BI Architects uses TurtoiseSVN for version and source control

BI Architects (BIA) is the Business Intelligence specialist in Commodity Trading and uses the following tools:

• Microsoft: development and database tools for developing solutions
• Clarizen Online Project Management software: project management
• Turtoise Subversion: revision control, version control and source control software

In this blog I would like to write about source/version control and the way we handle source/version control within our company. As mentioned we use TurtoiseSVN. TortoiseSVN is an easy-to-use SCM / source control software for Microsoft Windows and Apache. It is implemented as a Windows shell extension, which makes it integrate seamlessly into the Windows explorer.

It is developed under the GPL. Which means it is completely free, including the source code. But just in case you don't know the GPL too well: you can use TortoiseSVN to develop commercial applications or just use it in your company without any restrictions.

TortoiseSVN is a Subversion client and therefore has all the features of Subversion itself, including:

• Most current CVS features.
• Directories, renames, and file meta-data are versioned.
• Commits are truly atomic.
• Branching and tagging are cheap (constant time) operations.
• Efficient handling of binary files.

BI-Architects mainly uses the following TurtoiseSVN functionality:

• New solutions are created as folders in the TurtoiseSVN database.
• Via the update functionality we update our local instance with the newest (committed) database version of the solution.
• Via the commit functionality we store the updated or improved version (including the end of day situation) in the subversion database.
• Release versions are controled by using tag functionality

With using TurtoiseSVN BIA has control on software development. More information on TurtoiseSVN can be found here.

SharePoint 2010 Advanced Developer Training

For developers, SharePoint 2010 provides a business collaboration platform to rapidly build solutions and respond to business needs. SharePoint 2010 Advanced Developer Training offers technical training as self-paced modules and hosted labs for SharePoint 2007 professionals who want to upgrade their skills to SharePoint 2010.

Module 8 for example, presents Business Intelligence capabilities in SharePoint 2010. There are improvements in this area to help build Business Intelligence dashboards, which can be used to expose relevant information for business users in a meaningful way.

SharePoint 2010 Advanced Training
01 : Developer Roadmap and Tools
02 : Core Development
03 : User Interfaces and Lists
04 : Data Access in Technologies
05 : Composite Solutions
06 : Enterprise Content Management
07 : Enterprise Search
08 : Business Intelligence
09 : Communities
10 : Development Life Cycle

Developing on SharePoint 2010

As a software developer you can use the SharePoint 2010 business collaboration platform to build enterprise-class solutions for intranet portals and the web. View these ten modules on Microsoft MSDN to get started with development for SharePoint 2010 using Visual Studio 2010.

Module 01: Getting Started: Building Web Parts in SharePoint 2010
Module 02: What Developers Need to Know About SharePoint 2010
Module 03: Building Blocks for Web Part Development in SharePoint 2010
Module 04: Accessing SharePoint 2010 Data and Objects with Server-Side APIs
Module 05: Accessing SharePoint 2010 Data and Objects with Client-Side APIs
Module 06: Accessing External Data with Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010
Module 07: Developing Business Processes with SharePoint 2010 Workflows
Module 08: Creating Silverlight User Interfaces for SharePoint 2010 Solutions
Module 09: Sandboxed Solutions for Web Parts in SharePoint 2010
Module 10: Creating Dialog Boxes and Ribbon Controls for SharePoint 2010

Clarizen in top 25 most important Online PM Software

Clarizen, the online project management solution, was selected as one of the top 25 of the most important Online project Management Apps by GetApp.com. The infographic on Top Online Project Management Software can be found here.

BI Architects uses Clarizen for managing its projects and has developed a BI solution for Clarizen. More on our BI solution can be found in this blog Business Intelligence extension for Clarizen.

Setting the Protection Level of Packages

The following table describes the protection levels that Integration Services provides. The values in parentheses are values from the DTSProtectionLevel enumeration. These values appear in the Properties window that you use to configure the properties of the package when you work with packages in Business Intelligence Development Studio.

Protection level	Description
Do not save sensitive (DontSaveSensitive)	Suppresses the values of sensitive properties in the package when the package is saved. This protection level does not encrypt, but instead it prevents properties that are marked sensitive from being saved with the package and therefore makes the sensitive data unavailable to other users. If a different user opens the package, the sensitive information is replaced with blanks and the user must provide the sensitive information.
	When used with the dtutil utility (dtutil.exe), this protection level corresponds to the value of 0.
Encrypt all with password (EncryptAllWithPassword)	Uses a password to encrypt the whole package. The package is encrypted by using a password that the user supplies when the package is created or exported. To open the package in SSIS Designer or run the package by using the dtexec command prompt utility, the user must provide the package password. Without the password the user cannot access or run the package.
	When used with the dtutil utility, this protection level corresponds to the value of 3.
Encrypt all with user key (EncryptAllWithUserKey)	Uses a key that is based on the current user profile to encrypt the whole package. Only the user who created or exported the package can open the package in SSIS Designer or run the package by using the dtexec command prompt utility.
	When used with the dtutil utility, this protection level corresponds to the value of 4.
Encrypt sensitive with password (EncryptSensitiveWithPassword)	Uses a password to encrypt only the values of sensitive properties in the package. DPAPI is used for this encryption. Sensitive data is saved as a part of the package, but that data is encrypted by using a password that the current user supplies when the package is created or exported. To open the package in SSIS Designer, the user must provide the package password. If the password is not provided, the package opens without the sensitive data and the current user must provide new values for sensitive data. If the user tries to execute the package without providing the password, package execution fails.
	When used with the dtutil utility, this protection level corresponds to the value of 2.
Encrypt sensitive with user key (EncryptSensitiveWithUserKey)	Uses a key that is based on the current user profile to encrypt only the values of sensitive properties in the package. Only the same user who uses the same profile can load the package. If a different user opens the package, the sensitive information is replaced with blanks and the current user must provide new values for the sensitive data. If the user attempts to execute the package, package execution fails. DPAPI is used for this encryption.
	When used with the dtutil utility, this protection level corresponds to the value of 1.
Rely on server storage for encryption (ServerStorage)	Protects the whole package using SQL Server database roles. This option is supported only when a package is saved to the SQL Server msdb database. It is not supported when a package is saved to the file system from Business Intelligence Development Studio.

