Using the resources of
An overview of how to use http://www.bidn.com
to answer your business intelligence questions
By
Keith A Hyer
Usage:
This is free. If you think someone would benefit from it, copy it and give it to them or give them the link
or print it – whatever you choose. All I ask is that you leave my name on the front of it.
The following is based on my knowledge as a user of BIDN only – I have no special insight and I’m not an
employee of Pragmatic Works.
Note that you are using this information at your own “risk” – and if you find a better way to do
something I cover, or find that something has changed, feel free to drop me a message on BIDN and I
will try to get the doc updated. If you manage to mess something up or loose data on your computer by
browsing this website.. Well – I’ll mostly be impressed. ☺
The BIDN logo was used with permission from Pragmatic Works.
ii
Contents
Introduction: ............................................................................................................................................... vii
HOWTO Sign Up on BIDN .............................................................................................................................. 1
HOWTO Log In to BIDN as a member ........................................................................................................... 5
HOWTO – Find your way around BIDN? ....................................................................................................... 7
Exploring the site – the bidn menu bar..................................................................................................... 8
HOME – menu item .................................................................................................................................. 9
ARTICLES – menu item ............................................................................................................................ 12
FORUMS – menu item............................................................................................................................. 13
BLOGS – menu item ................................................................................................................................ 14
BI TOOLS – menu item ............................................................................................................................ 14
BI TRAINING – menu item ....................................................................................................................... 14
JOBS – menu item ................................................................................................................................... 15
EVENTS – menu item .............................................................................................................................. 15
FILES – menu item ................................................................................................................................... 15
SPACES – menu item ............................................................................................................................... 15
PEOPLE – menu item............................................................................................................................... 15
MY ACCOUNT – menu item .................................................................................................................... 16
HOWTO – Find the information you seek: Searching Basics..................................................................... 17
HOWTO – Using Google to search BIDN ..................................................................................................... 19
HOWTO – Setup your profile on BIDN ........................................................................................................ 20
Login Information.................................................................................................................................... 20
Personal Information .............................................................................................................................. 21
Profile photo and avatar ......................................................................................................................... 21
iii
Your Location .......................................................................................................................................... 22
In your own words .................................................................................................................................. 23
Email notifications: ................................................................................................................................. 23
Your Contact Information ....................................................................................................................... 24
Meta Information.................................................................................................................................... 24
HOWTO use the Forums on BIDN ............................................................................................................... 25
What’s there? ......................................................................................................................................... 25
Forum Listing........................................................................................................................................... 26
The Message List within a given forum .................................................................................................. 27
Message details: ..................................................................................................................................... 28
Posting a forum question ........................................................................................................................ 29
Replying to an existing post .................................................................................................................... 31
MY OPINIONS – Tips and tricks for the BIDN forums.............................................................................. 32
( 1 ) Describe the problem as best you can in the subject line: .......................................................... 32
( 2 ) If possible provide examples and/or screenshots: ...................................................................... 32
( 3 ) Take a minute to edit before you post: ....................................................................................... 32
( 4 ) Participate: ................................................................................................................................... 32
( 5 ) Say, "Thank you!" ........................................................................................................................ 33
One parting thought - ............................................................................................................................. 33
iv
Stuff to add:
HOWTO - Write a blog for bidn
HOWTO – Write an article for bidn ( I haven’t done this yet – so might be interesting ).
v
Introduction:
This document is being written for you – the new user of BIDN. You may see “bidn”,
“bidn.com” or www.bidn.com referenced in the following HOWTO documents. They are all the
same thing – but I will try to make it consistent.
What is my goal for this documentation?
It is pretty simple and based entirely on this thought: I assume you are looking for some SQL
Server Business Intelligence information and / or answers. I’m going to try to help you find them
in a fast, informal and comfortable way.
To accomplish that goal, I want to give you quick, helpful “HOWTO”-style documents to help
you get the most out of BIDN!
You might want some basic information – or you might have questions that are more detailed
and specific. I hope to help you learn the following:
•
How do I become a BIDN member?
