Web Application Development with Microsoft Technologies

Last month I posted about the release of SQL Server 2008 CTP Version.

Even most of the new features are useful for BI developers, some could be helpful in our daiily activities, so it is good to know in advance what is coming up with SQL Server 2008.

This is a brief summary of the features it will include (from the SQL Server 2008 White Paper), that I think would help us to build better backends for our web applications:

•  Dynamic Development:

New Support for occasionally connected systems (change tracking) so you can synchronize your data within your mobile application and the server, easily.

Linq to SQL Provider to use LINQ directly into SQL tables and columns. This will improve the use of Linq to Datasets, Linq to SQL and ADO.NET Entity Framework (Linq to Entities).

More efficient and optimized support for CLR Integration and ADO.NET Object Services

• Beyond Relational Data:

New Data Types including separate types for DATE and TIME , HierarchyID to store values representing Hierarchy items in a tree and a FILESTREAM type to enable the storage of large binary files into the File System but still accesing its data like if it was in the Database.

Sparse columns, to reduce the space reserved for types that contain null values.

Larger User Defined Types, meaning no more limits to the user created types.

 So far, there are no news about Enterprise Management improvements, or any other features that could help us to do better in our daily working with the Database layer. But since it is still a CTP Version, some other things could be introduced.