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Change Case Component Sample

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The Change Case component sample demonstrates a transformation component with a synchronous output. This component changes the case of a character in a string by modifying a single character in the specified column as the rows pass through the component. To enable users of the component to specify the character in the column and the type of conversion that is performed, the component adds two custom properties to the input column of each column that is selected for the component. These properties specify which character to change in the column, and whether it should be changed to uppercase or lowercase.

This sample also demonstrates how to implement an error output for a data flow component. If the user has specified to redirect rows to the error output, the component directs a row to its error output when the index of the character to change exceeds the length of the string. This sample is not supported on Itanium-based operating systems.

Important

The Integration Services Data Flow Programming code samples are intended to demonstrate the core functionality that you must implement to create a custom data flow component. The samples do not include full support for customization in the Advanced Editor. For example, you cannot use the Advanced Editor to add or remove inputs and outputs or to configure columns. Samples are provided for educational purposes only. They are not intended to be used in a production environment and have not been tested in a production environment. Microsoft does not provide technical support for these samples.

Running the Sample

If you already know how to locate, build, and install code samples, you can go directly to the section Testing the Sample., and read about how to configure and run the code sample.

Prerequisites

This sample requires that the following components be installed.

  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2005
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Services

Location

If the code sample was installed to the default location, the sample is located in the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Samples\Integration Services\\Programming Samples\Data Flow\ChangeCase Component Sample

The C# solution for the code sample is located in the CS directory, and the Visual Basic solution is located in the VB directory.

For information about the two-step process required to install the samples, see Installing Samples. To obtain the latest version of the samples, including new samples released after the original release of SQL Server 2005, see SQL Server 2005 Samples and Sample Databases (April 2006).

Building the Sample

If you have not already generated a strong name key file in the Samples folder, use the following procedure to generate this key file. The sample projects are configured to sign assemblies at build time with this key file. You can view the signing properties on the Signing tab of the Project Properties dialog box.

To generate a strong name key file

  1. To open a Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 command prompt, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, point to Visual Studio Tools, and then click Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt.

    - or -

    To open a Microsoft .NET Framework command prompt, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft .NET Framework SDK 2.0, and then click SDK Command Prompt.

  2. At the command prompt, use the change directory (CD) command to change the current folder of the Command Prompt window to the Samples folder. The key file that you create in this folder will be used by all SQL Server 2005 code samples.

    Note

    To determine the folder where samples are located, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server 2005, point to Documentation and Tutorials, and then click Samples Directory. If the default installation location was used, the samples are located in <system_drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Samples.

  3. At the command prompt, run the following command to generate the key file:

    sn -k SampleKey.snk

    Important

    For more information about the strong-name key pair, see "Security Briefs: Strong Names and Security in the .NET Framework" in the .NET Development Center on MSDN.

To build the sample in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005

  1. From the File | Open menu, click Project and open ChangeCase.sln in your preferred programming languagey.

  2. From the Build menu, click Build ChangeCase to build the project.

Installing the Sample

This sample is provided in both Visual Basic and C#. To distinguish the assemblies for each version of the sample, the name of the output assembly has CS or VB appended. After successfully building the component, follow these steps to add it to a Data Flow task in Business Intelligence Development Studio.

To copy the component to the PipelineComponents folder

  1. Open Windows Explorer or your preferred application for working in the file system.

  2. Copy the assembly (ChangeCaseCS.dll or ChangeCaseVB.dll) to the PipelineComponents folder located at %system%\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\DTS.

To install the component into the global assembly cache (GAC) by dragging the assembly

  1. Open Windows Explorer or your preferred application for working in the file system.

  2. Drag the assembly from the PipelineComponents folder to the folder where the global assembly cache (GAC) is located, at %system%\assembly.

To install the component into the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) by using gacutil.exe

  1. Open a Command Prompt window.

  2. Type the following command to run gacutil.exe and install the C# version of the component into the GAC:

    gacutil.exe -iF "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Sql Server\90\DTS\PipelineComponents\ ChangeCaseCS.dll "

    - or -

    Type the following command to run gacutil.exe and install the Visual Basic version of the component into the GAC:

    gacutil.exe -iF "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Sql Server\90\DTS\PipelineComponents\ ChangeCaseVB.dll "

To add the component to the Toolbox

  1. Open Business Intelligence Development Studio.

  2. Right-click the toolbox and then click Choose Items.

  3. In the Choose Toolbox Items dialog box, click the SSIS Data Flow Items tab.

  4. Click the check box next to your component, and then click OK.

    Note

    If the component is not displayed in the list, you can click Browse to locate the component yourself. However in this case it may not be installed correctly.

After you complete these steps, the component is visible in the Data Flow Transformations section of the Toolbox, and can be added to the Data Flow task in the designer.

Testing the Sample

After the component is added to a Data Flow task in a package and connected to a component that will provide rows to it, you can configure it as follows in SSIS Designer.

To configure the sample component in a package

  1. Click the Input Columns tab of the Advanced Editor, and select the columns that the component will modify. The usage type of the selected columns must be set to Read/Write because the component modifies the column values in place as it processes each row of incoming data.

  2. Click the Column Properties tab of the Advanced Editor to specify the zero-based character index to modify in each input column that is modified, and to specify whether the character at that index is changed to uppercase (0) or lowercase (1).