When you first open Business Intelligence Development Studio, the Start Page appears in the center of the Business Intelligence Development Studio user interface. This page displays a list of recently updated projects; help topics, Web sites, technical articles, and other resources; links to product and event information from Microsoft; and by default, a list of articles from the RSS feed of the specified news channel. After you open an object in a project, the designer for working with that object also appears in the center window.
To display a page other than the Start Page at startup, click Options on the Tools menu, expand the Environment node, and in the At Startup list, select the item to display.
To learn more about the Start Page, click within the Start Page and press F1. If the Start Page is closed, click Start Page on the View menu.
Tool Windows in Business Intelligence Development Studio
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Business Intelligence Development Studio includes a set of windows for all phases of solution development and project management. For example, Business Intelligence Development Studio includes windows that let you manage multiple projects as a unit and view and modify the properties of objects in projects. These windows are available to all the project types in Business Intelligence Development Studio.
The following diagram shows the windows in Business Intelligence Development Studio in the default configuration.
Business Intelligence Development Studio consists of four main windows:
• Solution Explorer
• Properties Window
• Designer Window
• Toolbox
Other windows included in Business Intelligence Development Studio let you view search results, and get information about error messages and information that are output by the project debuggers or designers. Server Explorer lists database connections; Object Browser displays the symbols available to use in a project; Task List lists user-defined programming tasks; and Error List provides detailed descriptions of errors.
To learn more about these tool windows, click the View menu, select the option for the window you are interested in, and then press F1 from within the window.
Solution Explorer
You can manage all the different projects in a solution from a single window, Solution Explorer. The Solution Explorer view presents the active solution as a logical container for one or more projects, and includes all the items associated with the projects. You can open project items for modification and perform other management tasks directly from this view. Because different kinds of projects store items in different ways, the folder structure in Solution Explorer does not necessarily reflect the actual physical storage of the items listed within the solution.
In Solution Explorer, you can create empty solutions and then add new or existing projects to the solution. If you create a new project without first creating a solution, Business Intelligence Development Studio automatically creates the solution too. When the solution includes projects, the tree view includes nodes for project-specific objects. For example, the Analysis Services project includes a Dimensions node, the Integration Services project includes a Packages node, and the Report Model project includes a Reports node.
To access Solution Explorer, click Solution Explorer on the View menu.
Properties Window
The Properties window lists the properties of an object. You use this window to view and change the properties of objects, such as packages, that are open in editors and designers. You can also use the Properties window to edit and view file, project, and solution properties.
Fields in the Properties window have different types of controls embedded that open when you click them. The type of edit control depends on the particular property. These edit fields include edit boxes, dropdown lists, and links to custom dialog boxes. Properties that are shown as dimmed are read-only.
To access the Properties window, click Properties Window on the View menu.
Toolbox Window
The Toolbox window displays a variety of items for use in business intelligence projects. The tabs and items available in the Toolbox change depending on the designer or editor currently in use.
The Toolbox window always displays the General tab, and may also display tabs such as Control Flow Items, Maintenance Tasks, Data Flow Sources, or Report Items.
Some designers and editors do not use items from the Toolbox. In that case the Toolbox contains only the General tab.
To access the Toolbox, click Toolbox on the View menu.
Designer Window
The Designer window is the tool window in which you create or modify business intelligence objects. The designer provides both a code view and a design view of an object. When you open an object in a project, the object opens within a specialized designer in this window. For example, if you open a data source view in any of the business intelligence projects, the designer window opens using the Data Source View designer.
The Designer window is not available until you add a project to a solution and open an object within that project.
Menus in Business Intelligence Development Studio
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The default menus that appear in Business Intelligence Development Studio are identical to those in Visual Studio.
When you first open Business Intelligence Development Studio, before you modify the environment, open a solution, or open any projects, Business Intelligence Development Studio includes the following menus:
• File
• Edit
• View
• Tools
• Window
• Community
• Help
When you open a specific project type in Business Intelligence Development Studio, additional menus are added to the menu bar and new options may appear on the default menus in Business Intelligence Development Studio. Moreover, depending on the object you open in the designer window, the menu bar may change to include additional menus specific to the designer for the object you are working with.
