BIDS Helper

Updated Wiki: Expression List

furmangg — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:09:29 GMT

Expression List

The Expression List provides a window that lists all the expressions defined in a package. When you have an SSIS project open, the Expression List can be shown or hidden by going to the View... Other Windows menu and selecting the "Expression List (BIDS Helper)" menu item:

The window shows the following information:

Object Type - The type of the object that the expression is defined on.
Object Name - The name of the object.
Property - The name of the property that the expression applies to.
Expression - The expression set for the property.

The button located in the upper left corner of the tool window will refresh the list of expressions when it is clicked. The button located in the far right column of the grid diplay opens an Expression Editor, provided by Konesans (http://www.konesans.com). (Currently this expression editor is for SQL2005 only.)

The Expression editor component has been kindly provided for use in BIDSHelper by Konesans (www.konesans.com). This component is not open source and is not licensed for use out side of the BIDSHelper project. If you wish to use this control outside of the official BIDSHelper releases then you will need to contact Konesans and negotiate licensing terms with them.

Updated Wiki: Sort Project Files

furmangg — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:08:55 GMT

Sort Project Files

Note: This feature is not part of the current release, so you must download the source code from the Source Code tab, compile, and deploy it yourself.

This feature adds a "Sort by name" menu option to the "SSIS Packages" folder of an SSIS project in Visual Studio:

This feature is implemented natively in BIDS in SQL2008.

Source code checked in, #34248

furmangg — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:00:50 GMT

katmai changes

Source code checked in, #34243

furmangg — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:56:25 GMT

fixing error in Variables Window Extensions

Updated Wiki: Home

furmangg — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:54:27 GMT

A Visual Studio.Net add-ins with features that extend and enhance the functionality of the SQL Server 2005 BI Development Studio. (BIDS)

Features

Analysis Services

Integration Services

General

Enable/Disable features

Installation

To install BIDS Helper, download the installer from the Releases tab.

Suggestions

We are currently in the process of brainstorming other potential features, and have been adding them as work items. If you have a feature you would like to see added, drop us a line on the forums.

Future Releases

The next release date has not yet been scheduled. The next release will contain a major revamping of the Expression and Configuration Highlighter which improves performance. It will also contain the following new features:

Analysis Services

Integration Services

Updated Wiki: Non-Default Properties Report

furmangg — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:51:52 GMT

Non-Default Properties Report

Note: This feature is not part of the current release, so you must download the source code from the Source Code tab, compile, and deploy it yourself.

Ever inherited someone's work and wondering what unexpected settings are used? The Non-Default Properties Report will let you see on one screen all properties which have been changed from their defaults. The report can be run for Analysis Services or for Integration Services:

Analysis Services

Right-clicking on the database node in Solution Explorer reveals the Non-Default Properties Report menu option:

When chosen, a dialog opens showing all properties that were scanned that had non-default values. Uncheck the properties you do not wish to see then click OK. The properties you unchecked will be remembered so that you do not have to uncheck them the next time.

The report's first page is a table of contents which groups by property. Expanding a property lets you see all the objects which contain a non-default value on this property. This is helpful if you want to know, for example, which measures have MeasureExpression's. Clicking an object path takes you to the details on a later page.

The next pages of the report group by object. For each property, you see the default value and the current value.

Exporting the report to Excel correctly renders the table of contents. You can download a sample export of this report against Adventure Works DW.

Integration Services

The equivalent report for SSIS packages can be launched from one of three places in solution explorer: from the solution node, from the project node, or from an individual package.

When chosen, a dialog opens showing all properties that were scanned that had non-default values. Uncheck the properties you do not wish to see then click OK. The properties you unchecked will be remembered so that you do not have to uncheck them the next time.

The properties which are scanned were chosen very carefully. For instance, no DateTime properties (like CreationDate) are scanned because the value is always going to be different than the “default”. Also, almost no plain-text string properties were scanned because they are usually SQL commands or other such properties which are always different than the default.

