Professional SQL Server 2000 DTS (Data Transformation Service) (Paperback)

by Mark Chaffin (Author), Brian Knight (Author), Todd Robinson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
A lot of corporate databases are what's behind the Internet revolution. Professional SQL Server 2000 DTS gives DBAs and programmers a handy guide to getting the most out of the Data Transformation Services (DTS)--a flexible set of tools that work on a wide variety of databases--that are available in SQL Server 2000.

The hands-on focus of the book makes it a win for readers of all backgrounds. While online help for DTS is not always easy to decipher, this book remedies the situation with plenty of screen shots of all of the major tools in action. Early sections examine nearly two dozen built-in tasks or functions in DTS--from the obvious (copying data from one database to another) to the more esoteric (sending files via FTP within DTS).

A gentle introduction to using VBScript and ActiveX objects gets at the DTS object model to design "custom tasks." By using this approach, you can automate and transform data reliably among different formats, including mainframe and Office documents. (Specific tips guide you in working with DB2 and Excel data.) A standout section looks at "linking" servers and querying data from heterogeneous sources.

You also learn how to build a Web front end (using ASPs) for a data application that uses SQL-DMO APIs to automate database tasks through a browser. Later, there's an excellent tutorial on data warehousing, done the Microsoft way--from the basics of the star, snowflake, and hybrid fact tables for a data mart to setting up and loading the data using DTS, and then running the database with Microsoft Analysis Services. The book closes with a thorough reference section that lists the objects and methods in the DTS object model.

Whether you're performing normal database administration or setting up a data warehouse--or you just want to work with data more effectively within your applications--Professional SQL Server 2000 DTS gives you all of the information that you need to be productive with a powerful (and sometimes overlooked) set of database tools and components. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Introduction to Data Transformation Services (DTS)
• Survey of DTS wizards and tools
• The Import/Export Wizard
• The Copy Database Wizard
• The DTS Designer
• Survey of automated tasks in SQL Server 2000, including the Bulk Insert, Execute SQL, Copy SQL Server Objects, and Transfer Databases tasks
• The Multiphase Data Pump
• Using a Data Driven Query (DDQ)
• The FTP Task
• The Execute Package Task
• The Message Queue Task
• Advanced package options
• General package properties
• Transfer Data Task options
• Data scrubbing
• Working with heterogeneous data (using linked servers from mainframe and legacy servers)
• Tips for converting Excel and DB2 data
• DTS ActiveX Script basics
• Quick tutorial for VBScript syntax
• The DTS Object Model