Leonid Ganeline

BizTalk: Debugging: Why is it so difficult?

Leonid Ganeline — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:12:08 GMT

Sometimes in the BizTalk forums such questions appear.

"...I have been using event log to test variables. I was hoping there was a way to watch it process in VS like you can debug a forms app."

There is a difference in the usual app and in the "BizTalk app".

When you start usual app it is exactly this app and you could debug it. When you "start" the BizTalk app that could means *many* *instances* of this BizTalk app could works simultaneously.

With BizTalk you have an intermediate layer, the host. This host (actually it is a host instance but it doesn't matter for this case) manages the app *instances*. It could start many app instances simultaneously and then dehydrate, rehydrate, stop, abort them without our intervention.

Ideally we need to attach a debugger to exactly one app instance (which one?) or create a debugger working with many app instances simultaneously.

It is one of the source of the complexity of debugging the BizTalk apps.

BTW What is a BizTalk application at all?

Please, let me know, what do you think.

WCF: A utility to change all URLs in .config files by one click

Leonid Ganeline — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:07:31 GMT

Hello,

Before Dublin is in charge, especially the Repository for the Web-services I'm using the custom code to manage the buzz with many URLs in Web.config files

There is a utility to change all URLs in .config files by one click.

http://www.codeplex.com/FilesModificatorAdmi

1. Purpose.
In my current project we've got a lot of composite WCF-services. We have several environments: Development,Test1, Test2, Production.
We don't have the service repository. That means when we move the services from one environment to another, we have to change addresses (URLs) in the <client> sections of all Web.config files (several dozens). Boring and error prone work, isn't it?

The FilesModificatorAdmin utility was created to change all addresses in all Web.config files by one click.

2. How it works.
We define the files that should be scanned and changed. We define the root folder for search. We define the replacements substrings like "http://Env1.MyCompany.com/Composite/Promo/PromoService.svc". The utility derives the searching substring RegExes from the replacement substrings like ""http[^\"]*?PromoService.svc".

Then the FilesModificatorAdmin utility scans all defined files in all folder tree and replace the substrings.
Utility creates the copy of the changed files as OldName.copy.
Utility output the progress to the screen and optionally to the log file.
Utility could optionally just scan the files and show how many searching substrings were found and where.

3. Notes.
* The rules to derive the RegEx for the search are hard coded.
* If the FilesModificatorAdmin found the searching substrings but the string does not changed (it is possible because the searching sub string RegEx could find the substring that is equal the replacement substring) the FilesModificatorAdmin does not change the substring. In this case it shows that sub strings were found if option the "find only and do not replace the Substrings" is checked, and it shows that substrings were not found if option the "find only and do not replace the Substrings" is unchecked.

BizTalk: Patterns: discussion "BizTalk, From Hub/Spoke to ESB"

Leonid Ganeline — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 05:13:42 GMT

There is an interesting discussion "BizTalk, From Hub/Spoke to ESB" in the MSDN BizTalk forum: [http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3478379&SiteID=1]

BizTalk: Interview: Skills measurment

Leonid Ganeline — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:40:39 GMT

This is a Part 4 of the Interview articles.
Part 1: "BizTalk 2004, Questions for interview without answers" http://geekswithblogs.net/LeonidGaneline/archive/2006/05/22/79267.aspx
Part 2: "BizTalk interview questions and principle" http://geekswithblogs.net/LeonidGaneline/archive/2007/07/03/113663.aspx
Part 3: "WCF: Questions for studing and interview" http://geekswithblogs.net/LeonidGaneline/archive/2008/01/07/wcf-questions-for-studing-and-interview.aspx

Please, mark your skills in the table.

I completely understand that nobody ever tried ALL the BizTalk features.

Name                                                      Number of the Projects      Months             Skills Mark (1..10 or A,B...)

artifacts:

applications
ports, groups, locations
FTP
SOAP
HTTP
SQL
WCF
SMTP, POP3
MSMQ
SharePoint
LOB: EDI base, Siebel, etc. (name them)
pipelines

pipeline components
schemas
maps
database functoids (or custom DB mapping)
Xslt
Xslt templates
orchestrations
transactions
atomic scope
long-running
compensation scope
exception scope
persistent points
correlations
helper .NET classes
SQL data bases (with relation to the BizTalk)
hosts, instances
adapters
parties
EDI, AS2 system
policy, rules, vacabularies
BAM
BAS

Development:

orchestrations
port-to-port
helper .NET classes
custom adapters
custom pipeline components
custom functoids
rules…
BAM
BAS
ESB

