Rundown on WCF, WF, and ’Dublin’ sessions @ TechEd next week

by community-syndication | May 6, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

As I spend much of this week finalizing items for TechEd next week, I thought it might be helpful to post a schedule of the great content that will be presented at the event.

If you haven’t already pre-registered for sessions, now is an excellent time to look through the schedule builder and check out all the great content and speakers we have lined up at the event.

As is tradition, the bulk of the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) sessions are in the SOA and Business Process track. This year, we are joined in the SOA track by sessions covering the ’Dublin’ technology extensions for Windows Server, which allow you to easily host and manage your .NET 4 WCF and WF applications.

Breakout Sessions

This year, we’ve assembled some of the greatest speakers on the topics, so please join us for the following breakout sessions:

For those unable to attend TechEd in person, my understanding is that all of the breakout sessions above will be recorded and be made available online. As we get more information post-event, we will post additional information up here on the blog.

In addition to the breakout sessions above, there is content that will be presented at TechEd that will unfortunately not be made available online after the event, this comes in three forms: the pre-conference sessions and interactive theatre sessions.

Pre-Conference Session

As I mentioned in my blog post on Friday, Zoiner Tejada and Michele Leroux Bustamante will be presenting a pre-conference on Sunday, the day before TechEd (PRC07: A Day of WCF + WF + "Dublin") that covers WCF and WF for .NET 4. The day is full of presentations and demos, and Michele and Zoiner have worked hard to update the session to cover the beta 1 features we’re talking about here. There are still seats available for the pre-conference, and it looks to be a real treat for those who can make it.

Interactive Theatre Sessions

Additionally, there are interactive theatre sessions that happen on the event floor among the booths. Within the Application Platform section of the floor (you can find us by looking for lots of blue), we have two theatres. Within the interactive theatres, we will have the following three sessions over the course of the week in Blue Theatre 2 that many folks are sure to find interesting:

Hands On Labs

We also have six hands on labs at TechEd this year, the two introducing labs have been updated based on past event feedback, and we’ve added four of brand new labs! If you have an 45-60 minutes and like to get your hands dirty with some code while you learn, please check them out:

Booth

Then of course there is always the booth. The booth is open every day of the conference, and we’ll have folks there through lunch and during sessions – ready to chat with you about the technologies and show you how things work. If you have questions about WCF, WF, or ’Dublin’, or would like to learn more about how the technologies may apply to your solution – feel free to drop by.

Over the course of the week, we have folks at the booth that can talk at a high level (BTW-that’s me 😉 ), all the way to folks that can talk through how and why the API works the way it does. And if you can’t get your question answered at that time, we should be able to help you connect with someone at the booth who can help, or getting you the answer post-conference. We have a really good crew at the booth again this year (and I’m told we have a small white board at the booth this year!)

All of that being said, we hope to see you in LA next week and to learn more about how you’re using WCF and WF today – it should be a lot of fun all around. And for those unable to attend, check out the online recordings and continue to engage with us in the forums and the Connect site!

Hijacking the Database Lookup functiod

by community-syndication | May 6, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

Here is the functiod description for the Database Lookup functiod:

Use the Database Lookup functoid to extract information from a database and store it as a Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) recordset. This functoid requires the following four input parameters in this order: a lookup value, a database connection string, a table name, and a column name for the lookup value.

Let’s review the arguments again

1. Lookup Value
2. Database Connection String
3. Table Name
4. Column Name

I did not want to create a view, as I don’t have permissions to add objects to that database, but I could not simply get the value from one table, I needed to join two tables together.

The answer was SIMPLE!

Underneath the covers, the statement that is being called is:

using (OleDbCommand command = new OleDbCommand("SELECT * FROM " + table + " WHERE " + column + "= ?", helper.Connection))
{
...
}

WAIT A MINUTE! I am not limited to only a table name in the table variable of the OleDbCommand method, I can put an entire join statement in argument 3 of the Database Lookup functiod.

Here is what I had for the arguments:

The arguments without the single ticks

1. Source Data

2. Connection Information (in this case I just pointed to a udl file): ’File Name=D:\Eric\Warehouse\Schemas\connection.udl’

3. Table name, which has the join: ’EdiPartnerContacts INNER JOIN bts_party ON EdiPartnerContacts.PartyId = bts_party.nID’

4. Column that has the input value: ’nvcName’

So in essence I had created the following query using the DBLookup functiod

SELECT     * 
FROM         EdiPartnerContacts INNER JOIN 
                      bts_party ON EdiPartnerContacts.PartyId = bts_party.nID

WHERE       nvcName=?

I then pulled the Email column from the data in a Value Extractor that was connected to the Database Lookup functiod

Architect Insight Conference 2009

by community-syndication | May 6, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

[Source: http://geekswithblogs.net/EltonStoneman]

Microsoft’s UK Architect Insight Conference will be held in their London office on Friday, 08 May 2009. The agenda has some great speakers on interesting topics, and in addition to the main presentations there will be interactive, round table discussion sessions throughout the day.

I’ll be hosting one of the interactive sessions entitled ESBs: what should you put in, and what will you get out? It’ll be a look at the sort of capabilities an Enterprise Service Bus could provision, and a discussion around how to select capabilities relevant to an implementation, based on anticipated strategic and business benefits.

There’ll be a couple of scene-setting slides and then hopefully an interesting discussion. I’ll follow up with a post on the outcome next week.

