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. | .NET Assemblies
Assemblies are the building blocks of .NET Framework applications; they form the fundamental unit of deployment, version control, reuse, activation scoping, and security permissions. When you compile .NET code, the compiler creates .NET assemblies in the form of an executable (.exe) file or dynamic link library (.dll) file. A .NET assembly can bundle more than one physical files, such assemblies are called multifile assemblies. Yukon supports only .dll-type single-file assemblies. It does not supports assemblies in the form of .exe or multifile assemblies. |
A | Analysis Management Objects (AMO)
SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services offers a COM-based API, Decision Support Objects (DSO) that you can use in your applications to administer the server and to create and maintain OLAP and data mining objects. This is being replaced with a better, .NET-based object model, Analysis Management Objects (AMO). AMO provides significant new features, most notably the ability to script an object's creation or modification from the management and development tools. DSO support is provided for backward compatibility. |
| | Analysis Services
The Analysis Services component of Microsoft® SQL Server™ provides online analytical processing (OLAP) and
data mining functionality. Analysis Services supports one or more server instances on a single
computer to manage multidimensional cubes for data analysis and rapid client information access. The major enhancements in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services include:
- Business Intelligence Development Studio: a fully integrated development environment (to create and manage cubes, for DTS/ETL, and Reporting Services) in which developers can create end-to-end business intelligence solutions.
- Support for multiple installations on a single computer.
- Scripting support via XML based Object Definition Language.
- Support for multiple fact tables in a single cube.
- Support for stored procedures - to create external routines in programming languages, such as C#, C++, or Microsoft Visual Basic.
- Support for aggregating measures across some dimensions and not others (Semiadditive Measures).
- Support for combining attributes to create hierarchies and create multiple hierarchies for a single dimension.
- Simplified Dimension Types: Only two (unlike four as in SQL Server 2000) dimension types, standard and linked: standard dimension is in the same database as the cube; a linked dimension is in a different database from the cube.
- Built in support for the XML for Analysis provider functionality (Discover, Execute). You can send XML for Analysis requests directly to the engine without the intervening provider.
- ADOMD.NET and enhanced Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) and support for MDX Scripting
- Analysis Management Objects: .NET based object model to replace COM-based Decision Support Objects (DSO).
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| | Application Definition File (ADF)
ADF is an XML file used by SQL Server Notification Services and is used to define a notification services application. It contains application metadata, structure of events, input subscriptions, and structure of notification that application produces. |
| | Avalon
Code name for the graphics presentation technologies in Windows "Longhorn" that provides a unified architecture for presenting user interface, documents and media in the system. |
B | Business Intelligence (BI)
The process of converting data into business information, analyzing it, using the insights it generates to make better decisions faster, and using a rational approach to management can be termed as Business Intelligence or BI. The BI support in SQL Server was introduced via OLAP Services in SQL Server 7.0. SQL Server 2000 significantly extended the OLAP functionality, and this along with Microsoft Office Suite, Office Web Components, XMLA add-in support, and other client access APIs, it today provides an excellent end-to-end platform for analysis. Analysis Services 2005 takes the BI support to the next level by providing several new tools and technologies to enable BI.
Click here for more information. |
C | ClickOnce
ClickOnce is a part of Microsoft® .NET Framework version 2.0. This technology allows deploying Windows-based rich client apps to a desktop by placing the application files on a Web or file server accessible to the client and providing the user with a link. |
| | Code Access Security (CAS)
Code Access Security (CAS) is a .NET security feature. When a .NET assembly is loaded, based on "evidence", it is granted a set of code access permissions that determines what resource types it can access and what types of privileged operations it can perform. The "evidence" is based on location (origin of the code, place from where the assembly came in - URL, local machine, etc.), user and machine policy, assembly signature, and CLR host security policy. The .NET managed code (stored procedures, triggers, UDFs, etc.) running inside SQL Server host has three level of permission set: SAFE, UNSAFE, and EXTERNAL-ACCESS. SQL Server uses the host-level CAS policy layer to enforce one of the above three permissions sets. |
| | Common Language Runtime (CLR)
The core runtime engine in the Microsoft .NET Framework for executing applications. The common language runtime supplies managed code with services such as cross-language integration, code access security, object lifetime management, resouce management, type safety, pre-emptive threading, metadata services (type reflection), and debugging and profiling support. The ASP.NET Framework and Internet Explorer are examples of hosting CLR. Add SQL Server 2005 to that list. SQL Server 2005 hosts the CLR runtime allowing managed code execution as part of stored procedure and trigger execution. The SQL Server CLR hosting is designed to meet the reliability, safety, scalability, security and performance goals. |
| | Common Query Abstraction
With SQL Server 2000, SQL was the primary query language. With SQL Server 2005, there are more client- and server-side query languages such as OPath, XPath, and XQuery. The Common Query Abstraction is a query execution engine architecture used by SQL Server 2005 to abstract query optimization away from the specifics of the query languages, the data models, and the data source. |
| | Common Table Expressions (CTEs)
A temporary named result set, which is derived from a simple query and defined within the execution scope of a SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement, is known as common table expression (CTE).
