New Products, January 2002

Editor's Note: Send new product announcements to [email protected], and register products in the IT Buyer's Network at http://www.itbuynet.com.

DATABASE ADMINISTRATION

Build System Documentation from a SQL Server Database

A & G Software announced AGS SQL Scribe Documentation Builder, software that can automatically build system documentation from a SQL Server 2000 or 7.0 database by interrogating the database and extracting the database schema. The software accesses documentation through your browser and local Microsoft IIS Web server and stores the schema in a Microsoft Access 2000 database. You can switch from looking at table documentation to looking at a dependent stored procedure because the software cross-indexes and links all HTML pages. Features include a full dependent list and a SQL script for every object, the ability to search for objects by title, and the ability to reverse-engineer any SQL Server 2000 or 7.0 database.

AGS SQL Scribe Documentation Builder costs $400 for a company license. Contact A & G Software at [email protected] or http://www.ag-software.com.

A & G Software AGS SQL Scribe Documentation Builder

APPLICATION

Access and Share Information from a Web Browser

UniPress Software released FootPrints 5.0, a Web-based issue management software solution for integrated service centers that serve both internal and external customers. The software lets remote users access and share information from any standard Web browser. The solution also automatically builds a centralized online knowledge base of issues, information, and solutions. The new release features IT asset management, software change management and version control, automated task management, email management, realtime chat, and diagnostic e-support capabilities.

FootPrints 5.0 supports SQL Server 2000 and 7.0 and Microsoft Exchange Server. A three-license starter-pack costs $2995. Contact UniPress at 732-287-2100, 800-222-0550, or http://www.unipress.com.

UniPress Software FootPrints 5.0

DATABASE ADMINISTRATION

Share Information Across an Enterprise

DataMirror announced Transformation Server for XML, which lets you share realtime information in high-throughput environments across an enterprise and supplier network. Transformation Server lets you capture, transform, and flow data to and from XML and common database formats. Transformation Server provides bidirectional integration among SQL Server, Oracle, and Sybase systems. The software's Web-enabled Enterprise Administrator interface lets you administer and monitor a complex integration network from one location. Flexible data selection and filtering, built-in transformation and enhancement capabilities, and support for ODBC-compliant subscriber systems enable Transformation Server for a range of business applications including e-business, business intelligence (BI), enterprise application integration, customer relationship management (CRM), and other distributed data applications. For wireless data management, Transformation Server for PointBase lets users replicate, synchronize, and transform both wireless and wired data to and from mobile devices that are PointBase-equipped.

Transformation Server for XML supports SQL Server 6.5. Pricing is tier-based and dependent on the processing power of the machines. Contact DataMirror at 905-415-0310, 800-362-5955, or http://www.datamirror.com.

DataMirror Transformation Server for XML

DATABASE ADMINISTRATION

Monitor and Analyze Database Activity

Intrinsic Design announced Coefficient 1.5, database-analysis software that lets you keep tabs on database activity. Coefficient lets you see server information, connection information, and database information. You can see which stored procedures and other SQL statements are consuming the most database resources. The software uses SQL Server's ability to trace database activity and lets you analyze the output and produce an analysis report in HTML format. You can include or exclude users and applications when running a trace. To avoid collecting information from everyone and every application, you can trace the activity for only those users or applications you want to analyze. You can also relocate SQL Server 2000 temporary trace files to a user-defined location. Coefficient also helps you locate bottlenecks during the software-development phase—before problems show up in a production environment.

Coefficient 1.5 supports SQL Server 2000 and 7.0 and costs $599 per seat. Contact Intrinsic Design at 302-239-6100, [email protected], or http://www.idisoft.com.

