BizTalk

Jesus Built My Hotrod

Rob Addis — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 02:36:16 GMT

A new online BizTalk mag has come out, a more pleasent read than most whitepapers, especially if you're a motor head or a fan of that Ministry song.

Unable to open Orchestration Designer in Visual Studio

Rob Addis — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 00:55:30 GMT

We are developing BizTalk applications with Visual Studio Team Edition and every now and then for some reason the Orchestration Designer is removed from the "Open With" dialog, thus when one double clicks on an orchestration it is opened with the Xml Editor. Although I'm not sure why this happens, I suspected the items in this dialog were configured in the Windows Registry ... and so they were, so to fix:

1) Open RegEdit
2) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Editors and find the BizTalk Orchestration Designer for us it was under Guid {679b7fd6-2104-42b2-8d87-86dd575fc269}
3) Get the package key Guid, for us this was {2f926337-2bfb-46ab-bbc4-a955ce25ff6f}
4) Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Packages\{Package Key Guid}\SkipLoading
5) Set the SkipLoading key to 0
6) Restart Visual Studio and the Orchestration Designer should show up in the "Open With" list

Does anyone know why the SkipLoading key is mysterously turned on for the Orchestration Designer?

System Testing BizTalk Applications with BAM & Xlsb File Generation

Rob Addis — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 11:37:00 GMT

In the past I have noticed that system testers find it difficult to test middleware applications such as those implemented using BizTalk. System testers generally don't want to read BizTalk xml messages dumped out to disk, they like to be able to query for their test results via some form of GUI. Many are adept at writing SQL to return result sets containing the test data they want to analyze.

I came up with the idea of using BAM relationships between different activities within a single view to log before and after snapshots of BizTalk messages. So when messages were transformed by maps, orchestrations or the BRE system testers could test those transforms. You can then give system testers’ access to the BAM Portal Website where they could view and query these before and after snapshots and match the actuals against the expected results to pass or fail their tests.

This solution for system testing only works for certain scenarios’ with certain types of schemas as each message logged cannot contain repeating records if it is to be logged to BAM.

So what am I on about? Take a single record schema which validates an xml message like the one below as I said before this technique won't work with messages which contain multiple records.

<ns1:SampleTransaction TransactionID="123456" ProductName="ABC" Amount="1234.56" Quantity="24" xmlns:ns1="http://SynbogalooSamples/SampleTransaction/1.0.0.0" />

Each time a map, orchestration or business rules were applied to a message I wanted to send messages to BAM so I was basically just logging messages to BAM each time the contents of the message changed. I used BAM relationships to associate the message before it was transformed to the message after it was transformed so the tester could assess whether the transformation worked.

OK this was all easy but very time consuming using the Excel add-in to create the xlsb files for each schema so I wrote a simple xlsb file generator. Note: For this code to work with schemas that have xsd types other than DateTime, Integer, Double and String you will need to add to the switch statement in the CreateActivity method.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.IO;

namespace BAMXslbGenerator
{
    class Program
    {
        private const string UCName = "Name";
        private const string LCName = "name";
        private const string View = "View";
        private const string BAMDefinition = "BAMDefinition";
        private const string BAMDefinitionNamespace = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalkServer/2004/10/BAM";
        private const string Extension = "Extension";
        private const string OWC = "OWC";
        private const string OWCNamespace = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel";
        private const string ActivityView = "ActivityView";
        private const string ActivityRef = "ActivityRef";
        private const string Activity = "Activity";
        private const string Alias = "Alias";
        private const string CheckpointRef = "CheckpointRef";
        private const string Id = "ID";
        private const string Checkpoint = "Checkpoint";
        private const string XpathToAttribute =
            "(//*[local-name()='element'])[last()]/*[local-name()='complexType']/*[local-name()='attribute']";
        private const string DataType = "DataType";
        private const string DataLength = "DataLength";
        private const string Length = "length";
        private const string MaxLength = "maxLength";
        private const string XpathToLength = "*[local-name()='simpleType']/*[local-name()='restriction']/*[local-name()='length']/@value";
        private const string XpathToMaxLength = "*[local-name()='simpleType']/*[local-name()='restriction']/*[local-name()='maxLength']/@value";
        private const string SqlDateTime = "DATETIME";
        private const string SqlNvarchar = "NVARCHAR";
        private const string SqlInt = "INT";
        private const string SqlFloat = "FLOAT";
        private const string XsdDateTime = "xs:dateTime";
        private const string XsdString = "xs:string";
        private const string XsdInteger = "xs:int";
        private const string XsdDouble = "xs:double";

private static StringBuilder xlsbText = null;