Common Table Expressions or CTEs were added to SQL Server 2005 as part of enhanced standard compliance (CTE from SQL-92 and recursive query from SQL:1999). CTE can be thought of as an alternatives to derived tables (subquery), views, and inline user-defined functions.
See the article Get in the Loop with CTEs for more information on this. |
| | Common Type System (CTS)
Common Type System or CTS is at the core of .NET Framework's cross-language integration, type safety, and high-performance code execution. It defines a common set of types that can be used with many different language syntaxes. Each language (C#, VB.NET, Managed C++, and so on) is free to define any syntax it wishes, but if that language is built on the CLR, it will use at least some of the types defined by the CTS. |
D | Data Mining
Data mining refers to an automated process that uses a variety of analysis tools and statistical techniques to reveal actionable patterns and relationships in large, complex data sets. SQL Server 2005 provides data mining tools that allow you to make intelligent decisions when forced with difficult business problems. SQL Server 2005 offers two environments that you can use to build and work with Data Mining models. The first environment includes Mining Model Wizard and Data Mining Editor. The second environment is DTS data flow environment. SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services also provide "OLE DB for data mining" for programmatic access to create, train and use data mining models. |
| | Data Mining Extensions (DMX)
Data Mining Extensions or DMX is a language used to create and manipulate data mining objects. DMX statements can be used for creating, modifying and working with mining models and DMX functions can be used to retreive and display statistical information about the mining model. |
| | Database Mirroring
The primary goal of Database Mirroring technology is to increase the database availability. When enabled, every update to the principal database is immediately reproduced onto the mirror database (separate copy of the database). |
| | Dedicated Admin Connection (DAC)
SQL Server 7 provided isql.exe as a command line utility to connect to SQL Server and run T-SQL queries. This utility used DB-Library interface. In SQL Server 2000, the upgrade to this was osql.exe - an ODBC based command line utility upgraded for SQL Server 2000. SQL Server 2005 included an improved version of this command line utility named - sqlcmd. This utility is based on OLE DB and is upgraded to support new SQL Server 2005 features. SQLCMD.exe provides a -A switch which is used to establish a Dedicated Admin Connection (DAC). This is useful for system administrators to troubleshoot a server, to execute diagnostic functions, even when the server is locked or running in an abnormal state and not responding to a SQL Server connection. Members of the SQL Server sysadmin role can activate the dedicated administrator connection locally or from a remote machine. The dedicated administrator connection supports encryption and other security features of SQL Server. |
| | Distributed Management Objects (DMO)
Distributed Management Objects or DMO (also known as SQL-DMO) is a COM-based programmatic interface to SQL Server Administrative tasks. SQL Server Enterprise Manager makes uses of this interface. |
| | Dynamic Management Views (DMV)
Dynamic management views expose the current state of the Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 system. They contain metadata that is not persisted on disk but stored in memory only. Dynamic management views can be used to answer diagnostic questions. |
E | Effective Boolean Value
Effective Boolean Value or EBV, an XQuery term, signifies that when implicitly or explicitly fn:boolean() function is used on an empty sequence, or on a zero-length xs:string or xdt:untypedAtomic type, or on a numeric zero value, or a NaN xs:double or xs:float type value, it will result in false. This does not apply if you cast to xs:boolean type.
Click here for more details. |
| | Endpoints
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F | FLWOR expressions
FLWOR (for-let-where-order by-return), pronounced "flower", is the core XQuery expression that allows looping, variable binding, sorting, filtering and returning the results. The for and let clauses allow binding variables to expressions. The for clause evaluates the bound expression and iterates for each item in the evaluated sequence (except those which were filtered out because of where clause). The let clause on the other hand binds a variable to the entire result of an expression at once (without iteration).
