Professional SQL Server 2005 Integration Services [Paperback]

Brian Knight (Author), Allan Mitchell (Author), Darren Green (Author), Douglas Hinson (Author), Kathi Kellenberger (Author), Andy Leonard (Author), Erik Veerman (Author), Jason Gerard (Author), Haidong Ji (Author), Mike Murphy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2006

This book will help you get past the initial learning curve quickly so that you can get started using SSIS to transform data, create a workflow, or maintain your SQL Server. Offering you hands-on guidance, you'll learn a new world of integration possibilities and be able to move away from scripting complex logic to programming tasks using a full-featured language.

What you will learn from this book

• Ways to quickly move and transform data
• How to configure every aspect of SSIS
• How to interface SSIS with web services and XML
• Techniques to scale the SSIS and make it more reliable
• How to migrate DTS packages to SSIS
• How to create your own custom tasks and user interfaces
• How to create an application that interfaces with SSIS to manage the environment
• A detailed usable case study for a complete ETL solution

Who this book is for

This book is for developers, DBAs, and users who are looking to program custom code in all of the .NET languages. It is expected that you know the basics of how to query the SQL Server and have some fundamental programming skills.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This book will help you get past the initial learning curve quickly so that you can get started using SSIS to transform data, create a workflow, or maintain your SQL Server. Offering you hands-on guidance, you'll learn a new world of integration possibilities and be able to move away from scripting complex logic to programming tasks using a full-featured language.

What you will learn from this book

• Ways to quickly move and transform data
• How to configure every aspect of SSIS
• How to interface SSIS with web services and XML
• Techniques to scale the SSIS and make it more reliable
• How to migrate DTS packages to SSIS
• How to create your own custom tasks and user interfaces
• How to create an application that interfaces with SSIS to manage the environment
• A detailed usable case study for a complete ETL solution

Who this book is for

This book is for developers, DBAs, and users who are looking to program custom code in all of the .NET languages. It is expected that you know the basics of how to query the SQL Server and have some fundamental programming skills.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

About the Author

Brian Knight, SQL Server MVP, MCSE, MCDBA, is the cofounder of SQLServerCentral.com and was recently on the Board of Directors for the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS). He runs the local SQL Server users group in Jacksonville, Florida (JSSUG). Brian is a contributing columnist for SQL Server Standard and also maintains a weekly column for the database Web site SQLServerCentral.com. He is the author of Admin911: SQL Server (Osborne/McGraw-Hill Publishing) and coauthor of Professional SQL Server DTS and Professional SQL Server 2005 SSIS (Wiley Publishing). Brian has spoken at such conferences as PASS, SQL Connections, and TechEd. His blog can be found at www.whiteknighttechnology.com.

Allan Mitchell is joint owner of a UK-based consultancy, Konesans, specializing in ETL implementation and design. He is currently working on a project for one of the UK’s leading investment banks doing country credit risk profiling as well as designing custom SSIS components for clients.

Darren Green is the joint owner of Konesans, a UK-based consultancy specializing in SQL Server, and of course DTS and SSIS solutions. Having managed a variety of database systems from version 6.5 onwards, he has extensive experience in many aspects of SQL Server. He also manages the resource sites SQLDTS.com and SQLIS.com, as well as being a Microsoft MVP.

Douglas Hinson, MCP splits his time between database and software development as a Senior Architect for Hinson & Associates Consulting in Jacksonville, Florida. Douglas specializes in conceptualizing and building insurance back-end solutions for payroll deduction, billing, payment, and claims processing operations in a multitude of development environments. He also has experience developing logistics and postal service applications.

Kathi Kellenberger is a database administrator at Bryan Cave LLP, an international law firm headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. She fell in love with computers the first time she used a Radio Shack TRS-80, many years ago while in college. Too late to change majors, she spent 16 years in a health care field before switching careers. She lives in Edwardsville, Illinois, with her husband, Dennis, college-age son, Andy, and many pets. Her grown-up daughter, Denise, lives nearby. When she’s not working or writing articles for SQLServerCentral.com, you’ll find her spending time with her wonderful sisters, hiking, cycling, or singing at the local karaoke bar.

