Summary

This chapter presented three examples that demonstrate how SSIS relates to external applications — as both a source to external applications and a method for reading external sources.

The examples covered four interfaces with external applications:

• A Web-based XML data source (RSS)

• An output to a Reporting Services report

• An InfoPath 2003 data source

• An output to ASP.NET

In these four examples, only one used the database — and that was a source of sample data. SSIS is designed to interface with the world beyond SQL Server — what's more, this enterprise development tool ships with this functionality "off the shelf."

The good folks at Microsoft have delivered a powerful enterprise development solution that reaches well beyond the SQL Server database.

Learn more by participating in the Developer Community. A good place to start is the Microsoft TechNet Web site for SQL Server 2005 at www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005.