Categories: SSIS

Scripts and SSDT-BI 2013

Recently I tried to open a script component in SSDT-BI 2013. I was developing for SSIS 2014, so this means using Visual Studio 2013 (I explain in this blog post how I set this up using Visual Studio online). However, I got a message saying there was a compatibility issue with Visual Studio 2012.

(this isn’t the actual screenshot, because I forgot to take one, but it looks a lot like the one I got)

After clicking Run program, nothing happened, except for the very annoying message that Visual Studio is busy (one of the most annoying messages you can get).

After a quick online search, I found a forum topic where it was suggested to install a patch for Visual Studio 2012, since the .NET 4.5 framework could cause instability issues (of course it does). Unfortunately, it did not work.

Then I downloaded and installed SQL Server 2014 service pack 1 (you never know), but it didn’t help as well. My mental state become something like this:

Then I realized something: SSDT-BI 2013 (aka Visual Studio 2013) tries to open the VSTA editor of Visual Studio 2012. Is it installed? It turns out VS 2012 was installed, but as an empty shell (probably by the set-up of VS 2013, because I didn’t install it myself). So I downloaded SSDT-BI 2012, installed it and lo and behold, I could open a script task/component in VS 2013!

Moral of the story:
you have to install SSDT-BI 2012 if you want to edit scripts in SSDT-BI 2013. Quite retarded if you ask me, but that’s how it is…


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Koen Verbeeck

Koen Verbeeck is a Microsoft Business Intelligence consultant at AE, helping clients to get insight in their data. Koen has a comprehensive knowledge of the SQL Server BI stack, with a particular love for Integration Services. He's also a speaker at various conferences.

View Comments

  • I already have SSDT - BI for VS2013 installed still I am facing the same issue.
    Any suggestions?

  • This is even true for SSIS 2016 (CTP3.0) with the latest SSDT installed. I could not open up a script component until I installed SSDT-BI 2012.

  • Believe it or not, I got it to work by double clicking on C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\vsta.exe the next time I went into SSDT VS 2013 and hit edit task it opened up. I had installed both 2012 and 2013 before this.

  • I have SQL Server Data Tools for Visual Studio 2017 and having the same issue. Install the KB didn't help me. Have to install SSDT-BI 2012 to code in script task. Launching VS2017 won't work too, even after installed 2012.

  • For the fellows who faced this issue with SSDT 2017 (Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools for Visual Studio 2017)
    I fixed this issue by updating my SSDT 2017 to Version 15.9.39
    and I had Visual Studio Community 2017 already installed on the same machine, which I also updated that to the same version 15.9.39

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