A common task for developers is to store application specific configuration. There are many ways you can take to get that functionality. If you use .Net / C# you can use the simple, built-in way to work with configuration files. Let’s look how this works.
SQL Server has a great feature called FILESTREAM. It allows applications to store unstructured data (like images or PDF files) on the file system while keeping the transactional capabilities of the database. It's a straight forward task to activate this feature while you install SQL Server. But it gets tricky when you have a pre-installed server.
Backup and restore are simple tasks in SQL Server. The only problem is the user mapping that may no longer work when you restore the database to a different server. If you try to remap the user, you may end up with an error like this one:
Slow network connections and long running scripts aren’t a good combination. The result will often be a timeout, that most likely will not be solved with a retry. When you use DbUp a quick fix for that problem is right around the corner.
DbUp is a great tool to manage your database migrations. As I wrote here, it’s simple and easy to use. However, when it comes to edge cases like the German umlauts, that simplicity can have its downside. With neither a flag to change the encoding nor a way to interfere with the execution, it seems as if DbUp isn’t up for the task.
But don’t jump too early to this conclusion. It’s wrong and the source of the error is SQL Server, not DbUp.
Keeping your database up-to-date with your code is an important task. There are many different approaches and even more tools to support you. However, they often come with a price you may not be willing to pay.
A different way goes DbUp. This little tool helps you to update your database in a simple, understandable manner. It can’t do everything, but what it can works great. Let’s have a deeper look at DbUp.
The next version of RavenDB will have some exiting new features. Beside many optimisations, improvements and new functionality you will get a new RavenDB Management Studio. Dropping Silverlight is only one of many improvements you will notice. Let's have a look on what is changed and how much still works as expected.
Changes in the application often result in modifications of underlying data structure. Properties need to be added, removed or renamed when your application adapt to the new business needs. Today you will see how RavenDB handles this use case and how this differs to a relational database.
Paging of a query result is something you normally think about when your application gets really slow. This seldom occurs while developing (you don’t have enough data to feel the pain) therefore the unpleasant surprise wait until your application is in production. And trust me, to add paging as a hotfix while your users can’t work is nothing you want to do.
Just by using a non-relational database your data doesn’t stop to be related. Therefore you must find a way to express a relation even if your database can’t enforce such constraints. What is true for most NoSQL solutions is (for once) also true for RavenDB.