by community-syndication | Jul 14, 2005 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Have you ever wanted to speak to Microsoft developers of a specific feature of BizTalk Server? I am sure your answer was “Yes let me at them”, so the Business Process Integration Division is extending an invitation to all customers to join our key feature developers, program managers, and testers in the following newsgroups:
- microsoft.public.biztalk.accelerator.forsuppliers
- microsoft.public.biztalk.newuser
- microsoft.public.biztalk.accelerator.rosettanet
- microsoft.public.biztalk.admin
- microsoft.public.biztalk.appintegration
- microsoft.public.biztalk.framework
- microsoft.public.biztalk.general
- microsoft.public.biztalk.library
- microsoft.public.biztalk.nonxml
- microsoft.public.biztalk.orchestration
- microsoft.public.biztalk.sdk
- microsoft.public.biztalk.server
- microsoft.public.biztalk.setup
- microsoft.public.biztalk.tools
- microsoft.public.biztalk.xlangs
- microsoft.public.biztalk.xsharp
We’ve been working very hard over the past year to connect with folks just like you and want to include you in our community of Most Valuable Professionals (MVP), developers, information technology professionals, chief information officers, chief executive officers, or any other role within large, medium, and small companies that hang out in our online newsgroup communities. We want to have you join in this vibrant online community to ask those questions you always wanted to ask but did not know where to go. Well, now you know where to go, we want you to come on in and join us!
If you are new to BizTalk Server, try out the NewUser newsgroup, Microsoft.public.biztalk.newuser.
We’re offering two levels of interaction with Microsoft Corporation employees as follows:
- Managed Newsgroup Support
- Unmanaged Newsgroup Support
Managed Newsgroup Support
MSDN managed newsgroups are available in English to MSDN Universal, Enterprise, Professional and Operating Systems subscribers to receive free technical support on select Microsoft technologies as well as to share ideas with other subscribers. MSDN managed newsgroups provide:
- Unlimited on-line technical support – keep your PSS incidents
- A commitment to respond to your post within two business days
- Over 200 newsgroups to choose from
- Spam protection for your e-mail address when posting items
Go to the following URL to sign up: http://msdn.microsoft.com/newsgroups/managed . These newsgroups are monitored by Microsoft support engineers and product group team member as described above.
Unmanaged Newsgroup Support
MSDN unmanaged newsgroups are available to all individuals.
Go to the following URL to participate: http://msdn.microsoft.com/newsgroups. These newsgroups are monitored by Microsoft product group members, other customers like you, most valuable professionals, and various other individuals.
Questions, suggestions, and direct feedback can be sent to me.
James Fort
BPI Community Lead
mailto:[email protected]
by stephen-w-thomas | Jul 14, 2005 | Downloads
This 9:49 minute video covers the three different output options from the biztalk flat file Disassembler provided in Biztalk. The three options are single detail records without headers or trailers, all detail records together without header and trailers, or all details together with the header and trailer.
This video was made for BizTalk 2004 but should still be relevant for other versions of BizTalk.
by stephen-w-thomas | Jul 13, 2005 | Stephen's BizTalk and Integration Blog
I have put together a short 10 minute biztalk training video covering some of the different output options available using the Flat File Disassembler in Biztalk Server 2004.
This video covers three different output options from the flat file disassembler. The three options covered are single detail records without a header or trailer, all detail records together without a header or trailer, or all details together with the header and trailer.
This video walks through the Flat File Disassembler Sample from a past post. It might be helpful to have the sample downloaded before watching the video.
I have the video available for live play via shock wave or downloadable via Windows Media Player.
Watch the video: Flat File Disassembler Output Options Video
Comments and feedback are strongly recommended.
by stephen-w-thomas | Jul 13, 2005 | Downloads
This lab walks through two different types of message debatching in Biztalk. It shows how envelopes can be used with the Xml Disassembler to break up larger Xml messages into single messages. It also covers xpath in a loop inside an Orchestration.
Get more information from the original blog post on this topic: http://www.biztalkgurus.com/biztalk_server/biztalk_blogs/b/biztalk/archive/2005/07/12/xpath-debatching-and-envelope-debatching-biztalk-lab.aspx
by stephen-w-thomas | Jul 12, 2005 | Stephen's BizTalk and Integration Blog
Envelopes can be used with the Xml Disassembler in Biztalk 2004 to break up larger Xml messages into single messages. Another approach to message debatching is to use xpath in a loop inside an Orchestration. Both these approaches are covered in this Message Debatching Options Lab for Biztalk 2004.
This lab will take around 40 minutes to complete and is based on Microsoft’s hands-on-labs.
Download: Message Debatching Options Hands-on Lab
Setup is simple. Unzip the download to your c:\ drive. Make sure the root folder named “Microsoft Hands-On-Labs” is located at c:\. The lab manual is located under \ILL009_Debatching. The exercises are located in the \Source\Exercises folder. The full sample solution is located in the \Source\Solution folder.