Click here for more details. |
G | Global Assembly Cache (GAC)
Every computer that has .NET Framework installed has a machine-wide code cache called as Global Assembly Cache. This folder is like a share-point - that means assemblies specifically designed to be shared among multiple applications are placed in GAC. |
H | Host Protection Attributes (HPAs)
ASP.NET, Internet Explorer, & SQL Server 2005 host the .NET CLR to facilitates execution of managed code. When this managed code is running inside hosts, the hosts (specially SQL Server 2005) need to make sure that the code runs reliably. To increase the reliability of code running inside hosts, System.Security.Permissions.HostProtectionAttribute class was invented. These attributes can be applied to .NET code (class or methods) to provide some information to the CLR host. For example, if a managed API is annotated with ExposeSynchronization HostProtectionAttribute, it tells SQL Server that the API exposes the ability to perform synchronization between threads. By looking at these attributes the host (such as SQL Server) can decide if to allow or disallow executing such code in that situation. All the .NET 2.0 Framework class libraries permitted to load in SQL Server have been annotated with HostProtectionAttribute. |
I | Indigo
Code name for the .NET communications technologies in Windows "Longhorn" designed to build and run connected systems. |
L | Longhorn
Code name for the next major release of the Microsoft operating system. |
M | Managed Code
The code that runs within the .NET CLR is referred to as Managed Code. Managed Code enjoys the services provided by the common language runtime, such as automatic memory management, thread execution, code execution, code safety verification, compilation, type safety, and other system services. The code that does not target CLR is termed as unmanaged code. COM components, Win32 API, and non-.NET Win32 applications are example of unmanaged code. You can use languages such as C# or Visual Basic .NET to produce managed code. |
| | MARS (multiple active resultsets)
Multiple active result sets or MARS is an ADO.NET 2.0 (and SQL Server 2005) feature that allows you to work with more than one concurrent result set on a single connection to SQL Server 2005. Caller can interleave fetches to each of them. To use this feature from your applications, you'll need OLE DB or ODBC provider version 9.0 and above or version 2.0 of managed SqlClient provider. SQL Server 2005 is the first to support MARS and is enabled by default when an application connects to SQL Server 2005. |
| | MDX (Multidimensional Expressions)
MDX or Multidimensional Expressions language is used to manipulate multidimensional information in SQL Server Analysis Services. MDX provides a rich and powerful syntax for the retrieval and manipulation of multidimensional data, such as the data stored in cubes on the Analysis server. Analysis Services supports MDX functions in the definitions of calculated members, as well as a full language implementation for building local cubes and querying cube data. MDX supports the creation and registration of user-defined functions. You can create user-defined functions to operate on multidimensional data and accept arguments and return values in the MDX syntax. MDX, like SQL, provides data definition language (DDL) syntax for managing data structures. There are MDX commands for creating (and deleting) cubes, dimensions, measures, and their subordinate objects. |
| | Microsoft Business Framework (MBF)
The Microsoft Business Framework (MBF) provides programming abstractions and a prescriptive architecture suitable for the development and deployment of business applications based on a distributed, service oriented architecture. ObjectSpaces is an integral part of MBF. |
N | Notification Services
Microsoft SQL Server Notification Services is the platform for developing and deploying applications that generate and send notifications. You can use Notification Services to generate and send timely, personalized messages to thousands or millions of subscribers, and can deliver the messages to a wide variety of devices. A Notification Services application collects events and subscriptions, generates notifications, and then distributes the notifications to external delivery services, such as SMTP server. Click here for more information. |
O | Object Definition Language (ODL)
A new XML grammar introduced in SQL Server 2005 that can be used to create, modify, and delete Analysis Services objects. ODL XML messages can be sent to an instance of Analysis Services. The SQL Server 2000 Repository object is being replaced with ODL files in XML format. |
| | ObjectSpaces
ObjectSpaces, a new feature in .NET 2.0, provides an object-relational mapping layer allowing you to access and manipulate data as domain objects such as Customer, Order, Address, instead of tables, columns, and rows. It's a layer on top of ADO.NET. The relational-to-object data mapping is achieved via three XML files: Object Schema Document (OSD) where you define your object classes, Relational Schema Document (RSD) where you describe the relational model, and Mapping Schema Document (MSD), which is actual mapping between OSD and RSD. At present (July 2004), ObjectSpaces are only supported with SQL Server 2000 and above. OPath is the predicate language designed to be used with ObjectSpaces. |
| | OLAP
Online Analytical Processing or OLAP provides multidimensional, summarized views of business data and is used for reporting, analysis, modeling and planning for optimizing the business. SQL Server supports OLAP via Analysis Services. Analysis Services can be used to work with data warehouses or data marts designed for sophisticated enterprise intelligence systems. These systems process queries required to discover trends and analyze critical factors. OLAP data is organized into multidimensional cubes. The structure of data in multidimensional cubes gives better performance for OLAP queries than data organized in relational tables. |
| | OPath
OPath is a predicate language and is part of ObjectSpaces relational-object mapping technology introduced in .NET 2.0. OPath is designed to query in object data sources. OPath enables you to traverse object relationships in a query as you would with standard object oriented application code and includes several operators for complex value comparisons. |