File Menu
The options on the File menu support file management. When you first open Business Intelligence Development Studio, but before you have created a new project or opened an existing project, some options are unavailable. These options become available only when you start to work in the context of a solution, or open a project within a solution.
The File menu includes the Source Control option that lets you integrate source control software with the Business Intelligence Development Studio development environment. For more information about how to use source control with Business Intelligence Development Studio, see Using Source Control Services.
Edit Menu
The options on the Edit menu support editing of text and code in files. This menu provides commands such as undo and redo; find and replace strings and symbols, locate a specified line number in code; enable and manage bookmarks. When you first open Business Intelligence Development Studio, before you have created a new project or opened an existing project, some options are unavailable. Some options become available only when you start to work in the context of a solution, or open a project in a solution.
Depending on the project type, some menu options many not be available. For example, the Undo and Redo options are not supported in Integration Services projects.
View Menu
The options on the View menu help you manage the user interface of Business Intelligence Development Studio. This menu and its submenus provide the options to open the various windows, toolbox, explorers, and browsers. You can also select which toolbars to display.
When you first open Business Intelligence Development Studio, before you have created a new project or opened an existing project, some options are unavailable. These options become available only when you start to work in the context of a solution, or open a project in a solution. For example, the View menu includes options to navigate backward and forward, but appears only when multiple windows are open.
Tools Menu
The options on the Tools menu customize behavior of the development environment. This menu, its submenus, and the dialog boxes it accesses provide options to set the following options:
• Select process and a code type for debugging. Alternatively, select the option to automatically detect the code type.
• Connect to a database. The Database Explorer lists the data connections.
• Add, remove, or import a manager for code snippets in the specified language.
• Choose the items that appear in the Toolbox window.
• If an add-in is installed, select the add-in to include in the environment.
• Work with macros. You can perform tasks such as recording and running macros.
• Select external tools to include in the environment.
• Import and export specified environment settings or reset environment settings to their defaults.
• Choose the toolbars to display in the user interface and arrange the order of commands.
• Set the options that apply to the overall development environment, solutions and projects, source control, debugging, and designers and editors.
For more information about configuring Business Intelligence Development Studio, see Customizing the Environment and Tools.
Window Menu
The options on the Window menu manage the behavior of windows, explorers, and browsers in Business Intelligence Development Studio. For example, you can specify whether windows are floating, dockable, display as tabbed documents, or are hidden.
Depending on which windows are open, the Windows menu may include different options.
Community Menu
The options on the Community menu lets you ask questions of other users and of technical support, send feedback to Microsoft, access communities, connect to the developer center, and search communities.
Help Menu
The options on the Help menu provide access to How Do I and Help topics. You can locate Help information using the index, table of content, or search features. From this menu, you can also access technical support and look for updates.
Additionally, Business Intelligence Development Studio Helps lets you save index results and maintain a list of favorite topics.
Toolbars in Business Intelligence Development Studio
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When you first open Business Intelligence Development Studio the Toolbar includes only the MenuBar toolbar and only a few icons are available on the MenuBar toolbar.
To customize the Toolbar, click Customize on the Tools menu, and then select additional toolbars to display, or change options for the toolbar appearance.
Working with Solutions and Projects
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In Business Intelligence Development Studio, a solution is a container that organizes the various projects that you use when you develop end-to-end business solutions. A solution lets you handle multiple projects as one unit and combine one or more related projects that contribute to a business solution. For more information, see Solutions as Containers.
When you create a new solution, Business Intelligence Development Studio adds a Solution folder to Solution Explorer and creates files that have the extensions .sln and .suo.
• The *.sln file contains information about solution configuration and lists the projects in the solution.
• The *.suo file contains information about your preferences for working with the solution.
Projects are stored in solutions. You can create a solution first and then add projects to the solution. If no solution exists, Business Intelligence Development Studio automatically creates one for you when you first create the project. A solution can contain multiple projects of different types. You can also create a blank solution and then add projects later.
Solutions in Business Intelligence Development Studio can include different types of projects. You can add projects of the following types:
• Analysis Services projects, for creating analytic objects. For more information, see SQL Server Analysis Services - Multidimensional Data.