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            try
            {
                //Check for help
                if (args.Length == 0)
                {
                    ShowUsageMessage();
                }
                else if ((args[0] == "/?") || (args[0] == "/help"))
                {
                    ShowUsageMessage();
                }
                else
                {
                    //Parse out command line arguements
                    string xlsbFileNameArg = GetCommand("/x", args);
                    string viewNameArg = GetCommand("/v", args);
                    string activityNameArg = GetCommand("/a", args).Replace("[","").Replace("]","");
                    string schemaArg = GetCommand("/s", args).Replace("[", "").Replace("]", ""); ;

                    if (xlsbFileNameArg != string.Empty && viewNameArg != string.Empty
                        && activityNameArg != string.Empty && schemaArg != string.Empty)
                    {
                        string[] activityNames = activityNameArg.Split(new string[] { "," }, StringSplitOptions.None);
                        string[] schemas = schemaArg.Split(new string[] { "," }, StringSplitOptions.None);

                        GenerateXlsbXml(viewNameArg, activityNames, schemas);

                        //Write out the file
                        File.Delete(xlsbFileNameArg);
                        File.AppendAllText(xlsbFileNameArg, xlsbText.ToString(), Encoding.Unicode);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("Incorrect arguements!");
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (System.Exception ex)
            {
                Console.Write(ex.ToString());
            }
        }

        private static string GetCommand(string commandToken, string[] args)
        {
            string commandValue = string.Empty;

            for (int i = 0; i < args.Length; i++)
            {
                if (args[i] == commandToken)
                {
                    commandValue = args[i + 1];
                    break;
                }
            }
            return commandValue;
        }

        private static void ShowUsageMessage()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Generates an xlsb BAM definition file conaining one view and multiple schema definitions to log to BAM.");
            Console.WriteLine("Syntax: BAMXlsbGenerator");
            Console.WriteLine("Commands:");
            Console.WriteLine("\t/x \txlsb file name");
            Console.WriteLine("\t/v \tBAM View definition name");
            Console.WriteLine("\t/a[] \tActivity names enclosed in [] comma separated, there must be one activity name per schema.");
            Console.WriteLine("\t/s[] \tSchema names enclosed in [] comma separated, there must be one schema name per activity.");
            Console.WriteLine("\t/? or /help \tDisplay this usage message");
        }

        private static void GenerateXlsbXml(string viewName, string[] activityNames, string[] schemas)
        {
            //Create an writer for building the xlsb
            xlsbText = new StringBuilder();
            XmlWriterSettings xmlWriterSettings = new XmlWriterSettings();
            xmlWriterSettings.Indent = true;
            XmlWriter xlsbWriter = XmlWriter.Create(xlsbText, xmlWriterSettings);

            //Start building xml
            xlsbWriter.WriteStartDocument();
            xlsbWriter.WriteStartElement(BAMDefinition, BAMDefinitionNamespace);

            if (schemas.Length != activityNames.Length)
            {
                throw new ApplicationException("The number of activity names and schemas don't match.");
            }

Dictionary<string, string>[] checkpointIDsForSchemas = new Dictionary<string, string>[schemas.Length];
string[] activityIDs = new string[schemas.Length];

            //Create the activities
            for (int i = 0; i < schemas.Length; i++)
            {
                Dictionary<string, string> checkpointIDs;
                string activityID;
                CreateActivity(xlsbWriter, schemas[i], activityNames[i],
                    out checkpointIDs, out activityID);
                checkpointIDsForSchemas[i] = checkpointIDs;
                activityIDs[i] = activityID;
            }

            //Now create the view
            xlsbWriter.WriteStartElement(View);
            xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(UCName, viewName);
            string viewID = Id + Guid.NewGuid().ToString("N");
            xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(Id, viewID);

            //Create Activity Views
            for (int i = 0; i < schemas.Length; i++)
            {
                CreateActivityView(xlsbWriter, activityNames[i],
                    checkpointIDsForSchemas[i], activityIDs[i]);
            }

xlsbWriter.WriteEndElement(); //END View

xlsbWriter.WriteStartElement(Extension);
xlsbWriter.WriteElementString(OWC, OWCNamespace, "");

            xlsbWriter.WriteEndElement(); //END Extension
            xlsbWriter.WriteEndElement(); //END BAMDefinition
            xlsbWriter.WriteEndDocument();
            xlsbWriter.Flush();
        }

        private static void CreateActivityView(XmlWriter xlsbWriter, string activityName,
            Dictionary<string, string> checkpointIDs, string activityID)
        {
            xlsbWriter.WriteStartElement(ActivityView);
            xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(UCName, View + activityName);
            xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(Id, Id + Guid.NewGuid().ToString("N"));
            xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(ActivityRef, activityID);

