BizTalk 2004

bye bye BizTalk, 2002 that is.

Bryan Corazza — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 20:30:00 GMT

My BizTalk 2002 project is finally winding down and needless to stay I'm excited. It was a very successful project but at the same time it was very frustrating to be tied down to old technology. Our team spent weeks upon weeks developing solutions that newer versions of BTS already fixed out of the box, it was a good exercise in self control. Its a great time to get back into BizTalk 2004-06 and WF. I just saw that the WinFX January CTP was released. Get it here. There seems to be significant changes from Beta 1 to 2 so grab up those bits and play around.

On another note, just some new BizTalk 2006 webcasts to wet your whistle.

Implementing End-to-End Sequential Processing in BizTalk Server 2006

High Availability, Fault Tolerance and Scalability with BizTalk Server 2006

Enjoy.

-B

Create 'per-instance' pipeline configuration changes

Bryan Corazza — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 07:40:00 GMT

Although I haven't completely messed around with this yet, I find it very useful for when you wish to have your pipelines be more flexible in allowing a 'per-instance' configuration that differs from the 'normal' configuration behavior. I think this can be very useful. Check it out.

-B

WSS BizTalk 2006 Adapter

Bryan Corazza — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 00:52:00 GMT

Here's a great comparison between the 2004 version of the WSS adapter (GOTDOTNET version) and the 2006 version, due to be out November 2005. I am so looking forward to working with 2006. I'm like a kid in a candy shop. I've been working with BizTalk since 2002 and stuck with it all these years and to see it evolve (got a tear in my eye) its so beautiful. Great work guys.

-B

BizTalk Throughput and Capacity Tester Beta 1

Bryan Corazza — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 13:52:00 GMT

Larry Beck has just released a tool for monitoring BizTalk throughput and capacity which is really cool. Until now I have seen a product or tool out there that has put these metrics together in one place, very good work. You can download it here. Enjoy.

-B

More great news for BizTalk

Bryan Corazza — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 19:05:00 GMT

MS just released this article explaining that they just purchased some great adapters from a company called iWay. I've worked with their adapters before and they are awesome. (Especially when dealing with mainframe integration.) This only gives BizTalk more force in the EAI space. Great news.

-B

What is BAS in BizTalk 2004?

Bryan Corazza — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 22:17:00 GMT

First of all what the hell is BAS? I found out that it isn't the singing plastic fish you buy to hang on your wall. Coming from a BizTalk 2002 background I had no idea was BAS was. Well it stands for Business Activity Services, and basically it is a series of services that are hosted on Windows SharePoint Services (which only comes with Windows Server 2003) that helps the 'business user' manage trading partner information in a central location. So what you say? Well take EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) for an example (since I have a lot of experience with it). Say you are sending/receiving B2B 'messages' to/from several outside partners, wouldn't you like to be able to manage all those trading partners in a central location. I can tell you from experience that it was no picnic when working with BizTalk 2002 and a project which included 20+ trading partners each with their own schema, business processes, and agreements.

Now once you have your various schemas, maps, pipelines, and orchestrations completed (I'm assuming a lot here I know) we need to add a reference to the BAS Trading Partner Publishing Web Service (say that ten times fast) and to do so you need to reference NOT a URL but rather the file location 'C:\[BizTalk Server 2004 Installation Folder]\Business Activity Services\TPM\tppubws.wsdl'. Now once you add this web reference to your project (with the orchestration in it) you will notice new items in your orchestration properties (port types, multipart message types, etc.). This is setting up your orchestration to be able to communicate directly with BAS. This communication takes place through three specific Port Types:

sendToInboxPT (sends 'messages' to a Trading Partner Inbox folder on the BAS site.)
receiveFromOutboxPT (receives 'messages' from a Trading Partners Outbox folder.)
sendToSentItemsPT (moves 'messages' from a Trading Partner's Outbox to their SentItems folder.)

Then you must set up Role Links. These can be explained here by Todd Uhl. And an example.

