The Rational Guide to SQL Server Notification Services

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Summary: Let the Database Call You.
Review: Suppose you're in charge of inventory at a store. Wouldn't it be nice of your computer system could notify you immediately that you're selling a lot of something that normally sells very slowly?

This is exactly the situation that Micro SQL Server 2000 Notification Services is designed to handle. It is a platform that includes a notification engine to tell selected individuals about selected changes in the information in the database. Computer systems normally work in a pull oriented architecture i.e. you go to the web and ask for the sales figures for each inventory item to see if there is an anomoly. Notification services changes this model to a push orientation. You subscribe (we don't want to be doing SPAM) and based on the criteria you select you are automatically notified of changes in the underlying data structure.

The Rational Guide books are somewhat of a new concept in publishing where a small book, compared with most computer books, can hold down the price and the size while devoting itself to one subject. In addition, the publisher has made additional information available on his web site to allow the reader to expand his knowledge beyond just this book. I like this concept. All computer books don't need to be 1,000 pages, much of which is just copied from the previous edition.

The audience for this book is considered by the publisher to be a Beginner/Intermediate Developer. Beginner - yes, Notification Services are so new that almost all of us are beginners. But this is not the book for someone just starting out on SQL Server

Excellent concept for a book, well executed.

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Summary: Notification Services at work...
Review: We are a major player in the real estate industry. Our web site has millions of visits per day and has positioned itself as the focal point of listing finding. One recent requirement was to allow web users to subscribe to our data and be notified upon a listing change or new listing in an area. We immediately started looked at sql server 2000 notification services. The starting point for research was "The Rational Guide to SQL Server Notification Services". This is a great resource and its content has allowed our developers to rapidly build a custom solution for our needs. Great buy. Great technical content.