Jay Kinker - Talking BizTalk

Yes, now its Microsoft getting into SEO. Personally, I have not been a big fan of SEO initiatives and the action that is going around it. Following article is what I agree: http://societrends.com/2009/05/07/seo-is-todays-snake-oil/

Having said that, we still have to keep our customers happy and IIS SEO Toolkit can make developers life easy. Some of customization we do today for achieving SEO requires multiple third party utilities and in the end becomes miserable to maintain.

Downloads

Microsoft BizTalk Adapter for SQL Server

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=ceb0bb34-f9d2-4d14-8bbe-0311d227b091

BizTalk Adapter Pack 2.0

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=76736ba7-3c05-4436-9353-1c33f9005194

Installing and Configuring Microsoft BizTalk Adapters for Enterprise Applications

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=73906bf5-4197-4941-a73f-a43c0d38618f

BizTalk Server Best Practices Analyzer V1.2

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=93d432fe-1370-4b6d-aaa8-a0c43c30f5ab

BizTalk Adapter v2.0 for mySAP Business Suite Installation Guide and Release Notes

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=72e800a9-e9fd-4e5f-9c4a-cd340679d700

New KB's

BizTalk RosettaNet Std 3.0 EN: FIX: Negative Acknowledgement (NACK) messages that contains an invalid DateTimeStamp value are not rejected in BizTalk Accelerator for RosettaNet (BTARN) 3.0

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970491/EN-US   

BizTalk Server Ent 2009 EN: Using Setup.exe alone for an unattended installation will not result in a configured BizTalk Server

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971655/EN-US   

BizTalk Server LOB Adapters 2006: FIX: Event ID: 0 is logged when you use BizTalk Adapter for Oracle Database to send a batch of messages to an Oracle table, and a few messages are suspended

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955456/EN-US   

BizTalk Server Std 2006 EN: FIX: The MessageBox_Parts_Cleanup_BizTalkMsgBoxDb SQL Server Agent job takes a long time to finish in BizTalk Server 2006 or in BizTalk Server 2006 R2

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959495/EN-US   

BizTalk Server Std 2006 R2 EN: FIX: An XML message remains in the active queue instead of in the suspended queue when you enable tracking after port processing for a send port that uses the EdiSend pipeline in BizTalk Server 2006 R2

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958296/EN-US   

BizTalk Server Std 2006 R2 EN: FIX: BizTalk Server 2006 R2 does not process an XML message, and the following application event error is logged: "The targetNamespace attribute cannot have empty string as its value"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/963000/EN-US   

BizTalk Server Std 2006 R2 EN: FIX: The BizTalk Server FTP adapter does not retrieve files successfully from an IBM AIX-based FTP server that is set to the fr_FR locale

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967606/EN-US   

BizTalk Server Std 2009 EN: FIX: BizTalk Adapter 2.0 for mySAP Business Suite installation fails on BizTalk Server 2009

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970984/EN-US   

BizTalk Server Std 2009 EN: “The Signing Certificate has not been configured” error using certificates with EDI/AS2

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971193/EN-US   

Dependencies

The Manufacturing Toolkit requires the following technologies in order to compile and run:

·         BizTalk 2009/BizTalk 2006 R2

·         SQL Server 2008/SQL Server 2005

·         Windows Server 2003 R2/Windows Server 2008

·         Visual Studio 2008 SP1

·         .Net 3.5 SP1

Here are some must have resouces for BizTalk Server 2009:

1. About BizTalk Server
     Prerequisite skills and Knowledge
     Introducing BizTalk Server

2. Install and Configure BizTalk Server
     Quick Start Guide to Installing and Configuring BizTalk Server 2009
     Microsoft BizTalk Server Operations Guide (Configuration Checklists)

3. Learn BizTalk Server
     BizTalk Server Tutorials
     BizTalk Server 2009 Code Samples
     BizTalk Server Virtual Labs
     BizTalk Server Technical Posters
     Learn BizTalk Server (General Resources and Topics)

4. BizTalk Server 2009 Content
     BizTalk Server 2009 Help
     BizTalk Server 2009 Installation and Upgrade Guides
     Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for HL7 Help
     BizTalk Server Accelerator for HL7 .NET Class Reference
     Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for RosettaNet Help
     Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT
     Microsoft BizTalk RFID Help
     Microsoft BizTalk RFID Mobile Help
     Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation Line of Business Adapter SDK
     Microsoft BizTalk Adapter Pack 2.0
     UDDI Services
     BizTalk Server 2009 Hyper-V Guide

I have received this question multiple times in recent past. Many are not able to find BizTalk's Financial Accelerator for SWIFT 3.0 (A4SWFT 3.0) in their MSDN downloads. This is because all Accelerators and Adapters use to be in different section until last year.

