Microsoft SQL Server code-named 'Denali' - Community Technology Preview 1

CTP 1 of SQL 2012 (code-named 'Denali') has been released. After some installation problems I got it working on a VPC. Here is a first quick summary:

General
Undo & Redo
Finally! Need I say more:

They really work

Cut & Paste
Yes! If you paste with your mouse, the item will be pasted at your mouse position instead of somewhere below.

New icons
There are new icons and rounded corners for tasks and transformations

Rounded corners

Zoom
Very handy is the zoom function in the lower right corner which fades when not active.

Parameters
Parameters allow you to assign values to properties within packages at the time of package execution. More information.

Left Expression
The Right was always there, but now we even got a Left method in the string expression. In previous versions you need a Substring to accomplish this.

Left!

Project Build
If you build a project all project output is zipped in an .ispac file. I guess (didn't found it yet) there is some related deployment wizard to process this .ispac file.


Controlflow
SSIS Toolbox
They regrouped the items with some new categories. And new custom tasks and components should automatically appear in the toolbox.

Notice the description box

Foreach Loop
Finally the Foreach File enumerator configuration is instantly visable (personal irritation).

SSIS 2008

Execute Package
ReferenceType has been added to the Execute Package Task. Which you can use to select a package from your current project. If you choose External Reference, you will get the SQL Server / File system choice.

Package Reference Type

And there also is a new parameter binding tab  to support the new parameter option (see parameters).

Dataflow
Flexible Authoring
It's now possible to edit a component even when its input path is disconnected.

Source & Destination Assistant
New in the dataflow are the Source Assistant and Destination Assistant. Feels a little bit like SSIS for Dummies... and there isn't a flatfile target.

They are extra.

After the OK, you will get the regular screens.

Grouping in dataflow
Very useful for large dataflows is the new collapsible grouping option.

Dataflow grouping

Data Correction
Very cool new data flow object, but not yet working. I'm very curious about this new item...

Pivot
I expected a better editor. Unfortunately no improvements yet...

Simplified Data Viewer
The Data Viewer can now be configured directly from the Data Flow Path editor. The data viewer only supports a grid view, the histogram and scatter plot views have been removed (but who has ever used them?).