Hands-On Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services part 52. Deploy and manage high-performance data transformation solutions across your enterprise using the step-by-step techniques in this fully revised guide. Hands-On Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services, Second Edition explains the tools and methods necessary to extract conclusive business intelligence from disparate corporate data. Learn how to build and secure packages, load and cleanse data, establish workflow, and optimize performance. Real-world examples, detailed illustrations, and hands-on exercises are included throughout this practical resource. . | 488 Hands-On Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services Script Task The Script task lets you write a piece of code to extend the package functionality and get the job done. The ability to use your own code is provided by the Script task in the control flow and by the Script component in the data flow. To provide an IDE the Script task and the Script component use Visual Studio Tools for Applications VSTA in Integration Services 2008. The previous version Integration Services 2005 used Visual Studio for Applications VSA as its IDE so if you have some scripts that are written in SSIS 2005 you will need to upgrade them for the new environment. Refer to Chapter 14 for details on migration issues. Using VSTA you can write scripts with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 or Microsoft Visual C 2008. If your business rules are already coded in different .NET-compliant languages or you prefer to write code in a different language you can compile it into a custom assembly and call it within the Script task as it can call the external .NET assemblies quite easily. The Script task allows you to leverage the powerful .NET libraries also. The code written in VSTA is completely integrated with Integration Services for example the breakpoints in VSTA work seamlessly with breakpoints in Integration Services. Before you run a package containing a Script Task you do need to make sure that the VSTA engine is installed on the computer. So whether you want to achieve extra functionality or use existing code the Script task provides enough facilities to allow you to accomplish your goals. Hands-On Scripting the Handshake Functionality In a classical data warehousing scenario it is quite common to use control or handshake files to let the processes know whether the operations upstream or downstream have completed. In our test scenario we have a mainframe process that copies the files into a folder and stamps the handshake file with different strings based on the current status of the process.
