by community-syndication | Jul 31, 2012 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Since BizTalk 2009, BizTalk has had unit tests for Schemas, Maps and Pipelines. I have recently been trying to incorporate these unit tests into my BizTalk Demo Project (instructions can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd257907)
The test were working fine on my local development machine, but when I ran them as part of my TFS BizTalk automated build and test, they failed with the following error:
The error said: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not find file ‘Microsoft.BizTalk.TOM.resources’. So I searched the internet for the cause, I found several blog post that said to add a reference to the Microsoft.BizTalk.TOM.dll to my project, but that did not sound correct.
As part of running the wizard that create the test, it created a Local.testsettings, so I had a look at this file, in the host tab I found
This was the 1st clue I had to what was going wrong in the automated build, I then opened my Build Definition, in the Automated Tests settings under 2. Basic, I found that the TestSettings File was not specified, so I added the Local.testsettings file to my build definition.
I then queued another build for my BizTalk Demo Project and the unit testing now worked.
One other issue that I ran into with the BizTalk Unit Testing is that it requires files to be used as part of the testing and there is a difference in where the files are located between the local testing and the testing in the automated builds, so added the following code to my test.
Notice that the difference is on the build server you need to add another level Sources.
More …
by community-syndication | Jul 31, 2012 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
The corporate landscape of today includes a wide variety of heterogeneous business applications.
Each designed to solve a specific and specialised business problem. These applications are often not designed to work together seamlessly. This creates a major challenge when information needs to be extracted or combined for various purposes across the enterprise. The question then arises, “How do organisations extract relevant information and deliver it in the right format, to a destination either inside or outside of the organisation, across functional domains, at the right time?” This business challenge makes Business Integration a high priority.
The number one organisation I recommend to solve this problem is Connexion Technology I am proud to announce a partnership between myself and Connexion Technology, one that will see this organisation move to the forefront of this space, and help countless organisations.
by community-syndication | Jul 30, 2012 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
In my last post I explained how to call an external assembly from Custom XSLT in BizTalk Server 2010 using the Custom Extension XML property of the maps. I also describe that BizTalk Server 2010/Visual Studio 2010 have an issue with this functionality: Visual Studio doesn’t persist the path of Custom Extension XML property in […]
Blog Post by: Sandro Pereira
by community-syndication | Jul 30, 2012 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
The Holiday is over and it is back to work. I opened up my laptop and start working on a story on a remarkable BizTalk pro Howard S. Edidin. He is currently working with me, Tord G. Nordahl and Andres del Rio on BizTalk Administration book due before end of this year. Howard is a very enthusiastic, driven and social person, who I enjoy collaborating with and share ideas on many divers BizTalk topics. So here is another story of a BizTalk community member I like to bring to the foreground.
Howard is married and has two grown sons, and two granddaughters. He resides in Libertyville, IL which is a far Northern Suburb of Chicago.
Howard has no formal education in IT. He majored in Architectural Design and had studied Theatrical Light Design at the Goodman School of Drama. He never completed his degree.
Howard has not always worked in IT. He spent many years doing Marketing and Engineering Sales in the commercial flooring industry. Working with computers was a hobby. Because of this he was also the IT guy for the company. Howard taught myself a little assembly programming, and took a few courses in C++:
“I was a “good” hacker. After a few years I decided it was time for a career change. My first job was the Web Development Manager for an Educational Foundation. Along the way I picked up my first Microsoft certification.”
Howard worked with ASP and VB Distributed for several years until .NET came along. He was introduced to BizTalk around the time when “Soap on a Rope” was first introduced by Microsoft. He didn’t get a chance to use it until BizTalk 2002 came about. Most of his career has been doing contract work. He has been able to utilize almost all of BizTalk’s capabilities, in many industries. Skipping all the ups and downs that happened in-between (which could take up about twenty pages); let’s jump to the present day:
“I am currently a BizTalk Architect specializing in providing guidance and training for companies implementing BizTalk. I recently established my own consulting company, The Edidin Group, Inc, with the hope that I could provide my services directly to companies. I am certified in BizTalk 2010 and Win95. If anyone needs any help with Win95, I’m available.”
