Why not just stick the URL into the XML source component?

SSMS does not ahve any way to do it. You could use SSIS or as you said, an app.

There was a little tool shipped with SQL 2000 which did it...

There are easier ways to importing Excel now with SSIS that having to use Excel Automation.

simplest is to use the Excel connection component and pull the flat data through. if...

Most odd.

If you are using it as a date, I would say keep it as an integer.

How are you running the query? Through SSMS or through the app when you...

It that opposite to what I would have expected. But some questions first:

You are sure the column in the table is a varchar(8)?

What is the query plan saying? Is there...

Thank you. Down with cursors

Right click, execute task. This will work on any task.

You can specify a wildcard for the for each loop. F*.* will work.

No.

Select into makes a basic copy of the table.

You'll have to create the table with indexes and do a normal insert

You cannot use it for multiple projects per-se but create a template from it and use the template.

How would you log results sets, counts etc? There is a line between logging process information and auditing.

As for auditing, there is a template which will log insert, delete and...

A few things I found that were sure to crash BIDS 7 / 10 times:

Deleting a data viewer while a project is running.

Using the delete all breakpoints option.

having said that,...

Here's some info - Seems you not alone.

A number of different things tried. Some responses from MS as well.

http://weblogs.asp.net/joshrobinson/archive/2006/05/22/SQL-Server-2005-_2D00_-OLEDB-is-not-recognized-as-a-valid-connection-manager-type.aspx

Similar: https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=127090&wa=wsignin1.0

Long thread with some answers:

If you try running DTEXECUIdtexecui from a command line who's path is what you want? Just a shot in the dark...

I love the way error messages have portions converted to smilies...

It is your package protection level.

As to why it runs once and then not again, I cannot say.

See