BizTalk

BizTalk and RabbitMQ

Leonid Ganeline — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:18:40 GMT

If you are working with queues in BizTalk Server, the most possible it is the MSMQ (in my experience).

MSMQ is an old man of the Microsoft technology stack. It was created when there were no good standards for messaging. Now MSMQ is wrapped partly in the .NET System.Messaging namespace. It is just a small facelift. MSMQ is still a proprietary technology without well-defined messaging protocol. It means, you cannot use the MSMQ messaging protocol without MSMQ itself.

Now we see vortex of new messaging standards and technologies. One on the top is the AMQP standard and one of the bold implementation of AMQP is the RabbitMQ .

It is one more protocol, one more messaging system which, for sure, can be integrated with BizTalk Server.

Here I will implement the standard queue messaging: sending and receiving messages from BizTalk down through the RabbitMQ queue. I am using the WCF-Custom LOB Adapter (provided from BizTalk side) and the WCF RabbitMQ Binding (provided from RabbitMQ side) to link two systems.

Installation and preparation

Assuming the BizTalk Server and the Visual Studio 2010 are also installed.

Installing RabbitMQ Service

Go to the RabbitMQ site and download the last versions of server and client for Windows. For me it was rabbitmq-server-2.7.1.exe and rabbitmq-dotnet-client-2.7.1-dotnet-3.0.zip. Client includes the WCF binding which I will use lately. There are several good manuals: rabbitmq-dotnet-client-2.7.1-user-guide.pdf and rabbitmq-dotnet-client-2.7.1-wcf-service-model.pdf. I was quite impressed by quality distributives and documentation.
Start rabbitmq--server-x.x.x.exe. It will request to install Erlang. Agree, go to the Erlang site [http://www.erlang.org/] and download it. For me it was Erlang.otp_win32_R15B.exe
Start Erlang…exe. Installation went smoothly.
Start rabbitmq--server-x.x.x.exe again. Installation went smoothly.

RabbitMQ service is installed. You can see it in the Services window.

Creating RabbitMQ Client Base Assemblies

Now it is time to install the client for .NET and WCF binding extension. Use this manual.

~~Downloaded~~ ~~the .msi. Installed it. Hmm… no Rabbit.Client.dll (When I started with Examples, they all need this file. It is a main client dll).~~
~~Downloaded the *-dotnet-3.0.zip. Nope, it was wrong.~~
We need the last rabbitmq-dotnet-client-2.7.1.zip file. Extract everything from this zip.
Made a copy of the Local.props.example file to Local.props file in the same root folder.
Start Visual Studio with RabbitMQDotNetClient.sln and successfully build it. The ..\rabbitmq-dotnet-client-2.7.1\projects\wcf\RabbitMQ.ServiceModel\obj\Debug\RabbitMQ.ServiceModel.dll was created. This dll together with the RabbitMQ.Client.dll are the assemblies used by the RabbitMQ clients.

Set up the RabbitMQ binding extension

Here I really lost a lot of time. It is easy for the C# clients; the RabbitMQ.ServiceModel.Test gives all the information. But we have to use this binding from the WCF-Custom LOB adapter. To do so we have to add the assemblies to GAC, change machine.config, etc. See the WCF LOP Adapter documentation.

Sign the RabbitMQ.ServiceModel and RabbitMQ.Client projects and GAC-ed them.
Insert an <add> node into the config section of machine.config:

<extensions>
      <bindingExtensions>
        …
        <add name="RabbitMQBinding"
          type="RabbitMQ.ServiceModel.RabbitMQBindingSection, RabbitMQ.ServiceModel, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,   PublicKeyToken=1751e286f1ab778d"/>
      </bindingExtensions>
    </extensions>

Note:

When the binding extension assembly is placed in GAC, we cannot use the above section in the app.config file! This <add> element should be placed only into the machine.config file. Otherwise it cannot be seen in the binding extension list of the WCF LOB Adapter.
Use >Gacutil.exe /l RabbitMQ.ServiceModel
to get the real parameters for your assembly.
I have several machine.config files in folders:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Config
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\CONFIG
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Config

Which one to use? My VM is 64bit. BizTalk Host of the port is 32bit. BizTalk is the 2010 version. In my case the right file was the C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Config\machine.config.