R | Recursive Query
A temporary named result set, which is derived from a simple query and defined within the execution scope of a SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement, is known as common table expression (CTE). If in a query, a CTE refers to itself, that query is called a recursive query. Returning hierarchical data is a common use of recursive queries. You can use the MAXRECURSION hint to limit the number of recursion levels allowed for a given statement and avoid any possible infinite loops. |
| | Replication Management Objects (RMO)
Replication Management Objects or RMO is a .NET class library API that encapsulate replication functionalities for Microsoft SQL Server. RMO enable you to programmatically configure a replication topology by creating, changing and deleting publications, articles, and subscriptions. |
| | Reporting Services
Reporting Services is a server-based reporting platform that supports report authoring, distribution, management, and end-user access. Click here for more information. |
S | Sequences (XQuery)
XQuery processes XML documents as a logical tree of nodes, such as elements, attributes, and so on. This logical structure of XML document on which XQuery (and XPath 2.0) is based is termed as Data Model. In addition to nodes, the data model may also consist of XSD simple types, such as strings, booleans, integers, dates, and so on. These XSD 'simple types' single values are termed as Atomic Values. A single node or an atomic value is known as an Item, and series of such items is known as Sequence. XQuery expression evaluation always results in a sequence. In other words, the result of XQuery expression is zero or more nodes or atomic values. Single item is essentially a sequence with length one. These are termed as Singleton Sequences. XQuery does not permit nesting of sequences. That means, you can not have a sequence within a sequence. An empty sequence does not contain any item and is represented as (). Click here for more information. |
| | Server Service Broker
Service Broker is a new SQL Server 2005 component that is used to build secure, reliable, scalable, asynchronous, message-based distributed database applications. It allows T-SQL code to send asynchronous messages. Service Broker provides queuing and reliable messaging as part of the Database Engine. These features provide the infrastructure necessary to build high-performance applications that easily scale-up or scale-out. |
| | Snapshot Isolation
With the goal of scalability in mind, this new isolation level is provided in SQL Server 2005, that does not use write locks. With this "writers" don't block the "readers". The engine uses tempdb database to place a versions/snapshot of committed versions of data, and readers can read from this store.
The snapshot isolation level uses row versioning. Read operations acquire no locks, when referencing rows modified by another transaction they retrieve the version of the row that existed when the snapshot transaction started. With this it supports optimistic concurrency control, avoids dirty reads, nonrepeatable read and phantom rows (similar to Serializable isolation level, except Serializable provides pessimistic concurrency control instead). |
| | SQL Server Management Objects (SMO)
Previous versions of SQL Server support COM-based API to program all aspects of managing Microsoft SQL Server. This object named Distributed Management Objects (SQL-DMO) is now being superseded by a better, .NET-baed object model known as SQL Server Management Objects or SMO. SMO is compatible with SQL Server version 7.0, SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005. This means that using SMO you can easily manage an environment with different versions of SQL Server. |
| | SQLXML
The Web releases model used by Microsoft to enable XML support for SQL Server 2000 is called as SQLXML. This included annotated XSD schemas, XML bulk load, Web services (SOAP) support, updategrams, and so on.
Click here for more information. |
| | SuperFetch
Technology in Windows "Longhorn" designed to help applications launch more quickly. |
U | UDX
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| | Unified Dimensional Model (UDM)
SQL Server 2005 introduces UDM to blur the line between relational and multi-dimensional OLAP databases, and to combine the best aspects of traditional OLAP analysis and relational reporting. The cubes and dimensions defined in SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services are termed as Unified Dimensional Model – a single unified dimension model - as they cover and serve the needs of both multi-dimensional OLAP analysis and relational reporting. UDM facilitates isolation from heterogeneous backend data sources, and improved performance for summary type queries. With UDM, Under UDM, MOLAP data stores become transparent—they are cached and managed automatically. |
W | Whidbey
Code name for the next generation of the Microsoft Visual Studio system of software-development tools. |
| | WinFS
Code name for the next-generation search and data storage system that provides a unified storage model for applications running on Windows "Longhorn." |
| | WinFX™
Programming model Windows "Longhorn," used by software developers to build applications for the Windows platform. |
X | XMLA
XMLA specification is an open industry-standard Web service interface designed specifically for online analytical processing (OLAP) and data-mining functions. Analysis Services 2005 natively supports XMLA. Click here for more information on XMLA. |
| | XQuery
XQuery or XML Query Language is a W3C specification (http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery) designed to provide a flexible and standardized way of searching through (semi-structured) data that is either physically stored as XML or virtualized as XML (such as XML Views over relational data). To give you an analogy, SQL is used to query relational data, XQuery is a standard language for querying XML data.
Click here for more information on. |
Y | Yukon
Code name for the next generation of Microsoft SQL Server database software. |