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Hierarchy ID: Model Your Data Hierarchies With SQL Server 2008
Here we explain how the new hierarchyID data type in SQL Server 2008 helps solve some of the problems in modeling and querying hierarchical information. Kent Tegels

 The manufacturing system behind automobiles; the organization of a country into states, counties, cities, and postal codes; the description of a home entertainment system—what do these things have in common? The simple answer is that each describes a hierarchy.

SQL Server® 2008 supports a new data type, HierarchyID, that helps solve some of the problems in modeling and querying hier­archical information. I will introduce you to this data type by discussing a pattern commonly used in manufacturing known as bill of materials (BOM), or bills. Starting with a brief discussion of BOMs, I will illustrate how this kind of data can be modeled. I will also present an implementation of this model in SQL Server 2005. Then I will show you how the HierarchyID data type can be used to implement the model in SQL Server 2008.  ...

Prism: Patterns For Building Composite Applications With WPF
We introduce you to the benefits of building composite applications with the Composite Application Guidance for WPF from Microsoft patterns & practices. Glenn Block

Data Services: Create Data-Centric Web Applications With Silverlight 2
ADO.NET Data Services provide Web-accessible endpoints that allow you to filter, sort, shape, and page data without having to build that functionality yourself. Shawn Wildermuth

Advanced WPF: Understanding Routed Events And Commands In WPF
See how routed events and routed commands in Windows Presentation Foundation form the basis for communication between the parts of your UI. Brian Noyes

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Editor's Note
Hanging Onto The Long Tail
Howard Dierking

As I look over this month's editorial lineup I'm struck by the fact that the coverage is overwhelmingly focused on new technologies. Many of them, such as the new HierarchyID data type in SQL Server (discussed by Kent Tegels) and ADO.NET Data Services (examined by Shawn Wildermuth), will soon be available in final form for you to start using in real projects. We're also getting close to the long-awaited release of Silverlight 2, a subject that Shawn Wildermuth also covers.

This train of thought brings me to wonder where you are in your own development projects. In this issue, Brian Noyes looks at advanced Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) concepts such as routed commands and events and Glenn Block examines strategies for building loosely coupled, composite applications in WPF. I'm curious as to whether you've jumped into XAML yet, or if the majority of your work is still with Windows Forms. When considering the new HierarchyID data type in SQL Server 2008, we look at how this feature can eliminate the need to create common table expressions (CTEs) to navigate a recursive hierarchy—but have you gotten deep enough with SQL Server 2005 to actually understand and use CTEs?

Recently I've been reading a well-known book called "The Long Tail." One of its main premises is that technology, namely the Internet, has transformed the mass market into millions of niche markets. The author argues that prior to the age of the Web, economics were driven by "hit" products and that this dynamic was largely a result of scarcity or lack of choice. In the Internet age, however, this model has been fragmented into myriad choices and alternatives—visually creating a graph where the demand for items in the tail adds up to be equal to or greater than the demand for the hits, or items at the head of the graph—hence the name "long tail." ...

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