BI Conference - SQLBits - Birmingham (UK)

Dear Friends,
Today I'm very happy!! I received the confirmation for the next SQLBits conference in Birmingham(UK). And I'm happy for several reasons...

• I will return to Birmingham where I finished my IT Degree some years ago (NewMan College 2001)
• I will attend to the sessions of Chris Webb and Darren Green that are one of my main sources of inspiration and Allan Mitchell that is one of the authors of my favorite SSIS book at WROX.
• Change knowledge with the BI comunity and see old and new friends.
  
• Learn more about BI and SQL 2008 tools
• Enjoy Birmingham lifestyle again!

I'm sure you have a lot of reasons like me to the conference. Dont waste more time, there are more than 400 people confirmed!!

For registations follow this link: http://www.sqlbits.com
There will be several sessions, I selected these ones:

Slot 1:
Master Data Management (MDM)
Taken by Sutha Thiru
Slot 2:
Extending SSIS with custom Data Flow components
Taken by Darren Green
Slot 3:
Understanding LINQ in .NET Framework V3.5 and Beyond
Taken by Mike Taulty
Slot 4:
Making more of SSIS in 2008
Taken by Allan Mitchell
Slot 5:
Using Analysis Services as a data source for Reporting Services reports
Taken by Chris Webb

The agenda: www.sqlbits.com/information/MainAgenda.aspx
I will book my flight and hotel tonight!!

And for some reason you cannot go to Birmingham, prepare to go to Glasgow on 10-May-2008... I will try to be there... so, vote in the sessions you want to see!! Follow the link image!

See you around!
Regards!

SSIS - Execute a package from an ASP.NET page

Dear Friends,
Today I'm describing the way I executed a package from an ASP.NET page and passing a parameter.

The Problem
I need to enable the user of an ASP application to execute a package and passing a parameter to it when the user press a button.

Solution

The first thing you must know, is where you ssis packge will be stored. You or the DBA Team could stor the SSIS package inside database, in the filesystem or in DTS. Each one has advantages and disadvantages, and in my opinion the package inside database could be better when you must unsure more security.

So, in my SSIS package I have created a global variable "strCFG_TextPath" and I will update this value from ASP page. I have created a function fExecSSISPackage in a clean webservice to make the call.
(You can create the function in the ASP page, but in my case I made like this because I insert all the connections to the database inside a WebService)

WebService

In this example the SSIS package is stored in the filesystem, but the function is prepared to accept each of the 3 types that I described before.

You only need to write few lines: (SourceLocation is the string value I want to pass to the SSIS package)

Dim myPackage as Package
Dim integrationServices As New Application
myPackage = integrationServices.LoadPackage(packagePath, Nothing)
myPackage.Variables("strCFG_TextPath").Value = sourceLocation
myPackage.Execute()

ASP.NET Page
To call the function in the WebService is simple... see the image:

I hope this post could be helpfull for you.
Kind Regards,
Pedro

BI News

Dear Friends,
Sorry for this delay to write a post... you dont imagine the lot of things I have to share and change with you. This delay is because in the last week I was reading a new book... a book that tells me how I can earn money in the financial markets!! eheheh... the book is very good, and was written by a person that worked in the same bank that I'm currently working as outsource BI developer... I'm working for the big IT company in Portugal... It's Novabase (http://www.novabase.pt/)

The book is really good and explain how the markets work and explain some tips that we must care when we invest some money in equities or other financial instruments. I bought this book because I'm currently working as BI developer in a project in this business. This book is writetten in portuguese, but I will try to know if there is some version with english translation.(http://www.keditora.com/nov.html)

But the main purpose of this post is to tell tou that I will start to write more technical posts related to ETL using Microsoft tools. Not only because I have a ETL class in my master degree but because I have some tips that I think could be helpfull to you, like SSIS package configurations, SSIS audit packages, SSIS named conventions, and more and more... so, keep in touch with my blog!!!

Cheers!

Pedro