SolarWinds Task Factory reviews

I frequently use Task Factory in the SSIS package I create for integration between system.

Opmerkingen: I am able to solve problems in a single SSIS package vs using SSIS and Linux scripts.

Pluspunten:

Task Factory really expands the types of tasks that are available in SSIS. We have used Secure FTP Task, PGP task, and Advanced Email to accomplish complex scenarios that we had to use custom scripts to accomplish before. This is helping us reduce our footprint because we are phasing out a Linux server we have that used to encrypt and move files back and forth between secure FTP sites. We are able to replace everything this Linux server was doing with script with a single SSIS package thanks to the Task Factory tasks. I especially like the "TF Error Output Description" and have used it many times in troubleshoot failures. I don't know what I did before this feature! There are so many more features that Task Factory has that I'm excited to explore. When I have a problem I'm trying to solve in SSIS, my new attitude is "I bet Task Factory can do that!"

Minpunten:

Sometimes I have trouble finding which feature will accomplish what I need. For example, I needed to have a unique number generated for each row in a flow but use the last number as the new starting number. After some investigation I found that I can easily accomplish that with the "Surrogate Key Transform" it just took me a while to figure out that was the task I needed.

Amazing tool!

Pluspunten:

Easy installation and integration to your project, user friendly controls, lots of features to connect to on-premise and cloud services. Free license for development. The customer support is very helpful and responsive.

Minpunten:

While there is nothing much that's missing on this tool, I would also like to see something related to posting/downloading files from Cloud Storage services like GoogleDrive or Dropbox.

With Task Factory we implemented the integration with Salesforce and other systems quick and easy.

Pluspunten:

The software is easy to use and has a lot of features. When creating SSIS flows, sometimes I am surprised to learn about a feature I didn't use before.

Minpunten:

Sometimes the software 'thinks' a little bit too much. Changes in upstream columns trigger the automatic column matching process. Sometimes this breaks existing functionality.

Awesome

Opmerkingen: Massive speed improvement over built in Microsoft SSIS components.

Pluspunten:

I've always been on the fence on third party SSIS components, due to them not being built in Microsoft products, but the Upsert Destination is amazing, and the Advanced Cache Lookup components are crazy fast. I pump at least a trillion rows a day through them.

Minpunten:

SCD was hard to understand, and support takes a little while to get back to you, so I ended up figuring it out on my own.

As a heavy user of SSIS I have found Task Factory to be an essential add-on.

Opmerkingen: Enables me to implement a work load that would of taken much longer or required more developers.

Pluspunten:

Massively reduces development time. Reduces complexity of package design thus making packages easier to maintain. Replaces many script tasks jobs for which you would have to write substantial code. My favourite components are the Update/Upsert Tasks as they remove the need for writing a lot of SQL plumbing code.

Minpunten:

None

Makes SSIS even better!

Pluspunten:

The sFTP and PGP functionality enhancements to base SSIS functionality are really easy to implement.

Minpunten:

Needs more advanced web API functionality to allow easier access to Web API data (JSON/XML) with security such as JWT.

Excellent selection of tools and connectors to simplify SSIS package development

Pluspunten:

Most of the components are simple drag and drop and easy to configure in the workflow. Many offer functionality that we used to have to write custom script tasks to accomplish. The Upsert task is worth the price alone.

Minpunten:

The help/documentation is very basic and often not very helpful. Some of the components are missing functionality that to me would seem obvious to include.

It works very well and has saved a lot of time vs using built in SSIS components.

Pluspunten:

It has many components and can be used in common situations to save time and raise the quality of output

Minpunten:

A silent installer\MSI would be good for ease of deployment to developer desktops. There was a bug in cleansing transform where data can't be nulled and fed to a date destination. It was acknowledged as a bug by support and is being fixed - inc 11101. That is kind of a plus as working with support was a good experience. They reproduced the problem.

Wide range of out-of-the-box components which help deliver ETL solutions much faster.

