UK SOA/BPM User Group Meeting - 26th May 2009, London

The UK SOA/BPM User Group Meeting has been announced which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, 26th May 2009 at Microsoft’s London office between 6pm - 9pm.

Date & Time: 26th May 2009, 6PM - 9PM
Agenda: 6:00 - 6.10 Introduction
A quick catchup on user group related things.
6:15-7:10 Welcome to Ascentn
Ascentn will be introducing their ISV offering and what it offers UK Professionals in the development of BPM Solutions.
7:30 - 8.30: Still open for volunteers, interested people can contact Mick
Registration: http://sbug20090526.eventbrite.com/
Details: http://sbug.org.uk/forums/p/122/174.aspx#174

I have registered a place there, meet you there..

Thanks Nick for sharing this info, I have found it in your blog.

C# Generics works with BizTalk Server 2009 (Beta) :)

I have tried yesterday and it worked.  I am really one of the happiest persons to have C# Generics support in BizTalk.

Though Generics was introduced in Version 2.0 of C# and CLR, BizTalk till its version 2006 R2 doesn't support it. But now the story has changed. Yes, BizTalk Server 2009-Beta can support C# helper class with typed parameters i.e. Generics.

In the BizTalk Server version till 2006 R2, though we can't use the C# helper class which has Generics defined in it, we can utilise them indirectly by creating a wrapper class around them. By making this way, we can still abide the rules of BizTalk Server i.e. of not exposing the class with Generics in it directly. But now in BizTalk Server 2009 Beta, we don't have to search for any workaround for using Generics.

Lets see a real time example where we will use C# Generics with BizTalk. I have a database table called "Employee" which contains Employee details (obviously). And as part of the message processing in BizTalk I have to retrieve the Employee name for the given Employee ID. So I'll use a C# helper class to retrieve the EmployeeName for the EmployeeID which will be passed in as a input parameter to a method in it. I have to design the C# helper project in a object-oriented way something like

In the EmployeesDataProvider class, I have defined the Generics as..

public  List<Employee> employeeList = new List<Employee>();

to populate it with the result of "select * from Employee" then I'll add this to cache. So next time I'll populate the "employeeList" only if the cache is NULL. Thus avoids the database trips. And use Generics search functionality to get the result from the "employeeList" collection as..

Employee cusTemp = employeeList.Find(delegate(Employee _cus)
           {
               if (_cus.EmployeeID == strEmployeeID)
               {
                   return true;

               }
               return false;
           });

           if (cusTemp != null)
           {
               ret = cusTemp.EmployeeName.ToString();
           }

So the functionality of my helper class is:

Build the EmployeesList (typed class with Generics)from database if its not in the cache / other wise use the cached employee list and use the Generics's Find method to get the EmployeeName for the given EmployeeID.

Now in to BizTalk Server (till 2006 R2), inside the Orchestration's expression shape you may not be able to initiate the EmployeesDataProvider class. Reason being, this class has got the "Generics" type declaration. But now, the same works in BizTalk Sever 2009. Here you can see in BizTalk Server 2009-Beta, the class containing Generics recognised.

Download source code for "Generics in BizTalk Server 2009": http://cid-01845bf64da73117.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/INDWAY-Integration%20Services/TryGenerics.zip

Thanks to Connected Systems for providing us this feature.

 

Cheers

M.R.ASHWINPRABHU

BizTalk poster updated for BizTalk Server 2009

Microsoft technical editors have updated the BizTalk Server poster for their new BizTalk Server 2009.

http://blogs.msdn.com/nabeelp/archive/2009/02/04/biztalk-posters-updated-for-biztalk-2009.aspx

BizTalk Server 2004: Mainstream support expires soon

Microsoft's mainstream support for BizTalk Server 2004 applications is expiring on 14/07/2009. But the extended support is available till 08/07/2014. In the extended support phase

• Microsoft will not provide new non-security hotfixes.For those who require new non-security hotfixes during the Extended Support phase, they have to enrol themselves to the Extended Hotfix Support (EHS).
• “No-charge” support options are no longer available.This means that customers will need to open paid support cases (such as Premier, Pro or Pay Per Incident cases) to obtain support for their product.For Premier and Pro customers who already open paid cases with Microsoft will notice little difference in the support during extended support phase.

Support Provided	Till 14/07/2009(Mainstream support)	Till 08/07/2014(Extended Support )
Paid support (per-incident, per hour, and others)	Yes	Yes
Security update support	Yes	Yes
Non-security hotfix support	Yes	Requires extended hotfix agreement, purchased within 90 days of mainstream support ending.
No-charge incident support	Yes	No
Warranty claims	Yes	No
Design changes and feature requests	Yes	No
Product-specific information that is available by using the online Microsoft Knowledge Base	Yes	Yes
Product-specific information that is available by using the Support site at Microsoft Help and Support to find answers to technical questions	Yes	Yes

BizTalk Server - Product Life cycle: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?sort=PN&alpha=BizTalk+Server+2004&Filter=FilterNO

Microsoft is scheduled to release BizTalk Server 2009 by later this year (Its beta is already available for public:http://indway-is.blogspot.com/2008/12/biztalk-server-2009-beta-for-public.html). So if you plan to migrate your BizTalk server 2004 application, its advisable to wait for some time till the release of 2009 and migrate to 2009 to utilise the longer Microsoft support. And there is no direct upgrade path from BizTalk Server 2004 to BizTalk Server 2009. BizTalk server 2009 supports direct upgrade only from 2006 or 2006 R2.

