Publish Dynamic Data with SQL Server's Web Assistant Wizard

Step 7: Choose the Location of your Web Page

Pick a new name for the HTML page that SQL Server should generate. As previously mentioned, ideally you should refer to a directory on your Web server here, to ensure you have online access to the published data.

As you can see, it's possible to influence the layout of the HTML page generated by SQL Server. We will just use the default options as we approach the closing stages. Click Next until you reach Finish, and SQL Server will confirm that it has successfully completed the task.

Step 8: Verify that your File was Created

Use your browser to reach the file you created in the previous step.

Step 9: Make Changes and Check the Update

Notice that the first employee in your Web page is Nancy Davolio.

Now, revert to the Enterprise Manager and view the data of the Employees table in your Northwind database. Change the LastName value of Davolio to, say, Johnson.

Refresh your Web page, and you'll see that Nancy is now called Johnson online as well.

Advanced Options

To keep the example simple, I’ve ignored a lot of the Web Assistant's extra options. I won't go into detail here, but the Wizard contains many possibilities for beginners and advanced users alike. Once you've become familiar and comfortable with the Web Assistant Wizard as well as with SQL Server, you might consider experimenting with the following, more advanced applications:

• Tweaking the layout of the HTML output
• The use of templates
• The use of your own T-SQL queries and stored procedures
• Updates at regular intervals, for instance once a day
• The possibility of editing all your options under Management->SQL Server Agent->Jobs
• The possibility of publishing Database Maintenance information online
• The use of the predefined 'sp_make_webtask' stored procedure in T-SQL queries

Each of these options deserves its own treatment in an article. Some have already appeared on SitePoint in one form or another -- in David Clark's 'Stored Procedures on PHP and Microsoft SQL Server', for instance.

Conclusion

The Web Assistant Wizard is a great tool to help you quickly and easily publish database data. It enables you to view and share up-to-date data in any shape or form you choose, yet not to change or delete it. That restriction is the largest downside of the Wizard's possibilities for me.

The performance win is clearly a big bonus. For larger Web development teams, the Web Assistant Wizard could also allow the sharing of responsibilities. The database manager will be responsible for the generation of data, while the Web developer can focus on building Web pages, i.e. the template in this case.

The Web Assistant is a powerful tool. Nonetheless, the Wizard and its benefits are little known among Web developers who work with SQL Server. Now that you have an idea of how to use it, consider what it can do to improve your online applications.