Finally the RabbitMQ binding installed and we can see it in the Binding Type list for WCF-Custom adapter.

Testing

Creating the BizTalk test

I have created two pairs of port for testing.

File RP -> WCF-Custom (RabbitMQ) SP ->

[RabbitMQ Server]

-> WCF-Custom (RabbitMQ RP) -> File RP

I’ve changed only two parameters: “hostname” and “oneWay” and let others be default:

URL-s for the Send and Receive RabbitMQ Ports set up as “soap.amqp://192.168.11.128/Mytest” for both of them.

Let’s test it.

Small text file was dropped into In folder, consumed by Receive Port, went through the RabbitMQ queue, and appeared in Out folder. Success.

Note:

Now the RabbitMQ binding is set up to process only well-formed Xml documents.
“localhost” as “hostname” works fine.

Using the RabbitMQ Binding Element

The RabbitMQ binding is limited to the Text messaging encoding. If we need to change it or add more binding extensions, we have to use the customBinding type and use the rabbitMQBindingElement together with another element (including another encoding). How to do this?

1. Add the <add> node to the machine.config:

<bindingElementExtensions>
…
<add name="rabbitMQBindingElement" type="RabbitMQ.ServiceModel.RabbitMQTransportElement, RabbitMQ.ServiceModel, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=1751e286f1ab778d"/>
</bindingElementExtensions>

2. Change the Receive Location transport parameters. It was the RabbitMQBinding. Change it to the customBinding. The Transport Binding Element has to be changed to the rabbitMQBindingElement. I changed only one parameter: hostname as “localhost”.

3. Test it as previously.

Conclusion

Using RabbitMQ as one more transport for BizTalk and/or WCF applications is possible and straightforward. The learning curve is short. There are not too many issues with setting up the RabbitMQ Service and Client parts. Actually there isn’t any RabbitMQ side which is exposed to the BizTalk directly. RabbitMQ works only with WCF-Custom adapter and only this adapter communicates with RabbitMQ Service.
Now the RabbitMQ implements limited client functionality for the WCF. RabbitMQ implements the version 9 of the AMQP protocol, not the last 1 version.

Next steps

Next steps are to test this solution with different messaging patterns and try to figure out how to use RabbitMQ advantages (if there are some) over the MSMQ. Potentially the advantages are the simplest implementation of the Request/Response and Duplex patterns, better scalability, better performance, better manageability and support.

BizTalk and 0MQ (ZeroMQ)

Leonid Ganeline — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:23:50 GMT

It is stupid to compare those two beasts.

BizTalk Server is a pricey, huge development and run-time system, it includes tons of the tools, supports tons of protocols and systems. It works for very specialized middle ware integration stack. It integrates big and complex systems as SAP, CRM, Oracle and intermediates many protocols and standards as SOAP, EDI, SWIFT, FTP, tons of them.

It is a messaging system.

ZeroMQ is a low-level, wire-level protocol, the same level as TCP. It has ultra-simple API. It is implemented as a library for dozens languages as C#, Java, Python, PHP, C++, COBOL, Ada, Haskel, F#, Erlang, etc. It works in the most OS: Windows, Linux, QNX... It is free and works under open-source license.

It is a messaging system.

BizTalk implements many messaging exchange patterns: Request-Response, Pub-Sub, Queue, Message Broker, Router, Convoy.

0MQ implements the same: Request-Response, Pub-Sub, Pub-Sub with Topics, Queue, Message Broker, Router...

BizTalk development stack is compounded of several editors. BizTalk run-time stack includes several services on top of SQL Server, several tools, and tons of dll-s and SQL code.

0MQ is just a library, a dll. Library per language, per OS. No dedicated services.

