Professional SQL Server™ 2005 Integration Services

3.11. Script and ActiveX Tasks

The Script task allows you to access the Microsoft Visual Studio for Applications (VSA) environment to write and execute scripts by using the VB.NET language. The ActiveX Script task allows you to continue using your legacy ActiveX scripts from SQL Server 2000. There are some key advantages to using the Script task over the ActiveX Script task. The Script task gives you these extra functional advantages:

• An integrated Visual Studio design environment with Intellisense.

• You can easily pass parameters into the script.

• You can easily add breakpoints into your code.

• You can pre-compile your script into binary format for a speed advantage.

The Script task is configured through the Script page in the Script Task Editor (shown in Figure 3-17). Even though there's a ScriptLanguage option that lets you select what .NET language you'd like to use, only VB.NET is available in this release of SQL Server. If the PreCompileScriptIntoBinaryCode option is set to true, the code will compile and speed up your runtime of the task significantly. The side effect of this, though, is that your package will be larger than its uncompiled state.

The EntryPoint option sets the entry point class that the task will call. The ReadOnlyVariables and ReadWriteVariables options allow you to pass SSIS variables into the script. The former is for read-only parameters, and variables can be written to the latter. With each option, you can separate each SSIS variable by commas. Once you're ...