by Sandro Pereira | Oct 4, 2018 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
To end these week contributions, tomorrow is national holiday in Portugal, BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack community project for BizTalk Server 2016 got a new update. A new component that you can use in your custom BizTalk Server Send pipelines is now available: Remove XML Namespace Pipeline Component.
Remove XML Namespace Pipeline Component
The XML Remove Namespace pipeline component was developed in the old days by Johan Hedberg for BizTalk Server 2006 – you can check the original post here – that I now migrate to BizTalk Server 2016 with his permission and it can be used to remove XML namespaces from XML documents inside custom pipelines.
This has the availability to transform the root of the message from this:
<ns0:Blah xmlns:ns0="http://RemoveXmlNamespace.BTS.BlahMessage">
Into this:
<Blah>
As Johan mention in his original post, you shouldn’t remove the namespace from the messages, however, we don’t leave in a perfect world and we need to deal with legacy systems and sometimes they required, for unknown reasons for me, that we deliver messages without namespace.
To use this pipeline component in your projects you just copy the “RemoveXmlNamespace.PipelineComponents.dll” file into “Pipeline Components“ folder that exists in BizTalk Server Installation directory: “..Program Files (x86)Microsoft BizTalk Server <version>Pipeline Components” on every server.
You do not need to add a custom pipeline component to be used by the BizTalk Runtime to the Global Assembly Cache (GAC).
What is BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack?
BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack is a set of custom pipeline components (libraries) with several custom pipeline components that can be used in received and sent pipelines, which will provide an extension of BizTalk out-of-the-box pipeline capabilities.
The project is available on BizTalk Server Open Source Community repository on GitHub (https://github.com/BizTalkCommunity) and everyone can contribute with new pipeline components that can be extended or improve the existing BizTalk Server capabilities.
At the moment it is only available for BizTalk Server 2016 but it will soon be compiled and available for previous versions of the product.
Where to download it?
You can download BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack from GitHub here:
BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack
GitHub
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community. View all posts by Sandro Pereira
by Sandro Pereira | Oct 3, 2018 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
And once again, BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack community project for BizTalk Server 2016 got a new update. A new component that you can use in your custom BizTalk Server Send pipelines is now available: Zip Pipeline Component.
Zip Pipeline Component
The Zip Pipeline Component is a pipeline component for BizTalk Server which can be used in a send pipeline (encode stage) and is intended to compress (zip/gzip) outgoing messages.
- The capabilities are similar to those available in compression software such as WinZip or 7-zip:
- This component requires two configurations that are:
- the “FileExtension” where you can specify if you want for example a .zip or .gz file.
- and “Enabled” that is a true or false value to activate the compression.
No compression/decompression software needs to be installed in the BizTalk Server machines.
This was an old component that I had that I now updated and improved to BizTalk Server 2016 with the help with my internal team at DevScope, in special, Pedro Almeida.
To use this pipeline component in your projects you just copy the “BizTalk.PipelineComponents.ZipFile.dll” file into “Pipeline Components“ folder that exists in BizTalk Server Installation directory: “..Program Files (x86)Microsoft BizTalk Server <version>Pipeline Components” on every server.
You do not need to add a custom pipeline component to be used by the BizTalk Runtime to the Global Assembly Cache (GAC).
What is BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack?
BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack is a set of custom pipeline components (libraries) with several custom pipeline components that can be used in received and sent pipelines, which will provide an extension of BizTalk out-of-the-box pipeline capabilities.
The project is available on BizTalk Server Open Source Community repository on GitHub (https://github.com/BizTalkCommunity) and everyone can contribute with new pipeline components that can be extended or improve the existing BizTalk Server capabilities.
At the moment it is only available for BizTalk Server 2016 but it will soon be compiled and available for previous versions of the product.
Where to download it?
You can download BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack from GitHub here:
BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack
GitHub
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community. View all posts by Sandro Pereira
by Sandro Pereira | Oct 2, 2018 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Welcome back to my blog post series “BizTalk Server Tips and Tricks” for developers, administrators or business users. Not all tips and tricks are sophisticated or quite robust and ingenious, some of them are quite simple. Some of them are in front of us all the time without us noticing, this is one of these cases.