...
Why I feel so comfortable with this 0MQ?
Why I think it is a serious choice to do messaging in my real-life messaging?
Do I want to abandon the comfort of a big track to ride almost bare-bone wheels?

I am not the only one who comparing 0MQ with big brokers. There is interesting article comparing RabittMQ (AMQP) and 0MQ.

BizTalk: Ordered Delivery

Leonid Ganeline — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:34:36 GMT

It is one more description of the Ordered Delivery (OD) in BizTalk.

The main article about it is in MSDN.

Here I am discussing the BizTalk Ordered Delivery “implementation details”.

OD Considerations

Ordered Delivery (sequential) mode is opposite of the “Parallel Delivery” mode. Parallel Delivery is the most productive mode; the Ordered Delivery is less productive mode.
Transports such MSMQ and protocols, supporting the WS-ReliableMessaging, are the protocols supporting OD. Other protocols as FTP, File, SQL, SMTP etc. do not have notion of the “order”.
BizTalk application usually is a part of the whole message workflow.
There are two approaches in the OD implementation:
- All steps of the message workflow independently support OD.
- A Destination System implements the re-sequencing and manages lost and duplicate messages.
Order is relative. Sequences can be ordered regards one or several parameters. For example, OD for the Company or for the Company + Department.

OD and the BizTalk Architecture

MessageBox is an implementation of the Message Queue. OD is an intrinsic feature of the MessageBox.
The BizTalk Server works in the Parallel Delivery mode by default.
There are three parts in the BizTalk message exchange outside of the MessageBox in relation to OD: Receive Locations; Orchestrations; Send ports.
- Receive Locations support OD on the Transport level (say, MSMQ and some WCF adapters).
- OD in Orchestrations is implemented by the sequential convoy pattern.
- Send ports support OD for all static adapters.
The BizTalk Pipelines (part of Receive and Send Ports) always process messages in order using streams.

OD and Ports

To force Send Ports work in order we set up a flag the “Ordered Delivery” in Send Ports, then the BizTalk MessageBox takes care of implementing OD.

To force Receive Locations work in order we set up flag the “Ordered Delivery” option in the Receive Location Transports, whenever is possible. Then the BizTalk Transport Adapter takes care of implementing OD.

Ordered Delivery Send Port instance works as a singleton service. Since start it stays in Running state. It will not recycle if we restart its Host Instance. We could manually terminate it, if we want.

OD and Orchestrations

MessageBox implements the convoy message exchange pattern [See Using Correlations in Orchestrations]. See the detail convoy description in the BizTalk Server 2004 Convoy Deep Dive article.
It is not just a design pattern that developer should follow. There are special mechanisms inside MessageBox responsible for implementing OD.

OD and Orchestration: Sample

Imagine four Orchestrations which implement four approaches to the sequencing.

The first is the ProcessNoOrder Orchestration. It processes all messages without any order. One ProcessNoOrder Orchestration instance will be created for each inbound message.

The ProcessInOrder Orchestration processes all messages in one sequence. Only one ProcessInOrder Orchestration instance will be created.

The ProcessInOrderByCompany Orchestration processes messages in sequences correlated by the Company value (A, B, C, D, etc.). The separate queue is created for each new value of the Company. Messages inside queues are processed in order. Queues for different Companies are independent. A separate ProcessInOrderByCompany Orchestration instance will be created for each new Company value.

The ProcessInOrderByProduct Orchestration works exactly as the ProcessInOrderByCompany Orchestration but correlated by the Product value (xx, yy, etc.).

Discussions

Performance

By default all Orchestration and Messaging Service instances works in the Parallel Delivery mode with maximum performance.

If we check up the Ordered Delivery option in Send Port, BizTalk will initiate the Send Port instance as a singleton service. It is always a single instance. We don’t have the flexibility of the Orchestration where we could tune up “the proportion of the sequencing” and could control the recycling of the service instance.

Send Port OD could be in two states, on and off:

OD is off: a service instance per message, one message per queue, maximum performance.
OD is on: one infinite service instance, all messages in one queue, minimum performance.

