The Orchestration Designer add-in for Visual Studio is used to design workflows for use by the runtime orchestration engine. Like the Pipeline Designer, the interface features a toolbox, a design surface, and a Properties view. It also features the Orchestration view for the types and variables in an orchestration. In Figure, this view is at [...]

The processing of messages following reception or prior to transmission is the responsibility of receive and send pipelines. Although BizTalk includes two basic pipelines, more complicated messaging scenarios require you to use the BizTalk Pipeline Designer to construct a pipeline that fits your needs. The Pipeline Designer follows the pattern of the design-time tools we [...]

Application data comes in a variety of formats. Before BizTalk, integrating applications required the addition of sometimes extensive amounts of code within each application to perform the translation to and from each application’s format. The BizTalk messaging engine eliminates this code by providing runtime data translations during messaging or orchestration. To do this, BizTalk needs [...]

Programmers and designers use a series of add-ins to Microsoft Visual Studio .NET to design and implement integration projects with BizTalk Server. The tools are ·         Editor Design tool for specifying message schemas ·         Mapper Design tool for specifying the translation of one message schema into another ·         Pipeline Designer Design tool for building message [...]

Business processes embody complicated rules involving business objects and rules related to the business environment. BizTalk Server, therefore, separates rules from orchestration so that rules can be developed outside orchestrations. Business analysts may therefore capture important business logic that orchestration designers can refer to in their workflows. BizTalk uses the BizTalk Rules Framework as the [...]

Adapters are the software components that handle the reception or transmission of messages on specific protocols. BizTalk ships with the following standard adapters: ·         File Disk-based file exchange ·         HTTP Messaging using HTTP ·         MSMQT BizTalk Message Queuing, an enhancement of MSMQ shipped with BizTalk Server 2004 ·         SMTP Email messaging ·         SOAP Messages exchanged [...]

This is a concept specific to BizTalk. This is the stage where inbound XML or flat-file messages are broken apart into their constituent parts, the context information is captured, and data is properly readied for the MessageBox. Messages can be bundled for transmission using an envelope. In this case, a disassembler component must be used [...]

Receive ports and send ports are the originating and terminal endpoints, respectively, of BizTalk messaging. A message enters the BizTalk world through a receive port and leaves through a send port. Receive ports are logical arrival points that aggregate one or more receive locations. Each receive location is associated with a messaging protocol for example, [...]

BizTalk messaging separates the stateful part of messaging, messages and their context information, from the stateless part, the actual processing and delivery of messages. The MessageBox is a SQL Server database, and much of the functionality of BizTalk messaging is implemented as stored procedures. Messages are the irreplaceable part of BizTalk. If you interrupt the [...]

Messages are just an abstract way of looking at structured data. Any sort of structured data, such as XML, CSV flat files, or positional files, qualifies as a message in BizTalk messaging. BizTalk is designed with XML in mind, and, indeed, converts all messages to its own XML format inside the messaging engine to simplify [...]