Business Intelligence

Ben Richardson
Adjusted reports view with 'solar' theme applied

Working with Power BI report themes

February 25, 2021 by

Microsoft’s Power BI is a data analytics tool that can be used to plot rich reports and graphs for data analysis without writing a single line of code. Among myriads of other features, you can apply different types of Power BI report themes to change the outlook of your reports.

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Aveek Das
Documenting SSIS Packages using Sequence Diagrams

Documenting SSIS Packages using Sequence Diagrams

November 25, 2020 by

In this article, I am going to explain in detail how to document SSIS packages using Sequence Diagrams and the importance of these diagrams in the field of software engineering, no matter which programming language are you using. In my previous article, I have talked about the various UML Diagrams that are being used to document various software engineering processes. Also, I have talked about modular ETL architecture and how to create such a modular package in SSIS. Sequence diagrams are also a part of the broader UML Diagrams which define the interaction between the various components in the system in a chronological manner.

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Aveek Das
Executing the master package - ETL in SSIS

Implementing a Modular ETL in SSIS

November 24, 2020 by

In this article, I am going to demonstrate about implementing the Modular ETL in SSIS practically. In my previous article on Designing a Modular ETL Architecture, I have explained in theory what a modular ETL solution is and how to design one. We have also understood the concepts behind a modular ETL solution and the benefits of it in the world of data warehousing. We have also related the concept of microservices architecture in software development to that of the modular ETL solution.

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Aveek Das

Designing a Modular ETL Architecture

November 17, 2020 by

In this article, I am going to demonstrate in detail the Modular ETL Architecture. ETL is a vast concept which explains the methodology of moving data across various sources to destinations while performing some sort of transformations within it. This is an advanced article that considers that the user has a substantial amount of understanding about how ETL is implemented using different tools like SSIS and the underlying working principle along with how to deploy multiple packages using SSIS. It is extremely important to implement a well-designed ETL architecture for your organization’s workload, otherwise, it might lead to performance degradations along with other challenges. To keep things simple, I will just explain the Modular ETL Architecture in this article which will be followed by a detailed hands-on tutorial in the next article – “Implementing Modular Architecture in ETL using SSIS”.

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Dinesh Asanka
Exporting SSRS Reports to Multiple Sheets in Excel with dynamic sheets.

Exporting SSRS reports to multiple worksheets in Excel

September 11, 2020 by

Introduction

SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) has multiple options of exporting data into a variety of formats and we will be discussing the options of exporting SSRS Reports to multiple sheets of excel. In SSRS, there are multiple formats available to export reports depending on the user’s needs. Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Tiff file, MHTML (Web Archive), CSV (comma delimited) and XML file with report data are the popular formats that can be exported from SSRS as shown in the below screenshot.

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Aveek Das
Executing the SSIS Package

An introduction to SSIS Data Lineage concepts

September 3, 2020 by

In this article, I am going to discuss SSIS data lineage concepts, which are often used while designing ETL workloads on a data warehouse. Although this article is focused on implementing data lineage using SSIS, it does not only confine to SSIS but to any ETL tools in the market using which data is moved from one source to a destination. In my previous article, Understanding Data Lineage in ETL, I have already discussed the generic importance of data lineage concepts for any ETL tool. I would definitely suggest you have a look at it if you want to understand in general how data lineage helps to track the source of a single record in the warehouse.

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Aveek Das
Transformation flow diagram

Understanding Data Lineage in ETL

September 3, 2020 by

In this article, I am going to explain what Data Lineage in ETL is and how to implement the same. In this modern world, where companies are dealing with a humongous amount of data every day, there also lies a challenge to efficiently manage and monitor this data. There are systems that generate data every second and are being processed to a final reporting or monitoring tool for analysis. In order to process this data, we use a variety of ETL tools, which in turn makes the data transformation possible in a managed way.

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Dinesh Asanka
Creating a Weekly schedule for the Standard Subscription in SSRS.

Enhancing Customer Experiences with Subscriptions in SSRS

August 28, 2020 by

Introduction

We are going to discuss a very important option in SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), which is Subscriptions in SSRS. Typically, Reporting service is used to view reports. However, most users would prefer to receive the report to their inbox in the preferred report format, such as Word, Excel, or PDF in a preferred time. Further, you might want these reports to be delivered to a file share. Let us see how we can achieve these options using Subscriptions in SSRS and what are the challenges and pre-configurations.

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