Query to find the size of the database and database file

Technique 1:


     EXEC sp_helpdb

Technique 2: For a specific database:

sp_helpdb'adventureworks'

And you get the following output: (this one gives you the database and data file information for a specific database)




Technique 3: be in the context of the database and run sp_spaceusedGives you the database size and certain more properties of it:


     EXEC sp_spaceused

This is what you get:

Technique 4: use sys.master_files


SELECTDB_NAME(database_id)AS DatabaseName,
Name AS LogicalName,
size*8/1024 Size_in_MB,
max_size
FROM sys.master_files
WHEREDB_NAME(database_id)='AdventureWorks'
GO




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Microsoft Visual Studio 11 Beta to Land on February 29th

Along with the release of Windows 8 Consumer Preview, Microsoft will also be unveiling Visual Studio 11's beta version next Wednesday.
Visual Studio 11 along with Team Foundation Server 11 has "hundreds" of latest features and Microsoft is addressing a very small selection before the release of the beta version. Visual Studio 11 will offer holistic solutions and also performance enhancements for various regularly performed tasks.

Unlike Visual Studio 2010, which is full of attractive colours, the new Visual Studio 11 is more "grey" to look at. For improving the scope to focus on text without any distraction the company decided to get rid of bright colours on the Integrated Development Environment (IDE), reported ARS Technica.
The new version is simpler as well as flatter as it does not have subdivisions, gradients and any other unnecessary details. This Metro designed version looks a lot like Visual Studio 2003, Office XP and Expression Blend. However, there is another version having darker theme but same simple and flat design.
Microsoft confirmed that Visual Studio 11 beta and .NET 4.5 beta will launch on 29th February.

The default toolbars in VS 2010

The default toolbars in VS 11

For more information about the GUI go to MSDN.

No left navigation when new webpartpages are created in SharePoint 2010

Creating webpart pages or basic pages in SharePoint is done with a click of a button. But when you view the page you've created you won't get to see the left navigation menu. The cause I reckon is that the left side navigation is defined in the Master Page in the "PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" content place holder and templates for webpart pages shipped with SharePoint are overriding this content place holder and delete its content. 


The solution for this is to change the page so it will not override the menu place holder, but inherite it from the Master Page. The place holders we are interested in are: "PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" and "PlaceHolderNavSpacer". 


Start by opening the SharePoint Designer. Open the webpart page or basic page you want to add the menu to. In code view look for the following lines and delete them:

      <asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" runat="server"></asp:Content>

and

      <asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderNavSpacer" runat="server"></asp:Content> 

and

      <SharePoint:UIVersionedContent ID="WebPartPageHideQLStyles" UIVersion="4" runat="server">
      <ContentTemplate>
      <style type="text/css">
      body #s4-leftpanel {
      display:none;
      }
      .s4-ca {
      margin-left:0px;
      }
      </style>


Save the file. You will get a warning saying you are about to customize the page. Just go ahead.


Hope this saves time.

Clarizen posts BI Architects video to Social Media

We were very happy to see the posts of Clarizen, leading global provider of collaborative online project management software, in the Social Media referring to the video we made of our Clarizen BI Solution.

Thank you, Hilee Avrahami of Clarizen, for bringing this video to your customers and followers attention!

Here you can have another look at our video:



Our Business Intelligence solution for Clarizen adds reporting functionality that helps the project managers monitor, track and report project progress (including KPI's and earned values), the finance department enable swift and correct detailed invoicing and the management team gaining direct insight in the performance/profitability of projects.

For more information about the extension for Clarizen please contact our sales manager Erik Rongen-Kleintjens (E.Rongen-Kleintjens@bi-architects.nl).

Hermann-Otto Israël

BI Architects project manager

Connecting PerformancePoint 2010 site with Dashboard Designer throws error

Recently I had a problem with connecting to a PerformancePoint 2010 site using Dashboard Designer.

I created a new site in SharePoint 2010 using the "Business Intelligence Center" template and started the Dashboard Designer. When I tried to connect to the site, the Dashboard Designer failed to connect and throws the following error : "The URL is not available, does not reference a SharePoint site, or you do not have permission to connect".

When a System Administrator (working for our customer) checked the Event Logs (Administrative Tools | Event Viewer | Windows Logs | Application), he saw the following message : "Login failed for user : domain\username". After some research, it appears that the Service Account under which the PerformancePoint Service runs, did not have sufficient permissions.

The System Administrator executed the following commands in the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell to fix this problem:

$w = Get-SPWebApplication("Web application name")

$w.GrantAccessToProcessIdentity("domain\username") 

For more information about how to grant a managed account access to the content databases where PerformancePoint data will be stored, read this article on Microsoft Technet.

Sharepoint 2010 Business Intelligence Center Template Missing

One of our customers is using SharePoint 2010 with SQL Server 2008 R2. Everything in their SharePoint environment seemed to be working fine, but when we wanted to create a new "Business Intelligence Center" subsite, we didn't see the template.

 

After the customer activated the following settings in the root of their Sharepoint site, the "Business Intelligence Center" template was available for us:

• Site Settings | Site Actions | Site Collection Administration | Site Collection Features | Activate SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure
• Site Settings | Site Actions | Site Collection Administration | Site Collection Features | Activate PerformancePoint Services Site collection features
• Site Settings | Site Actions | Site Collection Administration | Site Collection Features | Activate PerformancePoint Services Site Features