Debugging Tuning-Up:

VS

Nunit
BizUnit
LoadGen
stress testing
performance metrics
different utilities (name them)
multi-server debugging
MOM
HAT
Adm.Console
PerfMon

Deployment:

BTSDeploy
BTSTask
MSI, Binding
multi-server deployment
clustered MessageBox
WMI scripts

Development techniques:

   - correlation
   - convoy parallel
   - convoy sequential unified
   - convoy sequential non unified
   - long-running transaction
   - transaction compensation
- FIFO
   - send data to SQL
   - receive data from SQL
   - data validating
- error handling in the BizTalk applications
- BizTalk to/from WS/HTTP apps
* test-driven development
* .NET development tools

Programming skills:

* test-driven programming
* VS.NET
* script languages, utils
* SQL: database normalization, programming
Web-programming
low-end programming

Several questions (sorry, no more than 2-3 min for answer):

How do you study BizTalk? what are the main sources of the information?
Describe creating the full-featured BizTalk application. Just the steps.
Describe debugging the full-featured BizTalk application.
Describe deploying the full-featured BizTalk application.
Monitoring the BizTalk application:

Skills Mark Legend:

1 can describe purpose and functionality
2 made Sample(s)
3 used in one project
4 used in one project recently
5 used in several projects
6 used advanced functionality
7 can show my answers in forums and articles in blog
8 used API (in code)
9 can teach other developers, can show pro and cons
OR
A know something
B can use in standard cases
C can use advanced features, API
D expert

BizTalk: Distinguished fields and Promoted properties - additional information

Leonid Ganeline — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:51:59 GMT

Interesting information in KB:

"How to use distinguished fields and promoted properties in a BizTalk Server project" http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942250

"...

A promoted property may not be available as a promoted property after you write a value into the message context. This situation can occur if the value that you write into the message context has the same name and namespace that was used to promote the property.
Properties that have a null value are not permitted in the message context. Therefore, if a null value is written into the message context, this value will be deleted.
..."

BTW What is it "a null value"?

Is it <shipDate xsi:nil="true"></shipDate> ?
Is it absence of the value <shipDate></shipDate> ?
Is it "closed tag <shipDate /> ?
Is it absence of the whole node?

In http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xmlschema-0-20041028/#Nils we have description of it. But frequently we've got different interpretation of this term. And I am not sure about interpretation in KB

And let me add one more, not obvious:

Distinguished fields and promoted properties have to always get Min/Max Occurs = 1. (Not 0, not "unbounded", only 1)

WCF: Main Types: Outline

Leonid Ganeline — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:01:28 GMT

Notes

· Bindings are spread across several namespaces.

· DataContractAttribute is placed in the System.Runtime.Serialization namespace not in the System.ServiceModel namespace.

· Configuration sections are spread across several namespaces.

· ClientSection and ServicesSection: First has the structure client/endpoint, the second – services/service/endpoint. Asymmetric.

System.ServiceModel.dll

System.ServiceModel

· ServiceHost

· ChannelFactory<TChannel>

· ClientBase<TChannel>

Contracts:

· ServiceContractAttribute

· OperationContractAttribute

· MessageContractAttribute

· FaultContractAttribute

Bindings:

· BasicHttpBinding

· NetMsmqBinding

· NetNamedPipeBinding

· NetPeerTcpBinding

· NetTcpBinding

· WS2007FederationHttpBinding

· WS2007HttpBinding

· WSDualHttpBinding

· WSFederationHttpBinding

· WSHttpBinding

Exceptions:

· CommunicationException

· …

System.ServiceModel.Activation

· ServiceHostFactory

· WorkflowServiceHostFactory

System.ServiceModel.Activation.Configuration

· DiagnosticSection

System.ServiceModel.Channels

Interfaces:

· IChannel

· IChannelFactory<TChannel>

· IChannelListener<TChannel>

Abstract classes:

· Binding

· BindingContext

· BindingElement

· ChannelFactoryBase<TChannel>

· ChannelListenerBase<TChannel>

· CommunicationObject

· Message

· MessageHeader

· …

Bindings:

· CustomBinding

Binding Elements:

· TransportBindingElement

· MessageEncodingBindingElement

· …

System.ServiceModel.Configuration

Sections:

· BehaviorsSection

· BindingsSection

· ClientSection

· DiagnosticSection

· ServicesSection

Element: System.Configuration.ConfigurationElement

· BaseAddressElement

· …

ElementCollection: System.ServiceModel.Configuration.ServiceModelEnhancedConfigurationElementCollection<ComMethodElement>

