Microsoft RFID goes mobile

BizTalk Visionary — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:44:25 GMT

Microsoft have announced that their RFID programme has now extended to mobile devices. From the Microsoft beta site the following information has been gleaned:

Mobility and Standards Pack - Themes

BizTalk RFID on Mobile Devices
Support for key industry enablers

Run on Handhelds, Forklift readers Better together with BizTalk RFID Server v1

Support for new readers with LLRP Tag Data Translation for richer EPC enabled applications Web Services for Devices for Discovery, Configuration, Initialization (DCI) and Management

Built in Mobility Services

Reliable submit of tags from the mobile device to BizTalk RFID Server [Store and Forward]
Manage mobile device from BizTalk RFID Server using RFID Manager

Add/remove/Enable/disable device from RFID Manager

View Properties
View Tags remotely
Apply Property Templates
Save tags to local database on mobile devices

TDT library for building richer EPC enabled applications

Decode various tag formats
Translate across various formats
Encoding to various formats

Applications

Subscribe to notification events
Built in Management Application
Sample - read tags application

Mobility Platform

Lightweight version of Server platform
Event Notifications
Configuration Store
Provider Management, Device Management

DSPI for CE

Provider development on CE

Setup

One touch installation
Automatic detection of mobile hardware and cab installation

RFID - Where are the innovative solutions?

BizTalk Visionary — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:40:58 GMT

I've been involved/interested in RFID for over 3 years now and even with BizTalk 2006 R2 + RFID server I am still looking forthe really innovative solution, the jaw dropper, the one you want to tell everyone about.

At the moment I find most customers are still stuck in the 'tag and reader' world without cottoning on to the bigger picture.

If anyone out there knows differently please let me know....

BizTalk 2006 R2

BizTalk + WWF Visionary — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 20:47:00 GMT

More:

BizTalk 2006 R2 - RFID Support
The Microsoft RFID Infrastructure Services in BizTalk 2006 R2 provide device abstraction and manageability to RFID-based solutions. An integrated engine for rich data filtering, enrichment, and transformation allows for sophisticated applications for different automation scenarios. Application developers can also integrate with advance technologies such the as the Business Rules Engine, Windows Workflow Foundation, and Windows Communication Framework to create state-of-the-art business end-to-end systems.

EDI Solution Infosheet
Microsoft is highly committed to the B2B space with a dedicated team focusing on B2B messaging solutions integrated with the BizTalk Architecture. This EDI solution joins a group of solutions delivered with BizTalk 2006 including HIPAA, HL7, SWIFT, RosettaNet, cXML, and xCBL.

The goal is to drive Customer value by:

• Reducing TCO of managing B2B relationships

• Increase agility in establishing new B2B relationships

• Improve the timeliness and effectiveness of B2B decision making

EDI Support

Runtime

• X12 and EDIFACT support

– Encoding rules supported all the way to X12 5020 and EDIFACT-ISO9735 v4.1

– ACK (single and two phase) processing.

– Optional EDI syntax and schematic rule validation including optional duplicate detection.

– Envelope Information available in all Interchange Receive processing options.

– Char set support includes: X12 – Basic, Ex and Unicode; EDIFACT – UNOA to UNOK v& UNOX; and KEDIFACT

• Batching:

– Inbound: Configurable to preserve Interchange XML structure and split as Transaction Set XML

– Outbound: release algorithm based of schedule (hour/day/week); and count (char/doc count)

• Integrated with various Protocol and LOB Adapters.

• HIPAA: Support for v4010A1 transaction sets. Support includes ‘Transaction Set (Claim) splitting’

Design Time

• XML Tools – Schema Editor Extensions for processing TransactionSet and Interchange – Schema & instance validation and instance generation

• 6K+ Schema Templates X12 and EDIFACT

• Upgrade Tools (EDI/HIPAA EDI Adapter artifacts and MapText-to-XSD)

Operations

• Partner Agreement Manager: captures partner contact, runtime/enveloping information.

