Dougbert.com

Broken links for images and file downloads on this blog site

dougbert — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:53:00 GMT

The links to images and to files available for download are currently broken on this inactive blog. I apologize for the inconvenience. Please continue to follow my blog at its new address and subscribe to the feed: New blog: http://dougbert.com/blog/ Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DougbertsBlog Here is a working link for the most requested file download from this site: Enhanced error output from May 2008, which was associated with the post, " Adding the error column name to an error output...(read more)

Please re-subscribe to my Dougbert blog at its new address

dougbert — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:24:00 GMT

The address of my Dougbert blog has changed slightly. Please re-subscribe to my blog feed at this new address: Feed address: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DougbertsBlog Web address: http://dougbert.com/blog/ I plan to continue blogging about SSIS and other SQL Server features. I will not be posting any more on this blog ( http://dougbert.com/blogs/dougbert/ ). I intend to leave the past posts here. If you've saved or shared links to my past blog posts, they should remain valid. Why the change?...(read more)

Excel driver not supported on the server

dougbert — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:01:00 GMT

This statement about the ACE Provider and its Excel driver caught my attention on an internal discussion list at Microsoft on 12/26/2010: "The current support position from the Office team responsible for the ACE provider (both 32-bit and 64-bit) is that it is unsupported to use the ACE provider on any server-based system. Over here in the XYZ team, we have gone around and around with them and they are very clear. What you are trying to accomplish, regardless of the ‘bit-ness’, is...(read more)

PowerShell with SSIS: More insights, installable extensions

dougbert — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:54:00 GMT

Occasionally in the past I've mentioned approaches to using PowerShell to manage SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). More recently I came across Sev17 , the blog of PowerShell fiend Chad Miller . Chad has found limitations in the SSIS API that make it challenging to create an SSIS Provider for PowerShell. In the meantime, he has other insights to offer on the subject, as well as installable extensions for PowerShell. Chad's blog posts about SSIS and PowerShell including SSIS Reporting...(read more)

Dec 14 webinar - Loading Spatial Data into SQL Server with FME

dougbert — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 18:26:00 GMT

I have mentioned SAFE Software before as the most visible provider of tools and components for working with spatial data in Microsoft SQL Server, with or without Integration Services. SAFE recently announced a free 1-hour Webinar on Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - " Loading Spatial Data into SQL Server with FME ". More information: Sign up for the Webinar Read more about SAFE Software and SQL Server Here is the description of the Webinar from their Web site: "This free webinar demonstrates...(read more)

Exploring the SSIS discussion with Social Gadgets

dougbert — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 15:39:00 GMT

These fascinating SocialGadgets from FUSE Labs at Microsoft Research give us some insight into current discussions about SQL Server Integration Services in the social media. Read more about the projects from FUSE Labs in this blog post from LiveSide.Net: FUSE Labs brings new projects – Spindex, Project Emporia, SocialGadgets, and Montage Note: I wanted to embed the live widgets in this post, but my blog software refused to display the IFRAMEs that host the embedded widgets. Explore them "live"...(read more)

Off topic: Programmatically creating a tag cloud in C#

dougbert — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 03:27:00 GMT

Today I searched for sample code for creating a tag cloud, for a little project that I have in mind. Assuming that you already have tags (or categories) and a weighting factor, you may find these code samples and user controls interesting. Most of them target Web output, understandably. Not yet sure how much effort would be required to create a Silverlight or XAML tag cloud. Creating a Tag Cloud in C# on geekzilla.co.uk , 2006. Code for an ASP.NET User Control, with formatting provided by CSS. Download...(read more)

Webcast: Unlock the spatial data stored in Microsoft SQL Server

dougbert — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 14:16:00 GMT

(I received this invitation at Microsoft, and was encouraged to invite my "customers and partners." First, take a look at this output from the DataConnector to whet your appetite...) Understanding Web Mapping and Data Visualization using DataConnector Attend this webcast and learn how SQL Server 2008 can help you visualize your data on a map using a free download called DataConnector. You’re most likely already familiar with SQL Server support for spatial data and now with DataConnector...(read more)

