So, today I decided to try out Microsoft’s site: CodePlex. I recently created a utility app to process dimensions and partitions in SSAS (SQL Server Analysis Services) because I didn’t like the way it worked in SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio). I don’t know because I never used it, but I guess in pre-SP2 you could process multiple objects at the same time, just hit process, move on to the next one. In SP2, the process dialog is modal so you can get around it, you have to wait for the object to process – yuck!
Also, I just wanted to try out CodePlex and see how it works, what I like and don’t like. Since becoming a contractor doing Data Warehousing and BI stuff, I miss coding in .NET (and any other language), so I want to keep that up in my free time. This is a result of that. Hopefully once I get used to CodePlex I will contribute to some other Open Source .NET Projects, sounds like fun to me!
Here is the link to the project: http://www.codeplex.com/SSASUtils
Some of the glue code for connecting and processing I gleamed from other examples and projects I have seen around the web, some in VB.net , some that didn’t even work, etc. Hopefully more SSAS Utils can be added to this project and it can become way more useful that it is now (although I do use it pretty much every day right now).
CodePlex: I like it so far. There are few things that could be done better, but I am using the Team Explorer source control which fits nicely into VS2005, really cool. I will probably post up more on CodePlex later. If I get the urge, I might create project for some other stuff I have lingering around my hard drive (FFMC, PocketBlogger, other random utils). I am anxious to see what the community participation is like, I tired GotDotNet back in the day and it was weak, we will see with CodePlex.
Steve Novoselac's Blog 