            //Loop through the dictionary and create the Aliases
            foreach (string key in checkpointIDs.Keys)
            {
                xlsbWriter.WriteStartElement(Alias);
                xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(UCName, key);
                xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(Id, Id + Guid.NewGuid().ToString("N"));
                xlsbWriter.WriteElementString(CheckpointRef, checkpointIDs[key]);
                xlsbWriter.WriteEndElement(); //END Alias
            }

xlsbWriter.WriteEndElement(); //END ActivityView
}

        private static void CreateActivity(XmlWriter xlsbWriter, string schema,
            string activityName, out Dictionary<string, string> checkpointIDs,
            out string activityID)
        {
            xlsbWriter.WriteStartElement(Activity);
            xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(UCName, activityName);
            activityID = Id + Guid.NewGuid().ToString("N");
            xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(Id, activityID);

//Create a dictionary object to store the IDs in
checkpointIDs = new Dictionary<string, string>();

            //Open the schema
            XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
            xmlDocument.Load(schema);

//The rules are

XmlNodeList xmlNodeList = xmlDocument.SelectNodes(XpathToAttribute);

            //Loop through all the attributes and create the new xslb schema
            foreach (XmlNode xmlNode in xmlNodeList)
            {
                string checkpointID = Id + Guid.NewGuid().ToString("N");
                checkpointIDs.Add(xmlNode.Attributes[LCName].Value, checkpointID);

                //Add the data type attributes
                if (xmlNode.OuterXml.Contains(XsdDateTime))
                {
                    xlsbWriter.WriteStartElement(Checkpoint);
                    xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(UCName, xmlNode.Attributes[LCName].Value);
                    xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(Id, checkpointID);

xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(DataType, SqlDateTime);

                    xlsbWriter.WriteEndElement(); //End Checkpoint
                }
                else if (xmlNode.OuterXml.Contains(XsdInteger))
                {
                    xlsbWriter.WriteStartElement(Checkpoint);
                    xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(UCName, xmlNode.Attributes[LCName].Value);
                    xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(Id, checkpointID);

xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(DataType, SqlInt);

                    xlsbWriter.WriteEndElement(); //End Checkpoint
                }
                else if (xmlNode.OuterXml.Contains(XsdDouble))
                {
                    xlsbWriter.WriteStartElement(Checkpoint);
                    xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(UCName, xmlNode.Attributes[LCName].Value);
                    xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(Id, checkpointID);

xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(DataType, SqlFloat);

                    xlsbWriter.WriteEndElement(); //End Checkpoint
                }
                else if (xmlNode.InnerXml.Contains(XsdString))
                {
                    xlsbWriter.WriteStartElement(Checkpoint);
                    xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(UCName, xmlNode.Attributes[LCName].Value);
                    xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(Id, checkpointID);

xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(DataType, SqlNvarchar);

                    if (xmlNode.InnerXml.Contains(Length))
                    {
                        xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(DataLength,
                            xmlNode.SelectSingleNode(XpathToLength).InnerText);
                    }
                    else if (xmlNode.InnerXml.Contains(MaxLength))
                    {
                        xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(DataLength,
                            xmlNode.SelectSingleNode(XpathToMaxLength).InnerText);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(DataLength, "255");
                    }

                    xlsbWriter.WriteEndElement(); //End Checkpoint
                }
                else if (xmlNode.OuterXml.Contains(XsdString))
                {
                    xlsbWriter.WriteStartElement(Checkpoint);
                    xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(UCName, xmlNode.Attributes[LCName].Value);
                    xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(Id, checkpointID);

xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(DataType, SqlNvarchar);
xlsbWriter.WriteAttributeString(DataLength, "255");

                    xlsbWriter.WriteEndElement(); //End Checkpoint
                }
                else
                {
                    Console.Write("Unknown xsd datatype: " + xmlNode.OuterXml + " continuing to create xlsb.");
                    checkpointIDs.Remove(xmlNode.Attributes[LCName].Value);
                }
            }
            xlsbWriter.WriteEndElement(); //End Activity
        }
    }
}

How to call example: BAMXlsbGenerator /x "C:\Projects\SynboogalooSamples\Test.xlsb" /v TestView /a [TestActivityA,TestActivityB] /s [C:\Projects\SynboogalooSamples\SampleTransactionA.xsd,C:\Projects\SynboogalooSamples\SampleTransactionB.xsd]

This saved me a lot of time all I needed to do now to finish setting up BAM was deploy the xlsb BAM definition using the BM.exe tool and use the Tracking Profile Editor to associate the message payload with the BAM activity definition about 5 minutes of drag n' drop work. In the BAM Portal system testers can query transformed data and can even query the BAM tables if they want. They are able through BAM relationships to view the message contents each time it has been modified and logged to BAM.

