The email telling me that I had been selected to speak was to say the least a surprise. My session “Soft Skills for Success” had been accepted for Data in Devon 2019. Yes I am very excited about the opportunity to speak in Exeter. My last time in Exeter was a school holiday many years ago, so the opportunity to return that beautiful part of the country is wonderful surprise.
It might seem a little strange that I was surprised that my session was accepted. However, I have been submitting sessions for a while now, most of which have been unsuccessful. This pattern is much like the one I experienced when I decided to moved careers into IT a couple of years ago and I was applying for IT roles. One of the lessons I learned during that time is that you are going to fail more than you succeed. So it pays to keep trying and mostly importantly learn from each failure and success. The current lesson I am learning is all about abstracts, how can I improve them? make them better? As I know if one strategy does not work, then I need review it, make a small change, then try the changed strategy, till I find the one that works, so that’s what I am doing with my submission abstracts.
To be invited to speak is to my mind an honour and a privilege. Why? People who I see as peers and who I respect have reviewed and considered the abstract that I have submitted, then invited me to speak. They are also putting their faith in me that on the day I will be there and will deliver a session which people will want to see / listen to / learn something from. When I get there on the day, yes, no doubt I will be nervous, worried, and have checked everything at least twice. Before the getting to the room on the day, I will have rehearsed the session, reviewed it been through it more than once. Just now I am working on tweaks to the session just for Data In Devon, if you want to know more you will have to attend the session.
The topic “Soft Skills for Success” is something that I am passionate about. So, I will be giving it my all. Like many projects that I work on, what people see is the final, smallest part of the project. Beforehand there will be a lot of unseen hard work to make it look good. The prize is worth the price, which is to be invited to speak to my peers about a topic that I am passionate about.
Figure 1 – The function ISJSON() returns 1 showing the data in the field [Data] is valid JSON
Now the JSON data is in the SQL database lets see about doing something useful with it. In SQL Server 2016 there was a number of new functions added that allow the querying and manipulation of JSON data. Having done some research, I found this blog post - https://visakhm.blogspot.com/2016/07/whats-new-in-sql-2016-native-json_13.html. Using code in this blog post I was able to extract the data from the JSON string supplied by the API from the sessionise.com website.
Before querying the data I need to explain one concept which is crucial for extracting data from structured JSON. In the example in Figure 1 below the path of the ‘title’ key value pair is as follows
Sessions.0.title this would have the key value pair 'title: “DAX Gotchas”' see Figure 2
Figure 2 – JSON data showing the sessions node and the first speaker node.
In the JSON object that was returned from sessionize.com API there are a number of nodes for each session. Starting with the number 0 through to 29 within each node there are a number of Key : Value pairs eg 'id : “117469”'. The path, nodes and arrays eg []speakers, and []categoryItems are what TSQL is going to extract values from. Enough with all that waffling about JSON objects, lets write some proper TSQL. In the next example we are going to use a function called OPENJSON(). This is only available in SQL 2016 or upwards. Using OPENJSON() in this example we are going to provide two arguments, @AllJson which contains the JSON object and must be datatype NVARCHAR(). Next is the path, the way I think about the path, is it specifies the node or array that I want to return from the @AllJson. The other function that we will use is JSON_VALUE(). This function also accepts two parameters, and an expression which is a variable or field name containing JSON data. The other one is path, the way I think about the path is it specifics the node or array that I want to return from the JSON data (yes I said that already just wanted to see if you are paying attention ;->). That’s a lot of words so let's look at some TSQL in Figure 3 below
Figure 3 – The JSON data from the sessions node returned as a result set in SSMS
When we look at Figure 3 we will notice that the first row of the data is the same as the data shown in Figure 2. In essence the FROM OPENJSON(@AllJson, ‘$.sessions’) is returning a dataset which consists of three fields namely Key, Value, and Type. The field Value contains the JSON object for all 30 session nodes. Next the JSON_VALUE() function takes the Json and extracts the value for one key pair. This is done by specifying the Key value for the 'Key:Value pair'. So in the case of title the path ‘$.title’ is supplied for the path parameter. Since there is only one 'Key:Value' pair where the Key = title, the value is return from the JSON_VALUE() function, and returned in the field ‘SessionTitle’. Looking at Figure 2, there is a Key:Value pair in the []speakers array. So sessions[0].id.value is “1174469”, the corresponding lookup value is speakers[7].sessions.value is “117469”. The two values are their locations in the JSON object are shown in Figure 4 below.
