Here is an overview of the articles I published in the third quarter of 2015. Retrieve file sizes from the file system using Power Query Create a Treemap Graph in SQL Server Reporting Services 2016 How to create a heat map graph in SQL Server Reporting Services 2016 How to create a Sunburst Graph in SQL […]
Category: Business Intelligence
What’s new for BI in SQL 2016 – Session materials
SQL Server Days 2015 is over and it was a blast. Met a lot of people from the #sqlfamily, too many to mention, and I saw some interesting sessions. My favorites were David’s session about loading data faster and Catherine’s session about BIML (yes, both are related to SSIS). I gave a session on the new […]
Why I hate Pie Charts
The pie chart should be avoided at all costs. Why? you can only display a limited number of slices (although that doesn’t really stop people from creating pie charts with dozens of slices) they take up a lot of space the human brain cannot easily compare slices based on radial areas. We’re better in comparing […]
MDS 2016 CTP 2.3: tiles greyed out in Manager
I’m toying around with MDS 2016 CTP 2.3 in preparation of my SQLServerDays session about what is new for BI in SQL Server 2016. I uploaded the sample models into MDS and I opened up Master Data Manager in Internet Explorer to try out some of the new features. The Manager has received a make-over […]
The SSDT Evolution
When you are developing for the Microsoft Business Intelligence stack, you always needed Visual Studio for your business intelligence (SSIS, SSAS & SSRS) projects. If you have a full blown Visual Studio installation, you needed the BI templates; if you didn’t have Visual Studio (or the right version), you would install a shell that could […]
Reblog: How I prepared myself for the MCSE certification
SQLKover update: this was one of the most popular posts on my old blog. It’s quite old now and SQL 2014 content has been added to some of the exams. Nonetheless, a lot of it is still valid today. Last week (this is a repost, so not actually last week but over 2 years ago) I […]
SSDT-BI and Visual Studio Online
Recently I had to create a new business intelligence project at a client. However, there was no source control present. Because I like my code checked in somewhere – you never know if your laptop crashes or even get stolen – I decided to try out Visual Studio Online. It’s free for basic use. All […]
My favourite books
As I mentioned in the blog post Speaking at SQL Server Days 2015, I’ll be giving a session at the Belgian SQL Server Days. There is a Speaker in the Spotlight section on the site, where a speaker can introduce him/her self by answering a simple survey. One of the questions is “Which SQL Server […]
Reblog: Star Schema The Complete Reference – Review
SQLKover update: 1.5 year later, I still stand by my position: Star Schema The Complete Reference is the best book on dimensional modelling around. Recommended/obligatory reading! I finished my first book of this year and here’s the review! After I finished the newest edition of Ralph Kimball’s Data Warehouse Toolkit, a senior colleague of mine recommended […]