• Integration Services projects, for creating ETL packages. For more information, see SQL Server Integration Services.
• Report Model projects, for creating report models. For more information, see SQL Server Reporting Services.
• Report Server projects, for creating reports. For more information, see SQL Server Reporting Services.
Customizing the Environment, Tools, and Windows
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Business Intelligence Development Studio can be easily configured to suit your working style. You can configure the overall development environment and its behavior, and make changes to its tools and windows. When you save a solution, your configurations are saved to a *.suo file in the solution folder.
You can configure the Business Intelligence Development Studio environment with a collection of settings customized for SQL Server business intelligence development by selecting the Business Intelligence Settings collection. Use Import and Export Settings on the Tools menu to reset all your settings based on the Business Intelligence Settings collection, or to import only the categories of Business Intelligence Settings that you select. For more information, see "Working with Settings" in Visual Studio Help.
To configure individual options for the environment and tools, click Options on the Tools menu to open Options dialog box. To learn more about the different options in the dialog box, click a node in the left pane, and then press F1.
You can configure Business Intelligence Development Studio in the following ways:
• Configuring the Environment
• Configuring Projects and Solutions
• Configuring Source Control
• Configuring the Text Editors
• Configuring Designers
• Configuring Database Tools
• Configuring Debugging
• Configuring the HTML Designer
• Configuring Windows Forms Designer
• Configuring Windows
Configuring the Environment
You use the Environment pages in the Options dialog box to configure Business Intelligence Development Studio in the following ways:
• Windows options, such as whether to use a tabbed or multiple-document format, whether to show the status bar, and how many files should be displayed in the recent files lists.
• Security options, such as whether to allow macros to run and which add-ins to load.
• Document options such as whether to show miscellaneous files in Solution Explorer, and whether to automatically detect files that have been changed outside the environment.
• Find and replace options, such as whether to display warnings before replacing, or whether to automatically populate the Find box.
• Fonts and colors options, such as the font, font size, text color, and background color.
• Help options, such as which Help Viewer to use, and the configuration of Dynamic Help.
Additionally, you can specify miscellaneous options such as the location to use when saving files, the language used in the environment for the user interface and for online Help, the keyboard mapping scheme, startup behavior, options for the task list, and settings for the Web browser.
Configuring Projects and Solutions
You use the Projects and Solutions pages in the Options dialog box to specify the following settings:
• The location of projects, user project templates, and user item templates; the properties of solutions, and properties that apply to all project types. For example, you can specify whether to save new projects when you first create them.
• The behavior of Business Intelligence Development Studio when it builds and runs objects, and whether to use a startup project.
Configuring Source Control
You use the Source Control pages on the Options dialog box to configure the integration of source control software and Business Intelligence Development Studio in the following ways:
• Specifying the source control plug-in.
• Configuring the behavior of the plug-in environment.
• Configuring the plug-in.
Configuring the Text Editor
You use the Text Editor pages in the Options dialog box to configure text editor features that apply to all languages, in addition to any features that apply only to specific languages or language versions. For example, you can set options that apply only to the Transact-SQL version used in SQL Server.
Configuring Designers
You use the Business Intelligence Designers pages in the Options dialog box to configure the default settings for the designers used by Analysis Services and Integration Services. On these pages you can specify options such as the colors to use within the data mining viewers, the time-out for Analysis Services queries, and whether to check digital signatures when loading Integration Services packages.
Configuring Database Tools
You use the Database Tools pages in the Options dialog box to configure the behavior of various tools for managing and designing database objects:
• Configuring view and table designers, script editors, and script/query execution.
• Setting properties of data connections.
• Configuring query and view designers.
• Setting table and diagram options.
• Setting column options.
Configuring Debugging
You use the Debugging pages in the Options dialog box to configure debugging in the following ways:
• Specifying general debugging options such as whether to ask before deleting all breakpoints.
• Enabling edit and continue options such as whether to warn about stale code.
• Selecting the types of code to enable for just-in-time debugging.
Configuring the HTML Designer
You use the HTML Designer pages in the Options dialog box to configure HTML pages in the following ways:
• Specifying the view in which to start pages in source or design view and whether to enable Smart tags.