You can find A4SWIFT 3.0 at:
Server>>BizTalk Server 2006 R2>>BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Accelerators (x86) -
CD (English)

Few more helpful links:

BizTalk 2006 R2 Accelerator for SWIFT (A4SWIFT) v3.0 Service Pack 1:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3F67A576-21AA-4BED-B405-5825F297EC16&displaylang=en

BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT 2008 Message Pack is available at:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925731#DL2

All Adapters and Accelerators for BizTalk Server 2009 are at different section so no confusion there.

Available immediately from Code Gallery, download the Windows Azure MMC.  The Windows Azure Management Tool was created to manage your storage accounts in Windows Azure and makes it simple to help debug, create, and explore your storage solutions.  In our testing, this tool has been invaluable to us to inspect messages in our queues.

debug, create, explore…

Developed as a managed MMC, the tool allows you to create and manage both blobs and queues.  Easily create and manage containers, blobs, and permissions. Add and remove queues, inspect or add messages, or empty queues as well.

Features

·         Manage multiple storage accounts (makes it easy to manage all your accounts)

·         Easily switch between remote and local storage services

·         Manage your blobs

o   Create containers and manage permissions

o   Upload files or even entire folders

o   Read metadata or preview the blob contents

·         Manage your queues

o   Create new queues

o   Monitor queues

o   Read (peek) messages

o   Post new messages to the queue

o   Purge queues

* The current release does not work with Windows 7 due to a bug in the underlying PowerShell version. All other OS versions should be unaffected.

Have you read or experimented with Azure yet?  

Business wise this is a fantastic approach from Microsoft for the way they want to sell Azure platform. Pricing, SLA and commercial version are yet to be made available by Microsoft but it’s worthwhile looking at it in its current form.

For developers… here are some resources:

What is Azure: http://www.microsoft.com/azure/whatisazure.mspx

Demos and samples:

Updated MMC for .Net Services: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/AzureManagementTools

Windows Azure MMC (yet to be published): http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsazuremmc

Bid Now Sample: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/BidNowSample

Contoso Cycles (yet to be published): http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/contosocycles

Fluffy Photos: http://phluffyfotos.codeplex.com/

Just installed BizTalk on my Vista notebook. Here are some information that may help:

My BizTalk’s edition – BizTalk Server 2006 R2 (Developer edition)

Operating System – Windows Vista Ultimate

The installation process is as seamless as it was for previous editions of BizTalk Server 2006. Only important point to remember is you download the prerequisite cab file for Vista. You may be in habit of using previously downloaded prerequisite cab file. Setup will automatically download the CAB file (BtsRedistVistaEN32.cab) if you are connected to internet.

After installation of BTS R2, the configuration UI appeared. I selected “Basic Configuration”, provided credentials, SQL Server location and clicked “Configure” button. All possible components were configured successfully. After configuration, I tested BTS with few samples and it works fine!

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 prerequisite for Vista can be downloaded manually from:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81432

System requirement for BizTalk Server R2 is documented at following page but I don’t know why information for Vista has been ignored. I don’t see Vista in the list of supported operating system.

http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/en/us/system-requirements.aspx

However, BizTalk R2 works absolutely fine on Vista. I could also find another document published by Microsoft for installation and configuration guide on Windows Vista.

You can download the installation and configuration guide of BizTalk Server R2 for respective operating systems from:

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=DF2E8A88-FB23-49A4-9AC7-D17F72517D12&displaylang=en

I am installing SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition on VISTA Ultimate and noticed that only client components are being installed. Setup shows an option to install “Server components” but never installs!

However, the setup does give a warning for “SQL Server Edition Operating System Compatibility”.

Solution: install SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition.

Developer edition do not give operating system compatibility warning!

Isn’t this amazing? Students can now download Microsoft development products for free!!!

A fantastic initiative by Microsoft to enable students with development tools at no cost! The initiative was announced by Bill Gates at IIT, Delhi, India.

Bill Gates announced this first in February for US and few other countries. By end of this year the program should cover most major countries.

DreamSpark is a program set up by Microsoft to provide students with software design and development tools at no charge. The program was originally directed at college students, but now it has been expanded to include high school students.

Free softwares/products includes:

-          Visual Studio 2008 (Professional Edition)

-          SQL Server 2005 (Developer Edition)

-          Visual Studio 2005 (Professional Edition)

-          Many more…

List of developer tools available to students at no charge:

http://www.dreamsparkindia.com/dreamspark/GetDreamTools.aspx

Students should check http://channel8.msdn.com  for regularly posted updates to see when Microsoft DreamSpark will be available to them.

DreamSpark Portal:

http://www.dreamsparkindia.com/dreamspark/

Microsoft News Release:

http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/feb08/02-18GSDPR.mspx

FAQs:

http://www.dreamsparkindia.com/dreamspark/FAQ.aspx

In today’s heterogeneous computing environments and with the emergence of Web services and service-oriented architectures, interoperability has become a critical business and IT need.

Microsoft is joining the AMQP Working Group at the request of its members, including several of Microsoft’s customers in the financial services industry, in order to support the development of an open industry standard for ubiquitous messaging.