Orchestration OD could be in two states also, on and off:

OD is off: a service instance per one activating message, one activating message per queue, maximum performance.
OD is on: one or several service instances, one per new correlation set value; all correlated messages per queue; performance is from min to max, depends ot the correlation set..

Carefully designing the correlation sets we could tune up the performance of the Orchestration. For example, if we only care of the document order for each separate Company, we include the Company to the Correlation set. If we had thousand documents related to hundreds companies, the performance will be near maximum. If there are only two companies, the performance will be near minimum, and we should consider improving the correlation with one more parameter.

Orchestrations and Zombies

Zombies are big problem of Convoy Orchestrations. See BizTalk: Instance Subscription and Convoys: Details article with description of this problem. This problem could be mitigated but could not be completely removed. We are waiting a new version of the BizTalk Server where this issue will be targeted.

BizTalk Server version Next, Ordered Delivery and Zombies

It is possible the BizTalk Server version Next will implement the automatic Ordered Delivery for Orchestrations, with pattern similar to the Ordered Delivery in Send Ports.

Three new Orchestration parameters are shown up there: Ordered Delivery, Stop on Exception, and Recycle Interval (in seconds).

Ordered Delivery parameter works in the same way as the Ordered Delivery parameter of the Send Port. Now we don’t have to build the Convoy Orchestration manually. No more Loop inside Orchestration.

If the Ordered Delivery parameter set up to True, the Orchestration is working as a Singleton. The first Receive shape receives all correlated messages in sequence. Correlation set is created implicitly regards of the Activation Subscription expression.

There are several limitations for this kind of Orchestration. The most important is: only one Receive shape is permitted here.

There are two big advantages of this new feature:

Simplified Orchestration design for the Ordered Delivery.
No more Zombies. The Orchestration instance is recycled in controllable way, when no messages, matched the Orchestration Subscription, are placed in the MessageBox.

Conclusion

We discussed the Ordered Delivery implemented in the BizTalk Server and ways to improve it.

BizTalk: Advanced Questions

Leonid Ganeline — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:12:21 GMT

This article is a Part 6 of the Interview Questions series.

Part 1: BizTalk: Questions for interview without answers
Part 2: BizTalk: Interview questions and principles
Part 3: WCF: Questions for studying and interview
Part 4: WCF: Questions for studying and interview: Discovery
Part 5: WCF: Questions for studying and interview: Routing Service
Part 6: BizTalk: Advanced Questions

It is time for fun!

These questions are for an Advanced level of the BizTalk Developers. I hope you don’t have a single chance to answer these questions, if you don’t have a real life experience in BizTalk Server projects.

I would appreciate, if you write the answers in comments to this article. Thanks!
I will mark the questions which got a right/good answer.

If you have more advanced questions, please, comment them down and I will add them to this list under your name.

Advanced level

· The error in BizTalk usually creates a suspended message. But routing error creates two messages. Why so? How we could utilize this feature?

· Send ports have an “Ordered delivery” option. How it works for a File adapter, if the File protocol does not have a notion of file order?

· Send ports have an “Ordered delivery” option but Receive ports do not have it. Why so?

· You set up an “Ordered delivery” option in Send Port. What is special about Service Instance of this Port?

· How to force an Orchestration do the ordered delivery? Is there a special “Ordered delivery” option in Orchestration? If it is not, why?

· Send ports have the “Priority” options, but Receive ports and Receive Locations do not have them. Why so?

· How does the Priority feature of the Send Port work?

· Why the Priority option can be set up only for the Send Port?

· Send ports have the “Retry” options, but Receive ports and Receive Locations do not have them. Why so?

· How does the Retry feature of the Send Port work? In what scenarios this feature is helpful, in

· Send ports have a “Backup Transport” but Receive ports do not have it. Why so?

· Send ports have a “Filter” but Receive ports do not have it. Why so?

· Send ports have the “Maps” and “Transport”; Receive ports have “Maps” but “Transport” is associated with Receive Locations. Why so?