• Specifying positioning and display options of elements.
Configuring Windows Forms Designer
You use the Windows Forms Designer pages in the Options dialog box to configure Windows forms in the following ways:
• Specifying code generation, layout, Smart Tag, and Toolbox behavior.
• Customizing the user interface of data.
Configuring Windows
The Windows menu includes options for configuring the behavior of Business Intelligence Development Studio windows. You can change most windows to float or be dockable, appear as tabbed documents, or hide until you reopen them from the View menu.
From this menu, you can also create new vertical and horizontal tab groups that let you divide the designer window into multiple windows. You can also close all windows, or reset the window layout to defaults.
Using Source Control Services
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Like Visual Studio, Business Intelligence Development Studio is integrated with source control software. If source control software is installed on the computer, you can add solutions and projects to source control, and then open the solutions and projects in Business Intelligence Development Studio from the source control application.
You configure integration with source control by using the Options dialog box. To open the Options dialog box, click Options on the Tools menu. The Source Control node in the Options dialog box includes pages for specifying the source control plug-in, configuring the source control environment, and setting plug-in options.
Getting More Information
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The Visual Studio documentation provides detailed information about the Microsoft application development environment. Business Intelligence Development Studio uses a subset of the Visual Studio user interface, and the environments in Business Intelligence Development Studio and Visual Studio appear identical. If you install Visual Studio 2008 before you install SQL Server, the environments are one and the same.
The Visual Studio help collection provides documentation for the user interface that Business Intelligence Development Studio uses. To access the Visual Studio help topics that are relevant to the user interface shared with Business Intelligence Development Studio, you must install the MSDN Library that is included with SQL Server or configure the Business Intelligence Development Studio help options to access Help.
To configure Help to use online content
1. On the Start menu, point to Microsoft SQL Server, and then click SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio.
2. In Business Intelligence Development Studio, on the Tools menu, click Options.
3. In the Options dialog box, expand Environment, expand Help, and then click Online.
4. On the Online page, select either the Try online first, then local or Try local, and then online option.
When online Help is enabled, you can obtain context-sensitive help from the Visual Studio windows by pressing F1 or clicking Help. To get help for windows and dialog boxes that are available when working within an Analysis Services, Integration Services, or Reporting Services project, or to access SQL Server Books Online, you must install Books Online or MSDN. To benefit from updates to Books Online content, you should install Books Online.
If you included the .NET Framework documentation in the installation of the MSDN Library, the links between topics in the Books Online Help collection work automatically. However, to add the .NET Framework documentation to Books Online when it is viewed from the Start menu or SQL Server Management Studio, you must add the Help collection. For more information about enabling links in other Help collections, see Adding and Removing Help Collections.
You may also want to install the .NET Framework SDK. The .NET Framework SDK is available as a free download at the Microsoft Web site. For more information, see Installing the .NET Framework Documentation.
If you install Business Intelligence Development Studio, SQL Server Books Online, and MSDN Library, two copies of Books Online appear in the table of contents. One of these was installed by MSDN Library, and the other by SQL Server. To avoid seeing multiple versions of Books Online topics in search and index results, you can remove the MSDN Library copy of Books Online or do a custom installation of the MSDN Library and elect not to install Books Online. To remove Books Online from MSDN Library, open Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel, select MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 and then click Change. In the MSDN Library wizard, select the Modify option, click next, select the uninstall option for SQL Server and complete the wizard.
Accessibility in Business Intelligence Development Studio
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The Business Intelligence Development Studio environment, the business intelligence projects, and the objects that you work with in these projects include accessibility features to help in navigating and viewing the user interface. For example, the user interface in Visual Studio supports shortcut keys for users who cannot use a mouse, text labels that describe functionality otherwise expressed by color coding, to help users who cannot recognize colors, and alternative text for graphical elements, to help users who use a screen reader. For more information, see Accessibility in Business Intelligence Development Studio and Using Keyboard Shortcuts in Business Intelligence Development Studio.
Analysis Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio
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Business Intelligence Development Studio includes the Analysis Services project for developing online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining functionality for business intelligence applications. This project type includes the templates for cubes, dimensions, mining structures, data sources, data source views, and roles, and provides the tools for working with these objects. For more information, see Analysis Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio (Analysis Services - Multidimensional Data).