· BaseAddressElementCollection

· …

System.ServiceModel.Description

· ServiceEndpoint

Behavior interfaces:

· IContractBehavior

· IEndpointBehavior

· IOperationBehavior

· IServiceBehavior

Descriptions:

· ContractDescription

· FaultDescription

· ServiceDescription

System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher

· ChannelDispatcher

* ClientOperation

* ClientRuntime

· EndpointDispatcher

Filters:

· ActionMessageFilter

· MatchAllMessageFilter

· MessageFilter

· …

System.ServiceModel.MsmqIntegration

· MsmqIntegrationBinding

System.ServiceModel.Security

Credentials:

Encoders:

System.ServiceModel.Security.Tokens

Tokens:

SecurityTokenParameters:

System.Runtime.Serialization.dll

System.Runtime.Serialization

Attributes:

· CollectionDataContractAttribute

· DataContractAttribute

· DataMemberAttribute

· EnumMemberAttribute

System.WorkflowServices.dll (v3.5)

System.ServiceModel

· WorkflowServiceHost

Bindings:

· BasicHttpContextBinding

· NetTcpContextBinding

· WSHttpContextBinding

WCF: Set up environment to use Transport level security (SSL)

Leonid Ganeline — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:25:57 GMT

We should install the certificate to the server that hosts the services with Transport level security.

For tests we could use the self-made certificate, for production we recommend to use the certificate issued by the industrial certificate provider as the VeriSign.

1. Install Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) (x64) [http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1AEF6FCE-6E06-4B66-AFE4-9AAD3C835D3D&displaylang=en]. It is installed by default to the "C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v2.0 64bit\Bin " folder.

2. [Optionally, only if you also have server certificate and want to refresh it]"C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v2.0 64bit\Bin\certmgr.exe" -del -r LocalMachine -s My -c -n MyCompany-HTTPS-Server

3. "C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v2.0 64bit\Bin\makecert.exe" -sr LocalMachine -ss My -n CN= MyCompany-HTTPS-Server -sky exchange -sk MyCompany-HTTPS-Key

4. Install the new certificate to the IIS by the Web Server Certificate Wizard. Open IIS Admin, choose the Web-site, Properties, Directory Security tab, Secure communication – Server Certificate… button, it starts the Web Server Certificate Wizard .

5. Check if the IIS / Web Site / Properties / tab Web Site - SSL Port set up to 443 (

To expose the service metadata by HTTPS and HTTP use:

To expose the service metadata by HTTPS or HTTP only, change attribute the httpsGetEnabled or httpGetEnabled to false.

[1] Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Sockets_Layer

[2] Transport Security Overview - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms729700.aspx

[3] Working with Certificates - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms731899.aspx

WCF: Data contract names: don't use names with "Response" suffix!

Leonid Ganeline — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:43:51 GMT

After creating simple WCF service I've got strange errors (see below).

Th issue was in the names of the response messages.

I used the simple custom rule to name request and response messages (.NET DataContract classes):

<OperationName>Request and <OperationName>Response

For instance I created GetTokenResponse class for the response message of the GetToken operation.

And this is the wrong rule!

Why? Because the WCF creates these names for the WSDL metadata files:

For instance I've got:

...

<wsdl:message name="ITokenStore_GetToken_OutputMessage">

<wsdl:part name="parameters" element="tns:GetTokenResponse" /> ...

....<wsdl:operation name="GetToken">

<wsdl:input wsaw:Action=http://MyServices/TokenStore/2008-05-29/ITokenStore/GetToken message="tns:ITokenStore_GetToken_InputMessage" />

<wsdl:output wsaw:Action=http://MyServices/TokenStore/2008-05-29/ITokenStore/GetTokenResponse message="tns:ITokenStore_GetToken_OutputMessage" />

When I changed the name to the GetToken_Response the errors disappeared.

It is not an error in the WCF it is just undocumented feature.

The problem is the error text gives us unhelpful and ambiguous information.

See the article in MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms731045.aspx
Not a clue about these rules.

Conclusion:

Don't use the name convention for the request and response messages (.NET classes) like <OperationName>Request and <OperationName>Response !

Error in SoapUI

, when we've tried to get the metadata:

... ERROR:javax.wsdl.WSDLException: WSDLException (at /HTML): faultCode=INVALID_WSDL: Expected element '{http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/}definitions'.

Error in IE: by address the <ServiceAddressURL>

The service encountered an error.