•
How do I log into BIDN?
•
How do you go about finding the information you need?
•
How do you ask a question on BIDN?
•
What are some helpful hints to get your questions noticed and answered?
•
What are some ways to thank people for what they do on BIDN?
vi
vii
HOWTO Sign Up on BIDN
“Sign up!? Wait just a minute – I’m not paying for this!” Do not worry, it is not as bad as it sounds –
and no, there is no fee for joining bidn.com. The site is sponsored by http://www.pragmaticworks.com/
and is a public resource to give you the business intelligence user a centralized location for a vast
amount of information specific to Microsoft SQL Server Business Intelligence –related products.
Without further ado - here are the basics of signing up on BIDN. When you first open the site in your
web browser, you’ll see a link which reads, “Become a member” as well as a menu option that says,
“Register”. Relax. It’s not the cash register. This is a free resource, remember?
Click on either one – they are shown below.
You’ll be taken to a form where you pick a user name, enter your email address ( don’t worry, you will
not be pelted with non-stop SPAM for doing so ) though you have the option to “receive various
promotional offers from the website and its partners.”
Do make sure that you use a valid email address – it is a part of validating that you are really you.
Note: as you’re typing, various validations occur ( not shown ).
1
Below is a fictitious example of what the form might look like all filled out and ready to be submitted.
Before checking that you agree to the terms, make sure you open them and read them. Or you can just
treat is like a PS3, iPod, iPhone, Windows update, or any game you install on your PC and click “I agree
to..” having no idea what you just got yourself into – that part is entirely up to you. Just do not come
crying to me when the highly trained apes come knocking on your door.
Once you have agreed, click on the “Register” button. An email will be sent to the email address you
entered for validation. You’ll see a screen similar to the one below.
2
I do not really have much to add to that. It is pretty self-explanatory – check your email. It may take a
few minutes to get it. When I signed up – it was there in seconds. It depends on the traffic, your mail
server(s) etc.
The message will come from “[email protected]” – with a link to click to confirm that you ( or at
this point, “allegedly you” ) really are you. Click on the link and you’re on to the next HOWTO – logging
in as member.
Here is what the email looks like with the link confirming your email address:
3
Confirmation email:
Once you click the confirmation link, you’ll get thanked and you’ll have a link for logging into the site
which will look like this:
That’s it! Congratulations – you’re a registered BIDN user. Now log on in and continue your journey!
4
HOWTO Log In to BIDN as a member
If you just signed up to BIDN, you have three (3) options for logging into the site, which are highlighted
here.
If you just opened the site from your browser, you’ve still got two (2) options for logging in – they are
both highlighted below.
Click on whichever one of those tickles your proverbial fancy and you’ll see a login screen similar to this
one.
5
Enter the user name that you picked during registration and the password that you chose at that time
and click the “Sign In” button – or press [Enter] on your keyboard.
If you’ve forgotten your password, see the “HOWTO – Handle a forgotten password” section for some
help.
If you entered your login and password correctly, you’ll see a few new things in the top of your browser:
You’ll notice you’re now showing “Signed in as: [your login name]” and you have a link to let you log out
of the site. You’ll also see a new option on the menu bar to let you modify your account settings.
If you see that – CONGRATULATIONS, you’ve successfully logged into the site.
6
HOWTO – Find your way around BIDN?
So you have a result list of an Article, a blog, a forum post or an event. What ARE those? What
does each of those things mean?
An article on BIDN is a bit more formal. It is usually longer – in the range of 2 to 3 pages of
printed information. It is usually well written in a more formal manner ( I find the articles are
much less, “Hey! You’ll want to check this out!” and a more “The reader should find it
enlightening that..”-style of writing ). The articles are usually spell checked ( What!? Who
doesn’t spell Chek there blog? ) and have a few screen shots that help to thoroughly
demonstrate very specific Business Intelligence –related material. That being said, the quality
of blogging that I’ve seen on bidn often makes it difficult to distinguish between article and blog
posting.
