I have a DTS package that calls an executable via an Execute Process Task object. The path of executable can change based on where the product that this is contained in is installed. Is there some way to make the executable path dynamic?
I tried using an expression for the executable property. I set it to the a value that came out of a stored procedure, but it seems to only calculate the value when you save the package. I tried setting DelayValidation = true, but it doesn't seem to ever update it at runtime.
I believe you have something amiss with your package. Update your question with concrete details or compare away to my sample.
Setup
I create 7 subfolders from my base location and inside each, I placed a batch file
#echo off
REM N replaced with value 0-6
ECHO C:\ssisdata\EXEC\N\RunMe.bat
This led to a structure like
C:\ssisdata\EXEC\0\RunMe.bat
C:\ssisdata\EXEC\1\RunMe.bat
C:\ssisdata\EXEC\2\RunMe.bat
C:\ssisdata\EXEC\3\RunMe.bat
C:\ssisdata\EXEC\4\RunMe.bat
C:\ssisdata\EXEC\5\RunMe.bat
C:\ssisdata\EXEC\6\RunMe.bat
When I run them, it simply reports back the hard-coded location message
SSIS
I created an SSIS package that had a For Loop Container and inside was an Execute Process Task coupled to a Script Task
Variables
FolderBase: string - C:\ssisdata\EXEC Abstracts away the common path
FolderChoice: int - 0 Montonically increasing value from 0 to 6. Use by the loop to force change the location of the executable
Output: string - `` Captures the output from the executable to prove it works as expected
CurrentExecutable: string - C:\ssisdata\EXEC\0\RunMe.bat This is an Expression based on the above variables. Expression is #[User::FolderBase] + "\\" + (DT_WSTR, 1) #[User::FolderChoice] + "\\RunMe.bat"
Execute Process Task
I did nothing of interest here. I route standard out to an SSIS Variable and I actually used C:\ssisdata\Exec\RunMe.bat as my source but the next step updated this screenshot.
On the Expressions tab, I used my Variable #[User::CurrentExecutable] and assigned it to the Executable property.
Script Task
I passed in my #[User::Output] variable and call Dts.Events.FireInformation to make the output show up.
Related
I have created a child SSIS package that executes according to the "ProcessName" variable value that is specified initially. Now, I wish to create a parent package such that I can execute 4 child package tasks with different ProcessName values passed in to be executed in parallel. How can I maintain my child package and pass in different values to each of the 4 execute packages task such that the ProcessNames variable values are different for each of them? I am new to SSIS and would deeply appreciate if someone could advice or give a direction on how I could go about doing so.
I would see this as a pattern like the following
The "trick" here is that within each Sequence Container, SEQC, I need to define my variable that holds my parameter value. That variable needs to be scoped to the container - otherwise, there is only one SSIS variable and the 4 processes that attempt to initialize that value will be in conflict.
In the SSIS Variables menu, there is a Move Variable icon (second one listed)
Here you can see that I have ParameterValue defined in both "SEQC Opt 1a" and "SEQC Opt 1b" and they're initialized with different values.
The first step within the Sequence container is an Execute SQL Task where I pull back the intended parameter value. Maybe that is not needed in your case but it can be helpful to have a repository of run-time values. In the case of 1b, this is much more what my execution pattern looks like. I have a query that pulls back any packages to be run within the scope of this container and the starting value. e.g.
ContainerName|PackageName|StartingValue
SEQC Opt 1a |Child0.dtsx|100
SEQC Opt 1a |Child1.dtsx|200
SEQC Opt 1a |Child2.dtsx|300
SEQC Opt 1b |Child5.dtsx|600
SEQC Opt 1b |Child6.dtsx|700
SEQC Opt 1b |Child7.dtsx|800
This table pattern allows me to dynamically run packages in both parallel and in serial. Assuming Child7 and Child2 in the above set are very slow but the other 4 packages are relatively fast. The fast ones would start up, do their work and complete and the next runs. There are limits to how many parallel operations can fire at once so you can't scale infinitely across processes so a balance of serial and parallel operations makes sense.
Once you have your pattern working for one sequence container: copy, paste, rename and assuming you lookup in a table based on the task name as I show above, it's ready to go.
NOTE for everyone reading this answer: This answer is not full/complete with examples/full steps. From comment above I am posting this now so requestor can see it and get started.
This was from notes I wrote myself a long while back on how to do this for myself. I am posting it as answer as it is helpful and too large to post as comment. Plus I have not rewritten anything in what wrote for myself and what I am posting.
