Coolest. Tool. Ever.

I’m struggling with how to best start this post. Here are a few possibilities:

• I like to think that I’m a hard person to impress. But…
• I swear at my computer many times a day, but usually in anger and almost never in delighted surprise.
• Someone deserves a raise.
• Holy crap!

All of them apply, so you can take your pick.

But what am I talking about?

I’m talking about the DocumentReflector tool that’s included with the Open XML Format SDK v2.0.

You see, I’ve been playing today with a few Office development tasks today for a work-related project. I’ve never looked too closely at working with the Office Open XML file format before this week; I’ve read white papers and such, but until you start writing your own code you never really “get” what an API is all about. After a few false starts and many searches, I was less than impressed.

But then I discovered DocumentReflector. This is a stand-alone SDK tool that will (wait for it) let you open an Office Open XML document, select a subset of the document or the entire document and it (here it comes) displays the C# code that will create it.

Holy crap indeed.

I’m sure I’ll be swearing at this amazing tool before the weekend is over (the new wears off pretty quickly for me) but today whoever built this app is officially my hero.

Edit: I almost forgot to add – there’s a great overview of using this tool on Erika Ehrli’s blog, here.

Now I can’t help but ask why we don’t have a tool like this for SSIS packages. Wouldn’t it be great to point a utility at a DTSX file and have it output the code required to build that package through the SSIS API? ;-)

One More Reason to Attend

I've posted a few times already[1] about the SSWUG Business Intelligence vConference that I have been helping to organize. Well, the conference is now less than a month away, and there is more news to share:

We're giving away a copy of Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite with MSDN Premium to one lucky attendee.

That's right - the big one. This is the ultimate version of Microsoft's MSDN subscription, with a suggested retail price of $10,939. If you're a software developer or BI professional, this package has everything that you need to develop for the Microsoft platform, and then some.

If you'd like a chance to win this MSDN subscription, just register for the SSWUG Business Intelligence vConference. For just $100 you get:

• 30 amazing technical sessions from 10 amazing speakers.
• The ability to watch the sessions either during their multiple scheduled timeslots, or on demand for up to 14 days after the conference is over.
• Online chat and Q&A with the speakers during the scheduled sessions.
• Downloadable slides, transcripts and demo files so you can continue the learning once the session is done.
• And here's the one that blows my mind - a $150 discount on the Fall SQL Connections conference in Las Vegas. So if you're planning to attend the SQL Connections conference, the SSWUG Business Intelligence vConference more than pays for itself.

So what are you waiting for? This vConference is going to be amazing, and we'd love to see you there!

[1] For example:

• BI for the Virtual Guy
• Check Out This Lineup!
• And also a mention in What Happens in BIDS, Stays in BIDS

Outlook and Time Zones

I travel quite a bit for work (and occasionally for pleasure) and I like to track my itineraries in Outlook so I don't lose track of things and miss my flights. This also allows me to have everything at my fingertips on my Windows Mobile phone, which makes my life so much simpler.

The problem with this is that most of my travel crosses multiple time zones - I will be departing from New York, but I may be landing in Seattle or Denver or Frankfurt. And that means that I need to "do the math" to ensure that the times I'm entering into my Outlook appointments are appropriately adjusted for the differences between my local time zone and the time zone for wherever I will be landing.

But not any more.

I've just discovered[1] the "Time Zone" button in Outlook 2007:

[2]

When you click on the Time Zones button, two drop-down lists appear, one for the time zone of the appointment start time, and one for the time zone of the appointment end time. How cool is that? This is going to save me so much time (and aggravation, because there few things more annoying than suffering because of your own mistakes) in the weeks and months ahead.

Now if I could just figure out how to make it so that these drop-down lists are always visible by default...

 

[1] Yes, this is the appropriate time to let me know that this has been there since Outlook 2000 or the like - I am often the last to know.

[2] I'm not going to show you one of my actual flight itineraries (you never know what stalkers are out there ;-) but I will show one of the highlights of the yeah - Manowar headlining the Magic Circle Festival next month in Germany. Will you be there too?

Office 2007 Usability

I posted a long rant about usability not too long ago, and included a mild jab at the Office 2007 UI (which I personally love, but which others do not) at the end of it. Today I ran across this post from Jensen Harris (a member of the Office UI team) on the science of GUI design, and thought I should share it in the context of full disclosure and fairness:

http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/08/22/711808.aspx

Pretty cool, eh?

Now what we need is a mathematical proof that people who use keyboard shortcuts are not only more efficient but also inherently cooler than people who use the mouse. I wonder if Fitts did any work on that front...

But What About Excel 2007?

That last post on loading multiple Excel files is probably going to be less useful if you have files in the new Excel 2007 XSLX file format. The built-in Excel source component in SSIS only works with the "classic"[1] XLS file format. Fortunately, Microsoft has made available for download a set of 2007 Office System Driver: Data Connectivity Components that allow you to connect to XSLX files via OLE DB or ODBC.

There's also a good article on this on the ssis.wik.is web site, with a few more details than you'll find on the download page.

Enjoy!

[1] I think that "classic" has a much nicer ring to it than "legacy"[2]
[2] Which was, of course, the new "old"[3]
[2] Which was, of course, the old "old"