I use http://mockbin.org/ to test web service calls, and quite recently have been using it with BPA in order to test integrations when access to a live service is not available.
Recently I’ve had an issue with BPA not picking up MockBin correctly and completely ignoring the data which has been returned via the web service call.
After lots of head scratching, in order to fix this, I had to add the headers of “charset: utf-8”. After adding this, Mockbin works perfectly with BPA.
With Microsoft Teams, it is possible to create webhooks. A webhook is an URL which is opened up to the internet and allows other applications to interact with the application.
In the case of teams, these webhooks allow notifications to be shown in Microsoft Teams.
The document which is sent to Teams via the webhook is in JSON format, and teams then takes this JSON and displays accordingly.
{
"type": "AdaptiveCard",
"$schema": "https://adaptivecards.io/schemas/adaptive-card.json",
"version": "1.0",
"padding": "none",
"body": [
{
"type": "Container",
"style": "emphasis",
"items": [
{
"type": "ColumnSet",
"columns": [
{
"type": "Column",
"width": "stretch",
"items": [
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "**SATISFACTION SURVEY**",
"weight": "bolder"
}
]
},
{
"type": "Column",
"items": [
{
"type": "Image",
"horizontalAlignment": "Right",
"verticalContentAlignment": "center",
"url": "https://qms3.blob.core.windows.net/test/servicenow.png",
"height": "20px",
"altText": "Service Now Logo"
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "Container",
"padding": {
"right": "padding",
"left": "padding"
},
"items": [
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "Help us improve by taking our short satisfaction survey.",
"weight": "bolder",
"wrap": true
}
]
},
{
"type": "Container",
"padding": {
"right": "padding",
"left": "padding",
"bottom": "padding"
},
"items": [
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "1\\. How satisfied were you with the response time to your incident?",
"wrap": true
},
{
"type": "Input.ChoiceSet",
"id": "responseTime",
"isRequired": true,
"placeholder": "Select a rating",
"choices": [
{
"title": "Very Satisfied",
"value": "1"
},
{
"title": "Not Satisfied",
"value": "2"
}
]
},
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "2\\. How courteous and respectful was the technician who responded to your query?",
"wrap": true
},
{
"type": "Input.ChoiceSet",
"id": "technicianQuery",
"isRequired": true,
"placeholder": "Select a rating",
"choices": [
{
"title": "Excellent",
"value": "1"
},
{
"title": "Very Good",
"value": "2"
}
]
},
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "3\\. Was the technician able to resolve your issue during their first consultation?",
"wrap": true
},
{
"type": "Input.ChoiceSet",
"id": "firstConsultation",
"isRequired": true,
"isMultiSelect": false,
"style": "expanded",
"choices": [
{
"title": "Yes",
"value": "yes"
},
{
"title": "No",
"value": "no"
}
]
},
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "4\\. How satisfied are you with the overall service experience?",
"wrap": true
},
{
"type": "Input.ChoiceSet",
"id": "OverallRating",
"isRequired": true,
"placeholder": "Select a rating",
"choices": [
{
"title": "Excellent",
"value": "1"
},
{
"title": "Very Good",
"value": "2"
}
]
},
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "5\\. Is there any other comment you would like us to know?",
"wrap": true
},
{
"type": "Input.Text",
"id": "comment",
"isMultiline": true,
"placeholder": "Add a comment"
},
{
"type": "ActionSet",
"actions": [
{
"type": "Action.Http",
"method": "POST",
"title": "Submit",
"isPrimary": true,
"body": "{\"responseTime\": \"{{responseTime.value}}\", \"technicianQuery\":\"{{technicianQuery.value}}\", \"firstConsultation\":\"{{firstConsultation.value}}\", \"OverallRating\":\"{{OverallRating.value}}\" }",
"url": "https://actionsplayground.azurewebsites.net/workspaces/IREXSqpHRk-hkfa7y7CAAw"
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
Designing these cards can be quite complex and time consuming, however the following websites are very useful, as these allow you to experiment with the JSON and visually show the results:
Recently I’ve had an issue where some text was presented in a table, and I needed to normalise the text.
