In this article I’ll conclude my set of articles into SSIS configuration. This article will be slightly more verbose than the previous two, but I hope I clearly convey the logic behind my method. If you haven’t yet done so, please read Part 1 and Part 2 of the series.

The Portability problem

In my first forays into SSIS I had thought that as part of the deployment process SSIS would allow things me to change things like connection string of the source data and location of extract file. However this is not available by default. …[More]

In Part 1 I showed how a simple SSIS package could be created using variables and expressions as a basis for deployable configuration.

When I first started working with SSIS I assumed naively that during deployment, a wizard or a configuration file would allow the variables and expressions to be readily editable.
Speaking of which, how do you deploy an SSIS package? Let’s continue using the package we started in Part 1. …[More]

This is the first part of a two-part post about creating and deploying a simple SSIS package.
When I first started this I was a complete novice as regards SSIS. I thought it was ’something like’ DTS, which I had used quite frequently in SQL Server 2000. To make matters worse, I never actually got round to learning it even when given the opportunity with SQL Server 2005 - due to tight deadlines, I stuck with what I knew and simply created DTS legacy packages.

This first part is a very simple introduction to creating a basic extract file using the sample AdventureWorks database. In the second part I’ll discuss the issues I found with my solution and how I worked around them to create a fully portable and configurable package. Hopefully someone will find this useful and a starting point for better and more complex packages. …[More]

One of the things I’ve been doing recently has been writing lots of SQL inserts in which I’ve had to specify the columns.

For example:

The most tedious part was writing the column names in a comma-separated list. It would be good if I could automagically create a list which I could copy into the above statement in each case. …[More]

One of the things I’ve had to do recently is work out if objects on a SQL Server had been modified after a particular date. I did some Googling and came up with the following which I’ve condensed into one simple and easy to read article.

Just one caveat before we dive in: these scripts ought to work on all SQL Server versions, but they may not be 100% reliable on versions earlier than SQL Server 2000. In any case you should only take these scripts as indicators and also use other mechanisms to ascertain whether your database objects have been modified. (In other words, ask around!) …[More]

This article applies to DTS packages on SQL Server 2008 R2, but will probably work on most other versions. Yes I know, I know - DTS is deprecated. But bear with me. There is a lot of DTS still hanging around out there. …[More]

This is a brief post describing how I set up IIS Express on Visual Studio 2010. Using the built in Visual Studio Development Server (a.k.a Cassini) is great in many cases but it has a few limitations, for me the most significant are
• No SSL support
• Can only run localhost – so nobody can browse to your development site whilst you are working – assuming you want to show them of course.

Using IIS Express gives developers almost the full functionality of IIS 7.5 which should cover most development scenarios. I believe a notable exception is some aspects of Sharepoint development. …[More]

Like most technical people who scour the web for information, I’ve come across some really smart people who write their thoughts, offer help, write tutorials, and also somehow manage to hold down a day job AND manage to (presumably) have a life outside of work.

One of the most impressive people has got to be Scott Guthrie. I of course like many people struggle with the juggling act of work, self-improvement, home chores, family life and I have often wondered how do people like Scott do it? …[More]

In the last few days we have seen a huge surge in people experiencing what has become known as the “Black Screen of Death” - a bit of a play on the infamous Blue Screen of Death (both are now being called the BSOD). …[More]

Recently I found myself having to create a system by which I could capture some user data from a web application using some unobtrusive javascript.

I settled on a system using jQuery, jQueryUI and an XML Web Service. The basic idea is quite simple: the user clicks a hyperlink, this triggers a form to pop up dialog (using jQueryUI) and when the data is submitted, a call is made by AJAX to the XML Web Service. …[More]