So you've created a SQL Server package and now you're ready to integrate it into your Visual Basic application? In this series, Brian Knight will show you how to use the DTS object model to execute a DTS package from Visual Basic.   Read more...

A colleague working on an Informix database needed to search TEXT columns using wildcards. While Informix supports wildcards in LIKE and MATCH predicates, this support does not include TEXT columns. The obvious solution—to export the data to SQL Server—does support such searches.  Read more...

How do you easily copy DTS packages from one server to another? DTS, BCP, T-SQL? Are there advantages to using one method over another? Andy did some research - read the article and see what works and what doesn't!   Read more...

SQL Server 2005 has substantially enhanced its ETL capabilities, but many people will still be working with DTS in SQL Server 2000 for many years. New author James Greaves brings us a technique for working with imports and handling files that might not have any data.   Read more...

SQL Server 2000's DTS subsystem is a tremendously flexible environment for handling any number of tasks on your SQL Server. Alex Kersha used DTS to implment a task that manages the number of backup files on his server, which is conifgurable with a global variable. Read on and get the code to implement this task on your servers.   Read more...

One would think that when you have to work with Unix text files, they would be the same as Windows text files. That is not quite the case and Peter Ward brings us a look at how this caused a problem in DTS and a way you can fix it.   Read more...

DTS is a great tool in SQL Server 2000 for easily setting up jobs to import or export data. But it can also have security risks. New author Alex Kersha brings us a simple security technique to be sure that you are properly executing your DTS packages in a secure manner.   Read more...

A quick and dirty procedure to allow you to grant execute permissions to a user, or role, quickly and easily.   Read more...

Lots of packages exist that will import data files for you, even if you do not know the file name ahead of time. But most of them expect the files to be there. New author Andre Quitta brings us a technique he has for checking to see if the files are even there before importing them.   Read more...

This article by Chris Kempster covers a wide variety of areas concerned with data migration. Primarily, it focuses on process, standards and some of the many issues to consider when undertaking this role.   Read more...

DTS is a fantastic ETL tool and it is often used to import Excel documents. However this can be a manual process in many cases in setting up the package. New author Sloan Holliday brings us a way that you can leverage Office XP's automation facilities and XML to import data into SQL Server.   Read more...

SQL Server 2000 brought us DTS, a new way of working with data movement for SQL Server DBAs. However, unlike Integration Services and Project REAL, there weren't any great standards for working with this tool and building portable solutions was hard. Jonathan Stokes brings us a great article on how you can create a standard structure for your packages and make them more portable.   Read more...

While SQL Server 2005 is greatly changing the paradigm of ETL with Integration Services, SQL Server 2000 and DTS will be here for some time to come. New author Rama Nageshwara brings us an overview of this fantastic data movement toolset.   Read more...

SQL Server 2000 has a great job and alert subsystem, but it doesn't do everything. There are times when you want to be notified that something has completed, or not completed. New author Frank Loschiavo brings us a way to ensure that when you run a query you are notified if and when it completes.   Read more...

Another great article from Joe Sack that looks at a great technique for generating reports in Excel for your users. Using DTS, you can easily setup an ad hoc or recurring schedule for your users. It's a way to quickly build a report that keeps people happy while making you look like a genius.   Read more...

DTS was one of the most amazing new features of SQL Server 7 and in SQL Server 2005 it has been renamed to Integration Services. This component has some incredible new capabilities, many of which come at a steep learning curve. New author Kristian Wedberg brings us a basic article and some code on how you can SSIS to generate test data.   Read more...

Building robust functionality with maximum re-use of existing infrastructure and investment with little or no development is the goal for many businesses. This article is about using SQL Server DTS packages to achieve this goal. With minimum development, all the functionality required for data imports can be achieved with DTS programming in SQL Server.   Read more...

DTS is an incredible package for moving data in the SQL Server world. One feature that is missing, however, is the ability to send files using FTP to a remote server. This article looks at a technique for sending files via FTP.   Read more...

One of the most useful tasks in SQL Server 2000's DTS environment is the Dynamic Properties task. Author Kathi Kellenberger brings us a look at how this task can help you accomplish an unusal import task.   Read more...

Have you ever faced the situation where you have needed to move a DTS package you needed to move a DTS package from one server to another, say from development to production? In this article by Kevin Feit, he shows you how to make a DTS package portable and save time.   Read more...