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April 2007 - Posts

• SSIS: Storing passwords

  Many questions on the SSIS forum relate to security aspects of using SSIS and a large percentage of those relate to the storing of passwords in configurations. Many people have correctly observed that, whilst SSIS will generate configuration files for Read More... Posted 26 April 2007 20:14 by jamie.thomson | 21 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Integration Services, SSIS, security, ProtectionLevel, configurations

• SSIS: Bug when using source control systems

  Have you ever seen the following message in your SSIS log files? " Warning: The DataFlow task has no components. Add components or remove the task " Upon seeing it you will open up your SSIS package and find that, mysteriously, all of the components Read More... Posted 24 April 2007 02:47 by jamie.thomson | 20 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Integration Services, SSIS

• Brand value on the internet

  Blog king Robert Scoble recently posted a mildly critical opinion of Live Maps in comparison to Google Maps . That isn't what got my attention though and isn't why I'm posting this. The discussion in the comments section got round to brand Read More... Posted 21 April 2007 18:05 by jamie.thomson | 5 Comments Filed under: Windows Live, Microsoft, Flickr, live maps, google maps, google, twitter, youtube

• SSIS: The steep SSIS learning curve!

  As anyone who has been using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) for a while will know there are lots and lots of knobs within a package that can be tweaked to alter behaviour. Many of these aren't obvious and the steep learning curve that many Read More... Posted 20 April 2007 22:03 by jamie.thomson | 11 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Integration Services, SSIS, configurations

• SSIS: Build your own Transfer SQL Objects Task

  Just a quick post. Many people on the SSIS forum have complained about the usefulness of the stock Transfer SQL Server Objects Task. I haven't been in a position to provide any advice because I've never used it but hopefully now I don't have Read More... Posted 19 April 2007 05:53 by jamie.thomson | 2 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Integration Services, SSIS

• Connecting Windows Mobile to Vista

  I've been having some fun and games this evening trying to get my Windows Mobile 5 smartphone to connect to Windows Mobile Device Center (the new name for ActiveSync) on Windows Vista but I've finally got it working and here's the secret. Read More... Posted 17 April 2007 06:30 by jamie.thomson | 2 Comments Filed under: Vista, windows mobile, Windows Mobile Device Center, activesync

• SSIS: Live Search Macro for SQL Server Integration Services

  Just for a laugh I have started playing around with Live Search macros . In case you don't know, Live Search Macros are our way of building tailored search engines to search only specific content. I went for an obvious subject for my first Live Search Read More... Posted 10 April 2007 03:42 by jamie.thomson | 21 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Integration Services, Windows Live, SSIS, search, G33ky

• Windows Live: XBOX and Live Messenger converge

  Interesting Windows Live related news coming from Microsoft today. May will see the arrival of Live Messenger for XBOX 360 . XBOX Live members will now be able to interact with the 260million strong Live Messenger user base directly from their XBOX 360. Read More... Posted 09 April 2007 15:35 by jamie.thomson | 1 Comments Filed under: Windows Live, Microsoft, xbox

• Windows Live: Missing feature in Live Search Mobile

  I recently downloaded Live Search Mobile onto my smartphone. One of the best features about it is that they have categorised local amenities so that if you want to to find (say) your nearest restaurant it really is very easy to do. The high-level categories Read More... Posted 06 April 2007 09:31 by jamie.thomson | 2 Comments Filed under: Windows Live, windows mobile, mobility, live maps

• T-SQL: A T-SQL Poser - Part 3

  A couple of weeks ago I posed a T-SQL problem here and later some possible solutions here . You should probably read those posts before you read this. In a nutshell I wanted to concatenate values from multiple rows into a comma-delimited list. In the Read More... Posted 05 April 2007 07:17 by jamie.thomson | 1 Comments Filed under: SQL Server, T-SQL