SQL Server

SSIS: Removing HTML from a field using Script Component

JamesNT SQL Server, SSIS , , ,

Let’s say you are transferring data from the database of one program to the database of another program.  The problem is that one of the fields, say it’s a field called “usedescription” that is a data type of DT_NTEXT, has HTML in it because the program used that HTML formatting to display the text a certain way on it’s screen.  However, the new program doesn’t need that HTML and perhaps that HTML even causes issues.  So, how do you move the data from one database to the other and properly remove the HTML?

In SSIS, you can use the script component and the HTML Agility Pack.  The HTML Agility Pack is a free code library that you can use to parse HTML (or remove it as we are doing).  First, go to the following website to download the library:

http://htmlagilitypack.codeplex.com

Note that you can now get the library via Nuget.

Once you’ve downloaded the library to your downloads folder and unzipped it, note that the HTML Agility Pack contains sub-folders for the various versions of .Net and even WinRT and Windows Phone.  Since we are using SSIS on SQL Server 2014, copy the files in the .Net40 directory to the C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ directory of the server that will be running your SSIS packages.  Next, open up your script component and set it in your data flow and add the field in question to the list of inputs (don’t forget to set it to Read/Write).  Click on Edit Script and when the code editor comes up add the HtmlAgilityPack.DLL to your list of references (you may have to browse for it to add it).

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You will also need to add the namespace: using HtmlAgilityPack;

Here is the code in the script component with comments along the way (note that I took out the stuff we don’t need):

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When running our SSIS package, the HTML Agility Pack removes unwanted HTML quite nicely.  Check out our before and after screenshots:

Before:

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After:

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Obviously, there is more clean-up to be done.  However, getting the HTML out was a good first step.

JamesNT

SQL Server: Migrating a Database from version 2008 to 2012 Part II

JamesNT SQL Administration, SQL Server ,

In our last post, found here, we used the backup and restore functionality of SQL Server 2008/2012 to move a database from one version to the other.  Be reminded this is a one way transfer.  The SQL Server 2012 version of the database cannot be moved back to 2008 to the best of my knowledge.  Even though you may set compatibility to stay at 2008, the format of the database files is changed.

Today, we’ll look at the second way to move a database from SQL Server 2008 to SQL 2012:  Detach and Attach.  Note that this is not the preferred method of moving a database from one version of SQL Server to another – or even to another SQL Server of the same version.  The reason is this method involves downtime.  When you detach a database, connections to that database may be dropped and no one can connect until the database is reattached.  Let’s take a look.

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Note that you can forcibly drop connections to the database.  You may need to do this during a detach as if there are any connections, the detach will fail.  Keep in mind that many Line-of-Business applications do not like having their connections forcibly closed on them and may themselves crash.  Also note that once you detach the database it will no longer be listed in your database list.

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Once the database is detached, you can using Windows explorer to copy the database files to the new location on the new server.  Once the files are there, you can attach them to the new server.  If you still need the database active on the old server, don’t forget to re-attach it using the same procedure shown below.

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You may need to set file paths.

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Once you click OK the database will be attached.  Again, be certain to note that the database file format will be upgraded making it unusable on former versions of SQL Server.

As noted previously, this is not the preferred way to upgrade, or even just relocated, a database to a new server.  It does involve downtime and you may have to kick people off for it to work.  The preferred method, in my opinion, is to do a backup and restore.

JamesNT

SQL Server: Migrating a Database from version 2008 to 2012 Part I

JamesNT SQL Administration, SQL Server ,

A lot of companies out there are still on SQL Server 2008 (some are still using 2005!).  Now that SQL Server 2012 has been out awhile, I’m seeing questions on what it takes to migrate a database from SQL Server 2008 to 2012.  The bad news is doing an in-place upgrade from 2008 to 2012 is out of the question.  For one thing, many of you are still running SQL Server 2008 on Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2012 requires Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 or higher.  So you’re going to stand up a new server no matter what.  The good news is that it’s still easy.  In fact, you have two ways to do it.  Either perform a backup and restore or do a detach and attach.  This part covers backup and restore.

