A Developer's Guide to SQL Server 2005

Few technologies have been as eagerly anticipated as Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Now, two SQL Server insiders deliver the definitive hands-on guide--accurate, comprehensive, and packed with examples. A Developer's Guide to SQL Server 2005 starts where Microsoft's documentation, white papers, and Web articles leave off, showing developers how to take full advantage of SQL Server 2005's key innovations. It draws on exceptional cooperation from Microsoft's SQL Server developers and the authors' extensive access to SQL Server 2005 since its earliest alpha releases.

You'll find practical explanations of the new SQL Server 2005 data model, built-in .NET hosting, improved programmability, SQL:1999 compliance, and much more. Virtually every key concept is illuminated via sample code that has been fully updated for and tested with the shipping version of the product.

Key coverage includes

• Using SQL Server 2005 as a .NET runtime host: extending the server while enhancing security, reliability, and performance
• Writing procedures, functions, triggers, and types in .NET languages
• Exploiting enhancements to T-SQL for robust error-handling, efficient queries, and improved syntax
• Effectively using the XML data type and XML queries
• Implementing native SQL Server 2005 Web Services
• Writing efficient, robust clients for SQL Server 2005 using ADO.NET, classic ADO, and other APIs
• Taking full advantage of user-defined types (UDTs), query notifications, promotable transactions, and multiple active result sets (MARS)
• Using SQL Management Objects (SMO), SQL Service Broker, and SQL Server Notification Services to build integrated applications

Bob Beauchemin is a database-centric application practitioner and architect, DBA, instructor, course author, and writer. He's Director of Developer Skills at SQLskills (www.sqskills.com), and teaches his SQL Server 2005 courses around the world. Bob has written extensively on SQL Server and other databases, database security, ADO.NET, and OLE DB.

Dan Sullivan runs his own consulting company, does training for Pluralsight (www.pluralsight.com), and has worked with SQL Server since it was first distributed by Microsoft and ran on OS/2. Dan speaks and writes widely on SQL Server.

Figures xxv

Tables xxxix

Foreword by Roger Wolter xliii

Foreword by Gert E. R. Drapers xlv

Preface xlix

Acknowledgments lv

About the Authors lvii

Chapter 1: Introduction 1

The .NET Framework and the Microsoft Platform 1

The .NET Framework's Effects on SQL Server 3

The SQL:1999 Standard: Extending the Relational Model 8

User-Defined Types and SQL Server 11

XML: Data and Document Storage 14

Web Services: XML As a Marshaling Format 20

Client Access . . . And Then There Are Clients 22

Extending SQL Server into the Platform: Service Broker and Notification Services 24

