Future Programming, the Next Development Platform part 1

Posted by arlene

The .NET platform was a huge initiative for Microsoft, and the company plans to continue in that direction with a whole line of products focused around the .NET framework. Microsoft hopes to make development easier for us developers. At the same time, it plans to expand on what can be done with the same applications.

The plan is to release the next generation of Visual Studio.NET (code name Whidbey) by 2005. This version will offer many productivity advantages for developers and will tightly integrate with the next version of SQL Server, SQL Server 2005. This new version of SQL Server represents a major upgrade of the product and includes an overhauled version of Analysis Services.

Analysis Services 2005

On the near horizon, SQL Server 2005 (code name Yukon) offers some wonderful upgrades in the area of Analysis Services. The biggest improvements in Analysis Services 2005 are changes to the interface, the inclusion of five new mining algorithms, and the ability to mine data in “real time.”

The basic concepts of data mining remain. You still create an Analysis Services database from either an OLAP cube or a relational database. Mining models are initially built using a wizard and then refined with an editor. Mining models are trained against test data, and developers still need to make sure they are working with clean data. You can utilize Analysis Services 2000 and create some very useable applications even if your company is not ready to move immediately to SQL Server 2005. You can then migrate the application to Analysis Services 2005 when it becomes available.

What has changed is that working with Analysis Services should be quicker and easier. Also, you now have the ability to take advantage of some significant upgrades. Instead of abandoning or neglecting data mining, Microsoft has invested some serious time and effort in improving its capabilities. It has added additional algorithms that expand the types of data-mining solutions developers can create.

This will present some of the new data-mining features expected with the release of SQL Server 2005. It will also discuss migrating an existing 2000 mining model to the new version.

A New Interface

Perhaps the most noticeable difference between Analysis Services 2000 and 2005 is the interface. Database administrators and developers no longer need separate tools to manage SQL Server databases and Analysis Services databases. You can now view both from one tool known as the SQL Server Management Studio.

For developers creating data-mining solutions, projects exist inside a Visual Studio Solution file just like any other project. Referred to as the Business Intelligence (BI) studio, this is quite nice: everything is in one place, and you get access to a familiar and consistent interface.

Like the 2000 version, Analysis Services 2005 includes wizards that allow you to create a data source and a mining model. However, you now have the ability to define a Data Source View (DSV). This is a virtual view of the actual data and can be used to specify computed columns. With Analysis Services 2005, you can create a virtual column known as a named calculation. This is good for keeping the code used in your data-mining solution separate from the actual database. Instead of having to store special tables or views inside the relational database, you can utilize the data source views.

A DSV is also useful when you have a database that contains hundreds or thousands of tables. The DSV only needs to include the tables you are interested in mining. You can also use it to select data from multiple data sources, such as databases on other servers or even text files.

Analysis Services 2005 comes with twelve views that can be embedded into your Visual Studio .NET application as Windows Forms controls. The views allow you to create and edit mining models and give the developer a different way of visualizing the results.

The new version includes a query editor that resembles SQL Servers Query Analyzer. It also includes another query builder that has a Microsoft Access style interface. Queries are performed using the Multidi‑mensional Extensions (MDX) language, which has been enhanced in Analysis Services 2005. This will enable you to build a mining model and then use the query tools to extract meaningful information from the results. It could be quite useful if you are starting from scratch with a database and do not know what you are trying to predict.

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