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.