Backup and Restore

You can back up your SQL Server 2008 database and restore it to a SQL Server 2012 machine.  Keep in mind that I’m talking about user databases, not any of the system databases.

First, back up your SQL 2008 database.

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Once your backup is complete, copy the BAK file over to your new server.  Once done, restore the database.  Note that you don’t have to create a database first just to restore over it.

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Once your database is restored, you can set compatibility level options in case you have older applications that expect some type of older behavior.

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Keep in mind that this option is not a panacea and that you should thoroughly test before just shutting off your old SQL Server 2008 machine to ensure current applications don’t depend on some old behavior or deprecated feature.  Also, do keep in mind that despite setting the compatibility level to SQL Server 2008, the database file format itself is still upgraded to SQL Server 2012.  This means you cannot move the database back to your old SQL Server 2008 machine.  If you need to move back, you’ll have to extract all the data that has changed since the last backup and import manually.  I know of no way to restore or attach a SQL Server 2012 database to an older version of SQL Server.

JamesNT

SSIS: Using Expressions to build SQL Statements for ADO.NET Connections

JamesNT SQL Server, SSIS , , ,

In SQL Server Integration Services, you can specify that an OLE DB Connection use a SQL Statement from a variable.

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Using this approach, you can dynamically build SQL statements using the OLE DB Connection.  But what about ADO.NET?

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It appears we have no way to dynamically build SQL statements when using ADO.Net providers.  And to think I’ve been standardizing on them.  On the other hand, maybe we do have a way.  I made a package with two variables.  One is a DateTime called LoadControl and the other is a string called strSQL.  I’m going to load a DateTime from a load control table into the LoadControl variable then use the LoadControl variable to build the WHERE clause of a SQL statement to pull out all medical claims with a date of service greater than or equal to the LoadControl date.  First, our variables.

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Nothing hard about that.  Next, our Execute SQL task to populate the LoadControl variable.

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Next up, our data flow. 

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The only thing I’ve done is set up the ADO.Net Source.  Now we need to get our strSQL variable populated.  First, be certain to set the property EvaluateAsExpression to TRUE for strSQL.

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Next, create an expression for this variable like so.  Notice that since DateTime variables cannot be NULL when you create them, SSIS fills in the current DateTime, hence the 5/3/2015 7:38:04 PM.

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Now the interesting part.  From the Control Flow, single-left click your data flow to highlight it.  Now, look over at your Properties for your data flow.  Scroll down to the Misc. section. 

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That’s right, you see the SQL statement for the ADO.Net source.  Of course, this is where it is important to call your connection sources something meaningful so you can find them readily (I didn’t bother since we only have one).    Notice that we have two spots for the ADO.Net source:  SQL Command and TableOrViewName.  We aren’t going to change the SQL statement there.  Rather, go down further until you see Expressions.  That’s right, build an expression.

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Notice that for this expression, we only need the strSQL variable.  Once you have that saved, put a data viewer on your package and run it.

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Notice that only dates for 4/10/2015 or higher are shown (I added an Order By to the SQL Statement in strSQL and 4/10/2015 is what was in our LoadControl Table).  This is where our Expression was evaluated and placed in for the SQL Command of the ADO.Net source.  One thing of note, notice how before I set up a SQL statement in the ADO.NET Connection when I first created it earlier.  This statement is IGNORED when the Expression is evaluated.  However, if the SQL Statement in your Expression adds or changes columns, you may need to go into the Advanced Editor of the ADO.NET Connection and click Refresh to get those changes to show.  Otherwise, your new or changed columns may not show up in the data flow right away.

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With this approach, you can still dynamically build SQL statements for ADO.NET Connections like you can OLE DB Connections.  A little more work, yes, but I think worth it when you have lots of Script Tasks/Components that need to use Connection Managers.

JamesNT