• Batch Status and ACK Reconciliation and Reporting

• EDI Deployment Wizard

AS2 Support

Features

• Solution is payload agnostic

• s/MIME encoding settings include:

– 8bit/base64 encoding

– RC2/TDES encryption

– SHA1/MD5 signing hash

• Non Repudiation of Receipts support including storing messages/MDN in Native/Wire format.

• Configurable MDN Generation (off incoming message or UI)

• Drummond Interoperability Certification expected

Subsystems delivered as:

• Receive and Send Pipeline components

• NRR Data Store and C# UI

• BT Admin MMC SnapIn

Schema Support

EDIFACT (2602 files)

X12 (3417 files)

– D05n – D02n

– D01B

– D01A

– D00B

– D00A

– D99B

– D99A

– D98B

– D98A

– D97B

– D97A

– D96B

– D96A

– D95A

– D95B

– D94A

– D94B

– D93A

– 5020

– 5010

– 4050

– 4040

– 4030

– 4020

– 4010

– 4010A1 (HIPAA)

– 3070

– 3060

– 3050

– 3040

– 3030

– 3020

– 3010

WCF Adapters

Overview

The BizTalk WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) Adapters align BizTalk with Microsoft’s Web Services strategy by exposing WCF channels to BizTalk processes.

Features

The BizTalk R2 will contain the following WCF Adapters

WsHttp Adapter – provides the WS-* standards support over HTTP transport. WCF-WsHttp adapter provides a transport/protocol stack implementation compatible with other next generation Web Services (platforms that also implement the same Web Services Architecture standards). It provides full access to SOAP security, reliability, and transaction features. This adapter uses the HTTP or HTTPS transport, and messages have a text or Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM) encoding

NetTcp Adapter – provides the WS-* standards support over TCP transport. WCF-NetTcp adapter provides efficient communication in a .NET to-.NET environment. It provides full access to SOAP security, reliability and transactions features. This adapter uses the TCP transport and messages have binary encoding.

WCF-NetMsmq Adapter – provides queued messaging using MSMQ transport. WCF-NetMsmq adapter provides queued communication in a .NET-to-.NET environment. It uses MSMQ transport, and messages have a binary encoding

WCF-BasicHttp – compatible with first generation web services. WCF-BasicHttp adapter provides a transport/protocol stack implementation compatible with first-generation Web Services. This adapter uses the HTTP or HTTPS transport, and messages have a text encoding.

WCF-NetNamedPipe – provides cross process messaging using NamedPipes transport. WCF-NetNamedPipe adapter provides efficient cross-process communication in a .NET-to-.NET environment. This adapter provides full access to SOAP reliability and transaction features. The adapter uses the named pipe transport and messages have a binary encoding. This adapter cannot be used in cross-machine communication.

WCF-Custom – provides customization for using WCF components (bindings, behaviors and binding elements). WCF-Custom adapter is used to enable usage of WCF extensibility components in BizTalk Server. The adapter enables complete flexibility of the WCF framework. It allows users to select and configure a WCF binding for the receive location/send port. It allows users to set the endpoint behaviors and security settings.

WCF-CustomIsolated – provides customizations for using WCF components (bindings, behaviors and binding elements) and using the HTTP transport. WCF-CustomIsolated adapter is used to enable usage of WCF extensibility components in BizTalk Server, but out of proc in IIS. The adapter enables complete flexibility of the WCF framework. It allows users to select and configure a WCF binding for the receive location/send port. It allows users to set the endpoint behaviors and security settings. This adapter should only be used by transports than can be hosted in IIS.