Integration Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio
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Business Intelligence Development Studio includes the Integration Services project for developing ETL solutions. This project type includes the templates for packages, data sources, and data source views, and provides the tools for working with these objects. For more information, see Integration Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio.
Reporting Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio
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Business Intelligence Development Studio includes the Report Model and Report projects for developing reporting solutions. The Report Model project type includes the templates for report models, data sources, and data source views, and provides the tools for working with these objects. The Report project includes the templates for working with reports and shared data sources. For more information, see Reporting Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio.
Integration Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio
Business Intelligence Development Studio is the environment that you will use to develop packages for data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) in Integration Services. Business Intelligence Development Studio is the Visual Studio 2008 environment with enhancements that are specific to business intelligence solutions. After you create a new Integration Services project by using the New Project dialog box, Business Intelligence Development Studio opens, ready for you to start designing your package in the SSIS Designer. The windows that you see include the familiar Toolbox on the left, the design surface in the middle, and the new Solution Explorer on the right. For more information about the general features of Business Intelligence Development Studio, see Introducing Business Intelligence Development Studio.
Note:
BI Development Studio, the 32-bit development environment for Integration Services packages, is not designed to run on the Itanium 64-bit architecture and is not installed on Itanium servers.
The package development experience for Integration Services packages is much richer in Business Intelligence Development Studio than it was in the single-window designer available in Enterprise Manager that you may have used as a package developer in SQL Server 2000 Data Transformation Services (DTS). The DTS Designer displayed menus, a toolbox of connections and tasks, and a single package design surface. Although the SSIS Designer still has each of these elements, the design surface now includes multiple tabbed windows, and other new features include the Solution Explorer and the Variables and Log Events windows. The new development environment and new features combine to offer Integration Services developers a comprehensive and powerful environment for creating business intelligence solutions.
This topic briefly introduces the Business Intelligence Development Studio features that are unique to Integration Services projects. For more information about the Visual Studio development environment in general, see Introducing Business Intelligence Development Studio. For a walkthrough of how to develop an Integration Services package, see Tutorial: Creating a Simple ETL Package.
Important:
Many new and useful actions are available from the shortcut menus that you see when you right-click objects in the user interface. As you explore Business Intelligence Development Studio and the Integration Services features discussed in this topic, make sure that you right-click various items to learn about these options.
This topic discusses the following features of Business Intelligence Development Studio:
• Solution Explorer
• SSIS Designer
• SSIS Menu
• SSIS Designer Options on the Tools Menu
• Integration Services Project Properties
• Other Integration Services Windows and Features
Solution Explorer
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Of the three prominent windows displayed when you open a new Integration Services project, only the Solution Explorer is completely new, and had no equivalent in the DTS Designer. By default, a new Integration Services project contains a single package file, named package.dtsx, but you can also add items of other types, which are grouped in the following Solution Explorer folders.
The shortcut menus available on these folders generally let you add a new item to the folder, whereas the shortcut menus available on individual items in the folder let you open the item, copy, delete, or rename the item, or exclude the item from the project. The View Code shortcut menu option available on most folder items displays the XML definition of the selected item.
• Data Sources folder. A data source represents a connection that can be shared among multiple packages in a project. You can create a connection manager in a package from an existing data source. For more information, see Using Data Sources in Packages.
• Data Source Views folder. A data source view represents a subset of the data in a data source, and can also contain named queries. Data source views can be shared by multiple packages in a project. You can designate tables, views, or named queries from a data source view as the source of data for a data flow source. For more information, see Using Data Source Views in Packages.
• SSIS Packages folder. A package represents an organized collection of connections, control flow elements, data flow elements, and other objects. The package is the unit of work in Integration Services that provides and supports extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) functionality. A single project can contain multiple packages. The shortcut menu available on the SSIS Packages folder lets you do the following:
o Add a new or existing package to the project.
o Run the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard to jumpstart creation of a new package.
o Run the Package Migration Wizard to migrate existing DTS packages.
o Run the SSIS Package Upgrade Wizard to upgrade SQL Server 2005 Integration Services (SSIS) packages.
