Lesson 1: Opening and Examining the Tutorial Solution

In this lesson you will open the SQL Server Management Studio solution for the tutorial and review the projects and files. You will also review Object Explorer as it pertains to this tutorial. After you complete this lesson, you should be familiar with the solution and ready to start working with the solution files.

Opening the Tutorial Solution

First, let's open the tutorial solution you will be working with.

To open the tutorial solution

  1. In Windows Explorer, locate the Notification Services Tutorial folder. The default location for this folder is C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Samples\Notification Services\tutorial.

  2. Open the NSTutorial.ssmssln file.

    SQL Server Management Studio opens with solution files displayed in Solution Explorer. If Solution Explorer and Object Explorer do not appear, select them on the View menu.

  3. Connect to the instance of the Database Engine where you want to store data for the instance of Notification Services.

    1. In Object Explorer, click Connect and then select Database Engine.
      The Connect to Server dialog box appears.
    2. In the Server name text box, select or enter the name of the Database Engine instance where you want to store Notification Services data for this tutorial.
    3. In the Authentication text box, select an authentication mode.
      If you select SQL Server Authentication, you must enter a user name and password.
  4. Click Connect.

Examining the Tutorial Solution

In Solution Explorer, you should see two projects: Tutorial and Weather. The Tutorial project contains files for the Tutorial instance of Notification Services. The Weather project contains files for the Weather application. The Tutorial instance hosts the Weather application.

Tutorial Project

First, expand the Tutorial project and expand the Miscellaneous folder. The Tutorial project contains only one file, TutorialICF.xml. This file describes the Tutorial instance of Notification Services.

Weather Project

Next, examine the Weather project. This project contains files used to update and run the Weather application and to review database changes after performing some tutorial lessons.

  • The Queries folder contains Transact-SQL queries that you will later use to review database changes and submit events to the Weather application.
  • The Miscellaneous folder contains four files:
    • WeatherADF.xml is an application definition file (ADF). This file contains XML code that describes the Weather application. Most of the tutorial involves editing this file.
    • WeatherTransform.xslt is an Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT). The Weather application's XSLT content formatter uses the code in this file to transform raw notification data into formatted notifications.
    • AddSubscribers.vbs is a VBScript file used to add subscribers to the instance of Notification Services. Typically, you would build a subscription management interface using managed code, but this script is a quick way to load subscriber and subscription data for prototyping.
    • AddSubscriptions.vbs is a VBScript file used to add subscriptions to the Weather application. Again, script files like this are used primarily for prototyping.

Object Explorer

In Object Explorer, you will be using the Notification Services and Databases folders. The Notification Services folder is where you will be accessing Notification Services dialogs to create, update, register, enable, and start the instance of Notification Services. The Databases folder will contain the TutorialNSMain instance and TutorialWeather application database.

Next Lesson

Lesson 2: Performing an Initial Build of the Tutorial Instance

See Also

Concepts

Notification Services Tutorial

Other Resources

Building Notification Solutions
Introducing SQL Server Notification Services

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance