FizzBuzz for BizTalk

by | Mar 6, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

So unless you don’t read any of the “big” .NET bloggers (like Scott

Hanselman’s Blog or Podcast, Phil

Haack, Jeff Attwood,

etc) then you’re likely familiar with the “FizzBuzz” problem described in those various

posts. In case you missed it, the idea of FizzBuzz is a super simple coding

exercise which can be completed during the course of an interview to prove that the

candidate can at least write a program. FizzBuzz in particular is an example

of that as follows:

Write a program that prints the numbers 1 to 100. But for multiples of three

print “Fizz” instead of the number and for multiples of five print “Buzz”. For

numbers which are multiples of both three and five print “FizzBuzz”.

It’s simple, elegant, and proves that the candidate can at least write simple code.

As many people have pointed out, it will not highlight great developers, but it will

knock out bad ones.

My question to the assembled audience here is, what is a good FizzBuzz problem for

BizTalk? Obviously asking you to write a custom Adapter or Pipeline component

is just right out. They are to complex to be accomplished during the time of

an interview. But what is a fair example of this type of problem for BizTalk?

How about sometime like this:

Write, deploy and start a BizTalk solution which will accept an XML file containing

a root node named “Root” and a potentially unlimited number of child nodes of the

root called “Data” from the path “C:\Test\In” and will output the same structure with

to “C:\Test\Out” with the value of every “Data” node multiplied times 100.

Sample Input:

<Root>

<Data>1</Data><Data>2</Data>

<Data>1</Data><Data>2</Data>

</Root>

Sample Output:

<Root>

<Data>100</Data><Data>200</Data>

<Data>100</Data><Data>200</Data>

</Root>

The problem here is there isn’t such a thing as the “5 minute” BizTalk Solution.

I think I could do this solution in 5 minutes, but I wrote the thing. What do

you think? Is this unreasonable to expect during an interview? Again, the point

is not to prove you know BizTalk Server inside out and backwards, it’s to prove that

you don’t know it at all through failure. Thoughts?

Custom pipeline component debugging

by | Mar 6, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

Here goes a nice tip about custom pipelines debugging.


 


We have to ways to do this:


 



  • The hard way:


    • Open your custom pipeline code on Visual Studio and place the breakpoint in the desired line.

    • Click on the menu Debug >> Attach to process.

    • Select the process BTSNTSvc.exe and click on the Attach button.

    • Drop a message in a configured port and wait until the code hit the breakpoint.

  • The other way:


    • Open your custom pipeline code on Visual Studio and place the breakpoint in the desired line.

    • Go to the custom pipeline project properties page and click on the Debug tab.

    • On the “Start Action” property, select Start external program and then type “Driveletter$\Program Files\Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006\SDK\Utilities\PipelineTools\Pipeline.exe”

    • On the command line arguments property type “customPipeline.btp -d messageInstance.xml -c”


      • customPipeline.btp = path to the pipeline that use your custom component

      • messageInstance.xml = File that contains the message instance

    • Now, just press F5 and wait until the code hit the breakpoint

 


 


Nice huh?

CAB WPF XBAP implementation available (again)

by | Mar 6, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

In the time to come, I’ll be uploading packages available from my previous blog in the past because they got lost during my ISP transfer. First off, here’s the CompositeUI Application Block XBAP WPF implementation, as I blogged about here.


Please note the passwords for both protected signing keys are empty within the solution.


This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Gartner down on Google Apps?

by | Mar 6, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

Via jevdemonon how CommBank gives Google Appsathumbs down. This is Gartner’s take:
However, Gartner warned IT managers that Google Apps was “not ready” for enterprise-wide deployments just yet — it lacked key features such as offline availability of stored information. Also, the search giant’s privacy policies, long-term road map and ability to comply with external messaging-related regulations had to be scrutinised.
Lacking offline capabilities is the biggie imo.

A note from Mr. Mom

by | Mar 6, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

My little girl (#5) was bornabout ten days agoand my life has changed significantly since then. When I tell people I already have four children, they say “oh, nothing to worry about thenyou’re a seasoned pro!” I think I even started to convince myself of that as well. You’d think I’ve learned my lesson by now, but every time I find myself getting a little cocky or overconfident like that, life has a way of smacking me down to reality, humbling me, and helping me appreciate things that I’ve been taking for granted, like my good wife.
I’ve always tried to take plenty of time off work after each birth to help out as much as possible. It’s funny, in my head I’ve always had visions of these picture-perfect baby moments where I’m holding the baby, everyone’s smiling, soft music is playing in the background, and the rest of my kids are gathered around, quietly watching, enjoying the moment. And then I can simply break-away now and then to work on some fun technical problems while the baby is quietly sleeping. We all have visions of utopia now and then but things rarely happen that way, if ever.
This time has been especially challenging since my other four children attend year-round school, something we wish we could change but can’t for the time being. And they all went “off-track” the day after little Emma was born. Off-track means they’re at home 24/7 for about 3 weeks. And since it’s winter here in Utah, with a foot of snow on the lawn, it also means they’re stuck indoors in our 2600 sq ft piece of heaven on earth. It’s hard to think of the right word to describe the situation but “chaos” comes closest. For example, my 5 year old doing a front flip off the top bunk causes an interestingripple-effect that cannot be undone.
The other challenging aspect of our newborn is that she and her older sister are closer together than any of the previous children. With the others, we took care to space them out by ~3 years to let everyone adjust a little before moving forward. Gisela (our next youngest) and Emma are only about 18 months apart, which means they’ll be pals growing up, but it also greatly complicates the initial stages. It basically means we have two in diapers, two who need special attention, and help with just about every aspect of their lives. Over the past week, we’ve consistently found ourselves outnumbered and overwhelmed, where too many things are unfolding at a single point in time for us to effectively cover them all. It’s quite humbling.
So here I’ve been in the middle of this situation, trying to beMr. Mom,picking up the slack and doing my wife’s typical duties so she can get extra sleep and attend to the baby. And I can’t help but feel unqualified, unprepared, and lacking the necessary levels of patience, understanding and love. I’m pretty sure my older children have looked at me a few times wondering where this strange persona came from. At times I badly want to escape to my office (e.g. hide in my cave) and find peace in my technical domain. But then I realize that isa luxury my wife simply can’t afford during such moments – the challenges don’t resolve themselves.
One of the main lessons I’ve learned over the past week is that children need structure, attention, and stimulation. XBox provides some entertainment value but children really need projects that educate and engage their interests. They need good books to read. They need incentives and feedback. Most importantly, they need communication and attention. And making it happen require a great deal of work and energy.
So this post is my small tribute to women and mothers everywhere, but especially to my own — my wife is amazing and so was my mother — the work they do day-in and day-out is harder than anything I do, hands down. I’ve known many amazing women in my life who have raised large families, much larger than ours, and I have great respect and admiration for all of them, and that respect grows as my family does.
Although it’s been a tough ten days, I wouldn’t change a thing. There is a happiness that deeply embeds itself within me for each of my children, which continually grows as they do.