Figure 4 – Showing the lookup values for both sessions to speakers and vice versa.
So we know that we want to get access to the data in the []speakers array as this contains the list of speakerID’s for each session. How is this done? Well I found an answer in this blog post - https://visakhm.blogspot.com/2016/07/whats-new-in-sql-2016-native-json_13.html. Below in Figure 5 is the TSQL and result set.
Figure 5 – Updated query to return the speakerID from the []speakers array.
All we have done in the query shown in Figure 5 is to add a CROSS APPLY with a simple select statement. Now the speaker ID is returned, note that if there is more than one speakerID, such as in the case of sessionID 117615 (which has two awesome speakers). In which case the query returns two rows, returning a different speakerID for each, which is just what we wanted. Next let's have a look at returning data for the speaker's node. Below in Figure 6 the TSQL to return some data from the []speakers array.
Figure 6 – TSQL query to return data from the []speakers array
Looking at the query inside the CROSS APPLY
SELECT Value FROM OPENJSON(s.Value, '$.links') WHERE Value LIKE '%Twitter%' There are a couple things that are worth looking at. First it is possible to use a WHERE clause on the columns returned by the OPENJSON() function. The reason for using the WHERE clause is that the links node can contain more than one type of link. During development some of the speakers had a LinkedIn profile, which they then removed 🙁. So by now I am sure you are saying “show me the money”. After some work I created a query which extracts, the session, speaker and room information. Then returns it as a single result set as shown in Figure 7 below.
Figure 7 – Result set with Session, Speaker and room details
If you want to have a try yourself and play with the code then you will find
TSQL source code is in this Azure Data Studio Notebook is here
Python Code is in this Azure Data Studio Notebook is here
If you have not run the python code to import the data to import the data, then I have created a azure data studio notebook, containing the code to create the database and other tasks. The notebook can be found here.
Last, but very much not least why did I spend some much effort to get all the data out of the sessonize API? The end goal was to supply the data to SQL Server Report Builder (download from here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53613) . This standalone tool will allow you to build an SSRS report. Using this tool I created a report which when you run the report outputs pages that look like the one shown in Figure 8 below.
Figure 8- Data finally published on the SSRS report
One of the attractions of being a programmer was that l could find ways to make routine tasks easier and quicker. As our company and clients have discovered the joy of Power BI also the reports l have created. There are more clients are asking for reports. Some of these are the same reports to ensure everyone has the same view of their data. Scenario There are two databases l populate with data, one of these is on my machine, the other is an Azure database. As you would expect l use the local copy to test out various changes to the database. Then using the Redgate tool SQL Compare l can script any changes and apply them to the Azure database. It is possible to change the data source for each dataset easily using the following method. From the main window, on the 'Home' tab click once on the 'Edit Queries' button see Figure 1 Figure 1 - showing the location of the 'Edit Queries' button
This will open the 'Edit Queries' window now to see where the data source for a selected dataset. First select a dataset in the example shown in Figure 2, it is 'DimDate'. Next click on the 'Advanced Editor' button see figure 2.
Figure 2 - Showing location of 'Advanced Editor' button When the Advanced Editor window opens it will look something like the one shown in Figure 3 below. Figure 3 - Advanced Editor window, with M (Power Query Formula Language) query showing the Database Server Name and Database Name The syntax of the statement is relatively simple. In this case we are looking at the Sql.Database data function, the syntax is simple and looks like this -: Source = Sql.Database( "Name of Database Server", "Name Of Database") This is the text shown in Figure 3 let Source = Sql.Database("localhost", "DBdata"), dbo_DimDate = Source{[Schema="dbo",Item="DimDate"]}[Data] in dbo_DimDate
To change the data source to point at the Azure database the only changes that have to made are as follows
let Source = Sql.Database("AzureDatabase", "DBdata"), dbo_DimDate = Source{[Schema="dbo",Item="DimDate"]}[Data] in dbo_DimDate Job done. This was nice until you have to do it several times, and personally I got bored then wondered if there was a better way? I am glad you asked if there is a better way let me show you. Having seen some examples where the data source was an excel spreadsheet l was aware that it was possible to supply parameters to change the data source. From one spreadsheet to another one. The first step is to set up the parameters. Open the Query Editor window, click on the 'New Sources' button from the list click on 'Blank Query' (see Figure 4)
Having set up the DatabaseServer dataset (parameter value), repeat the process and create a DatabaseName dataset (parameter value). Figure 6 shows what you query editor window would look like if you entered the same details shown in this example.
* DatabaseServer - containing the value 'AzureDatabase' or the name of the database server you are going to connect to. * DatabaseName - containing the value 'DBData' or the name of the database you are going to connect to.
If we look at the advanced properties of the dataset 'DimDate' the data source would look like the one shown below. let Source = Sql.Database("AzureDatabase", "DBdata"), dbo_DimDate = Source{[Schema="dbo",Item="DimDate"]}[Data] in dbo_DimDate Next step is to replace the database server name and database name with the names of the Datasets that have just been set up. So the data source will look like the one below. let Source = Sql.Database(DatabaseServer, DatabaseName), dbo_DimDate = Source{[Schema="dbo",Item="DimDate"]}[Data] in dbo_DimDate
The advanced query window should look like the one show in figure 7 below. When the data source is queried the values of 'DatabaseServer' and 'DatabaseName' are replaced by the values from the relevant dataset. In this PowerBI desktop report l just replaced all the hard coded instances of the database server name and database name with the relevant parameter. Which allows me to switch between two databases with the ease l wanted, only with PowerBI desktop :-( Figure 7 - Showing the final M (Power Query Formula Language) text (data source) If you click on this link you can download a copy of a .PBIX with the two dataset's shown above. There is more you can do with this you will need to wait till part two of this blog post for more details.
So what am I going to show in the following blog posts?
So that’s what I am going to show, next let’s look at what is required to do it.
Ingredients
First download and install Azure Data Studio you can download the program from here.
Once you have installed Azure Data Studio, open the application. In Azure Data Studio in the menu find ‘File’ and click it, from the menu select ‘New Notebook’ see Figure 1 below.
This will open a new notebook (yippee!!) this might not sound very exciting yet, however it is! When a new notebook opens the Kernel must be set. The way that I think about this that it sets the language which will be run in the notebook, and will default to SQL. What we want run is Python v3. From the list of Kernels available selected ‘Python 3’, this will set the language that will be run in the notebook.
Figure 2 – selecting the Kernel (programming language) that will be run in the notebook.
Once ‘Python 3’ has been selected and if Python is not set up and installed, then Azure Data Studio will prompt you to set up and configure Python for Notebooks. A screen will open as we can see in Figure 3. For this blog post I accepted the default location and clicked on the ‘install’ button.
Figure 3 – Install and configure python for use in Azure Data Studio
If everything has gone to plan, then you should see something that looks like Figure 4.
Figure 4 – installation of Python going as planned
Installing of Python can take sometime so it might be good idea to get a hot beverage or do something else till it is finished installing.
Figure 5 – Installation of python is now completed successfully
In sessionize.com it is possible to create different API’s to output data, with this example the data is outputted as JSON. It is possible to select different parts of the data to be outputted, in this example ‘All Data’ is selected. Selecting the data from sessionize.com is beyond the scope of this blog post, it is very easy to do though.
In figure 6 the last step is to get the URL to be called in the code, this can be seen in Figure 6 below.
Figure 6 - API /Embed screen in Session.com for Data Scotland 2019.
In figure 6a (yes I forgot to include this till a later edit) is the columns that are outputted from Sessions.com for the API endpoint used.
Figure 6a - Settings for Available API endpoint used in this blog post.
Ok enough setting up lets write some code. To get access to other libraries in Python, the command that is used is import <library name>. In this example there are four libraries which are imported to be used. If you run the code shown in figure 7 you might get the error message shown.
Figure 7 – Error message if the package for the library being imported is not installed.
If you do see this error message then all you need to do is install the required package. In figure 7 at the top left hand side there a button titled ‘Install Packages’. Click on that button and the terminal window will open (see Figure 8). The command that installs the library ‘pyodbc’ is ‘.\python.exe - m pip install pyodbc’, type the command into the terminal window and press enter.
Figure 8 – Entering the command to install the ‘pyodbc’ package in the terminal window.
Hopefully the ‘pyodbc’ package will install without any challenges. If like me you are not so lucky and you get the error message shown in Figure 9. Then this is quite easy to fix.
Figure 9 – Error message stating PIP (Pip Installs Packages) requires to be upgraded to install ‘pyodbc’ package If you get the error message shown in Figure 9 then enter the following command at the prompt ‘.\python.exe - m pip install –upgrade pip’. If everything goes well you will see a message like the one shown in Figure 10.
Figure 10 – Successfully upgraded PIP to v 18.
Once the new version of PIP has been installed restart Azure Data Studio. Then open a notebook select Python 3 as the kernel language then click on the ‘Install Packages’ and install ‘pyobdc’ library (see Figure 8). Once ‘pyobc’ has been installed, it is now time to run the Python script
The Python Script will do the following
1 - call the API call and get the Json string returned is this into a dict Object which is then cast to a string object.
2 - open a connection to a SQL database run SQL script to create table if does not exist
3 - insert Json string into field in the table
Below is the Python script that is used. Much of the credit must go to the various websites which I have add references to in the script. In figure 10 we can see the script that is used. All that is require to change, is URL for the sessionize.com API, user credentials in the connection string. Otherwise this is the script is what I used.
Figure 11 - Python script in Azure Data Studio Notebook to import Json in SQL server 2016
The Azure Data Studio Notebook that is shown in Figure 11 can be downloaded from here.
In the next blog post we will look at how work with the Json data in SQL Server.
In the previous post (see here) l set up the blank datasets as parameters storing the values of the database server and name. Whilst attempting to create a suitable dataset to a report for an internal customer, l was frustrated that l could not do it using Power Query. Yet on the other hand l know that l could write some TSQL that would give me the dataset l wanted very easily. So l wondered if this was possible to combine the two? So lets return to the SQL.Database function which has this very nice example Sql.Database("localhost", "Northwind", [Query= select * from Customers]) The last setting is "Query as text - Provide a query text that is run on the server to return values". It's almost like someone thought it would be a good idea to allow a user to run a SQL query. A few minutes later l had the query l wanted to run and it looked something like this -:
DECLARE @IssueType AS VARCHAR(10) = 'Problem'; DECLARE @ClientName AS NVARCHAR(100) = 'RainbowPainters'; SELECT DATEPART(MONTH, [Issue_Created]) AS Month_Number ,DATENAME(MONTH, [Issue_Created]) AS Month_Name ,DATENAME(YEAR, [Issue_Created]) AS Year_Name ,COUNT(DATEPART(MONTH, [Issue_Created])) AS Total FROM [dbo].[IssueData] AS ID WHERE [Issue_type_name] = @IssueType AND [ClientName] = @ClientName GROUP BY DATEPART(MONTH, [Issue_Created]) ,DATENAME(MONTH, [Issue_Created]) ,DATENAME(YEAR, [Issue_Created]); Next when back to the dataset opened the 'Advanced Editor' and added the query, you can it in Figure 1 below Figure 1 - Advanced Editor window with the new query in place
To make it a bit easier to read below is the actual text from the 'Advanced Editor' window above. All that has been added is the text in red,and the query text which is in italics
letSource = Sql.Database(DatabaseServer, DatabaseName ,[Query = "DECLARE @IssueType AS VARCHAR(10) = 'Problem'; DECLARE @ClientName AS NVARCHAR(100) = 'RainbowPainters'; SELECT DATEPART(MONTH, [Issue_Created]) AS Month_Number ,DATENAME(MONTH, [Issue_Created]) AS Month_Name ,DATENAME(YEAR, [Issue_Created]) AS Year_Name ,COUNT(DATEPART(MONTH, [Issue_Created])) AS Total FROM [dbo].[IssueData] AS ID WHERE [Issue_type_name] = @IssueType AND [ClientName] = @ClientName GROUP BY DATEPART(MONTH, [Issue_Created]) ,DATENAME(MONTH, [Issue_Created]) ,DATENAME(YEAR, [Issue_Created]);" ]) in Source
When l refreshed the dataset, the data appeared :-) Job done? No, as often happens one client gets something and then everybody wants why they have. So l was asked if we could create the same set of reports for another customer. There was two choices at this point, l could just change the hard code client name, or could l parameterise the client name. Having heard this before l knew about passing parameters from excel to filter datasets see the following posts. https://blog.oraylis.de/2013/05/using-dynamic-parameter-values-in-power-query-queries/ http://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2015/11/24/using-parameter-tables-to-control-data-refresh-in-power-bi/ Having looked at the blog posts which declare and then used parameters this looked like a simple concept. Kudos to the Power BI team for that. First step was to add additional dataset as a parameter. So l now had three dataset as parameters, the latest one being 'ClientName', which stores the client name
Figure 2 - List of datasets containing parameters So having looked at the blog posts above l realised that l just need to declare a query which would hold the query text and pass in the Client Name parameter to the query text. Following some trial and error, l ended up with the query text below let pQuery = "DECLARE @IssueType AS VARCHAR(10) = 'Problem'; DECLARE @ClientName AS NVARCHAR(100) = '" & ClientName & "'; SELECT DATEPART(MONTH, [Issue_Created]) AS Month_Number ,DATENAME(MONTH, [Issue_Created]) AS Month_Name ,DATENAME(YEAR, [Issue_Created]) AS Year_Name ,COUNT(DATEPART(MONTH, [Issue_Created])) AS Total FROM [dbo].[IssueData] AS ID WHERE [Issue_type_name] = @IssueType AND [ClientName] = @ClientName GROUP BY DATEPART(MONTH, [Issue_Created]) ,DATENAME(MONTH, [Issue_Created]) ,DATENAME(YEAR, [Issue_Created]);", Source = Sql.Database(DatabaseServer, DatabaseName,[Query=pQuery]) in Source
Figure 3 - showing the query text in the Advanced Editor Window Much to my delight this syntax works as expected. So l can now have a way that it is possible to specific parameters which can be passed to SQL server. From reading about M (Power Query Formula Language) there's more to learn. For the moment l am happy with the new found knowledge, whilst l play with some of the other technologies offered by PowerBI. The only downside is this only works in PowerBI Desktop :-(
My latest adventure was speaking at DataRelay in Leeds and Nottingham. As is the way with my submissions the session selected was not the one, that I expected to be chosen. It was titled “How to be awesome at finding your next job”.
