I’ve taken the time to reflect over the blogs I follow, and though about the impact it made to my work over the last year. I’ve also credited post for being just interesting or cool, and perhaps useful in the future.
I’ve done this post as a tribute to those who took there valuable time to share their thoughts and experience with the rest of us.
How to exploit the Text In Row table option to boost BizTalk Server Performance
by Paolo Salvatori
As I’ve spent much of the last year focusing BizTalk performance, I found these settings to make a huge difference. Applying the “text in row” table option on all tables storing the actual message, improved not only the message throughput but also greatly reduced the CPU utilization.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/paolos/archive/2010/03/16/how-to-exploit-the-text-in-row-table-option-to-boost-biztalk-server-performance.aspx
Creating a bootable VHD the easy way
Creating a bootable virtual hard drive is not as easy as it’s made to believe! I struggled quite a bit, and as I was complaining about it in the office one day, Hugo said: “I’ve written a blog post about it”. These posts are great, and it really is the EASY way!
http://www.hugohaggmark.com/2010/09/23/creating-a-bootable-vhd-the-easy-way/
http://www.hugohaggmark.com/2010/11/15/creating-a-bootable-vhd-the-easy-waycontinued/
How To Boost Message Transformations Using the XslCompiledTransform – Series
by Paolo Salvatori
Paolo Salvatori’s blog should be on every BizTalkers feed subscription. I’m amazed by the details and the effort of his research. In this post he shows how to use the XslCompiledTransform class instead of using the traditional XlsTransform which is used by the Transformation shape in orchestrations. I found there to be an issue of memory consumption that needs to be sorted out. Never the less, it’s a very interesting concept, and a great series of posts.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/paolos/archive/2010/01/29/how-to-boost-message-transformations-using-the-xslcompiledtransform-class.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/paolos/archive/2010/04/08/how-to-boost-message-transformations-using-the-xslcompiledtransform-class-extended.aspx
WCF-SQL Adapter Table Operations
As I was working with the WCF-SQL adapter a couple of months ago, I was really happy to find Steef-Jans post on the subject. The post shows how to use all the table operations using the “new” sql adapter. Thanks Steef-Jan, and again -Congrats on the MVP award.
http://soa-thoughts.blogspot.com/2010/08/wcf-sql-adapter-table-operations.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FLrBC+%28SOA+Thoughts%2C+EAI+Challenges%29
Four Questions – Series
by Richard Seroter
Every time my feed reader notifies me of a new “Four Question” post, I instantly have to read it. It’s always interesting to hear what other people within the community and Microsoft are up to, and Richards questions are always relevant to what is currently happening in the field. And of course it always ends up with the last question, where Richards humor and sarcasm comes to good use.
I was especially intrigued by the last post where he interviews on of the true heroes of the BizTalk community – Ben Cline.
http://en.wordpress.com/tag/four-questions/
Mapping in BizTalk 2010: My favorite new features – Series
Randal, also a newly decorated MVP was kind enough to share the features of the new mapper that shipped with BizTalk 2010. If you’re a BizTalk dev, I really recommend you to read these posts as you’re likely to find out some features you didn’t already know about.
http://biztalkmessages.vansplunteren.net/2010/05/07/mapping-in-biztalk-2010-my-favorite-new-features-overview/
http://biztalkmessages.vansplunteren.net/2010/05/07/mapping-in-biztalk-2010-my-favorite-new-features-part-2-functoid-intellisense/
http://biztalkmessages.vansplunteren.net/2010/05/07/mapping-in-biztalk-2010-my-favorite-new-features-part-1-intelligent-linking/
http://biztalkmessages.vansplunteren.net/2010/05/07/mapping-in-biztalk-2010-my-favorite-new-features-part-3-relevance-view/
http://biztalkmessages.vansplunteren.net/2010/05/07/mapping-in-biztalk-2010-my-favorite-new-features-part-4-suggestive-matching/
http://biztalkmessages.vansplunteren.net/2010/05/07/mapping-in-biztalk-2010-my-favorite-new-features-part-4-suggestive-matching/
http://biztalkmessages.vansplunteren.net/2010/05/07/mapping-in-biztalk-2010-my-favorite-new-features-part-5-optimized-display-of-links/
http://biztalkmessages.vansplunteren.net/2010/05/07/mapping-in-biztalk-2010-my-favorite-new-features-part-6-highlighting-selected-objects/
http://biztalkmessages.vansplunteren.net/2010/05/07/mapping-in-biztalk-2010-my-favorite-new-features-part-7-bringing-selected-objects-in-view/
http://biztalkmessages.vansplunteren.net/2010/05/07/mapping-in-biztalk-2010-my-favorite-new-features-part-8-%E2%80%93-search%C2%A0support/
BizTalk 2010: Musing of the ’new’ SharePoint 2010 WS Adapter
by Mick Badran
As I was putting together a SharePoint / BizTalk lab using the new SharePoint adapter, I was happy to have found this great great post. Saved my lots of time, -Thanks Mick!