Today there is a lot more information than in the past, but normally when we start BizTalk Server tutorials about schemas, they tend to say that if you want to specify how many times a record or an element will occur, you should configure the below values:
- The Max Occurs property to specify the maximum occurrences of this node (record or element). The default value is ‘1’ and cannot be less than the Min Occurs property
- The Min Occurs property to specify the minimum occurrences of this node. The default value is ‘1’ and cannot be greater than the Max Occurs property
What this type of tutorial also tells you, is that if you want to specify that a specific node can appear an unlimited number of times, at the Max Occurs property, you should type the value: “unbounded”
So, we tend to manually write the word “unbounded”, each time we want to set a node to appear an unlimited number of times… I think, I can write this word better than my personal name, so many are the times I’ve written it over the years. But to be honest, this can be a little time consuming. Especially if we type it wrongly, newbies need to remember this word – there are other words with the same meaning as unlimited – and sometimes is just a little boring.
Well, guess what, if you are at this point of the post wondering what is the alternative, in the future you should spend a little time reading the description of property inside Visual Studio; the alternative has been there in front of you all the time:
- Maximum Occurrences of this node. Its value should always be greater than or equal to minOccurs of this node. Use ‘unbounded’ or ‘*’ (asterisk) to indicate unlimited occurrences. The default value is ‘1’.
Which means that if we type * (asterisk), this will be automatically translated to “unbounded”.
Quick, simple and practical
Stay tuned for new tips and tricks!
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira is an Azure MVP and works as an Integration consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. View all posts by Sandro Pereira
by Sandro Pereira | Oct 2, 2018 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack community project for BizTalk Server 2016 got a new update and now it has another new component that you can use in your custom BizTalk Server pipelines: Carry SOAPHeader To WCF-BasicHttp Pipeline Component.
Carry SOAPHeader To WCF-BasicHttp Pipeline Component
The Carry SOAPHeader To WCF-BasicHttp is a pipeline component for BizTalk Server which can be used in a send pipeline and is intended to carry forward the received custom SOAP Header to the outgoing message, in other words:
- This component will read the Custom SOAPHeader from the Message Context Properties
- The custom header name will be defined on the component configuration and we can read it from the target “http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003/SOAPHeader”
- and will configure this custom header in the OutboundCustomHeaders property used by the WCF-BasicHTTP Adapter.
The OutboundCustomHeaders property is used if you want to specify the custom SOAP headers for outgoing messages. When this property is used, the property must have the <headers> element as the root element. All of the custom SOAP headers must be placed inside the <headers> element
- If the custom SOAP header value is an empty string, you must assign <headers></headers> or <headers/> to this property
This component is useful if you are implementing CBR operations on legacy service (SOAP – .asmx) using the new WCF-Adapters in BizTalk Server. Notice that the SOAP adapters, still present in BizTalk Server 2016, are obsolete and discontinued.
To use this pipeline component in your projects you just copy the “CarrySOAPHeader.dll” file into “Pipeline Components“ folder that exists in BizTalk Server Installation directory: “..Program Files (x86)Microsoft BizTalk Server <version>Pipeline Components” on every server.
You do not need to add a custom pipeline component to be used by the BizTalk Runtime to the Global Assembly Cache (GAC).
What is BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack?
BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack is a set of custom pipeline components (libraries) with several custom pipeline components that can be used in received and sent pipelines, which will provide an extension of BizTalk out-of-the-box pipeline capabilities.
The project is available on BizTalk Server Open Source Community repository on GitHub (https://github.com/BizTalkCommunity) and everyone can contribute with new pipeline components that can be extended or improve the existing BizTalk Server capabilities.
At the moment it is only available for BizTalk Server 2016 but it will soon be compiled and available for previous versions of the product.
Where to download it?
You can download BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack from GitHub here:
BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack
GitHub
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community. View all posts by Sandro Pereira
by Sandro Pereira | Sep 26, 2018 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
A few days ago, I publish the first version of the community project BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack for BizTalk Server 2016. Today I please to announce that a new pipeline component was added to this project: Multi-Part Message Attachments Zipper Pipeline Component.
This was an old component that I had published in the past for BizTalk Server 2006/2006 R2/2009 and 2010 that I now updated and improved to BizTalk Server 2016 with the help with my internal team at DevScope, in special, Pedro Almeida.
