Developing For .NET

If you are a regular reader then you know I spent some time this year learning SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS).  I’ve used it in several projects and have been very happy with the results, even if I have made a few mistakes along the way.  In fact, I was so enamored of what I was able to do in such a short time that I submitted to present not one, but two sessions at the upcoming SQL Saturday DC (#61), and to my surprise they were both selected!

Below is some information about the sessions, I hope to see you there!

SSIS for real: a walk through a real world project

Abstract: In this presentation I will walk though a complete real-world SSIS project that pulls data from an AS/400 and converts it to a SQL Server destination. In addition to specific AS/400 conversion issues I will also cover topics like dynamic OLEDB connections, and creating an effective work flow. Along the way we’ll take a look at how I use Derived Columns, Conditional Split, Lookup, and Script components to solve every day conversion issues.

The specific problem domain that SSIS solved for me was converting data from the EBCDIC world of the AS/400 (iSeries, System i, name-du-jour) to SQL Server.  Previously this had all been done with straight ADO.NET applications and performance was horrendous, to put it nicely.  Now with SSIS we have a solution that implements the Incremental Load pattern that is extremely performant. I’ll be discussing this project from start to finish.

Intro to C# for the SSIS Script Component

Abstract: The Script Component is an extremely powerful element in SSIS because it brings in the full capability of the .NET Framework. With first-class development tools and languages like C# you can solve problems that previously required very complex SQL or Expressions. If you’d like to learn enough C# to more effectively use the Script Component for Transformations, then this session is for you.

As a C# developer I was very happy to learn about the Script Component in SSIS 2008.  When I had to port my Package back to 2005 I discovered that it only supported Visual Basic.  I was able to make do, but it led me to the conclusion that there are probably plenty of SSIS folks who would like to know more about C#.  The session will include some C# basics and focus on things that you would find useful for data transformation, like string manipulation, data conversion, Regular expression matching, and more.