iPad and SQL Server

In the last few months we noticed a jump in the number of downloads for RSS Reporter and were not sure what to attribute it to. So we started probing the users who were downloading the product and found that the increased interest in our RSS Reporter for SQL Server was directly related to an ever increasing number of SQL Server Database Administrators carrying an iPad around.

What's so great about RSS Reporter? A couple of things:

• You don't need a client, just install the RSS Reporter on a machine with IIS that has access to the  SQL Server instances you are interested on and then access it from anywhere with an internet browser, iPad, iPhone, tablet – anything that can read a standard rss feed;
• Your executives need live data on their iPads, no problem, you add an ad-hoc query on RSS Reporter and simply send them the url;
• You need to see what happened with your SQL Server Jobs last night, no problem. You can get an aggregate report from all your SQL Servers right on your iPad, and you can drill down and see exactly what happened.

If you haven't tried RSS Reporter check it out – it is completely free for a single SQL Server Instance and very reasonably priced if you want to monitor multiple SQL Server instances in one place.

After you try make sure to send us your comments and suggestions as on how we might make RSS Reporter even more useful to you.

Best way to create an rss feed from SQL Server

If you are looking for a quick and easy way to create and maintain dynamic rss feeds from SQL Server then RSS Reporter is your best bet. Completely free for one SQL Server instance RSS Reporter for SQL Server supports SQL Server 2008, 2005 and 2000. It allows you to write a t-sql query and automatically generates an rss feed with the results of the query. Every time a feed reader refreshes the feed the query you have defined will be executed against the chosen database and the feed will be updated with the new results.

Need to change the rss feed? No problem – simply login to the rss reporter admin interface, modify the query, save it and you are done – all users that are reading that feed will get the new results next time the feed is refreshed.

Best of all: RSS Reporter for SQL Server is completely free (no strings attached) for a single SQL Server instance and only $99 for 5 SQL Server instances. A DBA in charge of monitoring SQL jobs from multiple servers will greatly appreciate the pre-built SQL Server jobs feeds – all jobs from all servers in one aggregate rss feed; that is efficiency!

Another presentation on RSS Reporter

Chad Miller did another presentation at the SQL Saturday Tampa 2009 focused on RSS enabling System Administration information - utilizing RSS Reporter to automate the daily DBA checklist by aggregating job status information from across multiple SQL Servers and databases. More details can be found on Chad's blog: http://chadwickmiller.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!EA42395138308430!267.trak

RSS Reporter - real life scenarios

Seeing that we have not done a great job in explaining how a SQL Server database administrator can benefit from utilizing RSS Reporter one of our customers, Chad Miller, took matters on his hands and prepared a great presentation for the Tampa Bay SQL Server User Group. In just a handful of simple slides he explains the awesome power of the RSS Reporter for SQL Server – he shows how in a matter of minutes an administrator can create an integrated dashboard that allows him to monitor:

• backups;
• log errors;
• jobs and replication;
• help desk systems;
• disk space;
• up time

Check out Chad's presentation and download your copy of RSS Reporter today - it is completely free with no strings attached for one SQL Server instance.

Support for SQL Server 2008 – new release

We are very excited to announce a major new release of the following tools which now provide full support for SQL Server 2008:

• xSQL Object V3 (free for SQL Server Express)
• xSQL Data Compare V3 (free for SQL Server Express)
• xSQL SDK V3
• xSQL Builder V2
• RSS Reporter V3 (free for one SQL Server instance)
• xSQL Object Search V2 (free tool)
• xSQL Script Executor V2 (free tool)

What's new - a detailed description of changes and enhancements on this new release can be found at: <>. Following are some highlights:

• Support for all new or enhanced data types such as geography, geometry, hierarchyID etc.
  Support for the table level change tracking feature introduced by SQL Server 2008.
• Data compression support for tables, primary key constraints, unique constraints and indexes.
• Support for the enhanced full-text catalogs and indexes.
• Support for Remote Service bindings for Service Broker.
• Improved object dependency handling.

You can download those tools from: http://www.xsql.com/download/

There is still time to get your RSS Reporter license for free

It's about 10 am EST right now which means there are about 12 hours left to claim your free RSS Reporter license.

RSS Reporter for SQL Server is a great little utility that allows you to generate aggregate RSS feeds containing job status information from multiple SQL Servers eliminating the need for the annoying email alert notifications. A really cool feature is also the ability to right any T-SQL query and with a click of a button generate a standard RSS feed containing the results of that query.

To claim your free license go to: --this offer is no longer valid--

4th of July celebration - huge software giveaway

In celebration of the 4th of July we are giving away 1000 RSS Reporter licenses worth $99 each. You can read the details here: --this offer is no longer valid-- but hurry the offer is limited to the first 1000 people and it expires at the end of the day on July 4, 2008.