BizTalk Performance session at Tech·Ed Europe 2010

by | Aug 28, 2010 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

I just got the news my BizTalk Performance Optimization session was approved for Tech%u00b7Ed:

Topic Information

Primary Track
Application Server & Infrastructure

Session Type
Lunchtime Session

Session Title
BizTalk Server Performance: Configuring BizTalk Server for performance

Description
Optimizing and verifying your BizTalk Server installation is not an easy thing to do. The documentation is good but very extensive. This presentation aims to guide you through the most important operations you need to do in order to boost the performance of BizTalk. The session includes a live demo where these settings are applied and how it significantly improves the performance.

Major Products or Technologies Covered
Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

 

Hope to see you there. Let me know you’re coming.

Converting a C# workflow into XAML

by | Aug 28, 2010 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

A interesting question that came up last week was how to convert workflows defined in C# to XAML.

A co worker of one of the attendees of the Essential Windows Workflow Foundation 4 course had been experiencing a lot of problems with the workflow designer and decided to create their workflows in C# instead of using the designer to generate XAML. While these workflows run just fine you do lose the visual aspect of the designer, one of the benefits of workflow in the first place.

Fortunately it isn’t hard to save workflow objects, however they have been authored, into their XAML representation using the XamlServices.

Take the following workflow defined in C#.

var workflow = new Sequence();
workflow.Activities.Add(new WriteLine() { Text = "Hello workflow." });
workflow.Activities.Add(new Persist());
workflow.Activities.Add(new If()
{
    Condition = new VisualBasicValue<bool>("System.DateTime.Now.Hour < 12"),
    Then = new WriteLine() { Text = "Good morning" },
    Else = new WriteLine() { Text = "Good afternoon" }
});
workflow.Activities.Add(new WriteLine()
{
    Text = new VisualBasicValue<string>("\"The current time is: \" & System.DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString()")
});

This will run just fine as is but if I want to convert this into XAML all I need is a single line of code:

XamlServices.Save(@"..\..\demo.xaml", workflow);

And when it runs I get a nice XAML file with the graphical representation of the original C# workflow.

And now I can continue enhancing the XAML version and run that instead.

 

Enjoy!

www.TheProblemSolver.nl

Wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu

A New Blog is Born: Windows Server AppFabric Customer Advisory Team

by | Aug 27, 2010 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

Microsoft’s Windows Server AppFabric Customer Advisory Team ( CAT) has launched a new blog focused on AppFabric (both Windows Server AppFabric and Azure AppFabric), WCF, WF, BizTalk, data modeling and StreamInsight. You can find the blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/appfabriccat/.

If you read my blog, then these are technologies that will be of interest to you, and this promises to be a good source of information.

Thanks to the CAT team for putting this together!

Managing your BizTalk Environment using SCOM

by | Aug 27, 2010 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

I recently had the opportunity to speak at the Swedish BizTalk user group in Stockholm. It was an excellent opportunity to present to one of the top BizTalk user groups worldwide. My presentation consisted of slide ware, a tour of the SCOM 2007 R2 console and several BizTalk/SCOM demos using BizTalk 2010 beta and the BizTalk 2010 Management Pack beta. You may find the presentation below.

TechEd 2010: Mastering Microsoft Integration Solutions

by | Aug 26, 2010 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

Well as TechEd 2010 draws to a close this year in Australia, I had a great time getting
away from it all and certainly experiencing a couple of firsts. For me this was one
of the better TechEd’s I had been to – the sessions were a little light on, but the
labs + exams made up for that big time.

So Scotty and
I developed an Integration Pre Conference Training Session aimed
at working out which MS Integration technology to run where – unscrambling the mess.
We got a great turn out for the training in terms of numbers – we beat SharePoint
2010 dev + admin!!! 🙂

For all of you whom I had the pleasure of training this week – well done! I hope you
enjoyed it and it was great sharing that time with you. The sun, sand, BizTalk and
Azurewhat could be better?? 🙂

As promised – here are the slides from those two days.

SLIDE
DECK

Keep smiling,

Mick.

Do you know the Microsoft Customer Advisory Teams? You should.

Do you know the Microsoft Customer Advisory Teams? You should.

by | Aug 26, 2010 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

For those who live and work with Microsoft application platform technologies, the Microsoft Customer Advisory Teams (CAT) are a great source of real-world info about products and technology. These are the small, expert-level teams whose sole job is to make sure customers are successful with Microsoft technology. Last month I had the pleasure of presenting […]