BizTalk 2010 Beta available for Download

Folks get your hands on the new BizTalk 2010 Beta here

The mapper imporivements alone is worth the money if you do lot of complex maps , HIPPA maps , EDI maps.

Quick EDI Sample Reference

Just Bookmarking for my own use a good link while I mentor people on BizTalk EDI

Biztalk 2009 R2

Cant wait to get my hands on BizTalk 2009 R2 after the demo video from PDC .
See here

The mappergets a complete overhaul with help from MSR

Top Features
- Relevance Tree
- Auto Scroll
- Gray out out of focus links ( reduce clutter )
- Move to Page
- Search
- VS 2010 integration

Returning Data from SAP Tables.

After spending a few frustrating hours on why my SAP RFC call was not returning data and the call was successful . We founf this little gem here from the LOB adapter team blog




If you're sending messages using the channel model instead of using a .NET proxy (for example, in BizTalk) - if the table node is missing from the input XML, we interpret that as if you're not interested in that table. If you do want the rows from that table in the response message, you should pass in the node in the input XML (0 rows, just the starting and ending parameter tag).

DTC

I find myself referring to these mostly trying to analyze SQL issues with BizTalk using DTCPING.I thought I will bookmark these links


INFO: Configuring Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC) to
Work Through a Firewall
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/250367/EN-US/

How to configure RPC dynamic port allocation to work with firewalls
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/154596/

How to troubleshoot RPC Endpoint Mapper errors
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=839880

Bing..

I have not been excited on anything related to search from Microsoft in a long time . But I am really excited about Wolfarm Alpha the new decision engine from Microsoft . Now named Bing. The site is not up yet and has a video on it's capabilities for now . I cant wait to get my hands on the real thing .

It is pretty cool actually. Check it out... www.bing.com and see the video here

SAP mapping and XSLT fun

If you are on a BizTalk , SAP project , Your XSLT skills can come real handy .
For e.g. here I needed to set a flag to true based on the existence of value in a  node. Normally this is  easy but in this case that node happens to be in a repeatable group node which can occur n number of times where n is unknown .

It would be a mapping nightmare or a custom Xml manipulation if not for XSLT

<xsl:for-each select="//*[local-name()='Receive' and namespace-uri()='http://Idoc/3/DEBMAS06//700/Receive']/*[local-name()='idocData' and namespace-uri()='http://Idoc/3/DEBMAS06//700/Receive']/*[local-name()='E2KNA1M005GRP' and namespace-uri()='http://Idoc/3/DEBMAS06//700']/*[local-name()='E2KNVVM007GRP' and namespace-uri()='http://Idoc/3/DEBMAS06//700']/*[local-name()='E2KNVPM002' and namespace-uri()='http://Idoc/3/DEBMAS06//700']/*[local-name()='PARVW' and namespace-uri()='http://Idoc/3/DEBMAS06//700']">

<xsl:variable name="nodeType"><xsl:value-of select="."/></xsl:variable>
<xsl:if test="$nodeType ='WE'">

<xsl:element name="shipToFlag">
Y
</xsl:element>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:for-each>

Visual Studio 2010

There are some cool channel 9 videos on Visual Studio 2010 out there .
Check them here here

BizTalk and Dublin

Where is Biztalk going Post OSLO , Have heard this being talked about in many forums lot of FUD out there .

For all those I say read Charles Youngs post on Biztalk and Dublin. Highly recommended read .

Playing with BizTalk 2009

I have started playing with BizTalk 2009 previously R3 bits and there is so much exciting stuff here . The one that I am most excited is

Support for Hyper-V virtualization

Support for Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio .NET 2008 and SQL Server 2008
MSbuild (finally )
EDI enchancements
Updated ESB guidance
New SQL and Oracle Apps adapters ( Connect natively to Oracle Financials)
UDDI 3.0
RFID LLRP protocol support (LERP), TDT / TDS standards
more .NET 3.5 /SWIFT enhancements


Check out the BizTalk Roadmap page for more.

BizTalk HTTP Chunked Encoding issues

You are probably reading this snippet because you have a perfectly working Biztalk App that works and performs in development and unit test but fails during volume tests with a downstream LOB app like say Peoplesoft with which you are trying to post via HTTP.

As you may have realized already this due to a chunked encoding issue with BizTalk . BizTalk uses chunked encoding when a message is larger than 48 KB by default.


Well when the message payload size is large HTTP/1.1 RFC implementation allows you to specify to the listener that I am going to send you my message in a series of packets each with it's own size indicator with an Optional trailer containing entity header fields
This is to allow the recipient to verify that it has received the whole message.

To do this the sender must set the in the HTTP Header a property called
transfer-coding = "chunked"

It can then send data in chunks and the recipient if HTTP 1.1 compliant will start collecting data until it gets a chunk with chunk-size set to zero indicating end of transmission.

