Customer Reviews

Microsoft® SQL Server(TM) 2000 DTS Step by Step (Step by Step (Microsoft))

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

PROS:
Well written, no grammatical errors found. Exercises have been well thought out and all worked flawlessly. Scripts provided to let the user "reset the world" at the beginning of any chapter. Lots of points covered and demonstrated. I have a bunch of folks on my warehouse team who know nothing about ETL. I'm going to recommend they all read this book to get started.

CONS:
This is a lab guide. Every chapter introduces a new problem to solve and demonstrates <bold>a</bold> way to solve it. Concepts are not described in much detail. Basically it's a "do this, then do this, then shazam! It Worked! Next topic..." type of book. The reader can't get lost. It is filled with many, many screen shots and redundant text. Even in the second to last chapter, after going thru the process of opening a DTS package about 50 times, the author still burns an inch and a half of paper to explain how to open a DTS package. If I made any mistakes it was due to missing a step as I try to breeze past text I've already read many, many times before. In the author's defense, I think a reader would be able to jump into any chapter without reading any introductory information. This still makes the book about twice as thick as it could be.

Read the back cover to learn exactly what is covered. In the end, you'll know how to do these things and have a good framework to continue building your own data movement application. However your knowledge will be pretty shallow. I'm now going to buy a book that explains WHY packages should be designed one way vs. another.

CONCLUSION:
I'm giving this book four stars because it's well written and true to its title. If the redundant text and supurflueus pictures were removed that make it so think, I'd have given it five. It's a great book for beginners.

Unlike "Professional SQL Server 2000 DTS" by WROX Press, this particular book does not cover (nearly) every topic under the umbrella of Data Transformation Services. It does, however, address as many relevant aspects to DTS functionality as possible throughout the development of a 'data movement application'. Having worked with SQL Server since 1998, I can vouch for the concise teaching approach this book follows. It certainly stands out as the best book I've seen to both help introduce SQL Server professionals (especially juniors) to DTS as well as serve as a quick reference for more seasoned veterans. I can only hope future SQL Server Step-By-Step titles closely follow the great model of practical real-world relevance and clear instruction demonstrated by Mr. Rabeler's book.

This book makes for a well-written and relevant introduction for a beginner to DTS, which is what I was when I picked it up.

However, as a decade+ computer professional I was through it and the building of the sample application in a short time.

I have given 4 stars because the book is great for what it is; it does not get 5 stars because it makes for a lousy reference book. Not only is it not comprehensive, but the information is always tied in with the sample application you build throughout the book. So you almost have to stay familiar with the sample app (and where it is in the development process) to get what they're telling you about the subject.

I find myself turning to the Wrox DTS book over and over, and I probably won't open this book again. That said, I'm glad I started with this one.

After reading the other DTS book by Chaffin, Knight and Robinson, I understood DTS, but did not understand how to apply it. If you want to learn and actually use DTS, this is the book !

Well written with very good examples that not only explain how to do real life types of problems, but explains why you are doing each step.

Thanks Carl !

The only application of DTS I had used prior to reading this book was using the Wizard. The step by step instruction got a bit tedious with repetition, but at the end you get a good picture of how all the different processes can work together to create a fairly sophisticated application. I LEARNED A LOT of good stuff which I can apply to my own projects. If you are new to DTS and like to learn by example, I would recommend this book.

I found the beggning chapters are good, but in the latter half, the number of steps became so many that it's painful to follow them. Chapter 7 has 70 pages of step-by-step and I found I am like a robot just going through the steps. (Well, I didn't do it until the end, I am not a robot).

If you are really patient, I'm sure you can learn a lot from this book. Well written and I found the "If you skipeed chapter XX" really helpful.

I have gone through half the book.

The good part:
Walks you through many areas step-by-step. Repeats steps in other excerises. You will learn a lot.

The bad part:
The book doesn't teach you a process from the making of a connection to processing a cube. I need to Extact, Transform, & Load, and then process a cube. The book teaches ETL. Try another book.

TC

The book is a good way for learning DTS.

But DTS being still ful of bugs does not help the author (try loading a flat file with more then 78 characters par lign and you will understand what i mean...).

Also - there is not much on XML - and some XML-related new patches Microsoft has added to its original SQL Server 2000 product.

I recommend this book in this only case: DTS has already been choosen as the ETL for your company - for some other reasons than simple of use or speed (it might be the price which is low -DTS being part of the SQL Server 2000 package).

I all other cases i recommend choosing another ETL.

Hope SQL Server 2005 (the new release of Microsoft's solution) will be a better product...

Gab.