A blog on BIDN is a bit more informal. It is sometimes shorter and written in a more relaxed
style. These are the smaller day-to-day, “I found something out that I didn’t know before. I
thought I’d share it with everyone!” –type posts.
A forum post on BIDN is more interactive “conversation” style “thread” of messages. One
user might have a question, so he or she posts the question and then one or more users can
reply to the question ( or factoid or whatever! ). I’ll be putting together a HOWTO on posting in
the forums as well.
An event on BIDN is a calendar event of upcoming items. This can be used to inform others of
your SQL user group meeting or perhaps a larger SQL-related event like PASS.
NOTE:
You should also note that there are RSS subscription icons all over the site – if you like to read via RSS
that is available to you as well – but beyond the scope of this document.
Why? Because I don’t know how to set it up. ☺ If you know how to do it – blog it!
7
Exploring the site – the bidn menu bar
If you’re like me, you may “learn by doing”. If that is the case, exploring the site is another way to find
information for which you might be looking.
So if that is the case for you, let’s break down the BIDN menu bar with quick descriptions of what each
menu item will provide for you and do a little exploring.
As we go from left to right through the menu bar, an explanation for each item and examples /
screenshots ( where appropriate ) of the information available using each item will be provided to you
over the following pages.
8
HOME – menu item
This menu item takes you back to the “main” page of BIDN. On it, you will find things like (1) an
introductory video explaining the purpose of the site, (2) the latest featured articles, (3) a listing
of the top contributors to the site and (4) a list of recent activity on the site so you can quickly
get to the newest / latest posts in the site as seen below. We’ll look at #4 in a bit more depth
since it is a great source of information.
..By the way, to answer your question, I don’t know why I opted to order the items that way. ☺
9
Let us take a little detour for the “What’s New” (4) section in the lower left-hand corner of the main
page. In the following pages you will learn what is on each of these tabs.
Note that there are “tabs” on the top of some of the “sections” of the “What’s New” section of the main
page.
In this instance, we are looking at “Activity” – which covers all types of activities occurring on the site.
Here, we can see some activities by various users which have recently occurred. There are replies to a
post ( meaning a forum post ), we see new users have joined the BIDN site and a user has commented
on another user’s blog post.
If you were to click on one of the other tabs, it would filter the “all activity” list down to only those
activities related to the tab on which you clicked. For example, if you clicked on the “Blogs” tab, you
would only see a list of the latest blog posting activities as shown in the next image below.
10
This shows the “What’s New” section of the main page filtered down to blog-related activities.
Specifically this shows postings of new blog entries. Note that in this view one does not see if someone
posted a comment on a blog – just that a new blog entry was posted by a BIDN member.
If one clicked Forums, one would see the list of forum postings and their answer. Each is accompanied
with the first few lines of text from the post so you can decide if it is something you with to read more of
or if it not something of interest to you.
Clicking “Articles” here shows the latest posting of Articles on BIDN. Again, each on has a few
sample lines to allow you to see if the article is relevant to you and if you wish to read more
about that subject.
Clicking “Events” lists any upcoming events that other BIDN members have posted.
Finally clicking “Jobs” shows a job listing ( note that the job listings has the date and time the
listing was posted. You can immediately see how “fresh” a posting is on there ).
11
ARTICLES – menu item
Selecting Articles on the menu bar will display a listing of more detailed posts on the BIDN site ( see
the definition of articles earlier in this HOWTO ).
When you see the list of articles, there is a listing of “Topics” down the left-hand side of the page. These
are clickable and act to filter the list on the right-hand side of the page. Some categories may be empty
or have few articles. Remember that the site is community-based. If you’re looking for an article that
you can’t find – ask your question in the forums ( see the HOWTO for forum usage ).
To read any article in the list on the right-hand side, simply click its title and the article will be displayed.
12
FORUMS – menu item
Personally, this is my favorite spot on BIDN. It’s where you get to be a bit more interactive with
the other users. You can ask or answer questions here and you have other Business Intelligence
users spanning all levels of experience from which to learn.
Note that there is a separate HOWTO on forum usage. This will be a high-level overview only.