· What is the difference between “Send Port Group – Send Port” relation and “Receive Port – Receive Location” relation?

· Receive Location have the Schedule parameters for date and time but Send Ports have the Schedule parameters only time. Why so?

· Filter expression for the Send Port is defined at run-time, but Filter expression for the Orchestrations is defined only at design-time. Why so?

· We created a custom pipeline component. Do we have to place it into the “<BizTalkFolder>\Pipeline Component” or install it to GAC or both?

· How does an Orchestration make sure the message was sent successfully by one-way Send port? How does it changed for a two-way Send port?

· What is it the “CodeList Database” property of the Schema? How to use it?

· What is the “Property Schema Base” property of the Property schema element? It has the values: MessageDataProperyBase, MessageContextPropertyBase, and PartContextPropertyBase. What is the difference between using MessageDataProperyBase and MessageContextPropertyBase?

· We bind the Orchestration with Send Port. What does it do regards of the subscription?

· We bind the Orchestration with Receive Port. What does it do regards of the subscription?

· How do Filters of the Send Ports and Send Port Groups work together? Say, a Send Port belongs to a Send Port Group. If this Send Port and this Send Port Group have the same Filter expression, does it create two subscriptions and, as a result, two messages are sent to the Send?

· Why do we need a special Property schema for Promoted properties? What is the purpose of this schema? Distinguished properties do not use this kind of schema. Why so?

· Properties of some BizTalk artifacts have the Tracking option. Right-click menu of some BizTalk artifacts have the “Tracking…” command. Why there is such a difference between artifacts? Why Maps do not have any Tracking options? Why Schemas have only Tracking property? Why Send Port Groups do not have any Tracking options? Why Receive Locations do not have any Tracking options? Why BizTalk Applications do not have any Tracking options?

· When the BizTalk Assembly is deployed, is it stored in the BizTalk database or it is just referenced in the BizTalk database?

· Can you describe at least three scenarios where smart Orchestration Engine finds the errors in the messages patterns at design time (while build the BizTalk project)?

· Host has an "Authentication Trusted" option. What does it mean? What implication it has to the message processing? How do we have to use it / don't use?

· Could you create an XLANGMessage in the C#/VB code? Please, provide code.

· You can use an XmlDocument class as a Message type for receive untyped Xml messages in Orchestration. What .NET classes we have to use for receive untyped text or binary messages in Orchestration. Why so?

· Is the Publish-Subscribe BizTalk Engine API well defined? Where? If not, why so?

· Does BizTalk use the strategy “First received, first processed” or “First received, last processed” of “First received, first processed, first sent” of something else? Why so?
Describe scenarios, when this strategy works better, and scenarios, when this strategy works badly.

· Are Orchestration Instances processed in order? Why so? Describe scenarios.

· Is it possible to force Hydration / Dehydration of the Orchestration instances, Messaging instances? How to do this? Why do this?

· In what scenarios you will use the Compensations in Orchestrations? Why so?

· Atomic scopes in Orchestrations have a Retry feature. How it works? Describe scenarios when it is used.

· What serializer does BizTalk use, XmlSerializer or DataContractSerializer? What implication it has for the real life scenarios?

· What transform engine is BizTalk using, XslTransform or XslCompiledTransform? What implication it has for the real life scenarios?

· BizTalk Business Rule Engine uses a Rete engine inside. In what scenarios this Rete engine is the more efficient / less efficient?

· Let’s classify the applications as Front-end, Middle-level and Back-end. Where are the best places to use BizTalk? Please, provide scenarios. What are the most important features we have to take in account?

· What BizTalk features are the differentiators, when you compare BizTalk Server with other alternatives? What are those alternatives?

BizTalk: Samples: Error Handling, Email Notification

Leonid Ganeline — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:49:21 GMT

One problem with email notifications is it usually sends too many emails. Errors frequently happen in series. For example, a temporarily issue with network can result in hundreds repetitive emails. In result an email notification designed as a “VIP” notification is downgraded to the “annoying” status.

This email flooding could be mitigated with this solution.