For example:
TESTiNG 123
Would need to become:
Testing 123
With thanks to Justin Cooney this was possible using the SQL below:
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE FUNCTION NormalizeCase (@InputString VARCHAR(8000))
RETURNS VARCHAR(8000)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @OutputString VARCHAR(500)
DECLARE @Location INT
SET @Location = 1
-- Pre-set to a character string if the input string exists and has a length. otherwise the out string remains a NULL
IF DATALENGTH(@InputString) > 0
BEGIN
SET @OutputString = ''
END
WHILE @Location <= DATALENGTH(@InputString)
BEGIN
DECLARE @CheckCharacter VARCHAR(1)
DECLARE @PrevCheckCharacter VARCHAR(1)
DECLARE @OutCharacter VARCHAR(1)
-- Set the current character to lower case in case a capitalization condition is not met.
SELECT @CheckCharacter = LOWER(SUBSTRING(@InputString, @Location, 1))
SELECT @PrevCheckCharacter = SUBSTRING(@InputString, @Location - 1, 1)
-- Set the current letter to uppercase if the preceeding letter is a non-letter character
-- and the current character is a letter
IF @PrevCheckCharacter NOT LIKE '[a-z]'
AND @CheckCharacter LIKE '[a-z]'
BEGIN
SELECT @OutCharacter = UPPER(@CheckCharacter)
END
ELSE
BEGIN
SELECT @OutCharacter = @CheckCharacter
END
SET @OutputString = @OutputString + @OutCharacter
SET @Location = @Location + 1
END
RETURN @OutputString
END
GO
The code can be used as follows:
SELECT dbo.NormalizeCase('THIS IS a reaLLY GooD example')
As part of this migration, windows became un-activated – most likely because Vultr runs it’s own KMS service and it is no longer able to contact the server:
Within SQL Server an index is used to optimise the reading of data from the database.
However the side effect of having such an index is reduced write speed for inserts and updates. This is because SQL Server will need to update and maintain the index.
Running the below SQL will highlight indexes which have not been used recently, allowing you to remove these indexes (if these are no longer required). This is sorted by the number of updates, as tables with high number of updates will most likely benefit from removal of this index.
SELECT TOP 200 o.NAME AS ObjectName
,i.NAME AS IndexName
,i.index_id AS IndexID
,dm_ius.user_seeks AS UserSeek
,dm_ius.user_scans AS UserScans
,dm_ius.user_lookups AS UserLookups
,dm_ius.user_updates AS UserUpdates
,p.TableRows
,'DROP INDEX ' + QUOTENAME(i.NAME) + ' ON ' + QUOTENAME(s.NAME) + '.' + QUOTENAME(OBJECT_NAME(dm_ius.OBJECT_ID)) AS 'drop statement'
FROM sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats dm_ius
INNER JOIN sys.indexes i ON i.index_id = dm_ius.index_id
AND dm_ius.OBJECT_ID = i.OBJECT_ID
INNER JOIN sys.objects o ON dm_ius.OBJECT_ID = o.OBJECT_ID
INNER JOIN sys.schemas s ON o.schema_id = s.schema_id
INNER JOIN (
SELECT SUM(p.rows) TableRows
,p.index_id
,p.OBJECT_ID
FROM sys.partitions p
GROUP BY p.index_id
,p.OBJECT_ID
) p ON p.index_id = dm_ius.index_id
AND dm_ius.OBJECT_ID = p.OBJECT_ID
WHERE OBJECTPROPERTY(dm_ius.OBJECT_ID, 'IsUserTable') = 1
AND dm_ius.database_id = DB_ID()
AND i.type_desc = 'nonclustered'
AND i.is_primary_key = 0
AND i.is_unique_constraint = 0
AND dm_ius.user_seeks + dm_ius.user_scans + dm_ius.user_lookups = 0
ORDER BY UserUpdates DESC
The following line can also be altered in order to include indexes which are rarely used (The code above is for unused), as there may be some indexes which are expensive to maintain, but only used once a day for example!
AND dm_ius.user_seeks + dm_ius.user_scans + dm_ius.user_lookups = 0
Had a very odd issue with Windows 10 and taskbar menu items missing:
After lots of research, I’ve partially fixed this by running the following from an elevated command prompt:
for /R "%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\" %f in (.lnk) do copy /b "%f"+,, "%f" 1>nul
for /R "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\" %f in (.lnk) do copy /b "%f"+,, "%f" 1>nul
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
explorer.exe
What this does is:
Update “Last Update Date” attribute on Start Menu Links
Kill Explorer process
Start Explorer process
The result being:
The one missing icon is for Microsoft Edge (also other Microsoft Store Apps have missing icons too, such as Calculator etc).
