Documentation for creating a custom SQL Server "Data Source" data provider

Question

I'd like to write an import driver that will allow my proprietary file type to show up in the import wizard "Data Source" dropdown for SQL Server 2005 (or any version of SQL Server, for that matter). I see other vendors who've added their formats to this list - is there documentation for how I would put a driver together? I've searched MSDN and Google and I can't seem to turn up any leads, though it's clearly out there somewhere. Thanks!

CLARIFICATION: I want to add some detail to what I'm looking for. I'm a vendor, and I want to provide my clients a way to import files directly into SQL Server from my custom format. In this image (Flickr Link), you can see that Gupta has added a "Provider" in this list that appeared when I installed their client tools, just like Oracle (or many other companies) add a provider for their data sources.

How can I add one for my custom data source type? I want "Ryan's 123-Base" (or whatever my product name is) in that list so that clients can import directly from my company's format?

Answer 1

"Driver" is probably the wrong term to search on. What you want is some kind of SQL 2005 extension API. I'm sorry - I'm not familiar with it personally, but changing your search may lead you to the answer if no one else knows it off the top of their head!

Maybe SQL Server Management Objects (SMO)?

Here's an SQL 2005 online Books. Maybe that section on 'Integration Services' is it? Seems like it's getting closer to what you're looking for.

Ok, I think it does look very promising. They've got some tutorials on it and describe what seems to be your situation:

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use SSIS Designer to create a simple Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Services package. The package that you create takes data from a flat file, reformats the data, and then inserts the reformatted data into a fact table.

Good luck!

Answer 2

That's just an ODBC driver. If you build an ODBC driver and install it, any system-wide ODBC driver will show up in that dropdown box. It's not SQL-specific.