The forums are broken down into 3 main sections on BIDN. They are:
Information Worker
- These would be subjects related to business intelligence end-users ( not developers ).
This would be an area for learning about how to “present” business intelligence to
users.
- At the time of writing, this area has discussion groups for: SharePoint , Office Interfaces
and 3rd Party Presentation Tools.
Microsoft Business Intelligence
- These would be areas for information regarding business intelligence development /
configuration / installation and problem solving.
- At the time of writing, this area has discussion groups for: Analysis Services , Integration
Services , Reporting Services , Data Warehouse Design , SQL Server, Data Mining , BI
Query Languages ( MDX , DMX ) and Master Data Management ( MDM ).
and
BIDN
- A few groups that give you a place to ask questions about the site and/or report any issues that
you find while using the BIDN site.
- At the time of writing, this area has discussion groups for: Comments and Suggestions
about BIDN, Issues and Bugs with BIDN and General BI Discussion.
Like the main page, on the site if you look on the right-hand side of the page, you’ll see a listing
of both the latest forum postings and below it a list of top forum contributors.
13
BLOGS – menu item
The Blogs menu item works much like the articles menu item. This will present you with a list of the
aforementioned “less formal” postings. These are generally highly specific and often deal with only one
topic. Sometimes the author chooses to elaborate on the subject at other times, it’s a high-level
overview. As you continue to read blogs, you will quickly get a “feel” for the authors who present
information in a way that you find clear as well as some who do not.
Like the articles page and the forums, the blogs page also has a list of top contributors to the upper
right-hand corner of the page. Below that one will find Blog Archives which will let you view past blogs
from known month and year periods.
BI TOOLS – menu item
This menu item is a link which will take you to the Pragmatic Works website’s products page
(http://pragmaticworks.com/Products/ ).
My personal opinion: Before you opt to register a complaint about there being a few “advertising” links
on the site, please keep in mind that they are paying for the site and that it’s a free resource made
available to us all. I am a Pragmatic Works customer / user of “TaskFactory”, so I know they have solid
products.
On the Pragmatic Works “BI Tools” page, one will find links to ( at the time of writing ) information
regarding “BIxPress – SSIS Auditing & Deployment”, “BI Documenter – MSDN Style Documentation”,
“DTS XChange – Upgrade/Migrate DTS to SSIS” and “TaskFactory – Increase SSIS Performance”.
There are also links to free training videos, upcoming webinars and so on.
BI TRAINING – menu item
This
menu
will
take
you
to
paid
classes
which
Pragmatic
Works
(http://pragmaticworks.com/services/training/ ). There are a variety of courses to choose from.
offers
My personal opinion: While I cannot speak to all of the courses – I have taken “Pragmatic SSIS ( online
)”. When I took it, I was pretty confident about my SSIS abilities, but wanted to make sure I understood
what I was doing completely. The first day, I thought, “Oh no. Was this a waste of money and time!?”
By the second day I was starting to look at SSIS problems in a different way. Even for an “experienced”
SSIS developer, this was useful information. If nothing else, you get different perspectives on tackling
things that you do. By the end of my third day, I was REALLY glad I’d taken the class and spent the time
learning more about SSIS.
14
JOBS – menu item
The “Jobs” menu item shows a listing of available positions in the business intelligence market. Each
position has a title, company, location and the date it was posted (you will know if it is “fresh” or not).
On the right-hand side of the Jobs screen, one will find a “Jobs” group that has links to limit down the
types of job returned in the jobs listing. These “types” are “Consulting”, “Freelance”, “Full Time”, etc.
Below the “jobs” box is the “Search Job categories” group which also has links to limit the jobs listing.
This group has options such as, “Analysis Services Jobs”, “BI Analyst Jobs”, etc.
EVENTS – menu item
The events menu item will present you with a listing of upcoming business intelligence events that other
BIDN users may have entered. I’m not entirely sure of what is presented on this list – as the day that I
went to document it, the listing was actually empty.