Where Are We? 26

Chapter 2: Hosting the Runtime: SQL Server As a Runtime Host 27

Why Care How Hosting Works? 27

What Is a .NET Framework Runtime Host? 29

SQL Server As a Runtime Host 31

Loading the Runtime: Processes and AppDomains 40

Safe Code: How the Runtime Makes It Safer to Run "Foreign" Code 43

Where the Code Lives: Storing .NET Framework Assemblies (CREATE ASSEMBLY) 46

Assembly Dependencies: When Your Assemblies Use Other Assemblies 49

Assemblies and SQL Schemas: Who Owns Assemblies (Information Schema) 51

Maintaining User Assemblies (ALTER ASSEMBLY, DROP ASSEMBLY) 55

Specification Compliance 58

Conclusions 60

Where Are We? 60

Chapter 3: Procedures and Functions in .NET CLR Languages 61

Extending SQL Server 61

CLR Extension Basics 63

CLR Extension Details 74

System.Data.SqlTypes 77

Parameters and Return Value 93

User-Defined Functions 93

Table-Valued Functions 99

Stored Procedures 106

Triggers 109

Where Are We? 110

Chapter 4: In-Process Data Access 111

Programming with SqlClient 111

Context: The SqlContext Class 115

Connections 118

Commands: Making Things Happen 121

Obtaining Results 124

Transactions 128

Pipe 135

Creating and Sending New Rowsets 137

Using the WindowsIdentity 139

Calling a Web Service from SQLCLR 140

Exception Handling 143

SqlTriggerContext 149

SqlClient Classes That You Can't Use on the Server 150

Where Are We? 151

Chapter 5: User-Defined Types and Aggregates 153

Why Do We Need User-Defined Types? 153

Overview of User-Defined Types 154

Creating a User-Defined Type 157

Where Are We? 217

Chapter 6: Security 219

New Security Features in SQL Server 2005 219

Optional Features Are Turned Off by Default 221

A Quick Review of SQL Server Security Concepts with Enhancements 224

SQL Server Password Policies and Credentials 235

Encryption Keys and Built-In Encryption Functions 238

Encryption Functions 242

Separation of Users and Schemas 248

Synonyms 252

Specifying Execution Context for Procedural Code 253

Code Signing 259

SQL Server Permissions and SQLCLR Objects 261

Assembly Permissions: Who Can Catalog and Use an Assembly? 262

What .NET Framework Code Can Do from within SQL Server: Safety Levels 268

Where Are We? 275

Chapter 7: SQL Engine Enhancements 277

Improvements to the SQL Engine 277

SNAPSHOT Isolation 278

Data Definition Language Triggers 289

Event Notifications 294

Large Value Data Types 298

Loading Data with the New BULK Provider 301

Statement-Level Recompilation 301

Query Hints, Plan Guides, and Plan Forcing 303

Where Are We? 309

Chapter 8: T-SQL Language Enhancements 311

Improvements to Transact-SQL 311

Error Handling 312

INTERSECT and EXCEPT 326

TOP 329

ON DELETE and ON UPDATE 333

OUTPUT 336

APPLY Operators 340

Common Table Expressions 343

Recursive Queries 351

PIVOT and UNPIVOT Operators 359

Ranking and Partitioning 366

TABLESAMPLE 376

Where Are We? 381

Chapter 9: XML in the Database: The XML Data Type 383

The XML Data Type 383

Using XML Data Type in Tables 384

Using XML Data Variables and Parameters 390

Typed and Untyped XML: Cataloguing and Using XML SCHEMA COLLECTIONs 392

Creating an Index on an XML Column 401

XML Type Functions 402

SELECT . . . FOR XML Enhancements 403

Mapping SQL and XML Data Types 414

OpenXML Enhancements 418 Loading XML into the Database from Files 420

ANSI SQL Standard Compliance 422

Where Are We? 426

Chapter 10: XML Query Languages: XQuery and XPath 429

What Is XQuery? 429

An Introduction to XQuery 431

Comparing and Contrasting XQuery and SQL 446

Using XQuery with the XML Data Type 449

XQuery Functions Supported by SQL Server 463

XQuery Operators Supported by SQL Server 464

XML DML: Updating XML Columns 468

Special Considerations When Using XQuery Inside SQL Server 475

Where Are We? 480

Chapter 11: SQL Server Service Broker 481

Messaging Applications 481

Processing Messages 494

Business Transactions 499

Where Are We? 559

Chapter 12: SQL Server As a Platform for Web Services 561

Mixing Databases and Web Services 561

Where Are We? 640

Chapter 13: SQL Server 2005 and Clients 641

SQL Native Client 641

New Data Types and Data Type Compatibility Mode 645

User-Defined Types and Relational Data Access APIs 646

Using .NET Framework UDTs in ADO.NET 647

Fetching UDT Data from a DataReader 648

Using .NET Framework UDTs in ODBC, OLE DB, and ADO Clients 654

Supporting the XML Data Type on the Client 657

Supporting the Large Value Data Types on the Client 667

Query Notification Support 670

Multiple Active Resultsets 689

New Transaction and Isolation Features in ADO.NET 695

Changes Related to SQL Server 2005 Login 699

Comparing the Client and Server Model for Stored Procedures 703

Where Are We? 704

Chapter 14: ADO.NET 2.0 and SqlClient 705

Generic Coding with the ADO.NET 2.0 Base Classes and Factories 705

Provider Factories 709

Specifying Configuration Information 712

Enumerating Data Sources and Building Connection Strings 714

Other Generic Coding Considerations 717

Schemas in ADO.NET 2.0 719

Tracing Data Access 731

Asynchronous Support 743

Bulk Import in SqlClient 749

Client Statistics 752

.NET Framework DataSet and SqlDataAdapter Enhancements 753

Where Are We? 758

Chapter 15: SQL Server Management Objects 761

Introduction 761

Object Model 769

SMO Projects 772

Connections 778

Server 787

SMO Objects 790

Create, Alter, and Drop 802

Scripts 807

Configuration Management 815

Where Are We? 818

Chapter 16: Notification Services 819

What Is SQL Server Notification Services? 819

Notification Applications 821

Components of SQL Server Notification Services 824

Notification Applications Design Patterns 828

Notification Services Delivery Features 829

Terms Used in Notification Services 829

Designing, Coding, and Generating a Notification Services Application 831

A Sample Notification Application 833

Instance and Application Configuration Files 834

Events 846

Subscribers and Subscriptions 858

Notifications 867

Distributor and Formatters 871

Delivery 873

Where Are We? 878

Chapter 17: Wrap-Up: Service-Oriented Database Applications 879

Lots of New Features: How to Use Them 879

Data Models, Programming, and SQL Server 880

Any Functionality at Any Tier 881

What Are the Best Practices? 882

Toward a Service-Oriented Database Architecture 891

The Database As Part of the Platform 894

Appendix A .NET Framework 101 897

The Common Language Runtime 897

Assemblies and Modules 901

The CLR Type System 905

Members of Types 914

Memory Management 918

Appendix B SQL Server Management Studio 923

Introduction 923

Solutions and Projects 924

Templates 937

Object Explorer 944

Appendix C Visual Studio 2005 Integration: SQL Server Projects 949

Visual Studio 2005 949

References 963

Index 965