On a recent trip to Seattle I met up with Doug Laudenshlager. Doug is the guy that writes all the fantastic Books Online documentation that is delivered with SSIS. Following the trip Doug shared with me some titbits of info about BOL and he's graciously allowed me to reprint them here. Definately worth a read:
BOL update schedule: More or less quarterly. Until we find a more technologically advanced method for keeping content fresh, we will be continuing to release Books Online updates for SQL Server 2005 and eventually Katmai on a quarterly basis, adjusted for Service Pack releases. This new content is published to MSDN and made available for download.
BOL updates are not included in Service Pack downloads. This is a separate download. The current link is:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=BE6A2C5D-00DF-4220-B133-29C1E0B6585F&displaylang=en
Yes, BOL updates are enormous and inconvenient. The current BOL download is 134 MB. At least the install program now performs an upgrade without requiring that you uninstall the prior version.
What's new in Katmai BOL: New table of contents. BOL will be adopting a new Table of Contents in Katmai that's now mandated for all Microsoft server products. Now whether you're working with SQL or Exchange or Windows Server, you'll be able to open the docs and know that you'll find the following headings:
- Product Evaluation
- Getting Started
- Planning and Architecture
- Development
- Deployment
- Operations
- Security and Protection
- Troubleshooting
- Technical Reference
Maybe not what I would have chosen personally. For SSIS, for example, "Development" will include both designing packages in the UI, and programming the API, which are two very different things. But over time I believe we'll see benefits from the consistent experience.
What's new in Katmai BOL: New content. The new SSIS content in BOL Katmai will be largely related to the new features and scenarios.
A common misunderstanding: Local vs Online Help. BOL asks whether you want to use local or online help as your primary source. Many users misinterpret this by giving us far too much credit, assuming an advanced solution that somehow merges fresher content from online if available. In fact, the "online" option only affects Search and F1 Help; the Table of Contents and the Index always work only with your locally installed copy.
How can I help the BOL team? Send Feedback! The feedback link that you'll find on every page of BOL is hooked into a cool system -- it automatically copies your feedback into a bug report, looks up the topic owner (like me) and assigns it directly to me. This is the quickest and most efficient way to reach us! Please remind your readers too.
How can I help the BOL team? Send top error messages. We have a mandate to document the top error messages that users are encountering. But our own Support department gets such a wide sampling of issues that it's hard to pinpoint the more painful ones. Your suggestions are welcome. (This is for SSIS-specific errors, not errors from providers.)
How can I improve the SSIS documentation? Write it yourself! I hope that you've scrolled down this far. BOL online should be enabled for "community content" (read:wiki) by the end of June. MSDN is only delaying because of (1) spam and (2) the volume they expect from the SQL world. You will be able to add your own clarifications, links, etc to individual BOL topics.
The last point about the wiki is certainly interesting.
Thanks for the info Doug!
-Jamie