What is BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack?
BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack is a set of custom pipeline components (libraries) with several custom pipeline components that can be used in received and sent pipelines, which will provide an extension of BizTalk out-of-the-box pipeline capabilities.
Multi-Part Message Attachments Zipper Pipeline Component
The BizTalk Multi-Part Message Attachments Zipper is a pipeline component for BizTalk Server which can be used in a send pipeline and is intended to replace all attachments of a multi-part message for its zipped equivalent.
The capabilities are similar to those available in compression software such as WinZip or 7-zip:
- Attachments Compression – Extracts, in a send pipeline, all message parts include in a multi-part message that is not included in the message body (Message Body Part = False), compresses it and attaches the compressed attachment back to the message.
- This component requires one configuration that is the FileExtension where you can specify if you want for example a .zip or .gz file.
No compression/decompression software needs to be installed in the BizTalk Server machines.
To use this pipeline component in your projects you just copy the “PipelineComponentMultipartMsgZipAttach.dll” file into “Pipeline Components“ folder that exists in BizTalk Server Installation directory: “..Program Files (x86)Microsoft BizTalk Server <version>Pipeline Components” on every server.
You do not need to add a custom pipeline component to be used by the BizTalk Runtime to the Global Assembly Cache (GAC).
The project is available on BizTalk Server Open Source Community repository on GitHub (https://github.com/BizTalkCommunity) and everyone can contribute with new pipeline components that can extend or improve the existing BizTalk Server capabilities.
At the moment it is only available for BizTalk Server 2016 but it will soon be compiled and available for previous versions of the product.
Where to download?
You can download BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack from GitHub here:
BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack
GitHub
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community. View all posts by Sandro Pereira
by Sandro Pereira | Sep 25, 2018 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
PIP name specified does not match the PIP specification, this is the last RosettaNet error that tries to make my life a little bit difficult.
Fortunately, to date, Microsoft documentation has significantly improved, moving to DOCS was a good approach and community members now have the availability to help to improve the product documentation. Nevertheless, there are still some topics that the existing the documentation is obsolete, scarce or simply non-existent. One of these topics is Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for RosettaNet.
I was receiving this error on the PublicResponderProcess orchestration, for those who are not familiar with Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for RosettaNet (BTARN), this is a default artifact developer by Microsoft that compose a BizTalk Solution that handles PIP messages:
- When a responder receives a request message, BTARN routes the request message from the public-process orchestration, to the private-process orchestration, to the line-of-business (LOB) program. The responder requires the response service content from the LOB program to generate a RosettaNet response message back to the initiator. Many of the elements in the response message are populated using the values from the request message. As a result, you can incorporate a map in the responder private-process orchestration to help the LOB program generate the response service-content message in the required format.
The difficult part is to “debug”/track these errors to understand what and why this is happening. The full error message in the event log was:
Source module:
PublicResponderProcess
Correlation information:
PIP Code : 3C4
PIP Version : V01.00
PIP InstanceID : 922731_20180912T050751
SourcePartnerName :
DestinationPartnerName:
Description:
Public Responder could not send an Async exception signal due to internal errors bellow:
RNIF Exception detail:-
Error code:UNP.SHDR.VALERR
Error Number:2005
Description: PIP name specified does not match the PIP specification.
Note: this same error can occur in previous or new versions of BizTalk Server.
Cause
Again, it was difficult to understand all the internal behaviors developed by Microsoft for BTARN but basically, when you receive a PIP message you will end up receiving 4 parts:
- The Preamble:
- All RosettaNet messages must have a Preamble. It is specified with a DTD that is common across all messages.
- The Preamble section of the MIME message contains elements that are global to the RosettaNet service and others that are common to the Service Header and Service Content; for example, the message standard and version used in the message.
