact SQL. Of course if the developer intends to use other databases such as Oracle, MySQL or PostgreSQL then an alternative strategy is to book a training course that covers the more generic SQL syntax which may be used with any relational database.

Useful Links

• The SQL Documentation Tool automatically builds technical documentation for Microsoft SQL Server databases, saving you time and money. A trial version is available for download.

• How to quickly document your SQL Server database.

Useful Development Tools

SQL Documentation Tool

The SQL Documentation Tool creates technical documentation for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and 2000 databases. Technical documentation is created in HTML and HTML Help formats. The HTML Help format documentation is fully searchable and cross referenced. The SQL Documentation Tool documents SQL Server Tables, Views, Stored Procedures, Triggers, Table Relationships and Dependencies.

View Sample Output (HTML Help format).     View Sample Output (HTML Format).     Download Trial Version (10.3Mb ZIP file).

ASP Documentation Tool™

Automatically creates developer documentation for ASP 2.0 and 3.0 web applications written in VBScript and JScript. Documentation for Microsoft Access, SQL Server 7/2000 databases and Visual Basic 6.0 components associated with the web application can also be incorporated into the reports. Documentation is created in HTML, HTML Help and plain text formats.

View Sample Output (HTML Help format).     View Sample Output (HTML Format).     Download Trial Version (5.2Mb ZIP file).

.NET Documentation Tool

Automatically creates technical documentation for .NET Framework Windows and ASP.NET applications written in C# or VB.NET and SQL Server 7/2000/2005 or Microsoft Access databases associated with the application. Documentation is created in HTML, HTML Help and plain text formats.

View Sample Output (HTML Help format).     View Sample Output (HTML Format).     Download Trial Version (5Mb ZIP file).

VB Documentation Tool

The VB Documentation Tool creates technical documentation for Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 projects. Technical documentation is created in HTML and HTML Help formats. The HTML Help format documentation is fully searchable and cross referenced.

View Sample Output (HTML Help format).     View Sample Output (HTML Format).     Download Trial Version (1Mb ZIP file).

Indexing Service Companion

The Indexing Service Companion is a Windows application that extends the functionality of the Microsoft Windows Indexing Service so that it is able to index content from remote websites and also from ODBC databases. As such it can be used as a low cost alternative to Sharepoint Portal Search Services.

Try Sample Search Facility.     Download Trial Version (1.7Mb ZIP file).

The Website Utility

The Website Utility examines websites for errors and areas that need to be optimised for search engines by using a built in web crawling engine. Errors checked for include broken or moved hyperlinks, missing page titles and missing meta tags. It also generates HTML for use in creating website site maps (table of contents pages - like this one), and is able to create both client-side JavaScript Search Engines and server-side ASP Search Engines for a website.

View Sample Output (HTML Format).     Download Trial Version (3Mb ZIP file).

PHP Documentation Tool™

Automatically creates developer documentation for PHP web applications. Documentation is created in HTML, HTML Help and plain text formats.

View Sample Output (HTML Help format).     View Sample Output (HTML Format).     Download Trial Version (1.0Mb ZIP file).