I found this technique was a quick and simple way of empowering system testers to test BizTalk applications.

I should note another option for System Testing EAI solutions is to go with an implementation of FIT (Framework For Integration Testing) here is a blog with more info.

Rob

Passed the BizTalk 2006 Exam

Rob Addis — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 02:25:00 GMT

84% it wasn't that bad, but it should have been easy after 3+ years working with BizTalk, lots on BAM and the BRE. I think I lost marks on the drag and drop questions and there was a tricky question on coding a BRE fact retriever. I used Saravana's exam preparation diary.

BizTalk R2 Beta 2 is supposed to be a public release, so non-TAPpers can get their hands on it

Rob Addis — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 01:26:00 GMT

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Beta 2 released - Thanks Mike ;)

in a sequential convoy the ports must be identical

Rob Addis — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 01:46:00 GMT

A client was getting this compile error "in a sequential convoy the ports must be identical" when compiling an orchestration which had two consecutive receive ports in a sequential convoy. The answer was simple they needed to use a concurrent convoy not a sequential convoy.

Goodbye Synergy hello London

Rob Addis — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 01:33:00 GMT

I haven't posted for a while I've just finished work on a Banks SOA framework written with extensive use of WCF (which is very very extensible!). Started work implementing their Kiwisaver group investments initiative in BizTalk 2006 R2. We were one of the first out of the blocks in utilising the R2 WCF adapter (could be a bit more configurable), the WCF interceptor and AS2 adapter (interesting BAM continuations). Then after 3 years I decided to leave Synergy and go freelance for a while before moving back to the UK. On the same day I left Synergy I sold my bach and bought a new investment property so it's been busy.

It's been a truly fabulous 3 years working for Synergy International in New Zealand which has recently been re-branded as Fronde. For those of you looking for a change to kick start career development this professional organisation is continuing to grow in all the right directions, they offer great training opportunities, working and learning from very experienced people in a family oriented enviroment.

Well for the next few months I'm integrating a portfolio CRM to an investment banks core trading systems again in BizTalk and among other things using BAM for system testing which I will post on later.

Ciao

Rob

Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) and ASP.net 2.0 Web Parts

Rob Addis — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 06:49:00 GMT

Last year at the Microsoft BPI Conference in Seattle over a few beers Scott Alan (a Microsoft integration technology specialist) shared with me his idea about using ASP.net 2.0 Web Parts to present BAM data. The idea was to give managers a more precise, flexible and easy to use interface into their business processes, they could essentially go to one dashboard and get a historical and current view of how various areas of their business unit or organisation were doing.

I’ve searched the blogosphere half a year later and I’m surprised no one has written about this it’s so simple to build.

The only gripe I have is that ASP.net 2.0 Web Parts cannot be deployed to SharePoint Services 2003 you’ll have to wait until the next version out later this year. You can however get to grips with how build Web Parts to show BAM data on an ASP.net 2.0 page now. (you can use Son of SmartPart see feedback below)

This post isn’t going to cover how to enable BAM it also isn’t about how to build Web Parts the basics of which are covered in these 3 tutorials:

WebParts1

WebParts2

WebParts3

Here is a simple BAM dashboard (ok I’m not a graphic designer). From the right hand side of the page the manager selects what data in which format they want to view and where on the page it should sit. Once the web part is on the page they can drag it to where ever they want or get rid of it and display another one.

All the Web Parts

How to plug into BAM

I know of three ways to access BAM data the first is obvious just grab it from the Views in the BAMPrimaryImport database, the second is by accessing the cubes in SQL Server Anaylsis Services the third is by calling the Web Services which the BAM Portal uses to access BAM data (these are installed with BAM):

http://[server]/BAM/BAMQueryService/BamQueryService.asmx

http://[server]/BAM/BAMManagementService/BamManagementService.asmx

I developed 3 simple Web User Controls to display BAM Data, as a best practice I think it’s a good idea if you develop all your web parts as Web User Controls (these will be later wrapped up as Web Parts).