Currently I can not find my full code yet to post full details/steps. If/when I do I will post here, but this should be good details on what/how to do it. Plus this gives info on how to handle child package error trapping as well.
-- my notes I saved for myself posting as answer:
Steps for creating child packages:
Create any variables needed in the child package
Create the coorisponding variable name in the parent package (the name doesnot have to be the same, and maybe want to name it something to identify it as a child package variable)
Child Package:
Need to set up: Package Configurations
a. Right click on package and click Package Paramaters
b. Click the checkox to Enable Package configurations
Click Add and set the paramaters:
a. Configuration Type: Pareknt Package variable
b. Specify the configuration setting directly: Put the parent variable name in here that the child package is going to access
c. Click "Next"
d. In "Objects" window scroll down to the variable you are setting from the parent variable name you selected above and click the "Value" option under Properties for that variable name
e. Click "Next"
f. Under Configuration Name: Set a detailed name for what this variable is/does.
Error Handling (NOTE: This is not required but you wont capture the child error messages if you dont do this):
a. Go to Event Handlers Tab
b. Under drop down (on top right) select OnError
c. Add a Scrit Task
d. Pass as read only variables:
System::ErrorDescription
System::SourceName
System::PackageName
e. Copy/paste the code below into the script task uin the Main() function.
----- this is for the error handling
public void Main()
{
// build our the error message
string ErrorMessageToPassToParent = "Package Name: " + Dts.Variables["System::PackageName"].Value.ToString() + Environment.NewLine + Environment.NewLine +
"Step Failed On: " + Dts.Variables["System::SourceName"].Value.ToString() + Environment.NewLine + Environment.NewLine +
"Error Description: " + Dts.Variables["System::ErrorDescription"].Value.ToString();
// have to do this FIRST so you can access variable without passing it into the script task from SSIS tool box
// Populate collection of variables. This will include parent package variables.
Variables vars = null;
Dts.VariableDispenser.GetVariables(ref vars);
// checks if this variable exists in parent first, and if so then will set it to the value of the child variable
// (do this so if parent package does not have the variable it will not error out when trying to set a non-existant varaible)
if (Dts.VariableDispenser.Contains("OnError_ErrorDescription_FromChild") == true)
{
// Lock the to and from variables.
// parent variable
Dts.VariableDispenser.LockForWrite("User::OnError_ErrorDescription_FromChild");
// Need to call GetVariables again after locking them. Not sure why - perhaps to get a clean post-lock set of values.
Dts.VariableDispenser.GetVariables(ref vars);
// Set parentvar = childvar
vars["User::OnError_ErrorDescription_FromChild"].Value = ErrorMessageToPassToParent;
vars.Unlock();
}
Dts.TaskResult = (int)ScriptResults.Success;
}
Parent Package:
Add this variable to propertly capture the child error messages (not required but you wont capture chidl error messages if you dont):
variable: OnError_ErrorDescription_FromChild
Error Handling(NOTE: This is not required but you wont capture the child error messages if you dont do this):
a. Go to Event Handlers Tab
b. Under drop down (on top right) select OnError
c. Add a Scrit Task
d. Pass as read only variables:
User::OnError_ErrorDescription_FromChild
e. Copy/paste the code below into the script task uin the Main() function.
----- this is for the error handling
public void Main()
{
// get the varaible from the parent package for the error
string ErrorFromChildPackage = Dts.Variables["User::OnError_ErrorDescription_FromChild"].Value.ToString();
// do a check if the value is empty or not (so we knwo if the error came from the child package or the occurent in the parent package itself
if (ErrorFromChildPackage.Length > 0)
{
// Then raise the error that was created in the child package
Dts.Events.FireError(0, "Capture Error From Child Package Failure",
ErrorFromChildPackage
, String.Empty, 0);
//Dts.TaskResult = (int)ScriptResults.Failure;
} // end if the error length of variable is > 0
Dts.TaskResult = (int)ScriptResults.Success;
}
NOTES:
For error handling:
a. The child package error handling is written so it wont fail if the variables or error handling does not exist in parent package.
b. If you include the error handling (and variable) in the parent package it MUST exist in the child package though.
In any SSIS package, we can get the value of a variable in 3 different ways-
1.From Variable window: we can set a default value here
2.From SSIS package configuration: we can set a value for any variable here
3.From Batch File: we can create a batch file, where we can mention a package configuration file in it, executing the batch file will run the package (we can set a different configuration file from the package itself, the variables values are different)
Considering the above scenarios, what will be the priority of the package configuration the package take?
