Feedback Requested - What Content Do You Want to see for SQL Server Express?

We’re in the process of assessing the content that exists to help people learn and use SQL Server Express. This includes demos, tutorials, whitepapers, Webcasts, Starter Kits, and any other type of content you could imagine. So this is a great chance to TELL US WHAT YOU WANT! We’ll integrate your feedback and make sure that we try and address the most requested areas of content. Please be as specific as you can.

Hi Mark,

I would like to have a demo that shows me how make a diagram from that data in a SQL Server table.

Greetings from Germany,

VBFan

|||I think a crash course in SQL with examples would be great. Also a quick overview of database design and normalization theory could help a beginner get started on the right track.|||I'm looking for an app that will track all computers in my institution. It will need to track them by company property number, and also contain computer name, MAC Address, special software, sensitive functions, etc. I will need to be able to create reports from this data.|||

For very new users some sort of hand-holding for the early stages would be useful. Once you've installed SQL Server Express, it runs but there's no front end and it's not at all obvious how you talk to the beast if your only experience of databases is Access or similar. This is made slightly more difficult in the case of SQL Server Express because BOL tells you that the command sqlcmd will connect you, but in fact it won't -- you need to use sqlcmd -S .\sqlexpress if you accepted the default installation (which is what a raw newbie is going to do).

I think it'd be nice to have something that told you exactly how to create a database (with, say, just two related tables), add data to it, query it, delete data, and then delete the whole database. The database doesn't have to be at all useful: the problem for newbies is finding out how to make things happen and then check that those things really did happen.

Also, something that took you through how the roles work, so you can make sure you're the dbadmin on your database, and get a grasp of how to set up users who're less privileged.

Oh, and maybe something about how to avoid getting log files that seem to get bigger and bigger...

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M M Mason wrote:

For very new users some sort of hand-holding for the early stages would be useful. Once you've installed SQL Server Express, it runs but there's no front end and it's not at all obvious how you talk to the beast if your only experience of databases is Access or similar. This is made slightly more difficult in the case of SQL Server Express because BOL tells you that the command sqlcmd will connect you, but in fact it won't -- you need to use sqlcmd -S .\sqlexpress if you accepted the default installation (which is what a raw newbie is going to do).

You can use SQL Management Studio Express for GUI based server management.

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Mark,

I am a fresh newbie with hardly any comprehension towards setting up and congifuring SQL Server 2005 express edition and looking through these forums, all I really see are advanced topics and out-of-my-league for now sort of information. I need to know how to set up and configure a SQL Database. I'm not even sure if I have one, and if it doesn't come with SQL Server xpress edition then I doubt I do. But as of now, I'm lost from the very start. I'm a quick learner though, so with this information for setting up and configuring a database I might could pick up on SQL's logic and get a deeper understanding of its programming.

Hope you respond and if not, HOPE SOMEONE DOES!

Thanks,

Michael.