Trickshots: Testing a SQL connection quick and easy

Did you ever need to test a SQL connection? As a SharePoint Pro you probably have. I found a nice little trick on Steve Rachui's Blog today I’d like to share with you.

Create a new text file on the desktop of the machine you will try to connect to the SQL server. Name the file whatever you like, but rename the file into UDL. Double click on the file and a dialog pops up with SQL connection settings. Enter your connection settings and use the Test Connection button in the lower end of the dialog.

If you need to test a different SQL server port (not 1433), simply create a SQL alias on the machine and test against the alias.

Toolbox: SharePoint 2013 Search Tool

Using the SharePoint REST API can be sometime a bit of a pain. Good to have some tools at hand that make life more easy. With the SharePoint 2013 Search Tool you learn how to build an HTTP POST query, and how the different parameters should be formatted.

After running the query, you can view all the different result types returned, e.g. Primary Results, Refinement Results, Query Rules Results, Query Suggestions and the actual raw response received from the Search service.

SharePoint 2013 On-Premise and Office 365 are both supported.

To download visit the project page at Codeplex:
https://sp2013searchtool.codeplex.com