After lots of research, investigation and trial-and-error, I solved the problem by uninstalling “Google Drive File Stream” (plus I dont really use this anyways):
The “Call Task” tool in Taskcentre is a useful tool in calling other tasks.
The task can run in two modes:
Synchronous
Queue
Queue
This adds the task to the queue, to be scheduled at a future point in time
Synchronous
This queues the task and awaits a response.
Sometimes in Taskcentre you wish to know if a task you have called has failed. This is useful in cases where there’s a queue of objects which require some work completing and you are processing these in a batch. Examples include:
Invoices to send
Sales Orders to process
Records require uploading to website
etc
The issue with calling tasks Synchronously is that you cannot easily tell if the task being run has failed or not, however by analysing the output of the task, you can record this information and make decisions accordingly.
The “TaskRunStatus” flag is the important part here. If the value is “2”, then the task completed successfully. Value “4” is a failure.
Using the “XML To RecordSet” tool, each results from the “Call Task” can be mapped to a Recordset:
From there, we can then use the “VBScript” tool to loop around all the RecordSet entries:
Here’s the VBScript:
If ThisStep.RecordSource("OutputData_TaskRunStatus") = 2 Then
Variables("SuccessCount") = Variables("SuccessCount") + 1
Else
Variables("FailCount") = Variables("FailCount") + 1
End If
From there, you can use these variables within your other steps. For example, here’s a HTML document which is posted to HipChat using code here.
Did you know that SQL Server provides several views which provide information on recommended indexes?
Using the following SQL, you can identify where SQL recommends indexes, ordered by potential performance boost from adding the suggested index.
Obviously you may wish to review these manually, rather than just blindly creating, but it gives you a pointer in the right direction!
It is also worth noting that this view is cleared when SQL Service is restarted, therefore it’s a good idea to restart the service, let the system run for a couple of hours or so, then grab the results and analyse further.
The code below works for all versions of SQL server after 2008, plus also Azure SQL Databases.
SELECT migs.avg_total_user_cost * (migs.avg_user_impact / 100.0) * (migs.user_seeks + migs.user_scans) AS improvement_measure
, 'CREATE INDEX [missing_index_' + CONVERT(VARCHAR, mig.index_group_handle) + '_' + CONVERT(VARCHAR, mid.index_handle) + '_' + LEFT(PARSENAME(mid.statement, 1), 32) + ']' + ' ON ' + mid.statement + ' (' + ISNULL(mid.equality_columns, '') + CASE
WHEN mid.equality_columns IS NOT NULL
AND mid.inequality_columns IS NOT NULL
THEN ','
ELSE ''
END + ISNULL(mid.inequality_columns, '') + ')' + ISNULL(' INCLUDE (' + mid.included_columns + ')', '') AS create_index_statement
, migs.*
,mid.database_id
,mid.[object_id]
FROM sys.dm_db_missing_index_groups mig
INNER JOIN sys.dm_db_missing_index_group_stats migs ON migs.group_handle = mig.index_group_handle
INNER JOIN sys.dm_db_missing_index_details mid ON mig.index_handle = mid.index_handle
WHERE migs.avg_total_user_cost * (migs.avg_user_impact / 100.0) * (migs.user_seeks + migs.user_scans) > 10
ORDER BY migs.avg_total_user_cost * migs.avg_user_impact * (migs.user_seeks + migs.user_scans) DESC
With the Azure SQL Database, sometimes you want to view the current running transactions. Unfortunately there is no GUI as such like there is with normal SQL Server (right click, “Activity Monitor”), however it can be grabbed by executing sys.dm_exec_requests.
The following SQL is very useful as it shows details of all running transactions within the database, including highlighting if the transaction is blocked, or is causing blocking.