A Sample demonstrates using the emails for sending notification in case of failed messages.

It compounds several similar errors in one email notification.

Recently I've uploaded this sample

BizTalk: Samples: ErrorHandling: Notification emails

to MSDN Gallery.

It has all solution artifacts and can be used in real-life projects.

BizTalk: Sample: Error Handling

Leonid Ganeline — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:57:03 GMT

Recently I uploaded a "BizTalk: Sample: Error Handling" in MSDN Gallery

This sample shows the BizTalk features:

Routing Failed Messages in ports
Catching Failed Messages with Send Port
Catching Failed Messages with Orchestration
Handling Exceptions inside Orchestration
Handling SOAP Fault messages inside Orchestration

BizTalk Orchestration Naming Conventions

Leonid Ganeline — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:38:39 GMT

This is a second part of the BizTalk Naming Convention.

Part 1: biztalk: BizTalk solution naming convention

Special Orchestration Objects

<RoleLink> =:
roleLink_ + <Name>

Note: These objects are special BizTalk objects. They are used in different language context and sometime they use different language syntax. Prefixes help to differentiate the objects in the XLang expressions.

where

	Send	Receive	Send-Receive (Solicit-Response)	Receive-Send (Request- Response)
prefix	S_+	R_+	SR_+	RS_+

Notes:

The Port objects are the only objects which can be seen outside orchestration. We see them while bind orchestration with Ports, not the orchestration Ports but Ports created in the BizTalk Administration Console. Sometimes the orchestration Ports are named as Logical Ports and the Ports as the Physical Ports. Here are some considerations about this ambiguity with Port names.
Send-receive prefixes help while Orchestration is binding with Ports. Ports with different Communication pattern are using different prefixes.

Example: S_ OrderAck.

Orchestration Object Types

<ArtifactType> =:
<ArtifactName> + “_type”

Note: We can see orchestration types in the Orchestration View window in Types. They are: Port, Multi-part Message, Correlation and Role Link Types. We can use one suffix the “_type” for all different types because different types are seen only in the different lists and never mixed. For instance, we can never see the port types together with message types.

Controversial:Suffixes for types work better than prefixes, because types are mostly used in the drop-down lists not in the XLang expressions.

Orchestration Workflow Shapes

Problems with orchestration shapes:

Shapes are too small to display long names (only 12-18 characters are visible).
We have to hover a mouse over a shape or click shape to see Properties window and to "understand" this shape, to understand which message is processed.

Useful features:

Shapes have names, but names are not the “variable names”, not identifiers. They are descriptions (excluding the Port shapes names, which have not Name parameter but Identifier and Description parameters). Shape names are used only for description not as XLang variable identifiers. Shape names can be long and can include any symbols as spaces, dots, etc.
Icons of shapes give us the useful information. Do not repeat the “icon information” by words. For example, we can a name a Construction shape as “Construct OrderAck” or as “OrderAck”. Last variant give us more clear and short definition because we have the Construction icon + name.
Shape names are used mainly in Orchestration Editor (excluding the Port shapes names). We don’t need the “well-sorted” names, so we don’t need to use prefixes, because the main purpose of the prefixes is creating well-sorted lists.
Group shape is a scalable shape. Nesting other shapes to a Group shape can make a long description visible. Group shape will display as much text as you want. Group shapes add a lot of documentation value to the orchestration.

Rules for shapes

Whenever it is possible use the short MessageType as a shape name.
Do not repeat a type of shape icon by word.
Feel free to use spaces and any other symbols inside the shape names.
Feel free to repeat the shape names.

Note: Purpose of the orchestration and the most of the shapes is in processing the messages. We can unambiguously describe the messages by the message type. A message type gives us the main information about a message. That is why in the most cases using the message type as the shape name gives us the main information about message flow, about the whole orchestration processing.
Example: Send shape with name "OrderAck" means “send OrderAck message”.