FILES – menu item
The files menu will present you with a list of publicly available files for download. Here you may find
PowerPoint presentations, .SQL files, report definition files ( RDL ), etc. Most likely there is a blog or
article referencing or explaining the file(s) somewhere. So you might try searching ( see HOWTO – find
the information you seek ) on the filename if you find one that catches your eye.
SPACES – menu item
This appears to be “sub groups” on the site.
speculate and potentially confuse anyone.
I have not used this feature personally, so I won’t
PEOPLE – menu item
This will show you a list of users on the BIDN site. The links ( each individual’s name ) will present
you with more detailed information about that user – this is what I’m calling their “profile
page”.
Like the other pages, there are tabs on a user’s individual page. Once you go to their profile
page, you can click the tabs to see their self summary, the information they have chosen to
share, their recent activity on the BIDN site, any “content” ( which will list articles, blogs, forum
posts, events or jobs they have posted ) and any “spaces” to which they currently belong.
15
MY ACCOUNT – menu item
I have created a separate HOWTO for using the “My Account” menu item. Generally this item lets you
define the details on your profile that you want to publicly share with others.
There are tabs on the page to allow you check your mail (BIDN site – person-to-person type mail ),
edit your profile and prepare ( draft ) articles and blog posts. There is a tab where you can see
all of the forum posts to which you have contributed. There’s a tab to see events or jobs that
you’ve posted. I’m going to call this “and finally” – there is a tab to maintain your list of friends
on the site.
I say finally because there is a Workflow tab too – but I have no idea what that does! ☺
That is about all I have for navigating around the site. As mentioned, there are more detailed HOWTO
docs for some subjects covered here. So if you didn’t find what you were after – check the table of
contents. It’s probably here somewhere. If not, drop me a line and if I know it, maybe I can add it to
the document!
I hope this helps you get an idea of some of the things available to you on BIDN.
16
HOWTO – Find the information you seek: Searching Basics
Search is our friend, search is good.
Let us assume that you’ve been looking into SSIS and you find that you want to find some information
about a component you’ve heard of, but you’re not quite sure how it works. This component is called
“conditional split”. To search on BIDN, in the upper right-hand corner, you’ll see a box that reads, “—
search” . In that box, type, “conditional split”.
( I know – that was really complicated, right? )
Now you can either press enter, or click the magnifier to the right to begin searching.
Looking at the results of the search –
17
It looks like it gave us back answers that make sense. ( Note the icons down the side of the results to tell
you what kind of result it is ). Here, there is a forum post by JohnG which is tagged for conditional split,
there is also a blog entry from DustinRyan talking about derived columns, but in the description – sure
enough, there is mention of a conditional split. Finally, DevinKnight has posted an event from PASS
showing that there was a presentation about “..and Splitting Data”.
NOTE: While events in the past might not seem like useful links ( and sometimes – they are not ), you
should still give them a look. There may be a recording of a presentation which can be a great way to
learn quickly if you’re a visual learner.
I hope that helps with your searching on BIDN. Go forth and find helpful things!
18
HOWTO – Using Google to search BIDN
Here's a quick hint to let you use Google to search this ( or any Google searchable ) site.
Let's say I way to see what all I've done on BIDN. I'd jump over to http://www.google.com with
my browser and enter my search terms - in this case, my first and last name. Then at the end of
the search, I would add on "+site:bidn.com" as seen below.
Note: I didn't get 1.76 million results - and sure enough, it is only results from bidn.com.
If you'd like to see other options that you can use on Google to refine your searches, check out
their search help here:
http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=1221265&answ
er=136861
19
HOWTO – Setup your profile on BIDN
The following HOWTO assumes that you are logged into BIDN with your own account information. If
you’re not logged in, please log in before continuing this tutorial. If you’re not familiar with logging in
and/or you have not yet signed up for a BIDN account, please see my other HOWTO tutorials on these
actions.
Once signed in, click on “My account” on the BIDN menu bar ( see “HOWTO – Find your way around
BIDN” if you’re not familiar with this ). You should see a page similar to the following. As shown below,
click on the “Profile” tab:
For this HOWTO, we’ll be looking at the links down the left-hand portion of this page from top to
bottom.