Intrinsic Design Coefficient 1.5

DATABASE ADMINISTRATION

Use a Hosted Database Service

Hosting.com announced the Managed Database Service, which provides small and midsized enterprises with a turnkey, dedicated database solution for SQL Server 2000, Oracle8i, and MySQL relational database-management systems. The service lets customers take advantage of database-backed Web applications without incurring up-front software licensing fees and deployment costs. The service provides you with DBAs and technical support staff who can procure and maintain the database license, install and configure a default database, monitor database processes and file-system space, administer and maintain a database security policy, and perform online hot backup of the database. The solution implements a security policy that gives customers the ability to add and delete users, tables, views, indexes, and stored procedures. In addition, optional fee-based services are available to assist customers in tuning database performance, migrating databases, and restoring data from system failures caused by programming errors or hardware failures.

For pricing, contact Hosting.com at 888-463-8375, [email protected], or http://www.hosting.com.

DATABASE ADMINISTRATION

Audit Databases

Krell Laboratories announced OmniAudit, database-auditing software that lets administrators and developers automatically and transparently log a data change in any column in any database table. The software can track details about the data change, including date and time, user, application, and workstation. OmniAudit uses database triggers to capture data changes. You can use the Audit Manager to install auditing in the database in a one-click operation. After you install auditing, you can decide which tables and columns to audit and let Audit Manager install triggers on each of those tables, or you can preview the trigger script manually. The Audit Log Viewer application lets you sift, sort, and filter the accumulated audit log data. You can group data by any combination of elements such as tables by user, columns by table, rows by table, or tables by workstation.

OmniAudit supports SQL Server 2000 and 7.0 and costs $999 for a site license. Any number of users can use Audit Manager on any number of SQL Server systems at one location. A site license also includes a single-user license for Audit Log Viewer. You can purchase additional single-user licenses of Audit Log Viewer for $59 each. Contact Krell Laboratories at [email protected] or http://www.krell-software.com.

Krell Laboratories OmniAudit

MONITORING TOOLS

Simplify SQL Server Diagnostics

Automatos announced SQL Server Wizard, software that generates a thorough report that describes the internal configuration of the database and the past deployment of its most important resources. The software analyzes CPU consumption, memory utilization, memory locks, procedure cache, connection counters, and cache hit rates. The software then compiles the information and generates a report in PDF format.

SQL Server Wizard supports SQL Server 2000 and 7.0 and costs $115 per month per server. Contact Automatos at 800-887-7757, [email protected], or http://www.automatos.com.

Automatos SQL Server Wizard

DEVELOPER TOOLS

Build Applications

Lighthouse Group announced Catalyst, a collection of tools and processes that guide the Visual Basic (VB) developer through building an application that's scalable, stable, and flexible. Catalyst supports SQL Server 2000 and 7.0 for projects that involve databases. To alleviate the burden on the developer to write COM components that are specific to every database access need that the application might require, the Catalyst engine relies on database objects in SQL Server for its recordset definition information. The connection time of each request is held to a minimum to reduce state problems and enable SQL Server to serve and process data rather than deal with connection-management problems. The Catalyst Development Toolkit includes software components, applets, guidelines, and standards definitions.

The Catalyst Development Toolkit license is an annual product with a service fee, which covers the cost of the products, the training services, and the knowledge-base access. The fee is $15,000 for the first year and $8000 each additional year. Contact Lighthouse Group at 877-554-4768 or http://www.lighthousegroup.com.

TECHNICAL RESOURCES

Learn About ADO.NET

Apress announced Carsten Thomsen's Database Programming with Visual Basic.NET, a book for any Visual Basic (VB) programmer who wants to learn about ADO.NET. The book covers relational databases, Active Directory (AD) access, and MessageQueue. Chapter topics include "A Lightning Quick Introduction to VB.NET"; "Talking to Databases"; "Presenting ADO.NET"; "Presenting the IDE from a Database View Point"; "Error Handling"; "Using Stored Procedures, Triggers, and Views"; "Hierarchical Databases"; and "Data Wrappers." All the sample code the author presents in the book is based on SQL Server 2000.

Database Programming with Visual Basic.NET is 400 pages long and costs $44.95. Contact Apress at 510-549-5930, [email protected], or http://www.apress.com.

Apress Database Programming with Visual Basic.NET