Web Part	Usage	Access method
Orders for Redmond	Graph of all the orders for the city of Redmond	BAM Query Service GetInstanceData web method
Subscribe to alert	Allows a user to subscribe to an existing alert	BAM Management Service GetAlertsSummary and AddSubscription web methods
Orders by city	Report with graph displaying the number of orders per city	View on BAMPrimaryDataBase

1) Orders for Redmond web part

Controls: an ASP.net 2.0 GridView

Code: (create a web reference to the BAMQueryService)

using System;

using System.Data;

using System.Configuration;

using System.Collections;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Security;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

using System.Security.Principal;

public partial class OrdersForRedmond : System.Web.UI.UserControl

{

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

try

{

//Create the instance query note that the ActivityID is always the first column returned

BamQueryService.InstanceQuery instanceQuery = new BamQueryService.InstanceQuery();

instanceQuery.SelectClauses = new string[] { "city", "product", "amount", "denied", "approved" };

//Create a filter expression and add it as a where clause

BamQueryService.ArrayOfWhereClausesFilterFilter whereClauseFilter = new BamQueryService.ArrayOfWhereClausesFilterFilter();

whereClauseFilter.Field = "City";

whereClauseFilter.Condition = "=";

whereClauseFilter.Logic = "And";

whereClauseFilter.Value = "Redmond";

instanceQuery.WhereClauses = new BamQueryService.ArrayOfWhereClausesFilterFilter[] { whereClauseFilter };

//Add credentials to call the WS (integrated security)

//Call the GetInstanceData web method and return the result

BamQueryService.BamQueryService bamQueryService = new BamQueryService.BamQueryService();

bamQueryService.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("administrator", "pass@word1");

BamQueryService.Column[][] result = bamQueryService.GetInstanceData("SalesManager", "OrderMgmt", instanceQuery, 30);

//Fill a data table this is a quick and dirty way of creating a datasource

//probably a better way to bind a 2d array

DataTable dataTable = new DataTable("OrdersTable");

dataTable.Columns.Add(result[0][0].Name);

dataTable.Columns.Add(result[0][1].Name);

dataTable.Columns.Add(result[0][2].Name);

dataTable.Columns.Add(result[0][3].Name);

dataTable.Columns.Add(result[0][4].Name);

dataTable.Columns.Add(result[0][5].Name);

for (int i = 0; result.GetUpperBound(0) >= i; i++)

{

DataRow dataRow = dataTable.NewRow();

dataRow[0] = result[i][0].Value;

dataRow[1] = result[i][1].Value;

dataRow[2] = result[i][2].Value;

dataRow[3] = result[i][3].Value;

dataRow[4] = result[i][4].Value;

dataRow[5] = result[i][5].Value;

dataTable.Rows.Add(dataRow);

}

//Fill the grid with the result

gvOrders.DataSource = dataTable;

gvOrders.DataBind();

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

System.Diagnostics.EventLog.WriteEntry(this.ToString(), ex.ToString(), System.Diagnostics.EventLogEntryType.Error);

}

2) Subscribe to Alert web part

Note: some alerts must exist already in the BAM Portal

Controls: An ASP.net 2.0 Drop Down List, Text Box and a Button

Code: (create a web reference to the BAMManagementService)

using System;

using System.Data;

using System.Configuration;

using System.Collections;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Security;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

using System.Security.Principal;

public partial class SubscribeToAlert : System.Web.UI.UserControl

{

BamManagementService.BamManagementService _BamManagementService;

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

try

{

//Fill the subscriptions combo list box

//Add credentials to call the WS (integrated security)

//Call the GetAlertsSummary web method

_BamManagementService = new BamManagementService.BamManagementService();

_BamManagementService.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("administrator", "pass@word1");

BamManagementService.AlertSummary[] alertSummary =

_BamManagementService.GetAlertsSummary("SalesManager");

//Fill a data table this is a quick and dirty way of creating a datasource

//probably a better way to bind a 2d array

DataTable dataTable = new DataTable("AlertsTable");

dataTable.Columns.Add("Alerts");

for (int i = 0; alertSummary.GetUpperBound(0) >= i; i++)

{

DataRow dataRow = dataTable.NewRow();

dataRow[0] = alertSummary[i].Name;

dataTable.Rows.Add(dataRow);

}

//Fill the drop down list

ddlAlerts.DataSource = dataTable;

ddlAlerts.DataTextField = "Alerts";

ddlAlerts.DataValueField = "Alerts";

ddlAlerts.DataBind();