Login Information
The default page presented to you when you enter the profile tab is the “Login Information” page.
Here, you can change your password and/or email address. Once you have changed it as you desire,
you can click “Save” so that the site will keep your information.
Note that while it is not pictured above, there is also a link to the right-hand side of the page which,
when clicked, allows you to view your public profile. This link will display your tabbed profile page just
as other BIDN users will see it.
20
Personal Information
Moving down the list, is the “personal information” tab
of the screen.
This allows you to change your first, middle, last name,
gender, birth date and occupation ( title ), etc.
One thing to note is that if you didn’t sign up for
promotional offers and now want them – or vice versa
– you can change that setting here. Yes, you read that
correctly – YOU control the promotional “spam” here.
The final option is a privacy option. Not everyone wants to share their details online – so you can check
( for public ) or uncheck ( for private ) your profile in the bottom, “Is profile public” setting.
Profile photo and avatar
The next section is for your photo / avatar. You might wonder what the difference is between these.
Well, the top photo shown above shows up when a user looks at your profile page – generally this is the
“larger” image that you will see.
The bottom “avatar” photo shows up as the smaller image on the various BIDN pages where you may
notice a smaller “icon”-like image next to a blog summary for example.
Note that you don’t need to size these images – the site appears to handle that. I didn’t find any
information on suggested image sizes (dimensions) on the site – so if you happen to know, let me know
and I’ll update this doc with the information.
21
Your Location
Next up is your location information. This is straight forward – you specify where you are in the world,
time zone, date formatting, physical area / address. Above is an example of what it might look like (
using my work location ).
22
In your own words
Braggarts of the world, unite!
..Ok - maybe not.
This section of the profile gives you the option to let others know a bit more about you. You can
describe your current job if you wish, or you call let others know that you’re not JUST a database
person. You can list other areas of interest if you wish including music, tv shows, books and favorite
foods.
One thing to note if that you can also set your “signature” here – it will be appended to all forum posts
that you contribute to the site.
Email notifications:
The next item down allows you to chose how ( or if ) you want to be emailed when various site-related
activities occur. Remember that this is NOT email offers from 3rd parties. These are emails that keep
you updated on BIDN-related activities.
23
Your Contact Information
The next item down lets you specify how you can be contacted. Please note that the first 2 items ( if
unchecked ) allows you to keep this information private. What you share is up to you – none of these
are required ( and in the example above are shown empty ).
However, you may wish to share your website or your business’ company phone # here to encourage
others to contact you.
There are also links for Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin giving you lots of options to connect with other
database professionals.
Meta Information
I’m just going to be honest here and tell you – I do not have any idea how this is used. ☺ If you know,
shoot me a message on BIDN and let me know. I’ll try to get this document updated as I’m able.
24
HOWTO use the Forums on BIDN
I’m sure this will be a bit controversial – but who doesn’t like some drama in their life!?
It seems like forum “etiquette” is as opinion-inspiring as heated religious debates. So I’m going to give
you some suggestions and “here is how I do it”-type “tips”. Feel free to adjust my methods to suite your
own personality. With that in mind, let’s jump right into my favorite area of the BIDN website!
Click on the “Forums” item on the main menu bar ( 3rd item from the left ).
Let’s start by stealing from my “overview” of the forums in the “HOWTO find your way around the BIDN
site” here is what we’ve got in the forum section.
What’s there?
The forums are broken down into 3 main sections on BIDN. They are:
Information Worker
- These would be subjects related to business intelligence end-users ( not developers ).
This would be an area for learning about how to “present” business intelligence to
users.
- At the time of writing, this area has discussion groups for: SharePoint , Office Interfaces
and 3rd Party Presentation Tools.
Microsoft Business Intelligence
- These would be areas for information regarding business intelligence development /
configuration / installation and problem solving.