Andy Leonard is a SQL Server DBA, MCSD, and engineer who lives in Jacksonville, Florida. Andy manages a SQL Server DBA Team. He has a passion for developing enterprise solutions of all types and a fondness for business intelligence solutions in industrial enterprises. Learn more at www.andyleonard.net and reach Andy at [e-mail].

Erik Veerman is a mentor with Solid Quality Learning and is based out of Atlanta, Georgia. Erik has been developing Microsoft-based Business Intelligence and ETL-focused solutions since the first release of DTS and OLAP Server in SQL Server 7.0, working with a wide range of customers and industries. His industry recognition includes Microsoft’s Worldwide BI Solution of the Year and SQL Server Magazine’s Innovator Cup winner. Erik led the ETL architecture and design for the first production implementation of Integration Services and participated in developing ETL standards and best practices for Integration Services through Microsoft’s SQL Server 2005 reference initiative, Project REAL.

Jason Gerard is President of Object Future Consulting, Inc., a software development and mentoring company located in Jacksonville, Florida (www.objectfuture.com). Jason is an expert with .NET and J2EE technologies and has developed enterprise applications for the health care, financial, and insurance industries. When not developing enterprise solutions, Jason spends as much time as possible with his wife Sandy, son Jakob, and Tracker, his extremely lazy beagle.

Haidong Ji, MCSD and MCDBA, is a Senior Database Administrator in Chicago, Illinois. He manages enterprise SQL Server systems, along with some Oracle and MySQL systems on Unix and Linux. He has worked extensively with DTS 2000. He was a developer prior to his current role, focusing on Visual Basic, COM and COM+, and SQL Server. He is a regular columnist for SQLServerCentral.com, a popular and well-known portal for SQL Server.

Mike Murphy is a .NET developer, MCSD, and in a former life an automated control systems engineer currently living in Jacksonville, Florida. Mike enjoys keeping pace with the latest advances in computer technology, meeting with colleagues at Jacksonville Developer User Group meetings (www.jaxdug.com) and, when time allows, flying R/C Helicopters. To contact Mike, e-mail him at [e-mail] or visit www.murphysgeekdom.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 1 edition (January 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764584359
• ISBN-13: 978-0764584350
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 1.5 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #366,973 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

106 of 108 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Hang on a sec.... have any of the reviewers ACTUALLY READ this book?? March 11, 2006

By ACD

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

While I share the enthusiasm of the other reviewers, I'm not entirely convinced that any of them have read far enough to give the book 5 stars. I have nearly 10 years under my belt in BI, worked with SQL Server extensively, and not too shabby in the .NET department either; to be certain, SSIS 2005 is truly groundbreaking. However, the watchful readers will find a hurried book in their hands, one numerous typos and misleading information. For example, while I was able to figure out the nature of the strongly-typed properties of the incoming Row object for the Script Component example (Chapter 7) (you need to define the "Cleaned" ones yourself in the Script Transformation Editor to support the code for your Script Component), the book isn't completely clear and such information may not be so apparent to those new to the SSIS (or ETL) experience. Donald Farmer's book covering SSIS 2005 Scripting (the beta version) covers the Script Task and Script Component Transform Task better than Professional SQL Server 2005 Integration Services. Whilst I have focused on Chapter 7, I have found this pattern throughout the book. To be clear, I'm not terribly displeased with this book... it provides just enough coverage of the new product to get you going (with a welcome "under the hood" look at the SSIS engine) it's just that a 2nd Edition is required from WROX/WILEY to clean up its somewhat misleading content.

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Pick another book! June 24, 2007

By Pen Name

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

***NOTE TO WROX*** Before you release a tutorial, have someone other than the authors (or their friends) try each and every lesson!

This has to be one of the WORST tutorial/step-by-step books ever written.