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

System.Diagnostics.EventLog.WriteEntry(this.ToString(), ex.ToString(),

System.Diagnostics.EventLogEntryType.Error);

}

protected void btnSubscribeToAlert_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

try

{

//Create a subscription

BamManagementService.Subscription subscription = new BamManagementService.Subscription();

subscription.ID = new Guid().ToString();

subscription.Type = BamManagementService.SubscriptionType.email;

subscription.UserName = System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name;

subscription.Address = txtEmailAddress.Text;

_BamManagementService = new BamManagementService.BamManagementService();

_BamManagementService.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("administrator", "pass@word1");

_BamManagementService.AddSubscription("SalesManager", ddlAlerts.SelectedValue,

new BamManagementService.Subscription[] { subscription });

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

System.Diagnostics.EventLog.WriteEntry(this.ToString(), ex.ToString(), System.Diagnostics.EventLogEntryType.Error);

}

3) Orders by City web part

Create a dataset and connect the BAMPrimaryImport database and select the View which contains the data you’re interested in.
Select add new item and choose report
Drag a Chart from the toolbox onto the report
Go to the Report menu and select Data Sources and then choose the dataset you created above
Play with the properties of the graph until you’re happy i.e. add x y cell data
Add a Web User Control to the project
Add a Report Viewer control and choose the report you just created

Code: none

Now you’ve got your Web User Controls (soon to be web Parts) if you haven’t already do the 3 web part tutorials above and build your page. This is just a simple example of how you can interface with BAM & use ASP.net 2.0 web parts to empower managers.

BizTalk install uninstall bat file generator

Rob Addis — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 03:44:00 GMT

I wrote this little utility almost 2 years ago to speed up deployment and binding, enlisting, enabling and starting BizTalk components in a development environment and then to perform the uninstall. It works well on simple BizTalk projects. With more complex BizTalk projects I would recommend using Nant. My colleges and I now never use msi's for installs\uninstalls as they are harder to debug when a deployment fails and less configurable than Nant which is also open source. I know my posting of this is a little late as it's now easier to perform these functions in BizTalk 2006, sorry been busy.

The utility generates install and uninstall bat files for a BizTalk assembly applying a config file. The bat files call the btsdeploy utility and the vb scripts located in the BizTalk sdk directory (C:\Program Files\Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004\SDK\Samples\Admin\WMI\) to deploy, bind, enlist, enable and start up BizTalk orchestrations and the uninstall will do the reverse. Below is the usage message for this command line utility.

Generates an install bat file and an uninstall bat file for BizTalk Assemblies.
Syntax: BizBatInstall {Commands}
Commands:
        /b    Binding config file must be used with /a /i or /a /u
        /a    BizTalk assembly file must be used with /b /i or /b /u
        /i    Install bat file to generate must be used with /b /a
        /u    Uninstall bat file to generate must be used with /b /a
        /? or /help     Display this usage message

To create the utility:

1) In Visual Studio create a C# Console app call it BizBatInstall

2) Replace all the generated code in the class file with the following...

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Xml;

namespace Synergy.Samples
{
///

/// Summary description for Class1.
///

class BizBatInstall
{
///

  ///The main entry point for the application.
  ///Gets the name of the assemblies and bat files
  ///Generates an install bat file and an uninstall bat file
  ///Install bat file contents:
  /// Rebuilds assembly
  /// Deploys assembly
  /// Imports the binding file
  /// Starts the send ports
  /// Enlists the orchestration
  /// Enables the recieve locations
  ///
  ///Uninstall bat file contents:
  /// Stops the orchestration
  /// Undeploys the biztalk assembly
  /// Removes the recieve ports
  /// Removes the send ports
  ///

  [STAThread]
  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
   try
   {
    //Check for help
    if (args.Length == 0)
    {
     ShowUsageMessage();
    }

    else if((args[0] == "/?") || (args[0] == "/help"))
    {
     ShowUsageMessage();
    }

    else
    {
     //Parse out command line arguements
     string bindingFileName = GetCommand("/b", args);
     string assembly = GetCommand("/a", args);
     string uninstallBatFileName = GetCommand("/u", args);
     string installBatFileName = GetCommand("/i", args);

     if (bindingFileName != string.Empty && assembly != string.Empty)
     {
      //Load the binding config file into an xml doc
      XmlDocument bindingDoc = new XmlDocument();
      bindingDoc.Load(bindingFileName);