<Preamble xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/biztalk/btarn/2004/Preamble_MS_V02_00.dtd">
<standardName>
<GlobalAdministeringAuthorityCode>
RosettaNet
</GlobalAdministeringAuthorityCode>
</standardName>
<standardVersion>
<VersionIdentifier>
V02.00
</VersionIdentifier>
</standardVersion>
</Preamble>
- The Delivery Header
- The delivery header is new in RNIF 2.0 and facilitates the routing of messages through hubs. It contains the following attributes:
- Elements for the sending and receiving of trading partner identities
- Message date and time stamp
- Globally unique tracking ID
<DeliveryHeader xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/biztalk/btarn/2004/DeliveryHeader_MS_V02_00.dtd">
<isSecureTransportRequired>
<AffirmationIndicator>
Yes
</AffirmationIndicator>
</isSecureTransportRequired>
<messageDateTime>
<DateTimeStamp>
20180912T050743.000Z
</DateTimeStamp>
</messageDateTime>
<messageReceiverIdentification>
<PartnerIdentification>
<GlobalBusinessIdentifier>
xxxx
</GlobalBusinessIdentifier>
</PartnerIdentification>
</messageReceiverIdentification>
<messageSenderIdentification>
<PartnerIdentification>
<GlobalBusinessIdentifier>
yyyyy
</GlobalBusinessIdentifier>
</PartnerIdentification>
</messageSenderIdentification>
<messageTrackingID>
<InstanceIdentifier>
922730_20180912T050744**00**
</InstanceIdentifier>
</messageTrackingID>
</DeliveryHeader>
-
- The Service Header is specified with a DTD that is common across all messages. A separate DTD and/or XML schema for each message validates the body of the messages.
- The Service Header helps identify the following items:
- The PIP
- The activity and the action to which the message belongs
- The PIP instance
- Information about the sender of the message
- Information about the recipient of the message
- The date and time at which the message was sent
- Whether the message is a Test message or a Production message
- Whether the sender is to be treated as an “unknown partner”
- The Service Header format is fixed and independent of the specifics of the message contained in the payload. However, the Service Content could change based on the variance in the business content.
<ServiceHeader xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/biztalk/btarn/2004/ServiceHeader_MS_V02_00.dtd">
<ProcessControl>
<ActivityControl>
<BusinessActivityIdentifier>
Notify Of Invoice Reject
</BusinessActivityIdentifier>
<MessageControl>
<fromRole>
<GlobalPartnerRoleClassificationCode>
Invoice Reject Provider
</GlobalPartnerRoleClassificationCode>
</fromRole>
<fromService>
<GlobalBusinessServiceCode>
Invoice Reject Provider Service
</GlobalBusinessServiceCode>
</fromService>
<Manifest>
<numberOfAttachments>
<CountableAmount>
0
</CountableAmount>
</numberOfAttachments>
<ServiceContentControl>
<ActionIdentity>
<GlobalBusinessActionCode>
Invoice Reject Notification Action
</GlobalBusinessActionCode>
</ActionIdentity>
</ServiceContentControl>
</Manifest>
<toRole>
<GlobalPartnerRoleClassificationCode>
Invoice Reject Receiver
</GlobalPartnerRoleClassificationCode>
</toRole>
<toService>
<GlobalBusinessServiceCode>
Invoice Reject Receiver Service
</GlobalBusinessServiceCode>
</toService>
</MessageControl>
</ActivityControl>
<GlobalUsageCode>
Test
</GlobalUsageCode>
<pipCode>
<GlobalProcessIndicatorCode>
3C4
</GlobalProcessIndicatorCode>
</pipCode>
<pipInstanceId>
<InstanceIdentifier>
922730_20180912T050744
</InstanceIdentifier>
</pipInstanceId>
<pipVersion>
<VersionIdentifier>
V01.00
</VersionIdentifier>
</pipVersion>
<KnownInitiatingPartner>
<PartnerIdentification>
<GlobalBusinessIdentifier>
XXXXXX
</GlobalBusinessIdentifier>
</PartnerIdentification>
</KnownInitiatingPartner>
</ProcessControl>
</ServiceHeader>
- And the Service Content
- Service Content is specified in individual PIPs. Each PIP has one or more business actions that are described by means of individual DTDs or schema.
- The payload part of a RosettaNet Business Message—that is, the actual business content—is a message in XML format.