Supported Use Cases

The BizTalk R2 WCF Adapters will support the following Use Cases:

· Exposing BizTalk orchestration as a WCF web service

· Exposing BizTalk Content Based Routing application as a WCF web service

· Consuming a WCF service from BizTalk orchestration

· Consuming a WCF service from Content Based Routing application

· Transactional message receive

· Transactional message send

· Using WS-* headers for routing and message processing

· Using custom headers for routing and message processing

· Using custom binding elements

· Using custom bindings

· Using BizTalk dynamic send ports

· Using BizTalk as SOAP intermediary

· Consuming a WCF Service originating from WCF-LOB Adapter (SAP, Siebel, Oracle DB, and Tibco RV)

Consuming a WCF Service originating from the WCF-Adapter Framework (Custom Adapters)

Supported Transports

· HTTP / HTTPS

· SOAP

· MTOM

· TCP

· MSMQ

· Named Pipe

WinFX Adapter Framework

Overview

The framework provides a common basis for building integration adapters that can be consumed by a variety of client applications (BizTalk, Office, .Net, etc) and usage scenarios via WinFX (Microsoft’s next generation messaging framework). The .Net 3.0 Adapter Framework aligns the adapters strategy with Microsoft’s Web Services strategy by exposing integration adapters as WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) channels.

Features

The Adapter Framework consists of the following components:

Adapter Framework Runtime

The run-time consists of services that expose the adapter logic as WCF channels. This layer hides most of the complexity of the channel architecture and lets the adapter developer focus on Line of Business (Siebel, SAP, etc) specifics. These services auto generate much of the channel-level code based on declarative attributes used by the adapter developer. The framework also extends the channel architecture with Metadata components. The framework provides for metadata cache mgmt, connection mgmt etc that adapter developers can leverage to simplify the development process.

Adapter Development Tools

The development tools include Visual Studio extensions and project wizards that automate much of the tedious and busy work required to wire up adapters including the adapter deployment projects.

Adapter Development SDK

The SDK includes project samples, walkthroughs and an Adapter Development Cook Book that goes thru in detail the various aspects of adapter development

WinFX Line of Business (LOB) Adapters

An adapter is fundamentally a module that bridges a client program and an external system, exposing well-defined and standardized interfaces over various programming models to the client program while internally mapping them to proprietary interfaces and protocols supported by the external system.

Application adapters provide an interface to Line-of-Business (LOB) systems like SAP, Siebel, Oracle Financials, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards. Database adapters provide an interface to database systems like Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase and DB2. Transport adapters provide an interface to transport protocols like HTTP and FTP and message-oriented middleware (MOM) like Tibco, Websphere MQ and MSMQ.

The WinFX Adapters deliver application, database and transport adapters by implementing a common Adapter Framework, which in turn is built on top of the Windows Communication Framework (WCF). Technically the WinFX adapters are exposed as WCF transport channels to clients, enabling connectivity, metadata exchange and business data exchange with external systems.

The WinFX adapters make line-of-business applications, databases and messaging platforms visible and interoperable with standard business processes, workflows and .NET applications They promote reusability and “plug ‘n play” across disparate applications. Different programming models can be built on top of the WCF adapter framework giving client programs the choice of programming models based on business needs. ADO.NET, WCF proxy programming and WCF channel (message-level) programming are a few programming models. The adapter framework eases adapter development in terms of providing simplified abstractions that handle common infrastructure and plumbing aspects of adapter building besides providing common runtime services. This enables adapter writers to focus on business logic required to interface with and surface external system functionality. It also empowers partners to develop custom adapters. The choice of WCF is essentially inline with Microsoft’s next generation communication framework optimized for the web services enabled world. It automatically web service enables external systems that are being adapted using WinFX adapters.

Note: All information cleaned from http://connect.microsoft.com/

Microsoft's RFID 'Momentum' Includes Middleware Platform, Apps

BizTalk Visionary — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 20:36:00 GMT

Having just attended the RFID PAC it would have been nice to have done a piece on what MS are doing - unfortunately NDA's prevent me. So have a look here:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1766050,00.asp

I will fill in more information as and when I can.

RFID Services for Windows Server System

BizTalk Visionary — Tue, 15 Feb 2005 04:14:00 GMT

As Microsoft progresses in this area and I am able to give insights into this world I will be adding more and more blogs on this topic. Also I will comment on other aspects around the industry.