Sometimes it is desirable to execute SSIS packages from within the TOPICA user interface. This is the case, when an an end user must initiate an action that is implemented as an SSIS package, and this package generates output, that must be displayed to the end user.

TOPICA does not have built-in functionality to exute SSIS packages - but it DOES have functionality to run any external program (program that may be started from the command line). And as said before, SSIS packages may be deployed to the file system and run using the DTEXEC utility from the command line.

When you are building an application with TOPICA, and you want this application to be able to run SSIS packages from with the TOPICA user interface, this is how you do it:

• Build a custom webform with the user interface you need.

• If you want to build a form that allows the end user to import data from an Excel spreadsheet, for example, the user interface should have a button to select and upload the file, and the form should save the uploaded file in the file system of the web server.

• Construct a command line that runs DTEXEC with suitable parameters. In the above example with the Excel spreadsheet, the DTEXEC command line must refer to the uploaded Excel file.

• Call the functionality built into the framework to execute a command line program as an external process. This functionality lets you "grab" whatever is written to standard output and standard error streams. Progress information, errors, etc. from DTEXEC is written to standard output. Therefore, this information should be displayed in the custom webform starting the SSIS package.

TODO: sample code...