In the SSIS Packages folder, packages have a shortcut menu. This shortcut menu lets you designate a package as the startup object in the project, run the package, and perform other maintenance tasks.
For an introduction to packages, see Integration Services Packages.
• Miscellaneous folder. If you add files of other types to your Integration Services project, such as documents or images, these files are grouped in the Miscellaneous folder.
By default, when you create a new project, Business Intelligence Development Studio also creates a new solution as a container for the project. You can add more projects to the same solution, such as an Analysis Services project or a Reporting Services project, or a C# or Visual Basic .NET Class Library project in which you can develop custom components to use in your packages. Unlike Analysis Services and Reporting Services, Integration Services provides only a single project type in Business Intelligence Development Studio—the Integration Services project. For more information about Integration Services projects, see Integration Services Projects.
SSIS Designer
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SSIS Designer is a graphical tool for creating packages that includes separate tabbed design surfaces for building the control flow, data flow, and event handlers in packages.
• Control Flow tab. On the Control Flow tab, you arrange and configure the tasks, including the Data Flow task, that provide functionality in packages, the containers that provide structure in packages and services to tasks, and the precedence constraints that connect containers and tasks into a control flow. The shortcut menu available on the Control Flow design surface lets you add text annotations, set breakpoints for debugging, and zoom out or zoom in on the layout of the package. The shortcut menu available on individual tasks lets you execute the task by itself, without running the whole package. For more information, see Creating Package Control Flow and Control Flow Tab.
• Data Flow tab. On the Data Flow tab, you combine into a data flow sources that extract data, transformations that modify and aggregate data, destinations that load data, and paths that connect the outputs and inputs of data flow components. The shortcut menu available on the Data Flow design surface also lets you add text annotations. The shortcut menu available on the paths that join data flow components lets you configure Data Viewers to watch data as it passes through the data flow. For more information, see Creating Package Data Flow and Data Flow Tab.
• Event Handlers tab. On the Event Handlers tab, you configure workflows to respond to package events. For example, you can create an event handler that sends an e-mail message when a task fails. For more information, see Creating Package Event Handlers and Event Handlers Tab.
• Package Explorer tab. The Package Explorer tab provides a convenient explorer view of the package, with the package as a container at the top of the hierarchy, and underneath it, the connections, executables, event handlers, log providers, precedence constraints, and variables that you have configured in the package. For more information, see Viewing Package Objects and Package Explorer Tab.
• Progress tab. The Progress tab displays information about package execution when you run a package in Business Intelligence Development Studio. For more information, see Progress Tab.
• Connection Managers area. Integration Services uses connection managers to encapsulate connections to a data source. These connection managers are shared within the package by control flow components, data flow components, and log providers, and are displayed in a special area of the designer at the bottom of the Control Flow, Data Flow, and Event Handlers tabs. For more information, see Creating Connection Managers and Connection Managers Area.
The designer also provides access to the dialog boxes, windows, and wizards that you use to add functionality and advanced features to packages and to troubleshoot packages. For more information, see Designing Packages in Business Intelligence Development Studio.
SSIS Menu
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When an Integration Services project is active in Business Intelligence Development Studio, an SSIS menu is added to the main menu bar. When the SSIS Designer has the focus, this menu contains the special Integration Services options listed here; when the focus moves to another part of the Business Intelligence Development Studio user interface, the SSIS menu displays only the Work Offline option.
• Logging. Logging lets you keep a record of events raised by a package at run time. During design time, you can view the logged events in the Log Events window. For more information, see Implementing Logging in Packages and Configure SSIS Logs (Providers and Logs Tab).
• Package Configurations. Package configurations let you set properties on package objects during package development, and then update the properties at run time as required. For example, you can update the values of variables or the connection strings of connection managers. For more information, see Package Configurations, Creating Package Configurations, and Package Configurations Organizer.
• Digital Signing. Digital signing lets you use a certificate to guarantee the authenticity of a package. For more information, see Using Digital Signatures with Packages and Digital Signing.