Great , How does it affect me

BizTalk HTTP Adapter does not set this header when sending chunked data causing downstream listeners to assume this is a whole transmission for a partial data packet. Now you know why your app works in your development box where one tends to test with smaller test files not in server at load :-)

What do I do to resolve this

Since you don't have a way of setting this HTTP Header , the other option is to disable chunking altogether in 2004 with a QFE

BizTalk 2004 SP1 and BizTalk 2006 already has the QFE so in this case all you need to do is to set the registry key DWORD DisableChunkEncoding to 1
as specified here

If you want to learn more about chunked encoding read the HTTP RFC section 3.6.1 here

If you had a scenario this post helped leave me a note

SOA Conference 2007 Photos

Marjan has uploaded the MVP Dinner photos with the product group for those of us who were are at the conference . See the photos at the Biztalk Team blog

Debugging BizTalk 2004 and .net 2.0

I had to debug an old project in 2004 so got one old 2004 machine but I was not able to get my visual studio to attach to the Biztalk service . The machine had .net 2.0 Framework installed .
Some googling and saw this post from Tom about problems with BAS installation and whidbey.

So on similar lines I made the followwing changes to my BTSNTSvc.exe.config

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<configuration>
<startup>
<requiredRuntime version="v1.1.4322"/>
</startup>


and now you can attach your debugger , go ahead and debug !

OSLO - The Microsoft SOA Road Map

OSLO - The new SOA innovation Wave
The SOA Conference in Redmond always has something that gets you excited , This time it is OSLO .
No OSLO is not another cool name for a new product . In fact I wont call OSLO one
product but a new way of thinking about having a comprehensive ( Shudder ! ) way of
MODEL driven developing and consuming web services delivered through out the stack spanning multiple products . There will be a new underlying modeling language ( XML based ) which will allow you to describe your application with support for a visual design surface
So what are the key new products which are part of the puzzle. - BizTalk Server will continue to provide foundation for distributed and highly scalable SOA and BPM solutions, - BizTalk Services ( currently Non production mode http://labs.biztalk.net) will move commercial supporting hosted applications that cross organizational boundaries. The release will have Messaging , Identity ( Federated ) and workflow. Some now call it the ISB ( Internet Service Bus) what ESB is for applications within the organization , In a Software + Services world you will need an ESB on the cloud which is the ISB .
- WCF which is already there will be further extended in .net Framework 4
- Variety of Tools in Visual Studio 10 to support this
- Service Repository
When will OSLO be ready
Oslo is getting delivered through a set of applications . I pulled this graphic from a Handout at the SOA and BPM conference which gives a good view



I am sure we will be hearing more and more about OSLO in coming months .
Two things are clear 1. ) Microsoft does do SOA ( though they did not say so before ) 2. ) Microsoft does have a very good SOA story and a clear Roadmap to look forward to ..
The future is Plug and play :-) . What do you think . Leave me a note.
Read More

Releasing Source code for .net Framework , WCF, WPF , LINQ

Visual Studio 3.5 Release 2008 is coming with an icing on the cake . The .net framework libraries souurce code is being released under Microsoft Reference License (MS-RL).
The release will include full visual studio integeration and will intially have The .NET Base Class Libraries (System, System.IO, System.Collections, System.Configuration, System.Threading, System.Net, System.Security, System.Runtime, System.Text, etc), ASP.NET (System.Web), Windows Forms (System.Windows.Forms), ADO.NET (System.Data), XML (System.Xml), and WPF (System.Windows).

Additioanl release in months ahead will have WCF, Workflow, and LINQ !

Boy that is exciting , No more wondering what happens inside that sealed function and step right through ! Read more at ScotGu's Blog .

Custom XSLT in Biztalk Maps

Recently someone asked if you can use custom XSLT in Biztalk Maps . The answer is of course yes as the map you built .btm gets translated to an xslt anyway if yo look at the code that gets spewed out .
In any case to do that create the map and select source and destination . Click on the map and go to properties. There you will see a property custom XSLT . You can select your custom XSLT here . This feature was there since 2004 but I am not sure if it widely used though , on the flip side using custom xslt you kind of lose the graphical view on the map on what is being done , which many BI analysts like (the visual part of the transformation ) . but sometimes custom XSLT's could be the way to go .