- At the time of writing, this area has discussion groups for: Analysis Services , Integration
Services , Reporting Services , Data Warehouse Design , SQL Server, Data Mining , BI
Query Languages ( MDX , DMX ) and Master Data Management ( MDM ).
and
BIDN
- A few groups that give you a place to ask questions about the site and/or report any issues that
you find while using the BIDN site.
- At the time of writing, this area has discussion groups for: Comments and Suggestions
about BIDN, Issues and Bugs with BIDN and General BI Discussion.
25
Like the main page, on the site if you look on the right-hand side of the page, you’ll see a listing
of both the latest forum postings and below it a list of top forum contributors.
Forum Listing
Above is a sub-set of the forums offered on the BIDN site. Note that each link represents a subject area
of business intelligence. Within these areas, you are able ( and encouraged ) to post your questions and
seek the help of other business intelligence / database professionals.
To enter a forum, click on the link of that subject area. For this HOWTO, I’ll be using the Integration
Services forum.
26
The Message List within a given forum
When you click on the link for that forum, you’ll be presented with a list of messages ( or conversational
“threads” ) dealing with various subject matters. The list is presented with many links per subject. Here
is an example of the first few messages in the forum at this moment:
The top message, denoted as a “Sticky:” is a message that always shows up at the top of the forum
listing. Beneath it, you’ll various subject messages. There is a lot of information just in this listing
believe it or not. So what can you do with it?
•
You can click on the link that shows the subject line to read the contents of the message.
•
You can click on the name of the poster next to the “by” to see that user’s profile to learn more
about her or him.
•
You can “at a glance” see the last person to have posted a message and the timeframe in which
the post was made in the right-hand column.
•
You can see how many replies a message has received as well as how many times it has been
viewed.
•
Finally, there is an icon which denotes if the question / conversion has been marked as an answer
( more on this later ). If you find a subject that you’re looking for and it has a post marked as an
answer, this means the original poster felt that one of the reply(ies) solved the issue she or he
was encountering. It can also help you find answers that are already present without asking the
same question again! Who doesn’t want the answer right away!? ☺
27
Message details:
So we find a message that peaks our interest – or perhaps one that you’re currently struggling with.
Let’s look at how to UNZIP a file using SSIS.
I type, “unzip” in the search bar in the upper right-hand corner and click the search icon. The first item
is a forum post dealing with this very issue!
Just like with the message listing in the forum, click on the link to the message subject and you’ll be
presented with the details of the message thread as seen below.
28
Let’s take a look at what we have here from top to bottom. (Hopefully this will help with where to
start on reading in the forums)
(1) There is the subject that we clicked on up top – this tells us ( hopefully ) the overall theme ( or
original theme ) of the posts / discussion that follow.
(2) We can see when the message was posted and who posted the message.
(3) The original text of the message / question can be seen
a. While I didn’t highlight them, you’ll also notice there are links to reply to the message
below the body of each post
(4) In the message body, we see a response to the original post where the author has provided
some helpful links to aide the original poster in solving her or his issue.
(5) The responding author also added “tags” to help others find this message. Tags are short
summarizing words or phrases that denote the subject area(s) with which the message deals.
Tags are comma separated on BIDN and generally as you type, existing tags will be presented
which you can choose with the mouse ( it is like auto-complete in the Visual Studio IDEs ).
One may also note that the original poster has marked the response as an answer – so right away, I can
see that the response was helpful and it may be a good place for me to start reading to learn more or
solve my own issue.
Posting a forum question
Ok, so you’ve seen how to read in the forums, next let’s look at how to post a question in a given forum.
Over to the right-hand side of the page, you should find the “Options” box that looks like this:
Maybe I stole the thunder a bit by putting a big red box around it? But you guessed it – clicking the
“Add New Topic” link will start a new message thread. Once you click it, you’ll see something like the
following page:
29
Here in the area marked (1), you can type the subject of your message and in the area marked (2) you
write the body of your message. ( see the tips and tricks sections for some suggestions with both
subjects and message bodies ).
Toward the bottom of the page, you’ll see these sections:
3) is where you can add “tags” ( see above ) to your post to make the subject matter easier to locate.
