Professional SQL Server 2000 DTS (Data Transformation Service) [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

~ (Author), Brian Knight (Author), Todd Robinson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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
• File management with the FileSystemObject object
• DTS security issues
• Meta Data Services
• Backing up databases
• DTS error handling
• Building custom tasks in DTS
• Star, snowflake, and hybrid designs for data warehouses
• Extract, Transformation, and Load (ETL) with DTS
• Microsoft Analysis Services
• Creating Web front ends for DTS applications
• Reference to the DTS and ADO object models
• Reference to essential VB functions and keywords
• Microsoft Scripting Run-Time Reference

Product Description

One of the new outstanding features of SQL Server is Data Transformation Services (DTS). DTS can be used by both developers and database administrators (DBAs) and is attracting a lot of interest. There is a demand for information and currently no other books are available to satisfy this. DTS enables data to be moved between a wide variety of sources and destinations, as well as transforming the data along the way to suit your requirements. DTS can be used to maximum effect in data-driven applications, enabling dynamic data transfer across internet and intranet applications. This offers rapid and effective solutions to common problems such as:

Automatically transferring data into data warehouses
Importing and exporting data to and from other applications for analysis and reporting
Moving working copies of databases between servers

The capabilities of DTS are large and this book will give the reader a complete picture of how to use DTS to its fullest potential.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 855 pages
• Publisher: Peer Information; 1 edition (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861004419
• ISBN-13: 978-1861004413
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #819,010 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Enough, August 9, 2002

By	Steve Munro (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This book was a disappointment. Mostly it shows how to create packages using the Enterprise Mgr interface. I don't need a book to do that. Right now I am coding a VB app using DTS, and this book was definitely not enough. This is a beginner book, introductory in nature. There is an Object reference, but I can see that in the Object Browser. The examples are simplistic and not real-world. The examples on the SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit are better. I am moving large amounts of data data and have to deal with permissions, constraints, dependency tables -- none of this is covered. You can manipulate the object model thousands of ways; without any guidance on these advanced topics (not covered by MSDN) you are adrift... and your packages will fail every time.
If you are a programmer, don't bother with this one.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not worth it, February 24, 2004

By	Steven Nicolaou (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Professional SQL Server 2000 DTS (Data Transformation Services) (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

You'd think an 880-page tome from Wrox on something as specialised as DTS would pretty much have you covered anytime you need a reliable DTS reference to get you through your Data Transformation tasks. I have found myself looking to this book for guidance on many occasions during development, only to be consistently disappointed. For a start, the Index is downright useless, since I was never able to find words I would expected to, such as delimiter, lineage, disconnected edit, parameterised query, identity insert, but it has an entry for DNS?? (which, btw refers to a 3-line explanation of URLs when using Internet Explorer!) The book is so large mainly because every other page is a GUI snapshot, most of which are unnecessary. I don't need a whole page dedicated to the "Syntax check was successful" message box.

I give it 3 stars because they do a good job of at least mentioning probably every concept that relates to DTS, but coverage is mostly shallow and out of focus. There does seem to be heavy emphasis on data warehousing, which I haven't used so far, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt regarding coverage there. Overall I still think I might find something good when I need a reference but so far I have mostly found SQL Books Online equally, or sometimes more useful.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good, September 4, 2001

By A Customer

My company just started using DTS and I needed to learn the technology rapidly. While many Wrox books are 1000+ pages, this book is actually 683. The rest of the pages are devoted to appendixes on the object models.

Another strength of this book is the construction of the chapters. After the introductory 2 chapters, the rest can be read in any order or skipped. This book covered many diverse topics, including data warehouse loading, the DTS object model, VBScript, and even using VB to build new custom tasks.

The book is primarily focused on DBAs. Therefore, there is more coverage of VBScript and COM object development than a programmer would require. However, given the strong chapter cohesiveness, it is easy to skip this material without missing important information.