What influenced Howard to specialize in BizTalk was that he could apply his Architectural Design training. He liked the ability to design and develop using visual tools. Howard is still amazed how quickly he can design and develop BizTalk Applications and see the results almost immediately. His opinion on BizTalk:
“Over the years I have had the opportunity to utilize BizTalk with almost every supported technology. In my opinion, it is the only product on the Microsoft Stack that relates to how all businesses function. I am a proponent of the use Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) for designing and documenting BizTalk solutions. I published an article on my blog and the TechNet Wiki about its use.”
And about learning to work with BizTalk:
“Over the years I have learned quite a bit about BizTalk. I have also learned to do things by the book. Sometimes, I had to rewrite sections of the book because I discovered a better way to solve a problem!”
Howard has also a view on my blog that focuses on BizTalk and Azure:
“What I like about your blog is originality. There are so many blogs that just repeat what someone else has already published. This sets your blog apart from the others. You provide original content and great tutorials. I have tried to pattern my blog after yours.”
On his own blog he states:
“Several of the articles on my blog can be considered controversial. I started the “BizTalk Bad Practices List”, which was renamed “Anti-Patterns”. I also posted it to the TechNet Wiki, with the hope that the rest of the BizTalk community would share their experiences. We added a section, External Anti-Patterns & Bad Practices, in which a contributor can link back to the source or their blog.What makes this list so valuable is that it is a list of mistakes. Hopefully, someone will benefit from one of these mistakes.”
Being a “Hacker”, Howard spends most of my spare time on the computer. Although he provides formal training sessions to clients, he has learn by doing, not from the classroom. In order to keep up with technology, he downloads samples of source code and “play with it”. Howard discovered a long time ago that BizTalk is not obfuscated. He was able to use Reflector and learned much about how BizTalk works. This has provided him with a lot of information, especially about the WCF LOB SQL Adapter. Using the source as a guideline, he has been able to start working on a Sybase Adapter. Once it is ready, he plans on sharing posting it on CodePlex.
Lately, Howard spends most of my spare time writing. He has published several articles to the TechNet Wiki and BizTalkAdminsBlogging.com, and my own blog, BizTalkIn. Finally he is also co-authoring a series of BizTalk books and is a Technical Reviewer for a SOA book.
Howard has never been the athletic type. Years ago he practiced Aikido. Nowadays he settles for walking. Being originally from north side of Chicago, he is a Cubs fan.
Howard is a very busy and passionate BizTalk professional and I would like to thank him for his time and contributions to the community.
by community-syndication | Jul 29, 2012 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
This post is just to clarify the authentication settings required for being able to receive messages from Microsoft Dynamics AX (2009) into BizTalk using the older-style Microsoft Dynamics Adapter. The latest version of AX uses a more generic WCF based approach, so your mileage may vary. Firstly, there are two sets of of credentials to […]
Blog Post by: Brett
by community-syndication | Jul 29, 2012 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
This topic is not new in my blog, I’ve already talked about this in the past: Calling an external assembly from Custom XSLT – Custom Extension XML (Grid Property) however, I decided to revisit this functionality within BizTalk Server 2010 and you will know why soon. So is usual in complex maps to have scripting […]
Blog Post by: Sandro Pereira
by community-syndication | Jul 26, 2012 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
For those who have never heard about SignalR, it is an async.net library for building real-time web applications. This sounds so interesting that it can actually open another dimension for applications requiring realtime updates via BizTalk. SignalRhelps pushing data from the server to the client (not just browser clients). SignalR makes it dead easy and […]
Blog Post by: DipeshA
by community-syndication | Jul 25, 2012 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
We are pleased to announce to our customers and partners
that we will once again be participating in the Technology Adoption Program
(TAP) for the next version of BizTalk Server. Microsoft has yet to announce a
final name for the product, it is presently being referred to as BizTalk Server
2010 R2 or simply v-next, however they have indicated that the release date
will be about six months after the release of Windows 8 Server. I recently
posted another blog that talks about the future of BizTalk, check it out.
The TAP program assists Microsoft in soliciting feedback
from customers and partners regarding yet to be released products. As
participants in the TAP program we will be under strict non-disclosure
requirements so we won’t be able to say too much about the product until
Microsoft does, but rest assured that we will providing all the feedback that
we can to get all the cool features into the product that we have been looking
for.
QuickLearn has previously participated in the TAP program
for other versions of BizTalk and for Windows Azure. We will be prepared to
offer training on whatever new features are coming down the line as soon as the
product is fully baked!
