by community-syndication | Dec 5, 2006 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
This post disappeared from a previous blog of mine so I'm reposting it.
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Earlier this year Microsoft released the Enterprise Library v1.0. The Enterprise Library consists of several Application Blocks that can be used to provide software infrastructure for enterprise application development. According to the Enterprise Library documentation, the “Application blocks are reusable software components designed to assist developers with common enterprise development challenges.” One of these Application Blocks, the Logging and Instrumentation Application Block, is the part of the focus of this article.
The purpose of this article is to explain how to set up the Logging and Instrumentation Application Block for BizTalk Server 2004 and BizTalk Server 2004 applications and to examine a simple sample application show its usage in a BizTalk Server 2004 application. Detailed discussion on when and how to log are not covered in this article.
Why Logging is Important in BizTalk Server 2004 Applications
Although BizTalk Server 2004 supports tracking and the viewing of tracking data in HAT there are very good reasons for using ‘traditional’ logging and methods in BizTalk Server 2004 applications:
· BizTalk Server 2004 tracking has a performance degradation cost associated with it; in some cases the performance degradation cost can be substantial.
· You can gain explicit control as to when logging messages are sent using logging filters.
· You can gain explicit control as to how the logging messages are sent (Event Log, database, file, email, etc.)
· You can categorize logging messages (debug, exception, trace, etc.)
· You gain control of the format of the logging messages.
· You can create your own events/notifications that could be subscribed to with other software components.
· If you do not have access to HAT in your production environment you can still get valuable data ‘sent’ to your development team.
by community-syndication | Dec 5, 2006 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Charles
Young has written an excellent long article on the BizTalk Server transaction
and compensantion
model in orchestrations, discussing how long running transaction works and how
the compensation mechanism works on them an atomic transactions. Good stuff; highly
recommended.
Technorati
tags:
BizTalk
Server,
BTS
by community-syndication | Dec 5, 2006 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
We just uploaded to our corporate
site a small sample we created for the Windows Vista Launch in Colombia, showing
some features in Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation and
BizTalk Server 2006.
The
sample showcases a simple business scenario that uses features like WCF self-hosted
services, multiple bindings (HTTP and TCP) and callback contracts. The service is
consumed by a simple WinForms client, as well as a simple State-Machine Workflow that
uses the HandleExternalEvent activity to receive events fired by the WCF service,
as well as my own custom MSMQ
activities to fire messages off to BizTalk for further processing. (Notice we
focused on the core features and keeping the code simple to showcase them, so the
sample lacks quite a bit of error handling).
Technorati
tags:
WCF,
WF,
BizTalk,
Vista
by community-syndication | Dec 5, 2006 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
The week before last, I spent some time updating an existing document on BizTalk exception handling for a client. I added a couple of pages on the use of compensation. I hoped to be able to reference a comprehensive article or paper on the subject, but after spending some time searching, I largely drew blanks. As always, the Microsoft documentation proved fragmented, terse and incomplete, although it has certainly improved since BizTalk 2004 days. The small (but growing) number of BizTalk books did little better. A few blog articles describe the compensation model to some degree. There are a handful of academic papers which discuss the model, which is essentially the same model defined by BPEL4WS. However, these papers are not aimed at BizTalk developers, and are not BizTalk Server-specific.
To address this, I spent some time putting together an article which, I hope, will serve to introduce the subject of compensation in a reasonably comprehensive fashion. You can read it here.
http://geekswithblogs.net/cyoung/articles/100424.aspx
Previously posted at http://blog.solidsoft.com/blogs/charles_young_mvp_biztalk/default.aspx
by community-syndication | Dec 5, 2006 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Brice Dunwoodie has written a nice article on CMS Wire about the latest release of the SmartPart (aka the Return of the SmartPart).
Easy Web User Controls for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
SmartPart v3, also known as the “SmartPart for SharePoint 2007” has been released. This is a container WebPart that can host any ASP.NET 2.0 Web User Control (ASCX). If you ever needed an excuse to get started with MOSS development, this is certainly it.
The SmartPart module is an open source WebPart for SharePoint that can host any ASP.NET Web User Control. For single file controls, control deployment is very simple. For more complex controls utilizing code-behind files and assemblies, additional configuration is required.
For those familiar with WebPart development, you know there are some challenges involved. For starters, there is a fair bit of code required and there is no design-time support for WebParts in Visual Studio. These are both substantial issues.
SmartPart addresses both of these issues by allowing developers to code simple (or complex) Web User Controls (.ascx files) utilizing the full set of visual development tools in VS and then deploy the result to a SharePoint (MOSS) 2007 site. (read full article)
by community-syndication | Dec 5, 2006 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
So I currently am doing a tour of user groups in Ireland talking about WF. Could
not be a better combo – one of my favor countries in the world – plus one of my favorite
technologies! Yipee!!!!
Anyway if you are in Ireland and reading this – here are the dates:
Galway; Thur, Dec 7th, 7:30pm – Harbour Hotel
Cork; Mon, Dec 11th, 7pm – Imperial Hotel
Limerick; Tue, Dec 12th, 7pm – Pegasus Suite, Clarion Hotel, Steamboat Quay, Limerick
Dublin; Wed, Dec 13th, 7pm – Morrison Hotel
Belfast; Thurs, Dec 14th, 7:30pm – Queen’s University:
Please come. And yes blogging will continue on technical topics soon – I felt
sympathy for Kimberly Tripp (http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/kimberly/2006/12/01/WayWayWayOverdue.aspx).
I have been to Hong Kong, Norway, Turkey, and now Ireland just since the end of September!
Love those miles – but now have lost my luggage for the second time.
by community-syndication | Dec 5, 2006 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
MS has published a code sample for Integrating BizTalk Server 2006 with Windows Workflow Foundation at the link http://msdn.microsoft.com/biztalk/
Luke has posted little more information on this sample here: http://blogs.msdn.com/luke/archive/2006/12/01/windows-workflow-windows-communication-foundation-and-biztalk-server-2006.aspx
by community-syndication | Dec 4, 2006 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
If you’ve worked with BAM and the BAM Portal in BizTalk 2006 you’ve noticed that the PivotTables in the My Views – Aggegations section shows up with ugly names like PivotTable13, PivotTable14, etc. This is fine when you are doing POCs with a small number of Views/PivotTables but it can quickly become confusing – and more importantly these names aren’t appropriate when you’re deploying a real BAM solution to end users.
If you want to change these names before you deploy your BAM Definition you need to:
- Export the BAM Definition to XML using the BAM menu in Excel.
- Open the exported BAM Definition
- Update each /BAMDefinition/Extension/OWC/PivotTableView/PivotTable/PivotView/Label/Caption element’s text to use a more appropriate name; note that this applies to both Real-Time aggregations and scheduled aggregations.
Now when deploying the BAM Definition, use the .xml version of it and then you will see your version of the PivotTable names in the My Views section of the BAM Portal.
by community-syndication | Dec 4, 2006 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Still here. Stuff: Sonic the Hedgehog for the XBOX 360 isn’t so good . Make sure you play the demo and by all means rent it if you think you must own it. RIP Sonic. Season 2 of Pinky and the Brain is out in time for the holidays . What are we doing tonight…(read more)
by community-syndication | Dec 4, 2006 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Based on some request from customers we decided to make available a version of the SalesForce.com adapter for BizTalk Server 2004. The trial edition is currently available at AdapterWorx. Also we will be announcing our first Adapter built on the new R2 Adapter Framework very soon. If you have access to the R2 bits (TAP Program, BizTalk MVPs, Microsoft employees, etc) and you are interested in testing this new adapter please drop me a line at [email protected]
