DTS Designer Concepts
There are several key concepts essential to understanding how DTS Designer works.
- Connection
- Open connection to any OLE DB data source used by DTS Designer. DTS Designer includes a list of OLE DB providers from which to select when configuring a connection.
- Data transformation
- Movement of data between a source connection and a destination connection. DTS Designer includes a data transformation task that allows you to select data from a data source connection, map the data through a set of custom transformations, and send the transformed data to a destination connection. DTS Designer also includes a Data Driven Query task, which allows you to map parameterized queries.
- Package
- Collection of tasks displayed on the workspace and saved together (to Microsoft® SQL Server™, Microsoft Repository, or a file). Tasks specified in DTS Designer do not have to be related.
- Precedence constraints
- Sequential ordering between two tasks. Precedence refers to a linkage between two tasks, such that Task 1 must complete execution before Task 2 begins. There are three types of precedence constraints in DTS Designer:
- On Success, meaning Task 1 must complete successfully before Task 2 can begin execution.
- On Failure, meaning Task 1 must fail before Task 2 can begin execution.
- On Completion, meaning Task 1 must complete (either successfully or unsuccessfully) before Task 2 can begin execution.
- Task
- One or more defined sets of operations executed in a DTS package. Tasks are typically linked by precedence constraints. These are all examples of tasks:
- Executing an SQL statement
- Copying rows in a table from a source to destination
- Sending an e-mail
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