Microsoft BizTalk Server Basics

Introduction

• BizTalk belongs to the Microsoft Server family • Connects disparate systems together • Communication among systems are established through messages • All messages inside Biztalk are XML data • Since XML can be interpreted in any system, BizTalk helps in connectivity

Need for communication

• An organisation may follow a software with different configuration for a process and another software with entirely different configuration to take care of another process • Both processes may depend on each other’s data • For example a company’s attendance system need to be connected with payroll system • Or a purchase order need to be communicated to invoice generating system

History of BizTalk Server

• 2000 – Microsoft Released the first Version of BizTalk – Editor – Writing XML Data – Mapper – Translate data from source format to destination format – Management Desk – Tracking data – Protocols supported – EDI, HTTP, HTTPS, MSMQ, SMTP, FTP

History (contd...)

• 2002 – Next version. Not much change • 2004 – Added Human Workflow Services (HWS) and Business Activity Services – Supported by .Net framework 1.0

– Integrated VS 2003 support for editor and mapper • 2006 – Business Activity Monitor (BAM) was added. Also Health and Activity Tracking component for tracking the server status was added.

– .Net framework 2.0 support – Integrated VS 2005 support

History (Contd...)

• 2007 – Also called as 2006 R2 (Release 2). – Rich UI administration was incorporated.

– .Net Framework 3.0 (WCF, WF) support • 2009 – Recent version.

– RFID support – Separate RFID Server)

Overview of Basic Configuration

• Basic configuration does not allow remote SQL server. To use remote SQL server use custom configuration • The following need to be configured: – Enterprise SSO (Single Sign On) • This is used for managing credentials of users who can log on the server.

• Enterprise SSO Secret BackUp – This keeps the password that can be used for taking a back up of credentials in case of any system crash.

• After configuring this component a database SSODB is created in MS SQL server

Basic Configuration Contd..

• Group – Collection of settings that govern the way BizTalk server behaves and the data store it uses – After this step the following databases – BizTalkMgmtDb, BizTalkMsgBoxDb, BizTalkDTADb are created • BizTalk Runtime – This is to manage the routing capabilities

Basic Configuration Contd..

• MSMQ – Microsoft Message Queue. This is to manage messages that are transferred to and from the server • Business Rules Engine – This configuration takes care of business rules necessary for the server.

– The configurations are stored in BizTalkRuleEngineDb. – Service used is Rule Engine update service.

– Initiates action based on evaluation

Basic Configuration Contd..

• HWS – Human Workflow Services – Two components • HWS Runtime • HWS Webservice – encapsulates the functionality of client applications like sharepoint to provide workflow capabilities to information workers – DB – HwsDb – Service – HWS Runtime Account and HWS Webservice Account – This dynamically composes workflow

Basic Configuration Contd..

• BAM – Business Activity Monitor – BAM Tools – Provides business users a set of monitoring tools • BAM Alerts – Notification services are provided based on subscription – Uses DB like BAMAlertsNSMainApplication • BAMPrimaryImport, BAMStarSchema, BAMArchieve, BAMAnalysis are the other databases used – BAM Portal – Service used is BizTalk EDI/AS2 Runtime. Messages are sent and received using EDI/AS2 Protocol

BizTalk Editor - Overview

• Editor is used for generating Schema.

• BizTalk generates XDS (XML Schema Definition) as the application communicates through XML • Editor comes as a part of Visual Studio IDE.

• In VS IDE, create a biztalk project and add a schema file to create a schema.

Creating XSD

• Open Visual Studio 2005 (if you are using BizTalk 2006 and higher version) • Click on File -> New Project • Select BizTalk Projects and click on Empty BizTalk Application • Give a name and click OK • In the solution explorer, right click on the project and select Add -> New Item • Select Schema Files on the left pane and select Flat File Schema Wizard.

• Refer to the screen shots for further processes.

Editor Overview

Flat File Schema Wizard

• Refer to notes page for explanation

Generating XML from the XSD

• Right click on the Project and select Validate Schema • Once the validation is over, click on Generate Instance Message.

• An empty XML file with sample data entry in accordance to the schema will be generated.

• This XML file can be modified and used with any application that supports XML.

BizTalk Mapper - Overview

• Mapper is a tool that is used for mapping data • The source data is mapped with the destination data • Since BizTalk involves with connecting disparate systems, the source data need to be transformed to another format acceptable by the destination.

• Hence Mapper plays a vital role.

• Mapper too comes integrated with VS IDE.

Creating Maps

• Open BizTalk Project containing the XSDs • Right click on the project and select Add -> New Item.

• Select Maps in the left pane and Empty Map in the right pane • Give a name for the map and click OK • It will open a GUI where we can select the source and the destination schema and map accordingly.

• Refer to the screen shots for more details.

Functoids

• Functoids are functions that can be used with mapper.

• The source data can be applied with functoids and transformed to destination friendly data.

• Many functions for manipulating strings (concat, uppercase conversion etc), numbers (add,multiply etc), scientific functions (log, exponent etc), database are available.

• Refer to the tool bar, the violet color box in the grid in the previous picture.

BizTalk Administration Console

• Administration console is used for performing administrative tasks like – Starting and stopping an application – Taking reports concerned with messages transferred, application usage etc – Configuring send and receiving ports – Adding resources to the application – Managing Orchestration, Maps, Schemas, Pipelines for the application

BizTalk Application

• Feature of biz talk server that helps in deployment, management, trouble shooting of biz talk server solutions • Logical grouping of artifacts – Biztalk and .Net assemblies – Send ports, groups – Receive ports, locations – Policies – Certificates, scripts, COM Components – BizTalk specific resources (schema, map, orchestration, pipeline)

Orchestrations

• To add orchestration for a biz talk project, right click on the project and select Add -> New Item • Select Orchestration from the left pane and empty orchestration from the right pane • Give a name for the orchestration and click OK • A new orchestration designer with a file extension odx is opened.

• Use the tool bar to add components that we want.

Pipelines

• To add pipelines for a biz talk project, right click on the project and select Add -> New Item • Select Pipelines from the left pane and either send pipeline or receive pipeline from the right pane • Give a name for the pipeline selected and click OK • A new pipeline designer is opened.

• Use the tool bar to add components that we want.

Receive Pipeline

• This is for transforming data at the receiving end • It has – Decoder – to decode the incoming data (MIME decoder) – Disassembler – to convert data (flat file or any) to XML – Validator – to validate the generated XML against a schema (XSD) – Party Resolver – To determine identity of party from who the message is received.

Send Pipeline

• This is present at the sending end for transforming the outgoing message • It has – Pre assembler – optional component containing custom tools – Assembler – Converting XML data to destination data – Encoder – To encode the outgoing data

Human Workflow Services

• This is for dynamically configuring workflow • We can define constraints and lot of other condtions and design the workflow.

• HwsDb stores details about workflow.

• Refer to screen shots in the following slides for more details about Human Workflow Services

Business Rule Composer

• This is used for composing business rules • We can set an action to be performed upon an occurrence of an event • Actions are evaluated based on the facts (rules) • We can compose vocabulary (definitions) or policy (logical grouping of rules) using business rule composer.