http://blogs.breezetraining.com.au/mickb/2010/10/12/BizTalk2010MusingOfTheNewSharePoint2010WSAdapter.aspx
ShareTalk Integration (SharePoint/BizTalk) series
by Kent Ware
Yet another series of really good posts if you plan to integrate with SharePoint. Despite being a compulsive gambler from Canada, Kent is a great guy who shares a lot of BizTalk experience through his blog. Rumors has it he is also writing on a bookAnd besides his interest in BizTalk he also shares his thoughts on Windows Phone 7 through his new WP7 blog.
http://kentweare.blogspot.com/2009/10/sharetalk-integration-sharepointbiztalk.html
http://kentweare.blogspot.com/2009/10/sharetalk-integration-sharepointbiztalk_11.html
http://kentweare.blogspot.com/2010/05/sharetalk-integration-wss-adapter-web.html
http://kentweare.blogspot.com/2009/10/sharetalk-integration-sharepointbiztalk_4024.html
http://kentweare.blogspot.com/2009/10/sharetalk-integration-sharepointbiztalk_27.html
http://kentweare.blogspot.com/2010/01/sharetalk-integration-sharepointbiztalk.html
http://kentweare.blogspot.com/2010/01/sharetalk-integration-sharepointbiztalk_16.html
http://kentweare.blogspot.com/2010/05/sharetalk-integration-wss-adapter-web.html
BizTalk Adapter Pack 2.0/SAP Adapter series
by Kent Ware
I’m not currently working with SAP even though know I’ll probably be in the future. By then I’m sure I’ll thank Kent again for taking the time to write these posts.
http://kentweare.blogspot.com/2010/01/biztalk-adapter-pack-20-sap-adapter.html
http://kentweare.blogspot.com/2010/03/biztalk-adapter-pack-20-sap-adapter.html
http://kentweare.blogspot.com/2010/04/biztalk-adapter-pack-20-sap-adapter.html
http://kentweare.blogspot.com/2010/04/biztalk-adapter-pack-20-part-4-sending.html
Benchmark your BizTalk Server (Part 3)
by Ewan Fairweather
I you’re a true hard-core BizTalker and think performance is important, then this is a “must read” article. Take your time and read it a couple of times as it’s very detailed. Ewan have also been kind enough to share his script files for helping you identifying bottlenecks.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ewanf/archive/2010/01/12/benchmark-your-biztalk-server-part-3.aspx
Large Message Transfer with WCF-Adapters – Series
by Paolo Salvatori
I find it funny that Paolo sometimes makes an effort to split a topic into two parts. Every one of those posts could easily be split into five parts, and together make up for small book. Paolo does not write posts – he writes essays!
Transferring large messages is a common challenge using BizTalk. This post cover the subject in detail, and shows how to effectively minimize the use of recourses, while still transferring large files through BizTalk. The content of these posts was also demonstrated by Ewan Fairweather during his talk at the Swedish BizTalk User Group.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/paolos/archive/2010/05/25/large-message-transfer-with-wcf-adapters-part-1.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/paolos/archive/2010/09/09/large-message-transfer-with-wcf-adapters-part-2.aspx
XmlDisassemble in a passthrough pipeline?
by Johan Hedberg
The discovery of BizTalk adding an Xml disassemble stage to a passthrough pipeline, was an interesting fact to say the least. Frightening might be a better choice of words. Johan explain under which circumstances this happens. “Funny” enough, I’ve come across this issue twice this year.
http://blogical.se/blogs/johan/archive/2010/09/11/xmldisassemble-in-a-passthrough-pipeline.aspx
Modernizing BizTalk Server BAM with PowerPivot
I couldn’t agree more, – BAM is one of my favorite features of BizTalk. With the release of SQL Server 2008 R2 came PowerPivot for SharePoint and Excel, and even though I haven’t got around to test PowerPivot yet,I really find this interesting, and I’m sure I’ll get back to the post later on.
http://weblogs.asp.net/gsusx/archive/2010/09/28/modernizing-biztalk-server-bam-with-powerpivot.aspx
Less Virtual, More Machine – Windows 7 and the magic of Boot to VHD
With Windows 7 came the “boot to VHD” feature. I generally don’t want to install anything but the Office suite on my laptop. This is because I tend to try out a lot of CTP releases, along with the fact that I work with different customers where it’s a good practice to separate the environments. I solve that by always working in virtual environments. Using Windows Virtual PC is only supported in 32 bits, and even if I’d use VMWare or Virtual Box, I would not fully utilize the capacity of my laptop.
I’ve come across many high level demos showing the “boot to VHD” feature in action. But it’s not as easy as it seams. Every time I need to add a VM to my boot menu, I return to this post.
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/LessVirtualMoreMachineWindows7AndTheMagicOfBootToVHD.aspx
Nesting Scope shapes more than 19 levels
By Jan Eliasen
The knowledge of this limitation is not likely to come to any good use (for anyone (I hope)). But the effort of finding this flaw can not go unnoticed! – Thank you Jan.
http://blog.eliasen.dk/2010/04/24/NestingScopeShapesMoreThan19Levels.aspx