SSIS: Comparing two versions of same package

SQL Server Integration Services yields a very bitter experience when comparing two versions of a package to see the differences. The problem is that the package XML is arbitrarily reordered when we try to save a package in the Visual Studio designer. Well, luckily, there’s a free and very nice solution to this problem: BIDS helper, a Visual Studio add-on that leverages BI development using SQL Server 2005/2008. SmartDiff is a part of BIDs helper and it compares two packages after pre-processing the package definition files and producing a uniform layout for comparison.

To demonstrate, let me show the result of two versions of one of my SSIS packages. I did not modify anything and just saved the same package twice. Here’s a summary for an ordinary diff that shows how the VS designer messes up the two versions:

Using SmartDiff, here’s the result:

Looks great, only two differences. Here’s the actual output from SmartDiff: Click to enlarge the image:

That’s really cool. BIDs helper is an add-on every BI developer must have. It contains many other features other than SmartDiff. Have a try here.

SSIS: How to use a query containing table variables for an OLE DB Source

This one consumed a lot of my brain energies yesterday. I was working on some Sql Server Integration Services task and needed to create a complex query containing table variables. The query was working fine in SQL Management Studio and the SSIS designer was even previewing the data correctly. But when the task was actually executed, the query did not return any rows. I posted a question on TechNet forums and got an answer from Charles Talleyrand here. Actually, I needed a SET NOCOUNT ON statement. Let me explain using an example:

Say, I want to create a table variable (not a temp table), populate it and then use the result set as an input for an OLE DB Source. Here’s a sample query for this:


declare @mytable table
(
col1 int,
col2 varchar(20)
)

insert @mytable values (1, 'one')
insert @mytable values (2, 'two')
insert @mytable values (3, 'three')

select * from @mytable


The SSIS designer will correctly identify the column names from the above query and even display the data if you click on the Preview button. But when the task is executed, no rows will be returned. I think the output of insert statements: i.e. 1 row(s) affected was the source of problem and so a SET NOCOUNT ON prevented such interferences. Hooray!! So if you are ever working on some SSIS Data Transfer Task and want to use table variables inside your query, make sure you do not forget the SET NOCOUNT ON statement.