Once you create a solution, you can store many projects inside of it. For
example, you may have a solution that has your VB.NET application
and all the SSIS packages that support that application. In this case, you
would have two projects: one for VB and another for SSIS contained
within the single solution.
After creating a new project, your Solution Explorer window will
contain a series of empty folders. Figure 2-11 shows a partially
filled Solution Explorer. In this screenshot, there’s a solution named
ProSSISSolution with two projects: SSASProject and ProSSISProject.
Inside that project are two SSIS packages.
To create a new project inside an existing open solution, right-click the
solution name in the Solution Explorer window and select Add ➪ New
Project. To add a new item to your project in the folder, right-click the
folder that holds the type of item that you wish to add and select New
Connection Manager or New SSIS Package. You can also drag or copy
and paste files into the project if they are of a similar type, like .dtsx
files.
If you look in the directory that contains your solution and project files,
you’ll see all the files that are represented in the Solution Explorer window. Some of the base files
you may see will have the following extensions:
➤➤ .dtsx: An SSIS package, which uses its legacy extension from the early beta cycles of SQL
Server 2005 when SSIS was still called DTS
➤➤ .conmgr: A connection manager that can be shared across any package in the entire project
➤➤ .sln: A solution file that contains one or more projects
➤➤ .dtproj: An SSIS project file
➤➤ .params: An SSIS project parameter file
If you copy any file that does not match the .params, .conmgr, or .dtsx extension, it will be placed
in the Miscellaneous folder. This folder is used to hold any files that describe the installation of the
package, such as Word documents or requirements documents. You can put anything you like in
that folder, and it can potentially all be checked into a source control system like Team Foundation
Server (TFS) or SourceSafe with the code. You’ll learn more about source control systems in
Chapter 17.
The SSIS Toolbox
The SSIS Toolbox contains all the items that you can use in the particular tab’s design pane at any
given point in time. For example, the Control Flow tab has a list of tasks (a partial list is shown in
Figure 2-12). This list may grow depending on what custom tasks are installed, and the list will be
completely different when you’re in a different tab, such as the Data Flow tab. All the tasks shown
in Figure 2-12 are covered in Chapter 3 in much more detail.
Figure 2-11
www.it-