Handling flat files that do not exist

Hello,

I have a package that contains 22 data flow tasks, one for each flat file that I need to process and import. I decided against making each import a seperate package because I am loading the package in an external application and calling it from there.

Now, everything works beautifully when all my text files are exported from a datasource beyond my control. I have an application that processes a series of files encoded using EBCDIC and I am not always gauranteed that all the flat files will be exported. (There may have not been any data for the day.)

I am looking for suggestions on how to handle files that do not exist. I have tried making a package level error handler (Script task) that checks the error code ("System::ErrorCode") and if it tells me that the file cannot be found, I return Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Sucsess, but that is not working for me, the package still fails. I have also thought about progmatically disabling the tasks that do not have a corresponding flat file, but it seems like over kill.

So I guess my question is this; if the file does not exist, how can I either a) skip the task in the package, or b) quietly handle the error and move on without failing the package?

Thanks!

Lee.

I recall that I have a couple data flows in my package, each within a sequence container and connected them with completion(blue) arrows and even if the first one failed the second one continued on...

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That is one solution that I could use. It doesn't seem like it is the "elegant" way to handle it, but it will work.

Thanks for the suggestion.

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well

Is dragging red arrow to some alert/send mail task will not serve purpose?

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Scoutn wrote:

Hello,

I have a package that contains 22 data flow tasks, one for each flat file that I need to process and import. I decided against making each import a seperate package because I am loading the package in an external application and calling it from there.

Now, everything works beautifully when all my text files are exported from a datasource beyond my control. I have an application that processes a series of files encoded using EBCDIC and I am not always gauranteed that all the flat files will be exported. (There may have not been any data for the day.)

I am looking for suggestions on how to handle files that do not exist. I have tried making a package level error handler (Script task) that checks the error code ("System::ErrorCode") and if it tells me that the file cannot be found, I return Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Sucsess, but that is not working for me, the package still fails. I have also thought about progmatically disabling the tasks that do not have a corresponding flat file, but it seems like over kill.

So I guess my question is this; if the file does not exist, how can I either a) skip the task in the package, or b) quietly handle the error and move on without failing the package?

Thanks!

Lee.

You can use a script task to check whether or not a file exists. This code should help:

File.Exists Method
(http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.file.exists.aspx)

-Jamie

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Jamie,

First allow me to say that your blog has been an invaluable resource. I have learned a lot from your articles, thank you!

Utsav, I am not looking to be notified of the error; I just want the task to merrily carry on like nothing took place. I do understand what you meant though, thank you.

Sometimes the flat file will be there and sometimes it won't be. If it isn't, I would still like the task move on to the next with a "Success" result, not just completion. That is why I was thinking of disabling the tasks that do not have corresponding flat files progmatically when I load the package from my application.

I guess I should be asking; when I set Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Success, why does it not actually return success?

(I know there are a couple of ways I can get around this issue, I'm just looking for the easiest without setting the task to continue on "Completion" ;)

Thanks again,
Lee.

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Check if this thread has something that can help you.

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=859625&SiteID=1

Instead of disabling the task; try to use an expression in the precedence constraint in the control flow.

Rafael Salas

|||Thank you very much. I did search the forum, I guess I was just using the wrong search term.

Perfect!|||

The thread (and the subsequent blog articles) solved my problem. I needed to put each task in a sequence container with their own script task checking for the files; if I used one script task to look for all the files the next task would not run because at least one file would return false.

Thanks again for everyones help!