Opmerkingen: Accessing non-standard data sources and better productivity.

Pluspunten:

My development turn around is much faster with TF components. TF components are very flexible to configure and provide non-code approach to many business problems like data extracts from non-standard data sources (HTTP/REST) , data cleansing with additional data transform components and data modelling with fast performing Merge Dimensions components. Smaller, yet very useful components like much more flexible to configure Excel source, Timer and Terminator Destination do speed up ETL development too.

Minpunten:

In general TF components are a bit slow to open up and go through different configuration tabs. Documentation could have been more in details, however support team is awesome if you need a help with how to use specific TF components)

Wide variety of components & tasks. Great help content and very responsive support teams.

Opmerkingen: Reduced the number of 3rd party libraries we were using, hence that simplifies maintenance and maintainability, plus it improves the experience for the developers.

Pluspunten:

Server-based licensing. Responsiveness of the support and the sales teams. A lot of variety in the types of tasks from which to choose.

Minpunten:

Not sure. Maybe the note at the bottom of the UI for each task telling me to upgrade from professional edition to standard edition?

We are using this tool quite successfully to supplement basic SSIS functionality.

Opmerkingen: Having BI professionals who may not have much experience with traditional coding languages being able to set up and take advantage of REST APIs. Saves me from hiring developers/contractors and improves our time to market.

Pluspunten:

Love the different connectors. The REST connector is a game changer! The ability to simply and easily embed API calls within other related flows has been so beneficial.

Minpunten:

Can't say "least" but I would love a direct connector for Google Analytics! Also, the REST api connector could use a little work around error handling.

Task Factory components have simplified and accelerated my SSIS development time

Pluspunten:

the components provide easier solutions for what I used to have to build based off the out of the box SSIS components or in a Script Task. The #1 benefit of Task Factory is time savings. I started using Task Factory about 7 years ago when it was version 1.x and they are of such value that I would not work for a company as an SSIS developer if they would not purchase BIxPress and Task Factory.

Minpunten:

I have always been frustrated by the minimalist documentation for the components. This applies to all Pragmatic Works software actually. There are either no real world examples or just one. This is unfortunate because the Task Factory components are usually pretty powerful and feature rich. The documentation is usually along the lines of telling you what each tab or check box or drop down list in the component does but rarely how that component would fit into a larger data flow or control flow to accomplish a common business need. As much as I love Pragmatic Works I would say this is the #1 room for improvement.

It gets the data I need from Salesforce. One of my peers is using it to do Secure FTP.

Opmerkingen: Am able to automate the loading of Salesforce Data

Pluspunten:

It works. I get the data I need using tools I am familiar with. Great Customer Service. The Secure FTP option did not work in the first version we installed. There was a patch released which fixed the problem. Once we installed the upgrade, everything worked as expected.

Minpunten:

Not necessarily a problem with Task Factory, more a problem with SSIS. SQL Server converts certain fields to Boolean or Bit. These are not valid in Oracle. Also, using CHAR instead of VARCHAR is undesirable. We are an Oracle shop so this can be frustrating. SSIS data convert is not friendly so doing a conversion on a table with 600 columns requires too much effort. Some of the fields can be adjusted in the advanced editor but it sometimes forgets the settings if changes are made. Easiest method is to load data into a SQL Server table and then use CAST statements to convert the data for Oracle. A little bit of workaround but it can be done.

Great

Opmerkingen: We were able to process data in a way that's not possible with the general toolbox items of Microsoft itself, i.e. Nugget transforms.

Pluspunten:

Enhancements of existing or new toolkit items. Great extension on items that exist already with great and deep knowledge of SQL Server

Minpunten:

The way account management is set up on the portal. It took me over more than a year to get other users to get assigned to our organizations account.

