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How to: Add a Data Viewer to a Data Flow

This topic describes how to add and configure a data viewer in a data flow. A data viewer displays data that is moving between two data flow components. For example, a data viewer can display the data that is extracted from a data source before a transformation in the data flow modifies the data.

Before you can add data viewers to a package, the package must include a Data Flow task and at least two data flow components that are connected.

To add a data viewer to a data flow

  1. In Business Intelligence Development Studio, open the Integration Services project that contains the package you want.

  2. In Solution Explorer, double-click the package to open it.

  3. Click the Control Flow tab, if it is not already active.

  4. Click the Data Flow task to whose data flow you want to attach a data viewer and then click the Data Flow tab.

  5. Right-click a path between two data flow components, and select Data Viewers.

  6. In the Data Flow Path Editor dialog box, click Data Viewers and then click Add.

  7. In the Configure Data Viewer dialog box, do one of the following:

    • Click Grid, click the Grid tab, and then select the columns you want to display in the data viewer. By default, all the available columns are selected and listed in the Displayed Columns list. Move columns that you do not want to use to the Unused Column list by selecting them and then clicking the left arrow.

      Note

      In the grid, values that represent the DT_DATE, DT_DBTIME2, DT_FILETIME, DT_DBTIMESTAMP, DT_DBTIMESTAMP2, and DT_DBTIMESTAMPOFFSET data types appear as ISO 8601 formatted strings and a space separator replaces the T separator. Values that represent the DT_DATE and DT_FILETIME data types include seven digits for fractional seconds. Because the DT_FILETIME data type stores only three digits of fractional seconds, the grid displays zeros for the remaining four digits. Values that represent the DT_DBTIMESTAMP data type include three digits for fractional seconds. For values that represent the DT_DBTIME2, DT_DBTIMESTAMP2, and DT_DBTIMESTAMPOFFSET data types, the number of digits for fractional seconds corresponds to the scale specified for the column's data type. For more information about ISO 8601 formats, see Date and Time Formats and Using Date and Time Data. For more information about data types, see Integration Services Data Types.

    • Click Histogram, click the Histogram tab, and then select the column you want to model with the histogram. The histogram graph works only with numeric data and only with one column at a time.

    • Click Scatter Plot (x, y), click the Scatter Plot (x, y) tab, and then select a column for the X axis and a column for the Y axis in the scatter plot graph. The scatter plot graph works only with numeric data.

    • Click Column Chart, click the Column Chart tab, and then select the column you want to model in the column chart. The column chart graph works only with one column at a time.

  8. Click OK.

  9. Repeat step 7 to configure additional data viewers.

  10. Click OK.

  11. To save the package, click Save Selected Items on the File menu.