Note ╇ Groups and containers are

Note ╇ Groups and containers are not the same. Groups are a usability feature
to bring together components. Containers on the other hand allow you to pass
properties into them. You can read more about groups, containers, and their differences
in Chapter 6.
After you have the two tasks grouped, you’ll see a box container around them. A group is not the
same as a container. It only gives you a usability feature to bring tasks together. They don’t share
properties like transactions. To rename the group, simply double-click the container and type the
new name over the old one. You can also collapse the group
so that your package isn’t cluttered. To do this, just click
the arrows that are pointing downward in the group. Once
collapsed, your grouping will look like Figure 2-20. You
can also ungroup the tasks by right-clicking the group and
selecting Ungroup.
This same type of group can be created in the Data Flow tab to logically group sources,
transformations, and destinations together. You’ll learn more about containers in Chapter 6.
Annotation
Annotations are a key part of any package,
and a good developer won’t fail to include
them. An annotation is a comment that you
place in your package to help others and
yourself understand what is happening in the
package. To add an annotation, right-click
where you want to place the comment, select
Add Annotation, and begin typing. You can
resize the box if you need more room. It is a
good idea to always add an annotation to your
package that shows the title and version of
your package. Most SSIS developers also add a
version history annotation note to the package,
so that they can see what has changed in the
package between releases and who performed
the change. You can see an example of this in
Figure 2-21.
Connection Managers
You may have already noticed the Connection Managers tab at the bottom of your Package
Designer pane. This tab contains a list of connections that both Control Flow and Data Flow Tasks
can use. Whether the connection is an FTP address or a connection to an Analysis Services server,
you’ll see a reference to it here. These connections can be referenced as either sources or targets in
any of the operations, and they can connect to relational or Analysis Services databases, flat files, or
other data sources. They’re also used in many of the SSIS tasks.
Figure 2-20 Figure 2-21