Forty-four thousand satisfied customers

A couple of years ago, I wrote an article for SQLServerCentral.com that described how SQL Server Integration Services could be (mis)used to query a SQL database, format the query results as HTML, and automatically e-mail them on to interested parties. It was more of a demonstration of what were then relatively poorly documented features of SSIS than a serious attempt to recreate a reporting solution, but it touched an unexpected chord and got a huge response on the site. It's been a featured article three times, been included in the publication "Best of SQLServerCentral Volume 6", and has a maximum five-star rating from no fewer than 44,550 readers as I write this.

All this blowing my own trumpet is well and good, but up to now this piece was only visible to registered visitors of SQLServerCentral.com. Today, however, in a shameless attempt to drive some traffic to my refurbished and improved website, I've posted it as a PDF on my own site for the enjoyment and enlightenment of one and all. It's a bit dated by now, and I can certainly think of easier and more efficient ways of achieving the same ends than by using SSIS, SQL XML queries and XSL transformations, but if that's your idea of fun then please take a look.