Operators (SSIS Expression)

This post describes which operators you can use within the SSIS expression language.

Operator	Description
Cast (SSIS Expression): Convert SSIS Data Types	Converts an expression from one data type to a different data type.
() (Parentheses) (SSIS Expression)	Identifies the evaluation order of expressions.
+ (Add) (SSIS Expression)	Adds two numeric expressions.
+ (Concatenate) (SSIS Expression)	Concatenates two expressions.
- (Subtract) (SSIS Expression)	Subtracts the second numeric expression from the first one.
- (Negate) (SSIS Expression)	Negates a numeric expression.
* (Multiply) (SSIS Expression)	Multiplies two numeric expressions.
/ (Divide) (SSIS Expression)	Divides the first numeric expression by the second one.
% (Modulo) (SSIS Expression)	Provides the integer remainder after dividing the first numeric expression by the second one.
|| (Logical OR) (SSIS Expression)	Performs a logical OR operation.
&& (Logical AND) (SSIS Expression)	Performs a logical AND operation.
! (Logical Not) (SSIS Expression)	Negates a Boolean operand.
| (Bitwise Inclusive OR) (SSIS Expression)	Performs a bitwise OR operation of two integer values.
^ (Bitwise Exclusive OR) (SSIS Expression)	Performs a bitwise exclusive OR operation of two integer values.
& (Bitwise AND) (SSIS Expression)	Performs a bitwise AND operation of two integer values.
~ (Bitwise Not) (SSIS Expression)	Performs a bitwise negation of an integer.
== (Equal) (SSIS Expression)	Performs a comparison to determine if two expressions are equal.
!= (Unequal) (SSIS Expression)	Performs a comparison to determine if two expressions are not equal.
> (Greater Than) (SSIS Expression)	Performs a comparison to determine if the first expression is greater than the second one.
< (Less Than) (SSIS Expression)	Performs a comparison to determine if the first expression is less than the second one.
>= (Greater Than or Equal To) (SSIS Expression)	Performs a comparison to determine if the first expression is greater than or equal to the second one.
<= (Less Than or Equal To) (SSIS Expression)	Performs a comparison to determine if the first expression is less than or equal to the second one.
? : (Conditional) (SSIS Expression)	Returns one of two expressions based on the evaluation of a Boolean expression.

SSIS Carriage Return in MesageSource 'Send Mail Task'

Yesterday I faced a layout problem within the 'Send Mail Task' in BIDS. The task had to report status information in a mail in a readable manner. I composed the context of the mail in a variable wich is set bij an 'Execute SQL Task' in a 'Foreach Loop Container' which fills the variable by means of a Result Set.

Initially I composed the status information one after another and it became one big lumb of text which was not readable. So I had to insert 'Carriage Returns' in order to get new status information on a new line.

By adding CHAR(13) to a text in a SQL statement you can add 'Carriage Returns' to a text so you can make it more readable.

Example:
SELECT 'This is a example text.' + CHAR(13) + 'And this must be on a new line!' + CHAR(13) + 'And this must be on another new line!'

If you put this in a variable and put the content of this variable into the MessageSource property of the 'Send Mail Task' through a exception you will get the following result:

This is a example text.
And this must be on a new line!
And this must be on another new line!

Hope this helps!

Clarizen posts BI Architects video to Social Media

We were very happy to see the posts of Clarizen, leading global provider of collaborative online project management software, in the Social Media referring to the video we made of our Clarizen BI Solution.

Thank you, Hilee Avrahami of Clarizen, for bringing this video to your customers and followers attention!

Here you can have another look at our video:



Our Business Intelligence solution for Clarizen adds reporting functionality that helps the project managers monitor, track and report project progress (including KPI's and earned values), the finance department enable swift and correct detailed invoicing and the management team gaining direct insight in the performance/profitability of projects.

For more information about the extension for Clarizen please contact our sales manager Erik Rongen-Kleintjens (E.Rongen-Kleintjens@bi-architects.nl).

Hermann-Otto Israël

BI Architects project manager

Change of address

On January 1, 2012 BI Architects has moved to a new office which is located in Breda, Netherlands.

Our new address
Claudius Prinsenlaan 128
4818 CP Breda
The Netherlands