      //Generate the bat files
      GenerateInstallBat(installBatFileName, bindingFileName, assembly, bindingDoc);
      GenerateUninstallBat(uninstallBatFileName,bindingFileName, assembly, bindingDoc);
     }

     else
     {
      Console.WriteLine("The binding file and or assembly file command line arguements were not set, no install or uninstall bat files generated!");
     }
    }
   }
   catch (System.Exception ex)
   {
    Console.Write(ex.ToString());
   }
  }

  private static string GetCommand(string commandToken, string[] args)
  {
   string commandValue = string.Empty;

   for (int i = 0; i < args.Length; i++)
   {
    if (args[i] == commandToken)
    {
     commandValue = args[i + 1];
     break;
    }
   }
   return commandValue;
  }

  private static void ShowUsageMessage()
  {
   Console.WriteLine("Generates an install bat file and an uninstall bat file for BizTalk Assemblies.");
   Console.WriteLine("Syntax: BizBatInstall ");
   Console.WriteLine("Commands:");
   Console.WriteLine("\t/b \tBinding config file must be used with /a /i or /a /u");
   Console.WriteLine("\t/a \tBizTalk assembly file must be used with /b /i or /b /u");
   Console.WriteLine("\t/i \tInstall bat file to generate must be used with /b /a");
   Console.WriteLine("\t/u \tUninstall bat file to generate must be used with /b /a");
   Console.WriteLine("\t/? or /help \tDisplay this usage message");
  }

  private static void GenerateUninstallBat(string uninstallBatFileName, string bindingFileName,
   string biztalkAssemblyFileName, XmlDocument bindingDoc)
  {
   if (uninstallBatFileName != string.Empty)
   {
    try
    {
     StreamWriter batStream = GetStreamWriter(uninstallBatFileName);

     //Rebuilds assembly
     batStream.WriteLine("rem Stop and Unenlist Orchestrations ");

     foreach (XmlNode bindingDocNode in bindingDoc.SelectNodes("//ModuleRefCollection/ModuleRef/Services/Service"))
     {
      batStream.WriteLine("cscript.exe \"" +
       ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings.Get("stopOrchestrationScript") +
       "\" \"" + bindingDocNode.SelectSingleNode("@Name").Value + "\" \"" +
       bindingDocNode.ParentNode.ParentNode.SelectSingleNode("@Name").Value +
       "\" Unenlist\r\n");
     }

     //Undeploy assembly
     batStream.WriteLine("rem Undeploy Assembly ");
     batStream.WriteLine("btsdeploy remove assembly=\"" + biztalkAssemblyFileName + "\" Uninstall=TRUE\r\n");

     //Removes the recieve ports
     batStream.WriteLine("rem Remove Receive Ports ");
     foreach (XmlNode bindingDocPortNode in bindingDoc.SelectNodes("//ReceivePortCollection/ReceivePort"))
     {
      batStream.WriteLine("cscript.exe \"" +
       ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings.Get("removeReceivePortScript") + "\" \"" +
       bindingDocPortNode.SelectSingleNode("@Name").Value + "\"\r\n");
     }

     //Removes the send ports
     batStream.WriteLine("rem Remove Send Ports ");
     foreach (XmlNode bindingDocNode in bindingDoc.SelectNodes("//SendPortCollection/SendPort"))
     {
      batStream.WriteLine("cscript.exe \"" +
       ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings.Get("removeSendPortScript") + "\" \"" +
       bindingDocNode.SelectSingleNode("@Name").Value + "\"\r\n");
     }

     //Close and flush the file
     batStream.Close();
    }
    catch (System.Exception ex)
    {
     Console.Write(ex.ToString());
    }
   }
   else
   {
    Console.WriteLine("The uninstall bat file command line arguement was not set, no uninstall bat file generated.");
   }
  }

  private static void GenerateInstallBat(string installBatFileName, string bindingFileName,
   string biztalkAssemblyFileName, XmlDocument bindingDoc)
  {
   if (installBatFileName != string.Empty)
   {
    try
    {
     StreamWriter batStream = GetStreamWriter(installBatFileName);

     //Rebuilds assembly
     batStream.WriteLine("rem Rebuild Assembly ");

     //Deploys assembly
     batStream.WriteLine("rem Deploy Assembly ");
     batStream.WriteLine("btsdeploy deploy assembly=\"" + biztalkAssemblyFileName + "\" Install=TRUE\r\n");

     //Imports the binding file
     batStream.WriteLine("rem Import Assembly ");
     batStream.WriteLine("btsdeploy import binding=\"" + bindingFileName + "\"\r\n");