The order of priority will work like this:
Use the value supplied by the configuration file
Use the default value set at design time
In the first case, this covers both scenarios 2 and 3. The only difference is in case 3 is that you are replacing the config file.
I have several SSIS packages that parse different files into their respective tables. Using SSIS File Watcher task, I want to create a master package that will check a folder for the files and then select the proper sub package based on the OutputVariableName using a precedence constraint. I'm not sure how to write the expression to set the variable correctly. I want to set it based on a FINDSTRING() in the file name.
Your question is about how to use the File Watcher Task from Konesans in an integration services packages.
OutputVariableName String The name of the variable into which the full file path found will be written on completion of the task. The variable specified should be of type string
Via http://www.sqlis.com/post/file-watcher-task.aspx
Create an SSIS Variable at the Package level, called CurrentFileName. Configure the File Watcher Task such that the property OutputVariableName is User::CurrentFileName. When you drop a file into the folder that the Task is watching, it will assign the full path to that variable CurrentFileName.
Your desire is to do something with that Variable with FindString function to help determine the package to fire. Since you don't specify the something I'm going to assume it's based on file name.
It's a pity you're forcing a person to use FindString to perform this task. I say that because the .NET library offers an excellent static method to determine base file names and I hate seeing people re-invent (and debug) the wheel.
I would create 3 Variables to support this endeavor.
BaseFileName - String - Evaluate as Expression = True
FileExtensionPosition - Int32 - Evaluate as Expression = True
LastSlashPosition - Int32 - Evaluate as Expression = True
The LastSlashPosition is going to use FindString to determine the last occurrence of \ in a string. The FileExtensionPosition is going to determine the last occurence of . in a string. BaseFileName will use these numbers to calculate where to slice the #[User::CurrentFileName]` string.
The lazy trick I use for finding the last X in a string is to reverse it. It's then the first element in the string and I can pass 1 as the final parameter to FindString.
The expression assigned to #[User::LastSlashPosition] is
FINDSTRING(REVERSE(#[User::CurrentFileName]), "\\", 1)
The expression assigned to #[User::FileExtensionPosition] is
FINDSTRING(REVERSE(#[User::CurrentFileName]), ".", 1)
The expression assigned to #[User::BaseFileName] then becomes
SUBSTRING((RIGHT(#[User::CurrentFileName], #[User::LastSlashPosition] -1 )), 1, LEN(RIGHT( #[User::CurrentFileName], #[User::LastSlashPosition] -1)) - #[User::FileExtensionPosition] )
Breaking that down, (RIGHT(#[User::CurrentFileName], #[User::LastSlashPosition] -1 )) translates to the base file name. If CurrentFileName equals J:\ssisdata\so\FileWatcher\CleverFile.txt then that evaluates to "CleverFile.txt" I substring that to strip out the end. You can reduce this to just a single substring operation but my brain hurts this late.
Now you are trying to use, I assume, a series of Execute Package Tasks based on a Precedence Constraint of Success and #[User::BaseFilename] == "SubPackage1 You can do this and it'll work fine, it's just that you'll need to set each one up and as you go to set up a new child, you'll have to repeat the work.
As an alternative to this approach, I'd use a ForEach enumerator and define all my key value pairs in there.
Column 0 is the value that BaseFileName could evaluate to.
Column 1 is the SSIS package I want to fire off in response.
I created two variables to support this and configured them as such
My resulting package looks like
Not shown is the File Watcher Task because I have no desire to install that on my machine. Assume that connects to the ForEach Loop.
The ForEach loop spins through the key value pairs shown above. The Script Task inside the container is there just to provide a base for the Precedence Constraint to work. I configure the precedence constraint as Success and #[User::KeyName] == #[User::BaseFileName]
I then simulate the Execute Package Task firing based on that. The actual package name would be driven by the value of #[User::KeyPackage]
And that's your over-engineered solution for the day ;)
I'm trying to create an SSIS package to process files from a directory that contains many years worth of files. The files are all named numerically, so to save processing everything, I want to pass SSIS a minimum number, and only enumerate files whose name (converted to a number) is higher than my minimum.
I've tried letting the ForEach File loop enumerate everything and then exclude files in a Script Task, but when dealing with hundreds of thousands of files, this is way too slow to be suitable.
