For those of you who do not know, one of the features of BizTalkGurus.com is the aggregate blog feed .  This feed goes back over 8 years and has over 8,000 posts.  Since I started the BizTalk feed, I have expanded the aggregate feeds to include App Fabric and Windows Workflow. About once a year, I review Google to see if I am missing any BizTalk Blogs that should be included in the aggregate feed.  It is that time of year again but this time I would like some help. In doing so, I’ll...

The results are in! Out of a total of 12 blog post comments, the winner of the Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 Patters Book published by Packet Publishing is… Comment #8 - Mitch Vanhelden As a 2nd place winner, I am also giving away a copy of Pro BAM in BizTalk Server 2009.  The winner of this book is .. Comment #10 - Eric Beyer If you did not win this time, watch for a new contest in just a few days.  

It is amazing how time flies!  It seems like just yesterday my book on Applied Architecture Patterns hit the shelves, but that was almost a year and a half ago now. A few months ago, a new BizTalk patterns book written by fellow BizTalk MVP Dan Rosanova has been released.  It is called Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 Patterns published by Packet Publishing.  What separates this book from other BizTalk books is it covers both BizTalk Basics & Patterns and a detailed overview of a...

Congratulations to Brett Tyrrell from Australia via Facebook and Mike Koerner (@michaelskoerner) from USA via Twitter for winning the BizTalk 2010 Line of Business Systems Integration books from Packet Publishing. Watch for more great opportunities from BizTalkGurus.com in the new future.

Like I have done with many of the other new BizTalk books I have two copies of the new BizTalk 2010: Line of Business Systems Integration book by Kent Weare et al. published by Packt to give away. Not to worry, I will cover all shipping costs. To enter: Either LIKE BizTalkGurus on Facebook or FOLLOW BizTalkGurus on Twitter. I will pick one winner from each site to win a free copy of the book. If you already like or follow us you are automatically entered to win! You must enter by end of day August...

I’m back in the action again working on a large BizTalk Healthcare project after some time off. This is the first time I’ve worked with HIPAA transactions like 270, 271, and others and so far I have learned a lot. Like other projects I have worked on in the past, one of the first things I do is create projects and namespaces for the new code we have to build. This is usually something you did not have to put much thought into.  But with transactions like 270 I went to make a namespace like BizTalk...

After starting off strong for the first part of 2011 with a major site upgrade to BizTalkGurus.com, blogging more frequently, and sending out new editions of The BizTalker, I have really dropped the ball for the past 6 months. But let me explain. In the past 6 months my life has changed. We had our first baby on 2-9-11. His name is Westin. While a new baby in itself takes a lot of work Westin is very special. A few weeks after birth we noticed Westin just was not eating enough to put on any weight...

In the recent edition of The BizTalker Newsletter I featured the below article about BizTalk Adapters.  Read the article below or join the newsletter to have it delivered directly to your email.  I welcome any comments. feedback, or thoughts on this subject. BizTalk contains many built-in adapters for communication with external systems.  When those built-in adapters do not meet the needs of your project, some hard decisions need to be made such as whether to buy an adapter, build...

I had the honor of being the Technical Reviewer on the BizTalk 2006 Recipes book.  One of the authors, Mark Beckner, has updated the book for BizTalk 2010.  It is currently available on Amazon.com at 38% off list price. This book covers the following topics: What’s New in BizTalk Server 2010 Schemas Mapping Messaging and Pipelines Orchestrations Adapters Business Rules Framework EDI Solutions Deployment Administration and Operations Business Activity Monitoring I would highly recommend...

Our book, Applied Architecture Patterns on the Microsoft Platform: An In-Depth Scenario-Driven Approach to Architecting Systems using Microsoft Technologies, is now available in India at a significant discount for orders placed and delivered in India!  This type of discount is common with most technology books due to the difference in costs and wages in India vs. US and Europe. Computer Bookshop is offering our book for 400 Rs (20% the normal price of 500 Rs).  The direct link is: http...

In the recent edition of The BizTalker Newsletter I featured the below article.  Read the article below or join the newsletter to have it delivered to your email.  I welcome and comments. feedback, or thoughts on this subject. Server AppFabric contains two core pieces – Hosting and Caching. Today, I’m going to focus on the Caching piece of AppFabric. AppFabric Caching is a new offering from Microsoft as part of the Server AppFabric collection of technologies for the Application Server role...

I just wanted to thank all the entries into the “ What is missing in BizTalk 2010 Contest ”.  It was a hard decision for the other judges and I. Finally, the decision was made.  The winner was Siffnn from the UK.  He received a free hard copy of my book “ Applied Architecture Patterns on the Microsoft Platform ”. His entry was the following: “I Would like to See following features : 1- GUI in admin console to tune BizTalk Message Box Parameters 2- GUI similar to SQL Management studio...

I have another copy of my book “Applied Architecture Patterns on the Microsoft Platform” to give away. The book is a $60 value and I will cover the shipping costs to the winner any place in the world as long as the US Postal Service ships there. Contest #2 – What is missing in BizTalk Server 2010? What feature, concept, UI update, or tooling would make BizTalk a stronger, more robust, simpler, or easier product to work with? As a special bonus, I was able to get the book signed...

It has been over a year since my list issue of The BizTalker.  With all the excitement in the air about BizTalk in the cloud and AppFabric, I figured now is a good time to bring back the newsletter.  I am planning to send out a new issue monthly with the next one in just a few days.  I am reaching out to various 3rd parties to try to get some freebies to give away for future newsletters.  In the next issue you will have a chance to win a copy of my new book plus an exclusive discount...

If you consider yourself a hard core BizTalk Developer, then this session is for you! A few weeks ago I presented a session on Server AppFabric to the BizTalk User Group in Sweden. This session was geared to showing how similar Workflow 4.0 and AppFabric are to BizTalk – conceptually at least. The goal of this session was to show how us BizTalk guys and gals can quickly pick up Workflow 4 and AppFabric because we already understand the concepts. I would highly recommend this 60 minute session...

Packt Publishing has given me a few copies of my book “Applied Architecture Patterns on the Microsoft Platform” to give away on BizTalkGurus.com. Over the next few weeks, I am going to have a few contests. The book is a $60 value and I will cover the shipping costs to the winner anyplace in the world as long as the US Postal Service ships there. Contest #1 – Below are the architectural patterns covered in our book. We started with a much larger list and cut it down to what we thought...

I have posted online all the sample code from my book, “Applied Architecture Patterns on the Microsoft Platform”.  You can download it at http://www.biztalkgurus.com/media/p/30260.aspx .  This code contains various samples using BizTalk, BizTalk ESB Toolkit, Server AppFabric, SharePoint 2010, .Net 4.0 Workflow, SQL, Stream Insight, Azure, SQL Azure, Platform AppFabric Service Bus, Server AppFabric Caching, and more.  Of course, you will get the most benefit of this code using it alongside...

First off I want to thank everyone who entered the contest. A winner was picked at random out of all the entries I received.  In total, it was about 10 entries so your chances were good to win!  But I could only have one winner. The winner is:  H. Edidin from USA. Look for more contests coming on BizTalkGurus.com in the next few weeks.

I have an MSDN Subscription voucher to give away! The voucher is good for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN subscription and will give you access to many Microsoft products for 1 year. This is a great benefit to anyone doing development and I believe it now includes monthly time on Azure and Platform AppFabric. The software is good only for development and testing purposes and this subscription is Not For Resale. I will be having a drawing for the voucher on Sunday, October 10th, 2010...

In early September 2010, I got the honor to present three sessions on AppFabric and Workflow 4.0 to the BizTalk Users Group in Sweden at the European BizTalk Conference . While my sessions were not related to BizTalk, they are designed to show how easy it is for someone with BizTalk skills to learn AppFabric and Workflow 4.  I have posted the session slide decks and sample code (including the code generated from my 100% LIVE demo).  I did three sessions: Server AppFabric and Workflow 4...