When you’re all done and ready to post the message, you hit (4) – the post button - and your message is
posted to the forum for other users to see.
30
Replying to an existing post
When you read a message – or get a response and you wish to add additional information or reply to
another poster, click on the “reply” link under her or his message. Make sure you click on the reply link
under the message to which you want to reply. It will be shown at the top of the page, but ONLY that
message is shown – not the entire message thread.
Here is a portion of the reply screen:
Note that this is very similar to posting a new message. The subject is already populated for you (
though you can edit it if desired ) and you’re presented all of the same features that you see when
posting a new message. You have a tag box toward the bottom and the same post / cancel buttons as
when posting a new message.
That should give you the basics to get you started – if you have more questions, shoot me a message on
BIDN and if I’m able, I’ll be happy to answer your questions.
Following are some of my personal thoughts on the forums – more along the lines of etiquette and they
are my opinions. They are not rules. You don’t HAVE to do things this way – they are just some
suggestions and ways that I think will help get your posts read and hopefully answered.
31
MY OPINIONS – Tips and tricks for the BIDN forums
Some tips for forum usage and getting the help you need.
( 1 ) Describe the problem as best you can in the subject line:
When posting, avoid subject lines like, "How do I do this?" or "Can you help?" While some
people will read those - I suspect many people scroll on by. Better examples of subjects might
be, "I need help using a text file as a data source" or perhaps, "I am getting an error using a text
file as a data source". When a reader sees that - she or he is more likely to think, "Hey! I know
about text files. Maybe I can help."
( 2 ) If possible provide examples and/or screenshots:
You can add code to your forum posts as well as screen shots, so take a few minutes and
include a temp table creation and maybe 3 rows of data to help someone else see the same
problem you're seeing. This also shows that you're taking time to communicate your issue as
best you can. Perhaps English is not your primary language. If people can reproduce it
themselves - they can post back their solution in the same way. Perhaps they will post a query
or screenshot that will help you - visual cues or code can overcome language barriers.
( 3 ) Take a minute to edit before you post:
I'm not just referring to reading back through to make sure your post makes sense and that
you used "too", "to" and "two" correctly. Eliminate the "fluff" - and make sure you're
communicating the question to which you want an answer. Did you write a paragraph about
your company history and your work experience and somewhere in the middle add, "which is
why I don't know how to COALESCE() that.."? Or did you more concisely state your question?
Remember that database people tend to be pretty literal in their interpretations. We're used
to defined columns and constraints. Give lots of information and details up front - it will
probably pay off with faster / better answers - or at least fewer questions.
( 4 ) Participate:
If you see an unanswered message in the forum and think ( or know ) that you can help, click
the "reply" link and do so. Sharing what you know helps new users learn and shows that you
want to be an active participant in the Business Intelligence community. When readers are
used to seeing your name on answers - but they see it on a question, they will likely want to
help you as you've helped others.
Personally, I find it interesting when the people who answer forum posts frequently ask a
question. They are the ones who "know their stuff", right? So what stumps them? Is that
something I know? If not, is it something I can learn?
32
..and perhaps most importantly:
( 5 ) Say, "Thank you!"
If you are getting answers to questions - thank the people that gave the time to you. You might
wonder how to do that. Well one way is to mark their reply as an answer. This serves two ( 2 )
purposes. (1) You're participating in the community - because you're "flagging" that message
as an answer. You're telling others, "Here is my question - and [check] here's the answer!".
That eliminates duplicate questions in the forums and makes it more useful to you as well as
others. (2) You let the poster know that you got their answer and that it did work for you.
When you mark an answer you also give that poster a few extra "points" for their contribution
on the site - a kind of "yes, I post a lot" bragging right. You'll see those listed in the "top
contributors" sections around the site.
One parting thought You should also note that while the people here are willing and able to help - many of them will
not reply if your message sounds like you're not willing to put any effort into learning and you
"..just want the answer". The contributors here want you to learn and grow as a BI
professional. They're not here to be your free consultants - but if you need that kind of help,
many are available for hire.
I hope this helps - see you in the forums!
Keith
33