Speaking is very much outside of my comfort zone and something that I really enjoy. Why do it then? Well when I see someone in a session, that their body language says they understand what you are trying to say. That feeling is just an absolute joy. As I have learned from others in the community, so I want to pass my knowledge to others. That is one of my primary reasons for speaking. Somehow, somewhere, someone, will be helped to do something. From the few brief conversations that I had during DataRelay I might have achieved that goal. If you came to my session, thank you for coming along, hopefully you got something from it. As I said if you want to chat about the session or ask questions then please do. When I do a session it’s because I am passionate about the topic and have so much to say. I can also listen if you need someone just to talk things over. What did I get from DataRelay? More than I expected, not in ways I thought that I might. It was possible for me to get to a few sessions. There was time to see how DataRelay do things as an event (very slick BTW). Get to know more about people in the community, make some new friends, meet some old friends. At least one session I attended used Slack / Microsoft Teams in a way I never dreamed of. Yet the possibilities are amazing and mind blowing. Speaking to the sponsors was one of the goals I had. Thank you to the two gentlemen from Microsoft who took time to answer my questions. The time, effort and genuine enthusiasm is much appreciated. It’s nice to speak to a real person who is knowledgeable and passionate about their area of expertise. Over the two days I took quite a few notes which I am excited to share with my team back in Glasgow. It will take me a little time to recover, there is a long train journey back from DataRelay which will help. Like some of us in the community, it takes energy to be around lots of people. It's worth every single moment of the effort. Especially when I see a room full of people who I can try and show just the one little nugget of information that makes the difference to something in their lives. This post is being written as the train travels back to Sunny Glasgow. Tomorrow morning, I will be back in the office with my new company Eyecademy. They have supported and encouraged me to go and speak at DataRelay. Which I really appreciate more than anyone in Eyecademy might realise. Thank you for the encouragement and support. What’s next? Next year I will be speaking at Scottish Summit on the 29th of February 2020 about Soft Skills for Success. Speaking in your home city is both exciting and challenging. So, I will need to put some more work into the session to tailored it to the event and audience. There are a few other submissions to other conferences which I am waiting to hear about. Some other conferences have caught my eye, so I need to consider where and when I would like to speak. Hopefully once I know more, I’ll update the blog.
We all communicate with each other, some more than most, in our house if my partner is not talking to me there is something wrong. It's not usual for the misunderstanding to be something I might have said (or done). Communicating with each other verbally is something that we learn to do from an early age. We learn what words mean, their power, what they can do for us, what to say, and what not to say.
There have been times I have had the pleasure of going to the local garage and speaking to the mechanic regarding whatever challenge is with the car. The mechanic would explain the issue to me, using words which I have to say that wished I understood. It is entirely possible that there is a "big end" in our car just do not ask me where it is or what it does. Or that the timing belt is very important to make the engine run properly.
Every industry, profession, hobby, has their own language. This often makes it easy for professionals to communicate with each other often in a form of shorthand which can sound foreign to someone else even if they speak the same language. Working in the IT industry this is something I am very aware of. If someone asks me what I do for a job what do I say? I might say that I am a BI professional, working primarily with the MS SQL server stack, sometimes using SSIS, and SSRS. I write a variety of CRUD scripts in TSQL and I do some query optimisation. If the person asking is not an IT professional who works in my specific area of expertise, most of my explanation would have sounded like I had spoken in a different language.
What I now say is my job involves three things, data shepherding, data grooming, and data dressage. I might expand a little on these to explain that l move data from one place to another ensuring none of the data gets lost as we move it. Some of the data might need to be polished or groomed to fit in its new home. Then I train data to perform and dance in a way that others can understand it better. What I try to do is use words which people who are do not work with databases can understand and relate to.
When I speak to clients one thing I try to remember is to use words that anyone can understand. If I introduce technical concepts or acronyms in the conversation I will try to make time to explain them. Or use analogies that are simple and easy to understand. This is not an easy thing to do, it is our job to make IT simple and easy to use. There might be lots of complicated moving parts behind the scenes. Like a car, we have a simple dashboard, underneath are lots of complicated moving parts that just work. The hard work of maintaining and fixing those parts I happily leave to the experts.
Personally, I see our job is to make our customers task as simple as it can be. We should present challenges, technical details in a language our customers can easily understand. As Einstein is quoted as saying “make everything as simple as possible but no simpler”. One excellent example of this is by Brent Ozar when explaining implications of RTO & RPO here -> https://www.brentozar.com/archive/2014/05/new-high-availability-planning-worksheet/. The worksheet sets out the terms in language everyone can understand, even better by drawing attention to the targets, so everyone knows what to expect. Is this easy, or simple? No, it is not. Having said that which expert do you feel most comfortable with? would happily go back to time and again? The one that speaks to you in words and terms you can easily understand. Or one that uses language and words that are sometimes not easy to follow or understand? The choice for me is easy and simple, which is why I work that little bit hard to make it as easy as possible for my customers to understand me.