The report's first page is a table of contents which groups by property. Expanding a property lets you see all the objects which contain a non-default value on this property. This is helpful if you want to know, for example, which tasks have changed the TransactionOption property. Clicking an object path takes you to the details on a later page.

The next pages of the report group by object. For each property, you see the default value and the current value. Unlike Analysis Services in which the object model is decorated with a DefaultValueAttribute denoting the proper default, the Integration Services object model does not have similarly denoted default values. In order to determine the default, a temporary package and task are created behind the scenes and the "default" property values are noted.

Exporting the report to Excel correctly renders the table of contents. You can download a sample export of this report against a demonstration package.

If there are any properties which are not showing up on this report which you feel should be showing up, please post an issue on the Issue Tracker tab.

Updated Wiki: Non-Default Properties Report

furmangg — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:45:05 GMT

Non-Default Properties Report

Analysis Services

Integration Services

The equivalent report for SSIS packages can be launched from one of three places in solution explorer: from the solution node, from the project node, or from an individual package:
<image>

When chosen, a dialog opens showing all properties that were scanned that had non-default values. Uncheck the properties you do not wish to see then click OK. The properties you unchecked will be remembered so that you do not have to uncheck them the next time.

The properties which are scanned were chosen very carefully. For instance, no DateTime properties (like CreationDate) are scanned because the value is always going to be different than the “default”. Also, almost no plain-text string properties were scanned because they are usually SQL commands or other such properties which are always different than the default.

The report's first page is a table of contents which groups by property. Expanding a property lets you see all the objects which contain a non-default value on this property. This is helpful if you want to know, for example, which tasks have changed the TransactionOption property. Clicking an object path takes you to the details on a later page.

The next pages of the report group by object. For each property, you see the default value and the current value. Unlike Analysis Services in which the object model is decorated with a DefaultValueAttribute denoting the proper default, the Integration Services object model does not have similarly denoted default values. In order to determine the default, a temporary package and task are created behind the scenes and the "default" property values are noted.

Exporting the report to Excel correctly renders the table of contents. You can download a sample export of this report against a demonstration package.

Updated Wiki: Non-Default Properties Report

furmangg — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:00:10 GMT

Non-Default Properties Report

Analysis Services

Right-clicking on the database node in Solution Explorer reveals the Non-Default Properties Report menu option:
<image>

When chosen, a dialog opens showing all properties that were scanned that had non-default values. Uncheck the properties you do not wish to see then click OK. The properties you unchecked will be remembered so that you do not have to uncheck them the next time.
<image>

The report's first page is a table of contents which groups by property. Expanding a property lets you see all the objects which contain a non-default value on this property. This is helpful if you want to know, for example, which measures have MeasureExpression's. Clicking an object path takes you to the details on a later page.
<image>

The next pages of the report group by object. For each property, you see the default value and the current value.

Exporting the report to Excel correctly renders the table of contents. You can download a <download> sample export of this report against Adventure Works DW.

Integration Services

The equivalent report for SSIS packages can be launched from one of three places in solution explorer: from the solution node, from the project node, or from an individual package:
<image>

When chosen, a dialog opens showing all properties that were scanned that had non-default values. Uncheck the properties you do not wish to see then click OK. The properties you unchecked will be remembered so that you do not have to uncheck them the next time.
<image>

The properties which are scanned were chosen very carefully. For instance, no DateTime properties (like CreationDate) are scanned because the value is always going to be different than the “default”. Also, almost no plain-text string properties were scanned because they are usually SQL commands or other such properties which are always different than the default.

The report's first page is a table of contents which groups by property. Expanding a property lets you see all the objects which contain a non-default value on this property. This is helpful if you want to know, for example, which tasks have changed the TransactionOption property. Clicking an object path takes you to the details on a later page.
<image>

The next pages of the report group by object. For each property, you see the default value and the current value. Unlike Analysis Services in which the object model is decorated with a DefaultValueAttribute denoting the proper default, the Integration Services object model does not have similarly denoted default values. In order to determine the default, a temporary package and task are created behind the scenes and the "default" property values are noted.