This lab is recommended for beginner and above biztalk users looking to learn more about message debatching in biztalk.
by stephen-w-thomas | Jul 7, 2005 | Stephen's BizTalk and Integration Blog
Jon Flanders has posted an excellent template wizard for implementing enterprise integration patters in BizTalk Server. Once installed, it will put a folder called Pattern Templates under your BizTalk Projects folder in Visual Studios.
This wizard will walk you through the creation of the patterns step-by-step. It creates correlations sets, messages, and orchestrations for you.
It covers Asynchronous Aggregation, First-In First-Out (three different types), Interrupter, and Retry.
Get more information and download the wizard from Jon’s blog.
by community-syndication | Jul 7, 2005 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Abstract: I’ve been dealing with context properties, and I’ve discovered a couple of very useful tricks for promoting and routing.
some definitions:
As you’ll probably know, there are two types of properties in the context of a message: properties based on field values (MessageDataPropertyBase) and properties not based on fields (MessageContextPropertyBased). I’ll call the first ones Message Properties and the other ones Context Properties.
Message Properties based on message fields are automatically written and promoted into message context by BizTalk.
Context Properties not based on message fields can be assigned inside an orchestration using the expression Message(Property) = “value”;
One of the most interesting stuff about Context Properties is that are not tied to a concrete schema, so they can be used regardless the message type. A sample of a system context property is FILE.ReceivedFilename.
the problem of promoting context properties:
When you create a context property, not based on a message field, and you assign a value inside an orchestration, it is written, but not promoted. What does it means? it means that you cannot route the message based on this property.
Some days ago I had the situation where needed exactly this: content based routing based on a custom context property that had a value calculated inside an orchestration.
A common solution is to create a custom pipeline component that writes and promotes properties. Jon Flanders has created a good generic component to do this: the ContextAdder Pipeline Component.
the trick:
In my case, the pipeline solution is not an option, since I’m routing between orchestrations via Direct Port Binding. Also, coding a custom component to promote a property seems to complex for me
Somebody told me a good trick to promote context properties inside an orchestration, easy and direct:
Create a CorrelationSet based on the property.
Even if you are not going to use it, when you initialize a CorrelationSet, the Orchestration engine makes the promotion of the properties involved, since correlation is just an special kind of routing.
So now I have some dummy CorrelationSets, that I call <Property>Promote_CorrelationSet
nice and easy! 🙂
by community-syndication | Jun 30, 2005 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
I took the BizTalk 2004 exam today and passed. I thought it was pretty hard, but the questions were fair, and a good test of your hands-on experience and understanding of the product. It would be hard to just cram for the exam from documents, if you don’t know the product, you won’t do too well. It has a reputation for not being an easy exam, so that’s more credit to anyone who passes.
Some resources I found helpful:
BizTalk Server 2004 Unleashed
Good info in the more detailed sections, and helpful for the admin, and management stuff.
BizTalk Documentation
Read the more advanced stuff (and make sure you have the latest update!)
SDK Samples
Run through these, deploy them, and get an understanding of how the code works.
Deep Dive Course
If you have a chance to get on the course, go for it, it’s a great help for the exam. If you have taken the course and understand the content you have a good chance, re-read the slides on the stuff you are unsure of.
Whitepapers
There’s a good section of whitepapers appearing on MSDN, they are worth checking out.
by community-syndication | Jun 29, 2005 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
I recently came across a little un-documented feature of BizTalk with a promoted property… from a referenced schema
by community-syndication | Jun 28, 2005 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Last week I installed the BizTalk 2006 CTP bits obtained from Tech-Ed a couple of times on a VPC. I learned a couple of things during the install that others have also blogged on, but that are good things to keep in mind: 1. Follow Microsoft’s installation instructions to the letter. There are quite a few components that must be installed and in order. You can find the instructions here on Microsoft’s site. 2. BizTalk 2006 CTP runs on SQL 2000 sp3a, while the BizTalk 2006 Beta bits should run on SQL 2005. When you install Visual Studio 2005 Beta II, you must deselect the install for SQL 2005 Express. Scott Woodgate has more information on his blog about why the CTP bits run on SQL 2000. 3. When the BizTalk Configuration Wizard executed, I ran into the following screen with a warning about the BAM Portal when I chose the default configuration option. I was able to clear the error by going back and choosing a custom install. BizTalk Configuration Wizard – BAM Portal Error 4. For some reason the Notification services for the BAM alerts registers an error entry in the event viewer when I restart the VPC. I’m able to restart the service after the image has booted, but I’d like to see if I can stop the error from happening. I’d like to hear if others have also experienced this issue. If you have any comments or advice, feel free post. Thanks. -Brennan…
