BizTalk 2009

BizTalk RFID Duplicate Elimination Interval on BizTalk 2006 & 2010

SURESH GIRIRAJAN — Fri, 13 May 2011 16:13:37 GMT

Working on prod issue for one of our customer using BizTalk 2006 R2 RFID, we started running into a strange issue where we are reading the vehicle and driver information. We started seeing all of our drivers tags are getting rejected after the 1^st successfully read but all the Vehicle tag get processed without any issues. Just for your info each driver keep driving new vehicle each time so that’s clue for you. So on further investigation we found duplicate elimination event works fine for Vehicle tag but start rejecting driver tag after the 1^st read, driver comes back after 15mins. So digging into the Duplicate elimination Interval – Event Handler. In BizTalk 2006 you have only one parameter – “Duplicate Elimination Interval”. So if you dig into the code you would see it take the device tag time and compare against the RFID server time. So in our case RFID Server time was different than Reader time by an hour. So making the Reader time and Server time fixed the issue. But there is a better solution using the BizTalk 2010 duplicate elimination event handler, so if you are using and want to make better I would recommend use it.

BizTalk 2006:

Parameter:

1. Duplicate Elimination Interval

// elapsed time is the time between now and the last time this tag was seen

int tagTS = (int) entry.VendorSpecificData[TIMESTAMPKEY];

elapsedTime = currentTS - tagTS;

// If the elapsed time is greater than the dup check interval, we can accept this tag.

// Set the max time stamp to current and increment the tag count

if (elapsedTime > dupCheckInterval)

{

Accepted …

}

Else

{

Rejected

}

BizTalk 2010:

In BizTalk 2010 you have other parameters to configure by which you can avoid running into this issue:

Parameters:

1. Duplicate Elimination Interval

2. Duplicate Elimination Criterion

a. Tag Identifier

b. Tag Identifier and Device

c. Tag Identifier and Device and Source

d. Tag Identifier and Logical Device

3. Time Reference

a. Tag Time

b. Local System Time

Check below for more information: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd298764(v=bts.70).aspx

So make sure to set the time same on Reader and BizTalk RFID Server. Hope this helps you…

Monitoring BizTalk RFID using Data Services

SURESH GIRIRAJAN — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:45:46 GMT

We are glad to release the BizTalk RFID Data Services as part of our open source contribution here at Tellago. Let me get into some details on what’s BizTalk RFID data service and who can take advantage of it. BizTalk RFID data service is all about exposing BizTalk RFID artifacts as Restful service interface which can be easily accessed by different application within the enterprise and outside such as mobile applications. So anyone who wants to monitor the BizTalk RFID can take advantage of it. It’s easy and lightweight and it works against BizTalk RFID 2006 R2/2009/2010. It should be really handy service for support folks and business interested in monitoring. I have to thank my colleague Uri for helping me getting this out.

The BizTalk RFID data service allows you to query the RFID resources such as Process, Devices, Device Groups and Device Providers. In addition to monitoring you can also use the service to Start and Stop Process and Devices. The following are some examples based on the features available in this release.

Querying all RFID components

Querying all RFID Process:

http://localhost/BTSRFIDManagementService/BTSRFIDManagementService.svc/RFProcesss

Querying all Devices:

http://localhost/BTSRFIDManagementService/BTSRFIDManagementService.svc/Devices

Querying all Device Groups:

http://localhost/BTSRFIDManagementService/BTSRFIDManagementService.svc/DeviceGroups

Querying all Device Providers:

http://localhost/BTSRFIDManagementService/BTSRFIDManagementService.svc/DeviceProviders

Navigating the hierarchy

Querying a specific resource:

http://localhost/BTSRFIDManagementService/BTSRFIDManagementService.svc/Devices('DEVICE1')

Querying all subgroups for a specific Group:

http://localhost/BTSRFIDManagementService/BTSRFIDManagementService.svc/DeviceGroups('Group1')/DeviceSubGroups

Querying all Devices for a specific Subgroup:

http://localhost/BTSRFIDManagementService/BTSRFIDManagementService.svc/DeviceGroups('Group1')/DeviceSubGroups('Forklift1')/AllSubDevice

Filtering:

http://localhost/BTSRFIDManagementService/BTSRFIDManagementService.svc/RFProcess?$filter=Status%20eq%20'Started'

http://localhost/BTSRFIDManagementService/BTSRFIDManagementService.svc/Devices?$filter=Status%20eq%20'ManuallyDisabled'

Mapping between RFID Data Service and RFID Manager:

JSON format

Accept: application/json

With the BizTalk RFID Data Services, we also provide the functionality of executing a particular device or process update via HTTP as show below.

For RFID process:

For RFID Devices:

Also you can use IUpdatable Interface of WCF Data Services.

Updating objects

Start Process

var policyObj = Context.RFProcesss.Where(a => a.Name.Equals("TellagoRFIDDemoProcess")).FirstOrDefault();

if (policyObj != null)

{

policyObj.Status = "Start";

Context.UpdateObject(policyObj);

DataServiceResponse obj = Context.SaveChanges(SaveChangesOptions.Batch);

}

Start Devices

var policyObj = Context.Devices.Where(a => a.Name.Equals("DEVICEDEMO1")).FirstOrDefault();

if (policyObj != null)

{

policyObj.Status = "Enable";

Context.UpdateObject(policyObj);

DataServiceResponse obj = Context.SaveChanges(SaveChangesOptions.Batch);

}

Installation:

The installation of the BizTalk RFID Data Services:

· Open the Tellago.BizTalk.RFID.REST solution using VS 2008 or VS 2010

· Right click on project “BizTalkRFIDDataServices”->properties

· Go to “Web” tab and select “Use Local IIS Web Server” as shown below and click “Create Virtual directory”

• Change the app pool in IIS and appPool account running the website should have been part of the BizTalk RFID User group.

• Right click the BTSRFIDManagementService.svc and browse.

Hope you have find this post helpful...

SO-Aware @ TechReady (Microsoft Event)

SURESH GIRIRAJAN — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 01:42:56 GMT

A session on SO-Aware is presented at Microsoft TechReady event this week check here for more details : http://tellagostudios.com/blog/so-aware-highlighted-microsoft-techready

Check here for more details on SO-Aware and how to leverage within your enterprise if you’re using BizTalk Server, WCF Services and services build on Azure. It provides lot of capability such as:

o Centralized service repository

o Centralized configuration management

o Service testing

o Monitoring

o Transparent integration with technologies such as Visual Studio, BizTalk Server, Windows Server & Azure AppFabric among many others

o SO-Aware Test Workbench provides developers with a visually rich environment to model and control the execution of load and functional tests in a SOA infrastructure. This tool includes the first native WCF load testing engine allowing developers to transparently load test applications built on Microsoft's service oriented technologies such as WCF, BizTalk Server or the Windows Server or Azure AppFabric.

BizTalk Server Roadmap 2009 & Beyond…

SURESH GIRIRAJAN — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:47:53 GMT

Check the BizTalk road map - PDC presentation on BizTalk Server 2009 R2: http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/SVR15

Check the BizTalk Server 2009 R2 on Windows app fabric from BTS Team blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/biztalk_server_team_blog/archive/2009/11/20/biztalk-server-strong-roadmap-and-innovations-preview-presented-at-pdc.aspx