The Biml Book is here!

Cathrine Wilhelmsen Co-Authored The Biml BookWoohoo! The Biml Book: Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse Automation is now available for pre-order from Amazon and Apress! :D

This is the first book I’ve co-authored, and I have to admit it’s a very strange feeling to see my name on the cover of a book. Am I allowed to say I’m quite proud? Oh, I’ll say it anyway. I’m proud and very honored to have written this book with such a talented group of people: Andy Leonard (@AndyLeonard), Scott Currie (@scottcurrie), Ben Weissman (@bweissman), Bill Fellows (@billinkc), Martin Andersson (@frysdisken), Peter Avenant (@PeterAvenant), Simon Peck (@biguynz), Reeves Smith (@SQLReeves), Raymond Sondak (@raymondsondak) and Jacob Alley.

What’s in The Biml Book?

The first part of the book starts with the basics: getting your development environment configured, Biml syntax, and scripting essentials.

The next part of the book guides you through the process of using Biml to build a framework that captures both your design patterns and execution management. In addition to leveraging design patterns in your framework, you will learn how to build a robust metadata store and how to package your framework into Biml bundles for deployment within your enterprise.

In the last part of the book, you will learn more advanced Biml features and capabilities, such as SSAS development, T-SQL recipes, automated documentation, and Biml troubleshooting.

When can I get The Biml Book?

Amazon says early December, but it might be available sooner. If you don’t want to wait, you can pre-order The Biml Book from Amazon or Apress right now.

Yay! This has been a long journey, and I’m so happy the other guys let me be a part of it :)

Speaking at SQLSaturday Denver 2017

Cathrine Wilhelmsen Speaking at SQLSaturday Denver 2017

On Saturday, September 16th, I’m speaking at SQLSaturday Denver 2017! I’m presenting my Level Up Your Biml: Best Practices and Coding Techniques session: Learn how to centralize and reuse code with include files and the CallBimlScript methods. Make your code easier to read and write by utilizing LINQ (Language-Integrated Queries). Share code between files by using Annotations and ObjectTags. And finally, if standard Biml is not enough to solve your problems, you can create your own C# helper classes and extension methods to implement custom logic.

Since I last presented this session, BimlExpress 2017 has been released with a bunch of new features. I have updated my session to include some of these new features, and I’m looking forward to presenting with the new preview expanded Biml pane. Being able to see the expanded Biml is hopefully going to make it a lot easier for me to explain some of these things and for attendees to follow along :)

If you really like Biml, check out the three other Biml sessions at SQLSaturday Denver: Biml 101: Automation and Patterns by Yuliya Quintela, Stop Repeating Yourself – Automating Azure Data Movement With BimlScript by Levi Syck (@levisyck), and Metadata driven development by Bill Fellows (@billinkc).

Will you be attending SQLSaturday Denver? Come and say hi when you see me! :)

I’m a Microsoft Ignite Community Reporter!

For this year’s Microsoft Ignite, 10 MVPs have been invited by Microsoft to cover the event live throughout the week. I’m very excited and honored to announce that I’m one of this year’s Community Reporters! :) As a Community Reporter, I will share news and updates by blogging, tweeting, reporting live, interviewing speakers and attendees, and posting pictures and videos of what’s happening on the ground in Orlando.

Get to know the Community Reporters

Click on the links below to read each Community Reporter’s introduction blog post, learn more about them, and see where you can follow them on social media. If you’re on Twitter, you can find everyone in the msignitelive list.

Microsoft Ignite Community Reporters

Top row from left to right:
Alistair Pugin (Office Servers & Services MVP)
Cathrine Wilhelmsen (Data Platform MVP) <- Hey mom, look, it's me! :)
Christian Buckley (Office Servers & Services MVP)
Darrell Webster (Office Servers & Services MVP)
Dux Raymond Sy (Office Servers & Services MVP)

Bottom row from left to right:
Harjit Dhaliwal (Windows and Devices for IT MVP)
Laura Rogers (Office Servers & Services MVP)
Magnus Mårtensson (Microsoft Azure MVP)
Sue Hanley (Office Servers & Services MVP)
Tom Arbuthnot (Office Servers & Services MVP)

What will you do as a Community Reporter?

My focus will be on the Microsoft Data Platform, SQL Server, Analytics, Machine Learning and AI, as well Women in Business & Technology. As the only Data Platform MVP, I won’t be able to cover everything, but I will do my best to share news and updates about a wide variety of topics. Do you have any ideas, suggestions, or even questions for any of the speakers? Let me know in a comment!

I will cross-post content to this blog throughout the week, but most of my activity will be on Twitter, so make sure you follow me there: @cathrinew.

If you want to know which sessions I’m attending, take a look at my Microsoft Ignite Schedule. Keep in mind that I have a lot of other things planned that aren’t listed in the schedule (some of them may or may not involve a camera crew!) and that my schedule might change at any time.

Finally, make sure you follow the Microsoft Ignite Blog for all the latest news and updates.

See you in Orlando?

Are you attending Microsoft Ignite? Let me know by leaving a comment. And if you see me around, make sure to say hi! If my nose is stuck to my phone screen, it only means I’m sharing something cool, I’m not trying to ignore you ;)

Cathrine Wilhelmsen is a Microsoft Ignite Community Reporter

See you in Orlando from September 25-29!

New Release: BimlExpress 2017!

BimlExpress 2017What day is it today? It’s the BimlExpress 2017 release day! Yay! :) I’ve waited for this release for a long time, and I know I’m not the only one. People have asked me many times if Varigence is still around. The answer is most definitely yes! It has been rather quiet from Varigence this past year, and I know we’ve all been waiting for news and updates. But don’t forget that they’re a small company, and that they’re actually giving us BimlExpress for free. They’ve focused on development this past year, and have been working like crazy to rewrite the Biml engine, add new features to BimlExpress, rebrand Mist to BimlStudio and make it even more powerful, and finish their BimlFlex framework. And today? Today we all get to enjoy the new releases! More yay! :)

Download and install BimlExpress 2017

You can download BimlExpress 2017 from the Varigence BimlExpress page:
BimlExpress Download VSIX

The new installer is a lightweight VSIX (Visual Studio Extension) Installer:
Install BimlExpress 2017 - License Agreement Install BimlExpress 2017 - In Progress Install BimlExpress 2017 - Finished

After installing, you will find BimlExpress in the list of Visual Studio Tools and Extensions:
BimlExpress 2017 Visual Studio Extension

What’s New in BimlExpress 2017?

I will show you some of the exciting new features below. Spoiler alert: there are some gamechangers in this release! Let’s take a look at some of the exciting new features in BimlExpress 2017 :)

Continue reading →

Create your own BimlExpress Keyboard Shortcuts

Are you tired of right-clicking on your Biml files to Check Biml for Errors or to Generate SSIS Packages? Did you know that you can create your own BimlExpress Keyboard Shortcuts? :)

Go to Tools → Options:
BimlExpress Keyboard ShortcutsToolsOptions - Tools -> Options

Select Environment → Keyboard, then type Biml in the Show commands containing box:
BimlExpress Keyboard Shortcuts

Select a Biml command, click in the Press shortcut keys box, click the keyboard shortcut combination of your choice, and click the Assign button. In this example, I have used Ctrl+Shift+C, Ctrl+Shift+B (I chose C then B for “Check Biml”):
BimlExpress Keyboard Shortcuts - Assign Shortcut

Click OK, and that’s it! You can now use your keyboard shortcuts while having one or more Biml files selected. The shortcuts will appear in your BimlExpress menus in the toolbar and when you right-click on a file :)
BimlExpress Keyboard Shortcuts Menu

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