     //Starts the send ports
     batStream.WriteLine("rem Start Send Ports ");
     foreach (XmlNode bindingDocNode in bindingDoc.SelectNodes("//SendPortCollection/SendPort"))
     {
      batStream.WriteLine("cscript.exe \"" +
       ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings.Get("startSendPortScript") + "\" \"" +
       bindingDocNode.SelectSingleNode("@Name").Value + "\"\r\n");
     }

     //Enlists the orchestration
     batStream.WriteLine("rem Enlist Orchestrations ");
     foreach (XmlNode bindingDocNode in bindingDoc.SelectNodes("//ModuleRefCollection/ModuleRef/Services/Service"))
     {
      batStream.WriteLine("cscript.exe \"" +
       ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings.Get("enlistOrchestrationScript") +
       "\" \"" + bindingDocNode.SelectSingleNode("@Name").Value + "\" \"" +
       bindingDocNode.ParentNode.ParentNode.SelectSingleNode("@Name").Value +
       "\" Start\r\n");
     }

     //Enables the recieve locations
     batStream.WriteLine("rem Enable Receive Ports and Locations ");
     foreach (XmlNode bindingDocPortNode in bindingDoc.SelectNodes("//ReceivePortCollection/ReceivePort"))
     {
      foreach (XmlNode bindingDocLocNode in bindingDocPortNode.SelectNodes("./ReceiveLocations/ReceiveLocation"))
      {
       batStream.WriteLine("cscript.exe \"" +
        ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings.Get("enableReceiveLocationScript") + "\" \"" +
        bindingDocPortNode.SelectSingleNode("@Name").Value + "\" \"" +
        bindingDocLocNode.SelectSingleNode("@Name").Value + "\"\r\n");
      }
     }

     //Close and flush the file
     batStream.Close();
    }
    catch (System.Exception ex)
    {
     Console.Write(ex.ToString());
    }
   }
   else
   {
    Console.WriteLine("The install bat file command line arguement was not set, no install bat file generated.");
   }
  }

  private static StreamWriter GetStreamWriter(string batFileName)
  {
   if (File.Exists(batFileName))
   {
    File.Delete(batFileName);
   }
   StreamWriter batStream = File.CreateText(batFileName);
   return batStream;
  }
}
}

3) Add an app.config to the project and copy the following xml configuration into it this just points to the different vb scripts in the sdk

4) Build and call (see usage message above)

Note

This is a very simple app, feel free to modify it, it may also help to create more vb script files and call those in the bat for further functionality. For projects with more than one assembly, to install and uninstall the lot just create a bat file which uses the CALL function to execute the other bat files in order of dependance.

R. Addis

BizTalk 2004 implementing a recieve pipeline component inside an orchestration

Rob Addis — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 05:40:00 GMT

What I am about to describe will not be new to a lot of you, in fact BizTalk Bill suggested this technique a users group meeting. The fact is, that before Christmas I could find no documentation on it in my usual trawling of the blogosphere to see if there was a more elegant way with BizTalk 2004 to employ envelope splitting inside an Orchestration … I couldn’t find one. So I’m going to spell it out for you here.
Before Christmas I was looking into a way of receiving a large amount of data from a retail head office system applying some business process logic on that data as a whole before splitting that data up into individual messages i.e. one message per retail branch. I had quite good control over the validity of the xml from the head office so I was (with aggressive testing) quite sure there wouldn’t be individual records which would fail during validation or transformation. As we were dealing with quite high transaction volumes here I wanted to produce a message for each branch ~400 with as little overhead as possible = Envelope Splitting. The system was likely to be rolled out in BizTalk 2006 soon after go-live so I also wanted to allow for possible easy employment of BizTalk 2006’s really cool recoverable interchange processing and failed message routing functionality.
But hey I’m using BizTalk 2004 and I’m in an orchestration the answer is folks to either:

1. Convince the powers that be to move to BizTalk 2006 (I tried)

2. Write the HO message to disk and then read it off disk through a default xml receive pipeline or your own custom pipeline specifying the envelope schema in an xml disassembler component (better than the default xml receive pipeline for schema versioning) and there you have it individual branch messages.

3. Same as 2 but instead of writing it to disk (you may not want to do this for security, scalability, async processing reasons) write it to an MSMQT queue and then read it off the queue through the receive pipeline which splits the message.

4. See correspondance with Tom Beerley below on how to achieve this using a loopback adapter, thanks Tom!

Hope this helps simple aye

R. Addis