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Providing Feedback on SQL Server 2005

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To provide suggestions and bug reports on Microsoft SQL Server 2005:

  • Send suggestions and bug reports about the features and user interface of SQL Server 2005.
  • Send suggestions and report inaccuracies about the documentation.
  • Choose to send error reports and feature usage data automatically to Microsoft for analysis.

Submitting Feedback About the Product

You can use the SQL Server feedback page on Microsoft Connect to send suggestions and bug reports about features of SQL Server 2005. This includes features such as the tools and utilities, languages, and programming interfaces.

You can reach the Microsoft Connect SQL Server feedback page by:

  • Going to the Microsoft Connect SQL Server feedback Web page.
  • Clicking the Send Feedback button on the help toolbar of the SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Development Studio, or selecting the Community/Send Feedback menu item.
  • Clicking the Send Feedback button on the help toolbar of the SQL Server Management Studio.
  • Clicking the Send Feedback button on the help toolbar of SQL Server Books Online.

The help toolbar does not appear in the Business Intelligence Development Studio or the SQL Server Management Studio until you either:

  • Access help from the utility.
  • Select the Help check box on the Toolbars tab of the Tools/Customize… menu item.

Submitting Feedback About the Documentation

You can send suggestions and report inaccuracies in the SQL Server 2005 documentation, tutorials, sample applications, and sample databases directly to the SQL Server documentation team. Each topic in Books Online has a Documentation Feedback dialog box at the bottom of the topic. Select a rating and click the Send Feedback button in the dialog, and Books Online opens an e-mail in which you can type your suggestion or report, and then send the e-mail to Microsoft.

Automatic Error and Usage Reporting

You can enable features to automatically report errors and send information about how you use SQL Server 2005 software and services. Microsoft uses this information to improve SQL Server, and treats all of the information as confidential.

For more information about how Microsoft uses the data and treats it confidentially, see Error and Usage Report Settings. The topic also discusses how to enable automatic error reporting.

Managing Automatic Usage Reporting

The only configurable option for automatic usage reporting is whether or not the data is collected and sent to Microsoft. SQL Server 2005 uses two pipelines to report usage data. Both pipelines report similar data, but report the usage data for different programs and are turned on or off separately. Turning a pipeline on or off from any of the programs that use it also stops or starts the collection of data from the other programs that share it.

  • One pipeline is used to report usage data for all of SQL Server 2005 except for the Books Online component and some of the Microsoft Visual Studio-based user interface elements in the SQL Server 2005 tools. Turning this pipeline on during setup is discussed in Error and Usage Report Settings. After setup completes, you can turn this pipeline on or off by using the Help/Customer Feedback Settings… menu in the Business Intelligence Development Studio. This menu item does not appear unless you have opened a SQL Server-based project.
  • The SQL Server 2005 Books Online and the Visual Studio-based user interface elements of the SQL Server 2005 tools share a pipeline with Visual Studio 2005. To turn this pipeline on or off from SQL Server, select the Help/Customer Feedback Options… menu in either the Business Intelligence Development Studio or Books Online.

Helping Build a Better Books Online

Enabling the usage reporting for the SQL Server Books Online will help the SQL Server documentation team build better documentation over time. Aggregating metrics that show how customers navigate from topic to topic, how often topics are viewed, topic ratings, and feedback comments allow us to better understand how our customers actually use the documentation. This will help us more efficiently allocate our writing resources, validate past documentation design decisions, and design future systems for documenting SQL Server. Usage information from Books Online can also help us identify the features for which customers frequently seek help, possibly indicating areas of the product to be considered for future usability improvements.