I'm a seasoned DBA that has worked on every version of MS-SQL ever released. Starting with 4.9.2. I've also worked on Sybase, Oracle, Postgress and MySQL. Add to this several years of VB/C experience and time spent as a corporate trainer, and you can guess my technical aptitude. My experience with DTS/ETL includes hundreds (if not thousands) of packages on 7.0 & 2000. This book was purchased as a means of ramping up for a new consulting gig on SSIS. It was a complete waste of money.

The "tutorials" are disorganized, confusing, and the instructions don't match the examples. Even more annoying are the sections that appear to be lessons that aren't. You won't realize this until you start inputting the example and then get to a new paragraph that tells you this subject will be covered in another chapter. Even worse are the real examples whose instructions refer you back to a step that was left out or edited out of the book. This begins in chapter two when you are told to create a new "project" and then later told to add another project to the "solution", but, there was never any mention on how to start a "solution". This sets the tone for the rest of the book. You'll learn early on to read the entire chapter, then go back to the beginning and "try" the examples. Don't even get me started on the explanations being on one page, while the diagrams for the explanation are on the back of that page. Read a few sentences; turn the page to see the diagram; turn back to read some more; turn back to see the diagram (lather, rinse, repeat......)

It normally takes me only a few hours to breeze through five or six chapters of a technical tutorial. After TWO DAYS (a full Saturday and Sunday) of frustration that got me as far as half way through the fourth chapter, I discarded the book, drove to a local bookstore and bought something else off the self.

Rule #1 for tutorial books: The instructions must be COMPLETE.
Rule #2: The instructions must be in the order necessary to complete the lesson, (ie. 1-2-3-4, not, 1-4-3-5, oops...did we forget or edit out a step?) Read more ›

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Okay, but a little bit disappointing too July 24, 2006

By Carsten Cumbrowski

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book and had a lot of expectations. 10 Writers were involved to write this book which covers a complete new software tool from Microsoft, introduced with the newly released SQL Server 2005 replacing the DTS Service of SQL Server 2000 and earlier Versions plus adding tons of new features to the enterprise Database Solution which were previously unavailable.

The fact that 10 people contributed to it can be felt throughout the book, because no or little efforts were made to keep the writing style consistent. That can be a bit confusing at times.

Also when it comes to the content, are a lot of things not covert at all or not very well. When I did seek the help from the book for the first time for a very specific problem I tried to solve with SSIS, did the book fail to provide the answers to me. It addressed the problem, but it only addressed the stuff I already figured out myself. To the item I had my problem with did only exist a side note which did not help me at all. That was already a bad start.

I am looking for better alternatives which I have not found yet. It is probably good for somebody who wants to get an overview or general idea of the new Service, but might be the wrong choice for somebody who has specific applications in mind and tries to find answers to problems in this book.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A good starting Point March 23, 2006

By Aftab Chopra

Format:Paperback

The book provides a good starting point to learn SSIS, especially if you never worked with DTS.

However the book does give you a feeling that it was hurried, and the case study really does not adress the challenges you will face in real projects.

But for the Novice, this is a great book to get started with Integration Services.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Still trying to find a decent book on SSIS April 11, 2007

By Just me

Format:Paperback

I wish I could say that this book is the definitive book on SSIS, but I can't. The majority of the content seems to be nothing more than a reiteration of exactly what's in BOL and we all know how helpfull that can be.

I have tried several times to find information in this book that would help me get past a hurdle that I was having with SSIS and couldn't seem to get a good answer. Most of the explanations where thin and just glossed over the information. For instance, with Web Services being so hugely important these days, you think they would have spent more than about three pages discussing them. Their example was very simple and either SSIS is just not capable of being more robust in this area, or the authors didn't feel it was important enough.

I would rather have had them get authors who actually had expertise in each topic and right a detailed chapter on each feature. It would have been much more preferable to this book which tries to cover everything, but just doesn't give enough info to be of use. At least it wasn't to me.

Wrox used to stand for knowledge - each book I have gotten from them within the last two years has continued to dissappoint me.

As a good overview of what SSIS is, I think this book succeeds. As being a weighty tome of information, keep looking, you won't find it here. :(