LifeCycle Solutions, LLC - Weblog - SQL Server

Synonyms in SQL Server 2005

Brian Parks — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:35:02 GMT

Referencing fully-qualified object names in SQL Server can be tedious, particularly if you're not using an editor with Intellisense (a la ApexSQL Edit). If the object you're working with is on a linked server, it becomes even more of a burden to get the full name correct, since it can have 4 parts: server.database.owner.object

Fortunately, SQL Server 2005 comes to the rescue with a new database feature called synonyms. Synonyms can be used as an alias to a fully-qualified object name, so the table "ProductionServer.ProductionDatabase.dbo.Parts" can be referenced in your queries as simply "Parts" by issuing the following statement:

CREATE SYNONYM Parts for ProductionServer.ProductionDatabase.dbo.Parts

SELECT * FROM Parts

This can also be done visually in SQL Server Management Studio.

SQL Server Report Builder

Brian Parks — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 20:59:46 GMT

One of the interesting features of SQL Server 2005 is a new utility for working with Reporting Services called Report Builder. Designed as a reporting solution for the non-developer set (a la MS Access reporting, and others), the tool works against “Data Source Views” (DSVs) created as an abstraction of the underlying tables – the general idea is that the end user works with entities and relationships of entities rather than with relational database tables (think “General Ledger View” vs. GL00100, GL00101, etc.)

For the more savvy users in some organizations, Report Builder, used in conjunction with well-planned DSVs could eliminate some of the ad-hoc reporting tasks that are often delegated to developers.

Video demonstration here.