The FileSpec property lets you specify a file mask to dictate which files you want in the collection, but I can't quite see how to specify an expression to make that work, as it's essentially a string match.
If there's an expression within the component somewhere which basically says Should I Enumerate? - Yes / No, that would be perfect. I've been experimenting with the below expression, but can't find a property to which to apply it.
(DT_I4)REPLACE( SUBSTRING(#[User::ActiveFilePath],FINDSTRING( #[User::ActiveFilePath], "\", 7 ) + 1 ,100),".txt","") > #[User::MinIndexId] ? "True" : "False"
Here is one way you can achieve this. You could use Expression Task combined with Foreach Loop Container to match the numerical values of the file names. Here is an example that illustrates how to do this. The sample uses SSIS 2012.
This may not be very efficient but it is one way of doing this.
Let's assume there is a folder with bunch of files named in the format YYYYMMDD. The folder contains files for the first day of every month since 1921 like 19210101, 19210201, 19210301 .... all the upto current month 20121101. That adds upto 1,103 files.
Let's say the requirement is only to loop through the files that were created since June 1948. That would mean the SSIS package has to loop through only the files greater than 19480601.
On the SSIS package, create the following three parameters. It is better to configure parameters for these because these values are configurable across environment.
ExtensionToMatch - This parameter of String data type will contain the extension that the package has to loop through. This will supplement the value to FileSpec variable that will be used on the Foreach Loop container.
FolderToEnumerate - This parameter of String data type will store the folder path that contains the files to loop through.
MinIndexId - this parameter of Int32 data type will contain the minimum numerical value above which the files should match the pattern.
Create the following four parameters that will help us loop through the files.
ActiveFilePath - This variable of String data type will hold the file name as the Foreach Loop container loops through each file in the folder. This variable is used in the expression of another variable. To avoid error, set it to a non-empty value, say 1.
FileCount - This is a dummy variable of Int32 data type will be used for this sample to illustrate the number of files that the Foreach Loop container will loop through.
FileSpec - This variable of String data type will hold the file pattern to loop through. Set the expression of this variable to below mentioned value. This expression will use the extension specified on the parameters. If there are no extensions, it will *.* to loop through all files.
"*" + (#[$Package::ExtensionToMatch] == "" ? ".*" : #[$Package::ExtensionToMatch])
ProcessThisFile - This variable of Boolean data type will evaluate whether a particular file matches the criteria or not.
Configure the package as shown below. Foreach loop container will loop through all the files matching the pattern specified on the FileSpec variable. An expression specified on the Expression Task will evaluate during runtime and will populate the variable ProcessThisFile. The variable will then be used on the Precedence constraint to determine whether to process the file or not.
The script task within the Foreach loop container will increment the counter of variable FileCount by 1 for each file that successfully matches the expression.
The script task outside the Foreach loop will simply display how many files were looped through by the Foreach loop container.
Configure the Foreach loop container to loop through the folder using the parameter and the files using the variable.
Store the file name in variable ActiveFilePath as the loop passes through each file.
On the Expression task, set the expression to the following value. The expression will convert the file name without the extension to a number and then will check if it evaluates to greater than the given number in the parameter MinIndexId
#[User::ProcessThisFile] = (DT_BOOL)((DT_I4)(REPLACE(#[User::ActiveFilePath], #[User::FileSpec] ,"")) > #[$Package::MinIndexId] ? 1: 0)
Right-click on the Precedence constraint and configure it to use the variable ProcessThisFile on the expression. This tells the package to process the file only if it matches the condition set on the expression task.
#[User::ProcessThisFile]
On the first script task, I have the variable User::FileCount set to the ReadWriteVariables and the following C# code within the script task. This increments the counter for file that successfully matches the condition.
public void Main()
{
Dts.Variables["User::FileCount"].Value = Convert.ToInt32(Dts.Variables["User::FileCount"].Value) + 1;
Dts.TaskResult = (int)ScriptResults.Success;
}
On the second script task, I have the variable User::FileCount set to the ReadOnlyVariables and the following C# code within the script task. This simply outputs the total number of files that were processed.
public void Main()
{
MessageBox.Show(String.Format("Total files looped through: {0}", Dts.Variables["User::FileCount"].Value));
Dts.TaskResult = (int)ScriptResults.Success;
}
When the package is executed with MinIndexId set to 1948061 (excluding this), it outputs the value 773.