Cheers

M.R.ASHWINPRABHU

 

BizTalk 2006 Documenter

Documentation is always an important part of any project. Automating the documentation hasn’t been achieved its excellence. But various documentation tools are available for public use which will help us to create a decent base. One of them is Darren Jefford’s BizTalk documenter.

Download BizTalk 2006 Documenter:

http://www.codeplex.com/BizTalkDocumenter/

I have always found this tool handy whenever I have been asked to work on an existing BizTalk solution. For instance lets say you have been asked to work on an existing BizTalk Solution which comprises of 40 projects!!! Navigating through its reference projects, to understand the flow is always a painful process. I always use this tool to generate a help-file out of these BizTalk projects.

In another project, since my client was very much satisfied with the document generated by this tool, I have configured to run this tool as part of automated build (used MS-Build). so whenever our project changes, the project document will also be updated accordingly.

This tool is simple self-describing tool. But I have faced some problems initially and the solution is as follows.

• Make sure that you have the HTML-Help compiler when you have opt to generate HTML-Help version (MS-Word version is also available) of document. Download the HTML-compiler from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=00535334-c8a6-452f-9aa0-d597d16580cc&displaylang=en

• “Unable to locate the help compiler executable”

Ensure the “HelpComplieLocation” variable is assigned to the exact path of the Help compiler “*.exe” file in the BizTalkDocumenter.exe.config file

• “There was an error generating the XML document.”

This error is due to tracking enabled in any of your send port. Just for documentation sake disables the tracking in your send port and rerun the tool again.

• “Item has been already added. Key in dictionary: 'xxx.xxx.xxx.Orchestration' Key being added:'xxx.xxx.xxx.Orchestration'”

In rare case this error might occur. Ensure you have selected only the required BizTalk Applications in “Select Documentation Type”.

Host, Host Instance, Host Group

Recently I have met some developers who were new to BizTalk. They were having very vague idea about BizTalk host, host group and host instance. We all learnt this by experience but for a beginner, understanding the host model in BizTalk might take some time. So let me post an article which explains these for beginners.

Host:

The BizTalk host is a logical, process boundary for BizTalk artifacts like Adapters, Orchestrations, Send Ports, Receive Locations and Pipelines.

• BizTalk Host is not a physical entity; it’s a logical boundary
• We assign the host to Adapters and Orchestrations, Transport Types and its corresponding handlers to Send Ports and Receive Locations.

Ok, so what is the actual use of the BizTalk Host? These separate process boundaries (Host) enable us to create security boundaries and facilitate management.

Let's say that your company where the BizTalk application is going to be deployed is

·         Having different set of security policies for sending and receiving message from their stakeholders – by using different security certificates for receiving and sending any messages or by using different policies in their firewall.

·         Having different security access rights to receive/process/send – this can be achieved by providing different windows group to a host, which controls the access to the host and its associated host instance(s) to database and other resources

·         Having different set of throttling configurations for send and receive messages

·         More receive intensive where your messaging system receives more messages, then you can isolate the receive locations in a separate host.

Microsoft’s recommendation for the HOST model is to have separate Receiving, Sending and orchestration hosts both logically and physically. This model has been proved to be the most optimal configuration for achieving the highest throughput.

Based on the physical configuration and type of adapter hosted within, there are two types of hosts:

1.    In-process hosts.

2.    Isolated hosts.

In-Process host:

The logical process boundary which gets executed and managed within the runtime process of BizTalk Server engine.  

Isolated host:

The logical process boundary which gets executed and managed from outside the runtime process of BizTalk Server engine. In most of the cases, they run under IIS process boundary. Hence the adapters such as HTTP and SOAP (The adapters that runs outside of the normal BizTalk Server runtime process) are managed under isolated host.

Since the Isolated host exist outside the BizTalk environment, the BizTalk Administrator tool is not designed to show the status of the host (like Started/Stopped)  

Host Group:

Host group is nothing but a Windows-group which will be assigned to the host to control its associated host instance(s) access to the database and other resources.

When you initially configure the host, you will provide a Windows group which will be used to control access of the host and its associated host instance(s) to database and other resources

Make sure that the Windows-group which will be assigned to the host has got the “Login access” to the BizTalk-SQL databases like:

• BizTalkMgmtDb
• BizTalkMsgBoxDb
• BAMPrimaryImport
• BizTalkDTADb
• BizTalkRulesEngineDb

A host group requires the following privileges:

• It must be a member of the BTS_HOST_USERS SQL Server role in the following databases:

  • Configuration
  • MessageBox
  • Rule Engine
  • Tracking
  • BAM Primary Import

• It must be a member of the BTS_<<in-process host name>>_USERS SQL Server role for the MessageBox database

• It must be a member of the BAM_EVENT_WRITER SQL Server role in the BAM Primary Import database.

If you use the Configuration Wizard to create hosts, and if you specify a local Windows group for the hosts, the Configuration Wizard automatically creates two Windows groups. The default names of these groups are the BizTalk Application Users group and the BizTalk Isolated Host Users group.

Host Instance:

A host instance is a run-time instance of host in a server. Host instance runs within the security boundaries of the host and executes message processing on each machine belonging to the host.

The host instance executes in the associated server inheriting the logical boundary defined in the host.

When you create a host instance of a host associated with the host group, the host instance inherits the database privileges of the host group.

BAM in Depth for Developers

I have been reading an excellent white paper on BAM, I thought I should share this info. This white paper provides a deep, low-level review of how BAM works and how BAM can be extended. This white paper can be found at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd320628.aspx

Cheers
M.R.ASHWINPRABHU