More affordable spatial data loading for SQL Server

dougbert — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:20:00 GMT

Do you have spatial data stored in ESRI Shapefiles, MapInfo TAB files, MIF/MID files, or CSV files that you have to load into SQL Server? If you do, then this new and more affordable product from SAFE Software may meet your needs. SAFE has quietly released FME Desktop SQL Server Loader Edition , a $500 subset of the full functionality found in their "FME Desktop Microsoft SQL Server Edition" product. Here's the description of this new product from their Web page: "Quickly load...(read more)

Data profiling for SSIS with plug-in rules of your own

dougbert — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:04:00 GMT

Tillman Eitelberg has blogged a sneak preview with screen shots of his company's new datenfabrik.profiler , which will run as a component in the data flow of a SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package. Till will present the beta version of the component within a few days at SQLBits 7 in York, England. There is not a download available at the present time. One of the most interesting features is that the final version will expose a plug-in architecture that lets you "plug in "...(read more)

API reference for built-in SSIS data flow components

dougbert — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 22:55:00 GMT

Developers who want to create and update SSIS packages programmatically often wonder, " Where the heck is the API reference for all the built-in data flow sources, transformations, and destinations? " The short answer is: There isn't any. Why not? Because - at least at design time - an individual data flow component does not have any properties or public methods that are unique. A data flow component has only the properties and methods that it inherits from the base class, PipelineComponent...(read more)

SSIS and Microsoft Live Labs Pivot

dougbert — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 23:38:00 GMT

Rats, I'm too late! For some time, I've been fantasizing (without doing any actual work) about the potential synergies between SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) and Microsoft Live Labs Pivot (not to be confused with PowerPivot). I thought that a Pivot Destination would be a fun project - writing out the .CXML collection file would not be rocket science, although manipulating the images programmatically might be, if you didn't already have them. I was wondering about creating document...(read more)

Making SSIS work with the 64-bit Excel (ACE) provider

dougbert — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:50:00 GMT

I've previously blogged about the challenges of the new 64-bit ACE Provider that includes the Excel driver, since the 32-bit and 64-bit versions cannot be installed side-by-side. In this detailed post that includes screen shots, Hrvoje Piasevoli from Croatia describes 2 approaches for working with the 64-bit driver from SSIS: Importing data from 64bit Excel in SSIS Since the author's 2 workarounds are (1) the Import and Export Wizard and (2) OPENROWSET, not all users will find them completely...(read more)

Restarting SSIS packages after failure

dougbert — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:52:00 GMT

Last week while I was on vacation, my Microsoft colleague Steve Howard posted another detailed article on an aspect of SSIS that's frequently misunderstood - restarting SSIS packages after a failure . Steve is often asked to explain and demonstrate this feature during visits to customer sites, so he wrote it up on the TechNet Wiki in great detail with screenshots: Automatic Restart of SSIS packages after Failover or Failure He even has a suggestion for the tricky case where you don't want...(read more)

Running multiple SSIS Foreach Loops in parallel

dougbert — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:00:00 GMT

The Parallel Loop Task , recently released in beta by Cozyroc Software , " can execute multiple iterations of the standard Foreach Loop Container concurrently. In tests, a CPU intensive sequential process when executed in parallel on 4-core machine was executed 3 times faster compared to the sequential. " This new task appears in Beta 2 of the Cozyroc package, SSIS+ 1.5. For more information or to try out the Parallel Loop Task ... Read the blog post announcing the new task and the new...(read more)

Running PowerShell tasks from an SSIS task

dougbert — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:39:00 GMT

In an earlier blog post , I noted that there hasn't been much buzz about performing SSIS-related tasks with Windows PowerShell. But what if you want to perform PowerShell tasks with SSIS? A PowerShell Task for SSIS was released recently just for this purpose by /n Software . From their Web site: "The PowerShell SSIS Task is the 'swiss army knife' of SQL Server automation. It can be used to create highly-flexible SQL Server workflow solutions via easily configurable PowerShell scripts...(read more)

Loading Active Directory data with SSIS

dougbert — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:03:00 GMT

Steve Howard - the same guy who previously provided detailed clustering advice on this blog - has posted an article that includes 3 different approaches for retrieving Active Directory information in an SSIS package. The article includes screen shots and code samples. As Steve explained to me, " Bits and pieces are available on the internet, but nothing to really put it all together to allow someone to see how to do it. " Processing Active Directory Information in SSIS Steve works for Microsoft...(read more)