SELECT r.session_id
,CASE
WHEN r.session_id IN (
SELECT DISTINCT (blocking_session_id)
FROM sys.dm_exec_requests
)
THEN 'Yes'
ELSE ''
END AS blocking
,r.blocking_session_id
,r.request_id
,r.start_time
,r.STATUS
,r.command
,r.database_id
,r.user_id
,r.wait_type
,r.wait_time
,r.last_wait_type
,r.wait_resource
,r.total_elapsed_time
,r.cpu_time
,CASE r.transaction_isolation_level
WHEN 0
THEN 'Unspecified'
WHEN 1
THEN 'ReadUncommitted'
WHEN 2
THEN 'ReadCommitted'
WHEN 3
THEN 'Repeatable'
WHEN 4
THEN 'Serializable'
WHEN 5
THEN 'Snapshot'
END AS transaction_isolation_level
,r.row_count
,r.percent_complete
,st.TEXT AS sql
FROM sys.dm_exec_requests r
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(r.sql_handle) AS st
GROUP BY r.session_id
,r.blocking_session_id
,r.request_id
,r.start_time
,r.STATUS
,r.command
,r.database_id
,r.user_id
,r.wait_type
,r.wait_time
,r.last_wait_type
,r.wait_resource
,r.total_elapsed_time
,r.cpu_time
,r.transaction_isolation_level
,r.row_count
,r.percent_complete
,st.TEXT
ORDER BY r.total_elapsed_time
Recently I’ve been doing some work on optimising indexes within Azure SQL Database. The following SQL from Daniel is very useful in showing the status of all the current indexes within a SQL Database. The SQL works for both SQL Server 2014 onwards, plus Azure SQL Database. I have not tested it on any other versions.
This code returns the following:
Object Type
Object Name
Index Name
Index Type
Partition (if any)
Compression
Data Space
Fill Factor
Rows
Reserved MB
In Row Used MB
Row Overflow Used MB
Out of Row Used MB
Total Used MB
SELECT --- Schema, type and name of object and index:
REPLACE(obj.type_desc, '_', ' ') AS objectType
, sch.[name] + '.' + obj.[name] AS objectName
, ISNULL(ix.[name], '') AS indexName
, ix.type_desc AS indexType
, --- Partition number, if there are partitions:
(CASE COUNT(*) OVER (
PARTITION BY ps.[object_id]
,ps.index_id
)
WHEN 1
THEN ''
ELSE CAST(ps.partition_number AS VARCHAR(10))
END) AS [partition]
, --- Storage properties:
p.data_compression_desc AS [compression]
, ds.[name] + ISNULL('(' + pc.[name] + ')', '') AS dataSpace
, STR(ISNULL(NULLIF(ix.fill_factor, 0), 100), 4, 0) + '%' AS [fillFactor]
, --- The raw numbers:
ps.row_count AS [rows]
, STR(1.0 * ps.reserved_page_count * 8 / 1024, 12, 2) AS reserved_MB
, STR(1.0 * ps.in_row_used_page_count * 8 / 1024, 12, 2) AS inRowUsed_MB
, STR(1.0 * ps.row_overflow_used_page_count * 8 / 1024, 12, 2) AS RowOverflowUsed_MB
, STR(1.0 * ps.lob_used_page_count * 8 / 1024, 12, 2) AS outOfRowUsed_MB
, STR(1.0 * ps.used_page_count * 8 / 1024, 12, 2) AS totalUsed_MB
FROM sys.dm_db_partition_stats AS ps
INNER JOIN sys.partitions AS p ON ps.[partition_id] = p.[partition_id]
INNER JOIN sys.objects AS obj ON ps.[object_id] = obj.[object_id]
INNER JOIN sys.schemas AS sch ON obj.[schema_id] = sch.[schema_id]
LEFT JOIN sys.indexes AS ix ON ps.[object_id] = ix.[object_id]
AND ps.index_id = ix.index_id
--- Data space is either a file group or a partition function:
LEFT JOIN sys.data_spaces AS ds ON ix.data_space_id = ds.data_space_id
--- This is the partitioning column:
LEFT JOIN sys.index_columns AS ixc ON ix.[object_id] = ixc.[object_id]
AND ix.index_id = ixc.index_id
AND ixc.partition_ordinal > 0
LEFT JOIN sys.columns AS pc ON pc.[object_id] = obj.[object_id]
AND pc.column_id = ixc.column_id
--- Not interested in system tables and internal tables:
WHERE obj.[type] NOT IN (
'S'
,'IT'
)
ORDER BY sch.[name]
,obj.[name]
,ix.index_id
,p.partition_number;