REMIX 2009 – Start City Sydney (11 June 09) – Next Generation Web

by community-syndication | May 5, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

Remix 09 is on in June in Sydney. The details and registration site can be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/australia/remix/ 

REMIX09

THE NEXT WEB NOW

What’s it all about?

Ever since REMIX commenced it’s been a hit, with delegates returning each year to a sell out crowd. You know the Web is the future of commerce, education, and communication. REMIX is our way of helping you take it to the next level.

Now in it’s 3rd year, REMIX is the place to advance your web development and design skills, get in-depth exposure to exciting new Microsoft technologies, exchange ideas with fellow developers and designers, and meet the industry’s thought leaders.

At REMIX09 you can:

• Explore the next wave of ideas and opportunities in Web development and design.
• Get inspired by an impressive line-up of UX, design and development sessions.
• Connect with experts on a wide range of topics for one-on-one guidance and inspiration.
• Learn about the future of Silverlight%u2122, Internet Explorer%u00ae, Expression, ASP.NET and other web technologies from Microsoft.
• Network with execs from Microsoft and hot interactive agencies.

REMIX09 is where you’ll find the best ideas, sessions, and people. To put yourself into the mix, book your tickets before they sell out.

Who should attend?

REMIX09 draws together coders, strategists, information architects, visual designers, UX professionals and digital marketers WHO ALL SHARE AN INTEREST ON WHAT’S COMING NEXT ON THE WEB.

BizTalk-Windows SharePoint services adapter issues

by community-syndication | May 5, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

BizTalk Server 2006 Unable to determine whether or not specified user is an administrator.

You are attempting to install Windows SharePoint services adapter web service on a virtual server that has not been configured with Windows SharePoint Services

TITLE: Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 Configuration Wizard

——————————

You are attempting to install Windows SharePoint Services Adapter Web Service on a virtual server that has not been configured with Windows SharePoint Services. Refer to the documentation for instructions on extending a virtual server. (CWssAdaCfg)

——————————

Solution: Make sure you run the Windows SharePoint Services Central Administration and Extend or upgrade virtual server, once its installed re-run the BizTalk configuration wizard, this time it should run smooth.

Screencast: Windows Workflow – Creating custom context channels for workflow services

by community-syndication | May 5, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

I’ve recently published a free screencast on how to create a custom context channel in workflow services. 

.NET 3.5 supports managing context in a SOAP header or HTTP cookie, but that may not be where your context information lives. In this screencast I show an example of a custom channel that enables the context information to be passed in a URL to enable operation invocation from a link in an email.

Check out our growing collection of free .NET screencasts and videos.  Subscribe to the Pluralsight feed to be notified when new screencasts are published.  Also, check out our growing library of online .NET training courses — see what you can learn with Pluralsight On-Demand!

Screencast: Windows Workflow – Managing conversations in workflow services

by community-syndication | May 5, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

I’ve recently published a free screencast on how to manage conversations in workflow services. 

Conversations are special cases of context management in workflow services requiring extra information to correctly route messages. In this screencast, I show you when you need to think about conversations and how to properly write your workflows and clients to deal with them.

Check out our growing collection of free .NET screencasts and videos.  Subscribe to the Pluralsight feed to be notified when new screencasts are published.  Also, check out our growing library of online .NET training courses — see what you can learn with Pluralsight On-Demand!

new cloudApp() developer competition

by community-syndication | May 5, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

Looking to show off your skills in building cloud applications using either .NET or PHP?  Like to make a little $$ while you are at it.  Well, if you bring your A game, you just might have a shot in the new developer competition that Microsoft is running.  You can check out the details on the contest web site, and find links to all the tools you need to get started. 

I’m looking forward to seeing some cool ideas come out of this and participating in the community judging. 

From the website: 

new CloudApp() is a US-based developer challenge for .NET & PHP developers creating cloud applications or services (hereafter "application") on the Azure%u2122 Services Platform. Have your application judged by industry leaders Om Malik and Michael Cote and share your cloud coding skills with other developers. Grand Prize Winners will be announced on stage at Structure 09 and featured on azure.com.

Unfortunately, for those of you not in the US, you read that correctly, and this is only open to folks residing in the 50 states and DC.  I’m sure it is for legal reasons, but that definitely limits the amount of cool submissions we’ll be seeing.

Book Review: SOA Patterns with BizTalk Server 2009 by Richard Seroter

by community-syndication | May 5, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

I have been contacted by Packt Publishing to post a blog review of Richard Seroter’s book ’SOA Patterns with BizTalk Server 2009’. They have kindly provided me with the electronic copy while a printed copy I ordered a while ago makes its way to New Zealand.
The author Richard Seroter is a several times Microsoft MVP […]

BizTalk at TechEd North America

by community-syndication | May 4, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

After an exciting launch of the BizTalk Server 2009 release at RFID Journal Live in Orlando, we are ready to hit the road again and deep dive into the details of this release at TechEd next week May 11 -15 in LA, California.

We will present a generic session on Introducing BizTalk Server 2009 and the product roadmap as well as individual sessions on specific topics of the 2009 release and some popular themes.

We have designed a variety of breakout sessions , interactive sessions and hands on labs, to maximize attendees experience and learning about BizTalk throughout the conference week. Following is the full agenda sorted by dates:

Come join us at the BizTalk booths in the Blue section of the Technical Learning Center. Get into follow-up and deep dive  conversations with our speakers and members of the product team while watching compelling demos.

You may even try your luck to win cool prizes in one of the raffles that we will have throughout the week!

In the meantime you can find a wealth of new information on our refreshed BizTalk website.

See you at TechEd!!!

The BizTalk team.