Now with each trading partner that you setup you need to setup an agreement in BAS. Now once an agreement is created and deployed in BAS, you have to remember that your orchestration is now dependent on those agreements and trading partner profiles (just like a map is dependent on schemas). What that means is that when you go to undeploy/redeploy your orchestration for whatever reason, you first have to inactivate the agreements and undeploy the trading partner profile (this gave me many headaches.).

Now one of the kewl things that you can do with Agreements are that you can setup an agreement so that 'messages' that meet certain specified criteria can be handled by the agreement. (like an order will be accepted if the quantity is >100) In EDI, Trading Partner Agreements are vital in helping the 'messaging' end of things go smoothly. Without them, things have a way of becoming unmanageable.

I suggest reading this MSDN section on the subject to gain a better understanding of BAS as I have found the BizTalk 2004 help files a little hard to follow when it comes to this subject (but that's just me). Enjoy.

-B

BizTalk 2006 Beta Program Now Open to the Public

Bryan Corazza — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 01:06:00 GMT

Stephen Thomas announced that the BizTalk 2006 Beta Program has now gone public. If you are interested in the latest and greatest of BizTalk integration 'stuff' like the rest of us (That's why you're reading this right?) I would highly recommend joining the masses and getting on this hot product to test out. This is the future of integration, this is where its going. I am very excited about this. (Can you tell?)

Here's the info right from Stephen's Blog: (and check out BizTalkGurus for some great BizTalk 2006 content)

To sign up for the beta program follow these easy steps:

1. Go to http://beta.microsoft.com

2. Sign in with your passport

3. At the top of the page it should say something like “if you have a Guest Id click here”.

4. Enter: BizTalkBetaTeam (case sensitive) as your guest id.

5. Fill out the survey. I think the link is located on the left side of the screen. Make sure you do not use a PO Box.

6. You should get a welcome email once you are processed.

-B

Favorite error message of all time.

Bryan Corazza — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 04:13:00 GMT

I would definately have to go with this one. Not sure whether its coming or going.

-B

Exciting Times for Integration

Bryan Corazza — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 02:59:00 GMT

Sorry I haven't been very active lately. This is probably the single most thing that I've been waiting for in 2005.
Its the word that the beta for BizTalk 2006 (a.k.a Rolling Thunder) is going to be available soon. I cannot wait.

I am already very impressed by the recent release of the SharePoint Adapter (Version 2). Since the SharePoint
Adapter (Version 1) is something I have great experience in, I was very pleased with the changes that were made.
Here's a little summary:

1. Support for multiple endpoints pointing at a single document library folder
2. Dynamic send port support using the following syntax
3. Username, password, and domain support per endpoint
4. Binary file support (My 3rd Favorite)
5. Receive adapter context properties set (Site, Folder, View, Name) (My 2nd Favorite)
6. Send Port endpoint properties set (Username, Filename, Site, Folder, etc) (My Favorite)
7. Fixed "unable to process batch callback" error

Now word on the street is that these new features will be part of the "Out of the Box" SharePoint Adapter for BizTalk 2006.
Very exciting stuff. Here's some more info on the features of BizTalk 2006. (You need MSN passport access for that link and goto the documents folder.)
Which is still set to be released on the week of November 8th 2005. Along with SQL Server 2005 ("Yukon") and Visual Studio 2005 ("Whidbey") its going to be a busy second half of 2005 for Microsoft. Although there seems to be some confusion as to BizTalk 2006's release date, it will be launched Nov. 7^th, however the actual release of the software might not take place until early 2006 (Q1). Nonetheless very exciting to be in the integration space right now.

-B

New Release of The Bloggers Guide to BizTalk available.

Bryan Corazza — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 02:26:00 GMT

Here's the latest update to The Bloggers Guide to BizTalk. I think this is a wonderful resource and I've been
reading it since the beginning. I noticed Neal Walters (of http://biztalk-training.com/ ) has added some content
to the resource. I had the opportunity (when BizTalk 2004 was not released yet) to have Neal come to my company
and put on a week's worth of training based on the MS beta curriculum. It was a great experience for our
development team. Thanks Neal.

-B