Exporting the report to Excel correctly renders the table of contents. You can download a <download> sample export of this report against a demonstration package.

Source code checked in, #34229

furmangg — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:38:06 GMT

improvements to Non-Default Properties report

Updated Wiki: Deploy SSIS Packages

furmangg — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:28:01 GMT

Deploy SSIS Packages

Note: This feature is not part of the current release, so you must download the source code from the Source Code tab, compile, and deploy it yourself.

This feature lets you quickly deploy SSIS packages directly from BIDS without having to create a deployment manifest and use the Package Installation Wizard.

First, right click on the project node in Solution Explorer and choose Properties.

BIDS Helper adds a custom tab to the screen that pops up. Flip to the "Deploy (BIDS Helper)" tab and edit the properties to specify how you want to deploy your solution.

The following types of deployment mechanisms are supported:

Simple File Copy - Copies packages to any windows directory.
SQL Server Destination - Copies packages into MSDB in the specified SQL Server instance.
SSIS Package Store (File System) - Copies packages into the SSIS Package Store on the file system of the specified server. (The files end up in "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\DTS\Packages" by default.)
SSIS Package Store (MSDB) - Copies packages into the SSIS Package Store in MSDB on the specified server.

It is recommended that you click the Configuration Manager button in this dialog and create one Visual Studio configuration per deploy destination (i.e. Development, Staging, Production). BIDS Helper allows you to save separate deployment destination settings per Visual Studio configuration.

When you click the OK button, your BIDS Helper settings for Deploying SSIS Packages are saved into a file in the project directory called <ProjectName>.dtproj.bidsHelper.user.

Next, deploy packages by right clicking on the packages you wish to deploy in Solution Explorer and choosing Deploy. You may right click on a single package, you may Ctrl-click multiple packages then right click on them, or you may right click on the project node to deploy all packages in the project. If you have multiple projects in the solution, all of which are SSIS projects, you can right click on the solution node and deploy all packages from all projects using that menu option.

The Output window displays details about the progress of your deployment:

If deploying an entire project (via the project node menu or the solution node menu), a file is created in the OutputPath (usually the bin directory) called bidsHelperDeployPackages.bat which contains all the commands which were just used to deploy the packages. This bat file can be used as a starter for automating deployment.

Limitations:

SSIS Package Configurations are not deployed. No dtsConfig files can be deployed using BIDS Helper. BIDS Helper will not alter your packages or modify your package configurations. Package configurations should be manually setup on the destination environment before deploying your packages.
Only Windows Integrated Security is supported for deploying packages to SQL Server or the SSIS Package Store.
Packages encrypted with a password are not supported with the Deploy Packages feature unless you set DeploymentType=FilePathDestination (which is just a simple file copy that does not use dtutil and thus does not need to decrypt the package).

Source code checked in, #34219

furmangg — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:07:16 GMT

fixing problem with error list messages for Variables Scope Change showing up when editing package outside of a project

Source code checked in, #34218

furmangg — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:33:17 GMT

fixing a problem with never clearing the error list from the previous check in's code

Source code checked in, #34217

furmangg — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:24:38 GMT

adding code to Variables Scope Change feature to show error message when variable expression doesn't validate

Source code checked in, #34216

furmangg — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:46:52 GMT

putting try/catch blocks around all dtsConfigFormatter code to possibly prevent crashes of BIDS

Source code checked in, #34215

furmangg — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:25:12 GMT

adding project properties button ID to constants

Source code checked in, #34214

furmangg — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:16:09 GMT

fixing project properties tab for Deploy Packages feature so that it shows up in international versions of BIDS

Source code checked in, #34207

dgosbell — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:45:44 GMT

Updating version to 1.3.0.5

Source code checked in, #34205

furmangg — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:30:17 GMT

adding Non-Default Properties Report

Source code checked in, #34190

johnwelch — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:36:54 GMT

Updated MoveVariables to only enable button if at least one non-system variable is selected.

Source code checked in, #34186

dgosbell — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:59:04 GMT

Fixing the activation of the Sort Project Files feature to work with non-english versions of BIDS