Marcus Rosen.NET

The first BTS 2006 has finally hit the shelves!! It seems alot of author have decided to hold off releasing their books until BizTalk Server 2006 R2 has been released but here is a book that takes the plunge.

BizTalk 2006 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach is based on the experiences of many of the most prominent experts in the field. It features over 170 problem-solving recipes for BizTalk developers and administrators.

BizTalk Server 2006 builds on the heritage and core architecture of BizTalk Server 2004, leading to a powerful tool that encompasses the latest Microsoft technologies and industry standards for automating and managing business processes. BizTalk Server 2006 adds incremental value to BizTalk 2004 by improving administration, deployment, and other key areas of the product.

Book Web Site

Suppose you came across a flat file format that describes a header, a footer and a collection of different types of unrelated object (e.g., CAT, DOG, CAR, HOUSE, SPACESHIP). Each object have a different stucture and it's own TAG identifier.

The format could look like this:
<Header Comment>, <Sequence Number>, <Date of Transmission>; <List of objects>;<Total Number of objects>,<Sequence Number><CR LF>

Each object is a completely different structure and a has unique tag identifier e.g:
<Tag Identifier> <List of Fields separated by , >;

And example of the example of data looking like this could be (colour coded for readablity):

A Header Comment, 12345678910, 2006-09-19;CAT Garfield,5 Years,50KG;DOG Odie,Drowles Everywhere,Loves Everything,10KG,2 Years;CAR Mazda 323,Marcus Rosen,123 QYW,Red,1999;CAR Honda Accord,Belinda Something,567 QWE,Silver,1997;HOUSE 10 Somewhere,Some Town,Some Country,12345;SPACESHIP The Falcon,200 Lightyears,Luke Skywalker;CAT Tiffany,13 Years,12KG;CAR BMW 318i,Scott Martin,412 YQW,Metallic Blue,2006;8, 12345678910;

Can you create a Flat File Schema that supports multiple repeating TAG identifiers in the BizTalk Schema Editor?

YES you can but it's not really straight forward, hence this post!!

Unfortunatly I lost the images that were previously uploaded here but the example files are still avaliable for download.

Download Example

Here is a great older post by Brian Loesgen trying to weed out the confusion about when to use Windows Workflow Foundation versus Biztalk Server 2004/2006.

http://geekswithblogs.net/bloesgen/archive/2005/10/09/56481.aspx

Sreedhar Pelluru, Programmer Writer on the BizTalk Server team has a great post (with code examples) about changes in the Business Rules engine between BizTalk 2004 and 2006.

Change Summary:

• Support for generic types and generic methods
• Support for nullable types
• Accessing nested members of a class
• Type Casting support
• Invoking Static Members of a Class
• Overriding registry key setting with application configuration file.
• GetDeploymentDriver method added to Configuration class
• Clear method added to the Policy class
• IFactRemover interface added.
• SqlTimeOut registry key added.
• Arithmetic and logical operators support double promotion

On the 30th of August I had the pleasure of presenting to the Brisbane BizTalk User Group - BrizTalk. The presentation covered a solution I implemented last year using DSML (Directory Service Markup Language) and BizTalk Server 2004 to move users between a mainframe system and MS Active Directory.

Unfortunaly the Powerpoint presentation has been lost. :( I will post it here again if it surfaces.