For this problem, the things you need to know about the PublicResponderProcess orchestration is that:
- It will call a method “GetRuntimeConfig” on the “GetRNConfig” shape that will get the process/agreement configuration;
rnConfig = Microsoft.Solutions.BTARN.ConfigurationManager.RuntimeConfigGenerator.GetRuntimeConfig
(destinationPartyID, sourcePartyID, pipCode, pipVersion,
false, true
);
- And it will call a method “IsActionMessageValid” on the “ValidateMessage” shape that will validate if the message received a match to any process/agreement active in the system
rnConfig.IsActionMessageValid( inRNIFMessage, out exceptionInfo );
-
- This last method calls an additional method call “ValidateActionServiceHeader”, here a piece of the code:
...
if (propertyValue != base.GetPIPConfigValue("PIP_Name"))
{
str = str + StringResources.GetString(StringResourceIDNames.rtcV11InvalidPipName);
}
...
-
-
- “GetPIPConfigValue(“PIP_Name”)” comes from the RosettaNet process
-
-
- The other comes from the Service Header message part in the BusinessActivityIdentifier element
- Both need to be equal – case sensitive!
My problem was that:
- the RosettaNet process name was: Notify of Invoice Reject
- and the Service Header was: Notify Of Invoice Reject
Solution
To solve this issue you must.
- Ensure that the process name is equal to the BusinessActivityIdentifier element in the Service Header message part
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community. View all posts by Sandro Pereira
by Sandro Pereira | Sep 21, 2018 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
A funny error I found out on December 4, 2017, that I’m now recovering from my backlog to be published. While trying to repair a BizTalk Server 2016 installation on a virtual machine I got this annoying, funny and strange error: Please insert the disk: 1.
Microsoft BizTalk Server 2016 Installation Wizard
Please insert the disk: 1
and regardless of what I did back then, like running the execution file as an administrator, I was getting this error every time I was trying to repair the BizTalk Server installation.
And what I did back then was:
- Attach the BizTalk Server ISO file in the DVD drive of Virtual Machine that was running in the Hyper-V;
- And execute the installation file from the DVD drive of the VM;
Cause
Unfortunately, this message may appear if you are trying to repair the product from the CD/DVD drive and the reason is not clear for me.
I don’t know if this error occurred by the fact that in the original installation the ISO that was locally on the machine or it is just a coincidence.
Solution
The solution, however, is very simple:
- Copy content of the BizTalk Server 2016 ISO to the local hard drive of the Virtual Machine – but I believe that this can be the same to other BizTalk Server versions;
- And execute from the local Hard Drive the BizTalk Server setup file has an Administrator;
By doing that you will definitely solve the “Please insert the disk: 1” issue and you will be able to repair the existing installation.
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community. View all posts by Sandro Pereira
by Sandro Pereira | Sep 20, 2018 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Finally, my latest whitepaper has been published: “BizTalk Server and GDPR“! After doing several GDPR assessments and talked a little about this topic on INTEGRATE 2018 London event I thought this should be the next logical step considering that this is a topic that has worried a lot of BizTalk Server customers, and still worries, and in a more general way all organizations regardless of whether they use or not BizTalk Server.
In a general way, BizTalk Server is GDPR compliant – in fact Microsoft Product group announced in INTEGRATE2018 London Event that one of the features of BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 3 (FP3) was FIPS and GDPR privacy standards compliant, but that was just a marketing strategy since, in its most simplistic form, BizTalk Server is a messaging broker, which doesn’t capture or store any type of data on its system other than for the time needed to complete business processes and to connect and route messages to their target systems. However, because you can process messages and/or communicate with systems that contain sensitive data (personal data) you must have some good practices in BizTalk Server Applications to comply with GDPR. So, in other words, BizTalk Server is GDPR compliant but your BizTalk Applications may not be.
What to expect about BizTalk Server and GDPR whitepaper
BizTalk Server is part of complex enterprise IT environment, we also need to guarantee that these BizTalk Server environments are GDPR compliant. This white paper intends to provide key points on how you can archive and deploy secure integrations in BizTalk Server, and how you can ensure and/or help organizations for this complex middle piece, become GDPR compliant.
This whitepaper will cover the impact of the new regulations and what needs to be done with a focus exclusively on BizTalk Server environments.
Where I can download it
The whitepaper is completely free and you can download it here:
I would like to take this opportunity also to say thanks to Lex Hegt for helping me reviewing this whitepaper especially for the incredible work of him correcting my horrible English and in this way make the document and my thoughts being readable.