When the package is executed with MinIndexId set to 20111201 (excluding this), it outputs the value 11.
Hope that helps.
From investigating how the ForEach loop works in SSIS (with a view to creating my own to solve the issue) it seems that the way it works (as far as I could see anyway) is to enumerate the file collection first, before any mask is specified. It's hard to tell exactly what's going on without seeing the underlying code for the ForEach loop but it seems to be doing it this way, resulting in slow performance when dealing with over 100k files.
While #Siva's solution is fantastically detailed and definitely an improvement over my initial approach, it is essentially just the same process, except using an Expression Task to test the filename, rather than a Script Task (this does seem to offer some improvement).
So, I decided to take a totally different approach and rather than use a file-based ForEach loop, enumerate the collection myself in a Script Task, apply my filtering logic, and then iterate over the remaining results. This is what I did:
In my Script Task, I use the asynchronous DirectoryInfo.EnumerateFiles method, which is the recommended approach for large file collections, as it allows streaming, rather than having to wait for the entire collection to be created before applying any logic.
Here's the code:
public void Main()
{
string sourceDir = Dts.Variables["SourceDirectory"].Value.ToString();
int minJobId = (int)Dts.Variables["MinIndexId"].Value;
//Enumerate file collection (using Enumerate Files to allow us to start processing immediately
List<string> activeFiles = new List<string>();
System.Threading.Tasks.Task listTask = System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(sourceDir);
foreach (FileInfo f in dir.EnumerateFiles("*.txt"))
{
FileInfo file = f;
string filePath = file.FullName;
string fileName = filePath.Substring(filePath.LastIndexOf("\\") + 1);
int jobId = Convert.ToInt32(fileName.Substring(0, fileName.IndexOf(".txt")));
if (jobId > minJobId)
activeFiles.Add(filePath);
}
});
//Wait here for completion
System.Threading.Tasks.Task.WaitAll(new System.Threading.Tasks.Task[] { listTask });
Dts.Variables["ActiveFilenames"].Value = activeFiles;
Dts.TaskResult = (int)ScriptResults.Success;
}
So, I enumerate the collection, applying my logic as files are discovered and immediately adding the file path to my list for output. Once complete, I then assign this to an SSIS Object variable named ActiveFilenames which I'll use as the collection for my ForEach loop.
I configured the ForEach loop as a ForEach From Variable Enumerator, which now iterates over a much smaller collection (Post-filtered List<string> compared to what I can only assume was an unfiltered List<FileInfo> or something similar in SSIS' built-in ForEach File Enumerator.
So the tasks inside my loop can just be dedicated to processing the data, since it has already been filtered before hitting the loop. Although it doesn't seem to be doing much different to either my initial package or Siva's example, in production (for this particular case, anyway) it seems like filtering the collection and enumerating asynchronously provides a massive boost over using the built in ForEach File Enumerator.
I'm going to continue investigating the ForEach loop container and see if I can replicate this logic in a custom component. If I get this working I'll post a link in the comments.
The best you can do is use FileSpec to specify a mask, as you said. You could include at least some specs in it, like files starting with "201" for 2010, 2011 and 2012. Then, in some other task, you could filter out those you don't want to process (for instance, 2010).
I have a fairly straightforward SSIS package where I can't sucessfully pass the value of a package-scoped variable from the Control Flow to a Data Flow task. Consider the below diagram:
The Execute SQL task gets values from a list of "machines". This is used to control a ForEach Loop Container, which works very well. Next a script task performs some math and assigns a single number to a package scoped variable (integer type). I have added message boxes that pop up during the loop so that I can verify that the value of this variable is being set properly.
The last icon is a data flow where I want to use the variable value. I have a simple script task that contains just a message box showing me the current value of this same variable. Every time, the variable is the value that I initially set in the designer (BIDS). Therefore, the value is not being "passed" to the data flow. I have verified multiple times that the names of the variables are correct (including case sensitive values).
This should be pretty simple, and I am getting frustrated with this issue. I would greatly appreciate and suggestions or comments. Thank you!
How are you setting the package variable from your script task? It should look like this (c#):
DTS.Variables["testVariable"].Value = "some value";
Then to test it from the script component in your dataflow task:
public override void PostExecute()
{
base.PostExecute();
MessageBox.Show(Variables.testVariable, "test");
}
I did this in a test package and it worked fine.
EDIT
Also make sure that you added the variable to the ReadWriteVariables section of the properties for the script tasks.