How to follow a German SSIS blog in English

dougbert — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 01:01:00 GMT

Did you know that there's an active SSIS blog in German by Tillman Eitelberg from Bonn in Germany? You can read it in [imperfect] English by using the Microsoft translator in your browser. First, here's the blog: http://ssis-components.net/ The Microsoft translator will open the German page side-by-side with a page where it provides the [imperfect] English translation, like this: And how to you accomplish this? If you have the Windows Live toolbar installed (search for "download Windows...(read more)

New ETL framework (beta of version 1.0) released on Codeplex

dougbert — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:49:00 GMT

SSIS consultant and blogger James Beresford ("BI Monkey") of Sydney, Australia has released the beta of version 1.0 of an ETL Framework on Codeplex, described as " an ETL Execution, Control and Logging system for ETL projects using SSIS ." James' blog post announcing the new framework: http://www.bimonkey.com/2010/08/ssis-etl-framework-v1-goes-beta/ BI Monkey SSIS ETL Framework on Codeplex: http://ssisetlframework.codeplex.com/ -Doug...(read more)

Using SSIS to republish SSRS reports in bulk

dougbert — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 14:35:00 GMT

MSDN has recently published an article that explains how to update parameterized SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports in bulk by using a SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package. The article, Bulk Report Generation using SSIS and SSRS 2008 R2 , was written for MSDN by By Siddharth Mehta, Senior Technical Consultant for Business Information Management unit at Capgemini India Private Limited (Mumbai branch). You can read Siddharth Mehta’s blog about Microsoft BI at http://siddhumehta...(read more)

SSIS with Dynamics CRM: Case study from a large bank

dougbert — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:46:00 GMT

Two years ago, I wrote a short blog post here about using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) with Microsoft Dynamics CRM . There are 2 ways that you can work with CRM programmatically: The supported way, through the Web services API that the application exposes The, uh, less supported way, by interacting directly with the database where CRM stores its data And we've got some information for you today on both approaches! First, our feature article, "Uses for SSIS with MSCRM In a Banking...(read more)

Top Connect issues recently for SSIS

dougbert — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 21:47:00 GMT

This afternoon I was testing to see whether I had VSTS installed correctly, and I clicked on one of my saved queries for Microsoft Connect items related to Integration Services. Whoa! People are NOT happy about the incompatibility with Visual Studio 2010 that Jeff Bernhardt recently addressed on the team blog ! In fact, it looks like there were 97 things that people haven't been happy about in the last 90 days. Here are those 97 things, sorted in descending order by number of votes. I was going...(read more)

Wow, an SSIS Expression Tester tool

dougbert — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:28:00 GMT

Darren Green of SQLIS .com has posted a new SSIS Expression Tester on Codeplex: http://expressioneditor.codeplex.com/ See the SQLIS blog post from yesterday (6/9/10): http://www.sqlis.com/sqlis/post/ssis-expression-editor-tool.aspx German-language blog post from Tillman Eitelberg at ssis-components.net: http://ssis-components.net/post/2010/06/09/Expression-Tester-Tool.aspx Crank this up along with your expressions Cheat Sheet from PragmaticWorks and the tools for expressions in BIDS Helper , and...(read more)

New Excel components out in beta from Cozyroc

dougbert — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 22:41:00 GMT

Yesterday (6/7/2010), Ivan Peev of Cozyroc announced the beta release of version 1.5 of SSIS+, Cozyroc's suite of custom components for SQL Server Integration Services . The new components for Excel in SSIS caught my attention. The announcement summarizes this new release as follows: " The new version includes components for integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM , enhanced tasks and connections for handling emails, enhanced support of Microsoft Excel workbook files and components for integration...(read more)

Installing a new version of an SSIS custom component

dougbert — Tue, 18 May 2010 19:54:00 GMT

Recently a friend asked for help with the, uh, challenges of cleanly installing a new version or build of a custom component for SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). Here are the steps: Close BIDS or Visual Studio. Uninstall the old version of the component. Install the new version of the component, including the following steps: Copy the main assembly to the appropriate component folder under the 32-bit Program Files folder. Copy the main assembly to the appropriate component folder under the...(read more)