Siva Ram asks in a comment on a previous post:
“How to Archive/(copy to another location) the Source file as it is , Before the biztalk
picks up the file?”
I think what he’s really asking is how he could archive an exact copy of the original
incoming message (possibly for regulatory compliance, auditing, or simply to provide
easier tracing of problems). This is a common question, and the truth is there are
several ways to approach this in BizTalk server.
Here are some options:
Double Hop: A fairly simple option is to do a double hop when processing
the incoming message. Instead of parsing and processing the message right away, receive
it through a pass-thru pipeline (so the message isn’t changed) and route it using
filters to two FILE send ports. One of them points to your archive location, while
the other points to a temporary folder, from which you pick up the message again using
the FILE adapter to do the real processing.
This is a rather simple way to implement this, but it can be pretty inefficient. It’s
particularly bad if messages are large because it involves several round-trips to
the message box.
Use BizTalk Tracking: For some scenarios, it is enough to just enable
message tracking in your receive location, making sure to select the option to track
the message before it goes through the pipeline. Messages will then be saved
in your DTA database, from which you can query and retrieve them using HAT or WMI.
Use a pipeline component: Using a custom decoding pipeline component
that writes the message out as it is read by the receive pipeline is another good
option. It is a bit more complex to implement, but it can be very efficient if implemented
properly. Jeff Lynch has a simple
Archive component you can use to start, though be aware his version will not work
if you’re dealing with adapters that use non-seekable streams to hold message content.
My own old Tracer
pipeline component might also be a place to start with this.
I hope this gives you an idea of how to start fulfilling your requirement!