Read more at: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/oct08/10-24AMQPPR.mspx

AMQP Working Group includes Cisco, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Red Hat and many more major institutions and corporates.

Read more about AMQP Working Group at: http://jira.amqp.org/confluence/display/AMQP/AMQP+Working+Group

More information about Microsoft’s interoperability efforts can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/interop

The CSD/BizTalk Product Group is conducting a survey to assess customer usage of the Business Rules Engine (BRE). 

This is an opportunity for BizTalk Server BRE users to provide inputs to what they would like to see in coming versions.

Survey link: https://live.datstat.com/MSCSD-Collector/Survey.ashx?Name=BRE_Usage_Survey_Blog

BizTalk Server has had execellent support for SWIFT from its 2004 version. Most recent version of BizTalk’s Financial Accelerator for SWIFT (A4SWIFT 3.0) has additional support for SWIFT MX messages.

Next version of BizTalk Server (2009) is coming up with enhanced support for SWIFT.
Live date for MX and MT Standards Release 2008 is 15 Nov 2008.

BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT 2008 Message Pack:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1af19d56-042f-4b90-9d9a-3b12a34dfdb3&DisplayLang=en
 
SWIFT 2008 Message Pack Install:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/results.aspx?freetext=&productID=0A98C8B2-EF77-4C42-B382-34EC5E1BF50F&categoryId=&period=30&sortCriteria=popularity&nr=20&DisplayLang=en

Related news:

• The Polish Central Securities Depository Chooses Microsoft BizTalk Server as Its Enterprise Financial Messaging Platform for the Future - 17-Sep-2008
• White Outsourcing Adopts SWIFT to Optimize Client Services Using Microsoft BizTalk Server - 17-Sep-2008
  

BizTalk Server 2006 R3 is now renamed to BizTalk Server 2009. BTS2006 R3 had considerable new features due to which Microsoft decided to make it as a major release and renamed it to BizTalk Server 2009. It will be released H1 2009. First community technology preview (CTP) is already delivered to selected customers. Another CTP will be released later this year.

Obviously, latest version of BizTalk Server will enable customers to take advantage of the latest Microsoft technologies. At the same time there are many enhancements and new features scheduled with this version.

So, what’s new in BizTalk Server 2009!

Here are some of major features:

Platform support:

-          Support for .Net Framework 3.5 SP1

-          Support for Visual Studio 2008 SP1

-          Support for Windows Server 2008

-          Support for SQL Server 2008

B2B Integration:

-          Connectivity with intelligent RFID devices

-          Enhanced support for EDI and AS2

-          Enhanced support for SWIFT

Other features:

-          Enhanced developer and team productivity through Team Foundation System (TFS), Visual Studio and other feaures

-          Enhanced support for Business Activity Monitoring (BAM)

-          New and enhanced line of business (LOB) adapters

Related links:

SDTimes - Microsoft talks BizTalk 2009 and beyond
http://www.sdtimes.com/content/article.aspx?ArticleID=32815 

Q&A: What’s Next for BizTalk Server
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2008/sep08/09-05BizTalk.mspx 
 
Updated BizTalk Roadmap
http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/en/us/roadmap.aspx 

Error: Unable to connect to the specified SQL Server Reporting Services on <MachineName>

I got this error while creating new team project

There can be multiple reasons for this error. Here is what I did. One of them may resolve your problem

My resolution:

This is one of common questions that I get during my presentations/conferences. We see MS with OS, Office line of products, Server/middleware products, designer products, games, etc. In addition to that, MS is also competing with enterprise like Google and Oracle on multiple avenues.

At high level, it looks amazing to me. Anyone would agree that having developed and delivered these kind-of stack of products is itself an achievement. And delivering world class products and competing with market leaders is itself a challenge.

Coming back to the question – Is Microsoft really focused? My answer for most products would be yes. MS started and were focused with their operating system and OS related applications. But once you have successfully delivered, what’s next! They started with products that helped Microsoft users to be independent. We see MS office stack and applications that helps IT guys to create and manage their network. To enable Microsoft users to be able to use MS products and technologies, MS had to come up with some effective development tools, languages, environment for MS users to develop their own products that run on MS platform. MS helps its partners/users to develop MS based applications and MS gains customers as application users! Both parties get benefited with this approach.

Talking specifically about SQLServer – I think this is one of great decisions and investment. RDBMS is need of application development. Can you imagine an enterprise application without database! When you are developing MS based application, many times development life is easy if you have tighter integration with RDBMS. Both dev environment and RDBMS from same vendor makes this possible. At this same time, MS itself needed some kind of RDBMS for its own need of data persistence. One example could be BizTalk Server, which is very tightly integrated with SQL Server and use it for data persistence.

I am not sure what the aim of getting into gaming zone is and how virtual reality and AI is helping MS.

As a whole, Microsoft is excellent example of how an enterprise can/should evolve, grow and remain as market leader.