Best product for Salesforce to SQL tasks

Pluspunten:

Product easily integrates with Visual Studio. User friendly and smart design of Salesforce components that seamlessly transform data from SOQL to SQL or SQL to Salesforce. Extremely stable product with great options for performing data transfers and UPSERTS from/to Salesforce

Minpunten:

Not all SOQL syntax is available, but definitely works great for users wanting the basic SOQL functionality.

Really makes Task easy

Opmerkingen: Salesforce connectors, FTP component, Upsert Destination, etc

Pluspunten:

I really like the ease from which I can use the Salesforce connectors. The UI that I get and other features within the connectors makes the task very easy to pull the data from salesforce. Another feature that I like is the Upsert destination which has made the insert or update destination such an easy process. The Interface for each of this connectors are super easy to understand

Minpunten:

I would like some more features added to the troubleshooting and detailed logs on some of the components.

Amazing set of components for any SQL & SSIS developer

Opmerkingen: faster development, more flexibility in developing, amazing user community

Pluspunten:

The variety of components, set of tools for data warehousing development. Most of the SSIS tasks come with great deal of flexibility for configuration

Minpunten:

Nothing not to like even though the learning curve can be a little steep. I wish the training piece was included as it is hard to convince bosses to spend extra on training

Easy integration of dataflow and control flow components into SSIS packages to enhance capabilities

Pluspunten:

Easy integration of dataflow and control flow components into SSIS packages to enhance capabilities Specific components we like include encryption, compression, SFTP, and data connectors like Salesforce.

Minpunten:

By using one library file, it is hard to upgrade some components without others. When bugs or changes get inserted into new versions, upgrading is all or nothing.

TF Advanced Flow Tasks and Auditing & Notification Framework works

Pluspunten:

Being able to add Auditing and Notification Framework to SSIS makes auditing easier. Several advanced tasks also add features to allow executing individual child package, process or task from various location/path.

Minpunten:

Having a lot of SSIS packages, waiting for TF to add auditing or notification framework to the SSIS packages can take a long long time. When configuring advanced tasks, need to be careful. The setup steps are tedious. One miss step can be hard to debug or troubleshoot.

great features, easy to use

Pluspunten:

Extremely easy to use Task Factory tasks that allows connectivity to cloud services, Azure, and SharePoint Great support!

Minpunten:

There are no Task Factory task to facilitate connectivity to Active Directory. SharePoint task does not return all fields. Often I would have to use both the TF and the SP List Adaptor to get what I want.

Brings functionality of SSIS up to what it should be in the first place

Pluspunten:

Numerous components that are essential to using SSIS for data warehouse processing, in particular the Dimension Merge task and the various source/destination connectors

Minpunten:

Fact Table delivery task is not yet flexible enough for deployment in our environment. User interface performance is occasionally sluggish.

Task Factory - A simple solution to your complex SSIS needs

Pluspunten:

I like the following two features of Task Factory a lot: 1. Accessing files on SFTP server 2. Slowly Changing Dimensions

Minpunten:

It could be my unawareness or something, but I haven't been able to use Task Factory to extract data from elastic search indexes.

Extends SSIS functionality solves definite business needs

Pluspunten:

Several different connectors, including a REST API, really extend the power of what SSIS can accomplish. There Excel connector also prevents a lot of headaches form aging packages.

Minpunten:

Some of the tool tips for the Task Factory Toolbox items could be a little more descriptive, but this is being really nit picky.

Great addition to the toolbox of SSIS developer

Opmerkingen: major time savings, adding capabilities that we did not have before and had to use script tasks etc. to get around the requirements

Pluspunten:

variety of SSIS tasks that compliment our of the box SSIS tasks, great set of tasks for data warehousing that save tens of hour each week

Minpunten:

nothing so far, the learning curve is a little unless you are willing to pay for the full training set.

Good SSIS components that will hopefully grow over time.

Pluspunten:

Works really well within SSIS. Takes the hassles out of most standard components and increases the ease of use.

Minpunten:

There really should be more components. It is a bit light on functionality within some of the components, such as excel.