Controversial:

Orchestration Naming Convetion works not to make easier the administration and troubleshooting but mostly to make orchestration more readable. Most orchestration names are not visible outside the Orchestration Editor. So, do not force the orchestration naming convention to hard! If your developers use differen conventions, it is fine; of course, if they understand each other. Forcing convention can do more harm than help. It can force team to spend more effort for a little.
When exception is thrown from a shape, the error description includes a name of the shape. It is a rare case when names are exposed outside of the Orchestration Editor. When we use MessageType as a name of shapes, many shapes can get the same name. So, if we want to differentiate shape names for debugging purpose, we could use numbers or single letters in the end of names.
Example: “OrderAck 2”

BizTalk: Sample: PGP Encryption/Decryption Pipeline Components

Leonid Ganeline — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 04:47:03 GMT

A sample demonstrates the PGP Encryption/Decryption in pipelines.

You can download code here.

A sample is based on a sample by Brian Jones See original code here

The main additions to original code:

· Single pipeline component was separated to two Encrypt and Decrypt pipeline components. It simplifies the pipeline configurations.

· Configuration parameters are stored in SSO, which, I hope, improves security.

· File names for temporary files are regenerated randomly each time. That eliminates errors in case when temporary file names are based on the inbound file names and pipelines are working simultaneously in several ports.

To build pipeline components you have to download a BouncyCastle.Crypto.dll assembly from http://www.bouncycastle.org/csharp .

The solution includes two pairs of the PGP keys. You can generate yours pairs using, for example, PortablePGP utility http://primianotucci.com

Configuration includes a config file for a SSO Config Store utility created by Richard Seroter.

The test pipeline project includes four pipelines:

· Send and Receive pipelines for Encryption

· Send and Receive pipelines for Decryption.

To test these pipelines I’ve created four receive ports and four send ports. They create four test workflows:

· Encryption on a Receive port:
RP::GLD.Samples.Pipelines.Encrypt.Encode ( PgpEncryptReceive pipeline )
è SP:: GLD.Samples.Pipelines.Encrypt.PassThru

· Encryption on a Send port:
RP::GLD.Samples.Pipelines.Encrypt.PassThru
è SP:: GLD.Samples.Pipelines.Encrypt.Encode ( PgpEncryptSend pipeline )

· Decryption on a Receive port:
RP:: GLD.Samples.Pipelines.Decrypt.Decode ( PgpDecryptReceive pipeline )
è SP:: GLD.Samples.Pipelines.Decrypt.PassThru

· Decryption on a Send port:
RP:: GLD.Samples.Pipelines.Decrypt.PassThru
è SP:: GLD.Samples.Pipelines.Decrypt.Decrypt ( PgpDecryptSend pipeline )

To test pipelines:

· Use test text files in a Tests\TestData folder

· To test encryption:

1. Copy test files to a Tests\Encrypt\In folder

2. Encrypted files are created in a Test\Encrypt\Out folder.

· To test decryption:

3. Copy test encrypted files from a Test\Encrypt\Out folder to a Tests\Decrypt\In folder

4. Decrypted files are created in a Test\Decrypt\Out folder.

BizTalk and WCF adapters: Operation and SOAP Action

Leonid Ganeline — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:53:19 GMT

One area here is not so well documented.

When we are filling in the Transport properties for WCF adapter, we see the SOAP Action header section.

What is it? Where we could take the values for Operations and Actions?

If we use the Consume WCF Service wizard, this section is filled up automatically. But sometimes we have to fill it in manually.

Open a WSDL for the Web-service and search for a binding section. If you add the “?wsdl” to the Web-service URL, usually the Web-service WSDL is opened.

That’s how operations and actions in the WCF parameters and WSDL are mapping:

Hope it helps.

Microsoft 2011 MVP Global Summit: Pictures

Leonid Ganeline — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 05:19:20 GMT

Photos from Summit

Mighty Canada

Oh, Canada!

Microsoft is hearing you, guys.

New Zealand is here.

Portugal and Brazil are here...

France is here...

Netherlands is here...

all BizTalkiens

and the whole world is here...

[See more MVP-s]

Vsem privet!