I hope you enjoy reading this paper and any comments or suggestions are welcome.
You can also find, download and enjoy several other free whitepapers of my own here:
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community. View all posts by Sandro Pereira
by Praveena Jayanarayanan | Sep 20, 2018 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
We are super excited to welcome our new release version of BizTalk360, v8.9. There has already been a series of blogs explaining the features coming up in the release. Here is another such blog which explains the enhancements done in the User Access Policy section in v8.9.
User Access Policy is one important feature in BizTalk360, where you can provide access to certain applications in your BizTalk environment to Normal Users and NT groups. This is not available at the BizTalk server level. The importance of this feature can be read here “Why did we build User Access Policy to Manage BizTalk Server Security?
Customer Feedback getting answered
In BizTalk360, we aim at improving the product and adding new features based on the customer feedback and business scenarios. The Feedback portal is one such platform for the customers to provide their suggestions on which can be voted by other customers, if they feel that these ideas fit in their business requirements as well. It’s based on the priority of voting the features and enhancements before getting picked up for development. One such feedback was the access to newly created BizTalk applications.
Hence, in the new release we thought of giving a fresh coat of paint to this feature, based on the feedback we received.
What’s New in User Access Policy
BizTalk360 supports management of multiple BizTalk Server environment from a single console. So, you can set up security and access rights from a single place. You can either configure security for individuals or as team (ex: Create an NT Group called “BizTalk Production Support”).
Now here comes the twist on the Application access. For your information, the rest all remains the same.
In earlier versions, it was a simple grid displaying all the available applications in a BizTalk environment and you can select the applications to provide access to Normal Users/Groups. But now we have slightly modified this, to provide multiple options for providing access to the applications. This would surely be more user friendly and of course meet the requirements. The different options include:
- Grant Access by Applications
- Grant Access to all Applications
- Wildcard Search
- Grant Access to Application Groups
Only one rule can be applied at a time. This holds for both users and groups. We shall have a detailed look at each one of them.
Grant Access to All Applications
As the name denotes, enabling this rule will provide access to all the available applications for the Normal Users/Groups. This will be similar to the permissions of the Super User who will have access to all applications.
Note: The user will automatically be granted access to all the newly created applications. The user doesn’t need to scroll down the complete list, to select the newly created application and provide access. The extra burden to check for the new applications is now reduced.
Wildcard Search
This is the new capability introduced in this release. It enables users to select the options from the wildcard operator drop down.
With the four options that are available in the Wildcard search, the user can select the required option and provide the search value. Once this rule is configured, the user will have access to all the applications matching this wildcard. The user will automatically be given access to the newly created applications that match the wildcard.
This will save a lot of time because in a business scenario, the applications will be named based on specific activity and it would be easy for the admins to select the appropriate wildcard option and provide access. This would be quite interesting and easy option for configuring access to these applications.
Grant Access to Application Groups
We know about the BizTalk Group. But what is this Application Group? Sounds new, isn’t it? Yes, it is new to BizTalk360. With this new capability, you can create Application Groups and map the applications to that group. Once the user is given access to the Application group, he can access all the applications mapped to that group.
The Concept of Application Groups
The Application Group is something new to BizTalk360. We always aim at providing a user interface that must ease the work of the customer, with minimal configuration. You can create a group and map the related applications to that group.
Now, providing access to this application group will automatically enable the users to access the applications which are mapped to that Application Group. This Application Group is only related to BizTalk360 and not to BizTalk itself. When the corresponding Normal User logs in to BizTalk360, his access will be limited to these applications. Only Super Users can view and edit the Application Groups.
The Normal Users/Groups will have access to other modules in BizTalk360, based on the applications only. The concept of Application Groups was created to ease the work of the admins.
It is also possible to view the list of Application Groups created for an environment; editing or deletion them is done by the Super users.
Scenario
Do you know what happens if you try to delete an Application Group that is already given access to a Normal user? It is not possible to delete that Application Group. The exception message would be captured and displayed in the UI.
This way, it would be easy to identify the association between the user and the Application Group.
Would it not be interesting to try this out?
What would happen to existing user configuration?
Now that we know what the different available options are for associating the applications to new users/groups. At this point of time, there must be a question coming up on what would happen to the existing users created when we upgrade from an older version to the new version of BizTalk360.
