News

SQL Server 2012 Developer Training Kit Updated, Service Pack Announced

• By David Ramel
• July 23, 2012

Microsoft last week updated the SQL Server 2012 Developer Training Kit to "release to manufacturing" status, according to a tweet from the product's Twitter page. The update comes nearly 2.5  months after the official release of SQL Server 2012.

The kit download is available via a 260MB setup file or a 2.3MB Web installer file, the latter of which allows for more customization of downloaded components but opens up multiple browser windows for manual downloads of individual components.

The kit is divided into sections for administration, development and business intelligence, with each section comprising of PowerPoint presentations, script/source code demos, hands-on labs and videos.

The development section, for example opens up a SQL Server 2012 Database Server Programmability page with links to PowerPoint presentations on subjects such as Transact-SQL improvements and LocalDb; demos on result set paging, using LocalDb as an embedded database and more; two hands-on labs covering Transact-SQL improvements and managing rich unstructured data; and videos on those subjects and more, getting down to specifics such as "Implementing a ‘Nearest Neighbor' Spatial Query." The videos include text transcripts hosted on a TechNet wiki.

Microsoft also provides developers with an online training course.

The training kit download supports Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, and requires installation of the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0, Windows Powershell, SQL Server 2012 and the AdventureWorks 2012 sample databases.

A link to a feedback page where developers can provide ideas on how to improve the training kit is included, but as of Monday, it stated "no ideas found."

Microsoft also announced on Monday the release of the Service Pack 1 Community Technology Preview 3 (CTP3), released with new business intelligence functionality in conjunction with preview releases of Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013. "This early CTP is only intended for customers who are testing the Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013 BI capabilities," Microsoft said. "Do not use it for testing other SQL Server scenarios." The CTP is available from the Microsoft Download Center.