An ExceptionDetail, likely created by IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults=true, whose value is:
System.InvalidOperationException: An exception was thrown in a call to a WSDL export extension: System.ServiceModel.Description.DataContractSerializerOperationBehavior
 contract: http://MyServices/TokenStore/2008-05-29:ITokenStore ----> System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaException: The global element 'http://MyServices/TokenStore/2008-05-29:GetTokenResponse' has already been declared.
   at System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaSet.InternalValidationCallback(Object sender, ValidationEventArgs e)
   at System.Xml.Schema.BaseProcessor.AddToTable(XmlSchemaObjectTable table, XmlQualifiedName qname, XmlSchemaObject item)
   at System.Xml.Schema.Preprocessor.Preprocess(XmlSchema schema, String targetNamespace, ArrayList imports)
   at System.Xml.Schema.Preprocessor.Execute(XmlSchema schema, String targetNamespace, Boolean loadExternals)
   at System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaSet.PreprocessSchema(XmlSchema& schema, String targetNamespace)
   at System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaSet.Reprocess(XmlSchema schema)
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.MessageContractExporter.Compile()
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.DataContractSerializerMessageContractExporter.Compile()
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.MessageContractExporter.ExportMessage(Int32 messageIndex, Object state)
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.MessageContractExporter.ExportMessageContract()
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.WsdlExporter.CallExtension(WsdlContractConversionContext contractContext, IWsdlExportExtension extension)
   --- End of inner ExceptionDetail stack trace ---
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataBehavior.MetadataExtensionInitializer.GenerateMetadata()
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension.EnsureInitialized()
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension.HttpGetImpl.InitializationData.InitializeFrom(ServiceMetadataExtension extension)
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension.HttpGetImpl.GetInitData()
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension.HttpGetImpl.TryHandleDocumentationRequest(Message httpGetRequest, String[] queries, Message& replyMessage)
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension.HttpGetImpl.ProcessHttpRequest(Message httpGetRequest)
   at SyncInvokeGet(Object , Object[] , Object[] )
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.SyncMethodInvoker.Invoke(Object instance, Object[] inputs, Object[]& outputs)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DispatchOperationRuntime.InvokeBegin(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage5(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage4(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.MessageRpc.Process(Boolean isOperationContextSet)

Error in IE: by address the <ServiceAddressURL>?wsdl

The service encountered an error.

An ExceptionDetail, likely created by IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults=true, whose value is:
System.InvalidOperationException: An exception was thrown in a call to a WSDL export extension: System.ServiceModel.Description.DataContractSerializerOperationBehavior
 contract: http://MyServices/TokenStore/2008-05-29:ITokenStore ----> System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaException: The global element 'http://MyServices/TokenStore/2008-05-29:GetTokenResponse' has already been declared.
   at System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaSet.InternalValidationCallback(Object sender, ValidationEventArgs e)
   at System.Xml.Schema.BaseProcessor.AddToTable(XmlSchemaObjectTable table, XmlQualifiedName qname, XmlSchemaObject item)
   at System.Xml.Schema.Preprocessor.Preprocess(XmlSchema schema, String targetNamespace, ArrayList imports)
   at System.Xml.Schema.Preprocessor.Execute(XmlSchema schema, String targetNamespace, Boolean loadExternals)
   at System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaSet.PreprocessSchema(XmlSchema& schema, String targetNamespace)
   at System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaSet.Reprocess(XmlSchema schema)
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.MessageContractExporter.Compile()
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.DataContractSerializerMessageContractExporter.Compile()
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.MessageContractExporter.ExportMessage(Int32 messageIndex, Object state)
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.MessageContractExporter.ExportMessageContract()
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.WsdlExporter.CallExtension(WsdlContractConversionContext contractContext, IWsdlExportExtension extension)
   --- End of inner ExceptionDetail stack trace ---
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataBehavior.MetadataExtensionInitializer.GenerateMetadata()
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension.EnsureInitialized()
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension.HttpGetImpl.InitializationData.InitializeFrom(ServiceMetadataExtension extension)
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension.HttpGetImpl.GetInitData()
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension.HttpGetImpl.TryHandleMetadataRequest(Message httpGetRequest, String[] queries, Message& replyMessage)
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension.HttpGetImpl.ProcessHttpRequest(Message httpGetRequest)
   at SyncInvokeGet(Object , Object[] , Object[] )
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.SyncMethodInvoker.Invoke(Object instance, Object[] inputs, Object[]& outputs)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DispatchOperationRuntime.InvokeBegin(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage5(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage4(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.MessageRpc.Process(Boolean isOperationContextSet)