Microsoft BPM and SOA Conference 2007

The dates for the Microsoft SOA and BPM Conference has been announced from Oct 29 to Nov 2nd in MS Campus in Redmond , WA. I like going to the SOA and BPM Conference as it is a more targeted to the line of work I do around BizTalk server 2006 and R2 and frankly between MVP Conference and SOA conference in a year takes up 7 days which I think are well spent on my conference allocation days. Hm.. last year there was a developer Track too . Apart from Keynotes from several MS Executives and technical leaders there are Over 60 breakout and chalk talk sessions, Hand-on-labs (Bring that External Hard Drive),Customer case-study roundtables ,Ask The Experts event and Partner Expo

Check out the Conference Site

Hey this looks like a marketing post ! But I would love to meet whoever you are there . So if you will be at the conference and wants to meet up drop me a line in the comments.

Covast BBot - Supply Chain Appliance

 

I was reading up about the new Covast  B2B Appliance the BBot.  The idea of appliances in a box is nothing new , but I think as a B2B appliance Covast is the first to offer one that offers supply chain end points an easy way to connect to larger partners .  BBot promises  built in RFID  and SOX compliance . Since it is an appliance model meaning you get the box plug it in and you are ready to configure and tweak it to your need . This model is beneficial because as small supplier you get the leveraged benefit of a common platform without a huge IT overhead  to integrate with your larger  partner and for the large partner it  makes their larger integration efforts more easier  because  previously larger partners had a tough time convincing its suppliers to put the kind of money into integration , or work with a variety of file formats all containing same data , or build out web front ends and rolling  them out to partners.  

Bbot seems to address all these pain points with an appliance model for supply chain . I am not sure as appliances model picks up we will see lower costs for these appliances ultimately benefiting everyone.

This will be interesting to watch . Read more here

BizTalk on VM machines( Virtual Server , Vmware)

Though it is known that BizTalk Server 2006 was supported on Virtual Server 2005 . There was a silence on its support for othe VM's . It is quite hard to get some good documentation on what is Microsoft's stand on other VM's . This KB I recently saw throws more light

As per latest documentation (June 7 , 2007 ) BizTalk 2004 and 2006 is supported on Virtual Server and from a guarded silence on VMWARE now it has been clarified as commercially reasonable support . Which means as long as the issue on the virtual platform does not require a code fix as such, Microsoft would support it .

If the issue is on say VMware, and if it can be reproduced on a non VM box Microsoft would support it. I have heard from fellow MVP's that some customers have already gone and deployed BizTalk solution on VMWare as Vmware was consistent with their overall IT virtualization strategy that included non-ms applications and superior features for eg. Until Virtual Server 2007 ther was not 64 bit support which VMWare already had.

Also there does not seem any case study on customers going live on the BIZTALk + Virtualk Server platform that I have been able to find.

The full text of the KB is reproduced below


SUMMARY

Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 and BizTalk Server 2004 are fully supported when they are installed on a supported operating system that is running on Microsoft Virtual Server 2005. Neither BizTalk Server 2006 nor BizTalk Server 2004 may perform as expected if you have installed it on a supported operating system that is running on a virtual machine (VM) other than Virtual Server 2005. BizTalk Server 2006 and BizTalk Server 2004 have not been tested on operating systems that are running on VMs other than Virtual Server 2005.

MORE INFORMATION

Product support for BizTalk Server 2006 and for BizTalk Server 2004 on a VM other than Virtual Server 2005 is provided as commercially reasonable support. Commercially reasonable support is defined as all reasonable support efforts by Microsoft Customer Support Services that do not require BizTalk Server 2006 or BizTalk Server 2004 code fixes.

If you experience a problem in BizTalk Server 2006 or in BizTalk Server 2004 on a VM other than Virtual Server 2005, and the problem cannot be resolved through commercially reasonable support, the problem must be reproducible in a non-VM environment or on Virtual Server 2005 for the problem to be escalated to the BizTalk Server Product group as a bug.

If you are planning a Virtual Biztalk Installtion . Do drop me a line , I am very much interested

BizTalk Services Announced

Some time back when I blogged about the future of BizTalk I got some pretty interesting comments , at that time I felt I could not reply more as it was still under NDA . Now that it is not as of today Microsoft is announcing BizTalk in the cloud or to give the newly christened name BizTalk services

What are BizTalk Services?
These services, which have been in internal incubation for the past year, represent hosted versions of some technologies developed in the Connected Systems Division. Included in this set of services are:
o Message routing – think of this as firewall friendly B2B messaging (Available now)
o Simple publish/subscribe event brokering – Pub/Sub at Internet scale (Coming soon)
o Simple federated identity and access control (Available now)
o Workflow processes – Simple templates for cross-organization integration and the orchestration of business processes interacting with multiple services (Coming soon)

Now that these services are in external mode ( pre-alpha ) MS will now host and manage the Infrastructure on a best-efforts basis. (No SLA) . This is presently free though need not be down the road .

This move as you will probably realise is in essence with Microsofts Software + Services vision

BizTalk Services will be available via labs.biztalk.net.