SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) Control Flow

By: Ray Barley

Overview

This is our third step in creating a simple SSIS package from scratch.  In this section we will take a look at the Control Flow which contains the various tasks that the package will perform. 

Explanation
To begin launch BIDS by selecting SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio from the Microsoft SQL Server program group.  Click File, Open, Project / Solution on the top level menu to display the Open Project dialog.  Navigate to the location of the solution as shown below then click Open:

Expand the SSIS Packages node under the Tutorial-Sample-1 project in Solution Explorer and you will see the following:

Double click on the SSIS package CreateSalesForecastInput.dtsx to open the package.  You should see the Toolbox on the left hand side of the screen as shown below:

As you can see there are quite a few built-in tasks available.  For our current package we only need a Data Flow task.  Drag and drop the Data Flow Task from the Toolbox onto the Control Flow designer.  After doing so the Control Flow designer should look like this:

Right click inside the Data Flow Task rectangle then select Rename from the popup menu.  Enter Create Sales Forecast Input Spreadsheet as the new name for the task. 

The designer includes a Data Flow tab which presents another design surface where you drag and drop the tasks that you want the data flow to perform.  We will do that in the next section.