• Variables. Variables let objects in a package communicate with each other, and can be used in expressions and in scripts. Selecting Variables on the SSIS menu displays the Variables window. For more information, see Using Variables in Packages and Variables Window.
• Work Offline. When the data sources for a package are not available, you can avoid error messages about unavailable connections by selecting Work Offline.
• Log Events. Selecting Log Events on the SSIS menu displays the Log Events window. For more information, see Implementing Logging in Packages.
• New Connection. Selecting New Connection on the SSIS menu displays the Add SSIS Connection Manager window. For more information, see Creating Connection Managers.
SSIS Designer Options on the Tools Menu
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Under the Business Intelligence Designers node in the Options dialog box available on the Tools menu, you will find three pages of preferences for properties that are unique to the Integration Services designers.
• General page. On the general page, you can specify options for checking or requiring digital signatures and for displaying labels on precedence constraints. For more information, see General Page.
• Control Flow Auto Connect and Data Flow Auto Connect pages. The two Auto Connect pages let you specify the default behavior for connecting objects that you put on the design surfaces. For more information, see Control Flow Auto Connect Page and Data Flow Auto Connect Page.
• Confirm Delete page. On this page, you can specify whether a confirmation message appears when components are deleted.
Integration Services Project Properties
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The Project Properties dialog box, which is available from the shortcut menu on the project node in Solution Explorer, contains three pages of default design-time property values for an Integration Services project.
• Build page. On the Build page, you can specify the output path for files generated by the build process.
• Deployment Utility page. On the Deployment Utility page, you can specify whether to create a deployment utility for the package, where to save the deployment utility, and whether to allow updates to configurations during deployment. For more information, see Creating a Deployment Utility.
• Debugging page. On the Debugging page, you can specify several options that apply when you test the package by running it in Business Intelligence Development Studio at design time. For example, you can specify the following options:
o RunInOptimizedMode (default False). Optimize the data flow execution plan. This debugging option temporarily overrides the value of the property of the same name on the Data Flow task.
o InteractiveMode (default True). Allow modal dialog boxes during debugging.
o Run64BitRuntime (default True). Use the 64-bit runtime if it is available. The value of this property is ignored on 32-bit computers. This project property applies only at design time.
o StartAction, StartApplication, and StartObjectID. Specify what to do when debugging starts. By default, StartAction = ExecutePackage, StartApplication is blank, and StartObjectID =
o CmdLineArguments. Run the package with the specified command-line arguments. For information about command-line arguments, see dtexec Utility.
For more information about debugging, see Debugging Packages.
Other Integration Services Windows and Features
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Integration Services objects and tools also appear in the following Business Intelligence Development Studio windows:
• Toolbox. Integration Services populates the Toolbox with a rich variety of ready-to-use control flow tasks and data flow sources, transformations, and destinations. The shortcut menu available on the Toolbox lets you sort the items listed there, add or remove items, or reset the list. You can optionally display the Toolbox by using the predefined Ctrl+Alt+X key combination.
o Control flow items. When you are working on the Control Flow tab or the Event Handlers tab, the Toolbox displays two groups of items: Control Flow Items and Maintenance Plan Tasks.
o Data flow items. When you are working on the Data Flow tab, the Toolbox displays three groups of items: Data Flow Sources, Data Flow Transformations, and Data Flow Destinations.
• Variables window. The Variables window is specific to Integration Services projects. By default, the Variable window appears near the Toolbox, but it may not be visible until the first time that you select Variables on the SSIS menu to display the Variables window. Variables let objects in a package communicate with each other, and can be used in expressions and in scripts. You can optionally display the Variables window by mapping the View.Variables command to a keyboard shortcut of your choice on the Keyboard page of the Options dialog box. For more information, see Using Variables in Packages and Variables Window.
• Log Events window. The Log Events window is specific to Integration Services projects. By default, the Log Events window appears near the Toolbox, but it may not be visible until the first time that you select Log Events on the SSIS menu to display the Log Events window. Logging lets you keep a record of a package's run-time events. You can view the logged events easily at design time in the Log Events window. You can optionally display the Log Events window by mapping the View.LogEvents command to a keyboard shortcut of your choice on the Keyboard page of the Options dialog box. For more information, see Implementing Logging in Packages.