- Will all that information be lost?
- Do I need to create all the users once again and configure the rules?
- Will the user data not get migrated during the upgrade?
Lot more questions would come up during the upgrade, as this is a critical area of security and there would be different users and groups which are already created and provided access to the applications.
Please don’t panic. As promised, we always take care of your data and configuration and migrate them successfully to the new version. There will not be any data loss.
Yes, your data and configuration are safe and will be migrated successfully during the upgrade. Now, said that the data will be safe, what will happen to the User configuration data after the upgrade? There was no concept of Wildcard or Application group in the previous versions. The only which was available, was to select the applications from the grid and save them.
For persisting the existing configuration data, we have another rule available: ‘Grant Access by Application’. You will probably be happy to hear that!
Once the upgrade is completed, this will be the default rule which is selected for existing users. Once the Super users edits the details for a Normal User, this rule is selected. They can now change the rule configuration as per the requirement.
The only difference between this configuration and the other new rules is that when Grant Access by Applications is configured, newly applications created will not automatically be given access as in the other rules.
Viewing the permitted applications
Once the rule is configured, there is a view option for the admin to verify who have been provided access to which applications. Here is the option that we have given:
A view option has been provided in the User settings screen, which will list all the permitted applications for the users.
By viewing the permitted applications, the Super User can verify if the access to the applications have properly been provided to the Normal users/groups.
Conclusion
With the new look for application access, we are convinced that we brought a great new feature 😊. It will save time for the admins to provide access to users and groups. It will now be easy for users to take care of the newly created applications as well. Once the rule is configured, it is all set and no need to worry about new applications.
Happy monitoring with BizTalk360!
Author: Praveena Jayanarayanan
I am working as Senior Support Engineer at BizTalk360. I always believe in team work leading to success because “We all cannot do everything or solve every issue. ‘It’s impossible’. However, if we each simply do our part, make our own contribution, regardless of how small we may think it is…. together it adds up and great things get accomplished.” View all posts by Praveena Jayanarayanan
by Sandro Pereira | Sep 11, 2018 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
I finally started and published the first version of the sibling BizTalk project Mapper Extensions UtilityPack for BizTalk Server 2016: BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack
What is BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack?
BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack is a set of custom pipeline components (libraries) with several custom components that can be used in received and sent pipelines, which will provide an extension of BizTalk out-of-the-box pipeline capabilities.
What’s to expect in this version?
Content-Based Routing Pipeline Components
CBR IDoc Operation Promotion Encode component (CBRIdocOperationPromotionEncode)
- Content-Based Routing Component to promote IDOC Operation property.
- This component requires one configuration that is the MessageType string to be ignored. Then it will take the last string (word) from the MessageType Message Context Property and promote it to the Operation Message Context Property.
- This component is to be used on the Encode stage of BizTalk Server Send Pipelines and to be used exclusively on Send Ports.
CBR Operation Promotion Encode component (CBROperationPromotionEncode)
- Content-Based Routing Component to promote Operation property.
- This component doesn’t require any configuration. Then it will take the value (word) which lies ahead of the cardinal (#) from the MessageType message context property and promote it to the Operation Message Context Property.
- This component is to be used on the Encode stage of BizTalk Server Send Pipelines and to be used exclusively on Send Ports.
The project is available on BizTalk Server Open Source Community repository on GitHub (https://github.com/BizTalkCommunity) and everyone can contribute with new pipeline components that can extend or improve the existing BizTalk Server capabilities.
At the moment it is only available for BizTalk Server 2016 but it will soon be compiled and available for previous versions of the product.
Special thanks to my team coworker at DevScope: Pedro Almeida for helping me on this project.
Deploying Pipeline Components
All the .NET pipeline component assemblies (native and custom) must be located in the Pipeline Components folder to be executed by the server. If the pipeline with a custom component will be deployed across several servers, the component’s binaries must be present in the specified folder on every server.
You do not need to add a custom pipeline component to be used by the BizTalk Runtime to the Global Assembly Cache (GAC).
To know more about Deploying Pipeline Components, please see: Deploying Pipeline Components
Where to download?
You can download BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack from GitHub here:
BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack
GitHub
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community. View all posts by Sandro Pereira
