BizTalk Blogs

Centralizing and simplifying WCF configuration with SO-Aware

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:27:00 GMT

It's not a secret that WCF configuration management is one of the biggest challenges that companies face when adopting WCF as part of their enterprise solutions. Whether the declarative capabilities of the WCF programming model enable a great level of...(read more)

Sitecore uses Windows Azure and SQL Azure for Enterprise content management solution

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:39:31 GMT

Hear Darren Guarnaccia from Sitecore on usage of Azure for their solution.

Darren Guarnaccia from Sitecore on Azure

BizTalk Server 2010 Beta: Enhanced FTP adapter with FTPS support on BizTalk Hotrod

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:23:15 +0000

This is the fourth in a series of posts on the new features included in BizTalk Server 2010 Beta. Even though new message transmission protocols and standards like the ones supported by WCF are becoming the first choice for data exchange nowadays, the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is still very popular. FTP has been supported [...]

Cloud Provider Request: Notification of Exceeded Cost Threshold

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:25:37 +0000

I wonder if one of the things that keeps some developers from constantly playing with shiny cloud technologies is a nagging concern that they’ll accidentally ring up a life-altering usage bill. We’ve probably all heard horror stories of someone who accidentally left an Azure web application running for a long time or kept an Amazon [...]

Web based database management for SQL Azure now Available

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:45:44 GMT

Microsoft® Project Code-Named “Houston” is a lightweight and easy to use database management tool for SQL Azure databases. It is designed specifically for Web developers and other technology professionals seeking a straightforward solution to quickly develop, deploy, and manage their data-driven applications in the cloud. Project “Houston” provides a web-based database management tool for basic database management tasks like authoring and executing queries, designing and editing a database schema, and editing table data. It is now available on SQL Azure Labs

Following are few screenshots for the tool, looks really cool

Management page showing all info about the database

Use New Query to fire queries

Double click table, view or stored procedures to view the design view

BizTalk User Group Sweden – Bonus Session (for your manager)

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:34:44 GMT

As you should by now, we are hosting a BizTalk Release Party in Stockholm on the 8th-9th of September, featuring Richard Seroter, Stephen W. Thomas and Ewan Fairweather. All the sessions will be technical (level ~300) and targets Developer/Architects. The event is almost full (150 attendees), however Richard will do a one hour “bonus event” about the hype around Cloud Computing which targets CTO, CIO, Senior Manager or similar.

This will be a great event for your Manager, and we urge you to recommend it. The session starts at 13:15 on the 9th of September.

Välkommen!

Using “Houston” to Manage SQL Azure Databases

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:07:07 +0000

Up until now, your only option for managing SQL Azure cloud databases was using an on-premise SQL Server Management Console and pointing to your cloud database. The SQL Azure team has released a CTP of “Houston” which is a web-based, Silverlight environment for doing all sorts of stuff with your SQL Azure database. Instead of [...]

Proxy Peckin’ Order

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:06:22 GMT

Proxy configuration for BizTalk has always been fairly straight forward. Go to the send point and click the “Configure” button then select the “Proxy” tab. Couldn’t be much easier.

A recent case pointed out what happens when the “Do not use proxy” option is selected. It turns out there is a hierarchy to the proxy assignment.

1	Send Port
2	BizTalk App Config
3	Machine Config
4	local IE user setting

Selecting “Do not use proxy” from the send port does not mean no proxy will be assigned. Some messages were getting a proxy assignment and other were not. This can be caused by logging into the BizTalk box using the account running the BizTalk host. The local box assigns the IE proxy settings to this user. Now one BizTalk box could be different than the others. Not only will the proxy settings be picked up, but also the IE “Automatically detect settings” configuration is also picked up. This can adversely impact BizTalk processing.

The solution is simple. Don’t leave proxy settings to default. Set the BizTalk app config to the appropriate settings. Here are a couple of links to deal with these issues.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;968699 auto detect issue

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/kd3cf2ex.aspx Configuring the default proxy settings

Microsoft Integration Story… When to use what Technologies Where

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:46:36 GMT

Hey folks,

As we’re all aware there’s more than one road that leads to Rome when dealing with integration. When to use SSIS? For what? What about MSMQ? AppFabric and BizTalk etc.

At TechEd this year I’ve decided to run some preconference training dealing with this exact issue across many different Microsoft Integration Technologies.
(This is one of the biggest questions I get from customers)

If you’re heading to the Gold Coast this year, then this training is before TechEd – get up a couple of days early and then be fully charged and armed with all your questions….

---- here’s the official blurb----

When to use what Technologies Where [LINK is Here]

AppFabric, Azure Storage, BizTalk 2010, BizTalk Adapter Pack, WCF, WF, Oslo, MSMQ, .NET4 Distributed Caching, SQL Service Broker, SSIS and SharePoint 2010 Service Applications...to name a few technologies to be confused about.

There is no silver bullet for application integration. Different situations call for different solutions, each targeting a particular kind of problem. While a one-size-fits-all solution would be nice, the inherent diversity of integration challenges makes such a simplistic approach impossible. To address this broad set of problems, Microsoft has created several different integration technologies, each targeting a particular group of scenarios.

Together, these technologies provide a comprehensive, unified, and complete integration solution.

Come on a 2-day adventure examining each of these technologies and reviewing the When, Why's and How's on each, with their own distinct role to play with integrating applications. When you come through the other side you'll be able to slot each of these technologies into a *practical* use.

This developer workshop is based on real world examples, real world problems and real world solutions.

Join me and be prepared to roll up your sleeves and unravel the maze that awaits....

TECHED LINK

K2 blackpearl now supports Visual Studio 2010

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 04:18:00 +0000

K2 announced the release of its process designer, K2 Designer for Visual Studio, with Visual Studio 2010 support. It is fully integrated into the Visual Studio 2010 project system, featuring seamless integration with Team Foundation Server and MSBuild. It leverages the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) based canvas allowing users to visually design processes. K2 wizards generate [...]

SharePoint 2010: Flash Gotcha…

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:51:43 GMT

I’m in the process of planning a SP2007 to SP2010 ‘migration’ moving over the content database and other web artifacts.

I was making sure all things were ticked off and available in the new SP2010 environment such as – additional external scripts, paths, externally accessible images, webparts + flash movie files.

Migrated over – fired up the browser and after some minor tweaking most things came over, except for the flash movies.

The flash movie was not being displayed.

So naturally you think – must be a path, permission, activeX, flash object declaration, upload or even a masterpage might need a tweak…

Fired up FireBug in firefox and went to work – we could access the *.swf file directly from within the browser, but when the Page loaded with the link in there… no go.

In fact we got a ‘304 not modified’ response within FireBug – which seems pretty normal if the flash player already has the movie locally and it’s just comparing the server version versus the local…but still no flash playing.

SharePoint 2010 Web Applications restrict ‘active’ content – aka Flash out of the box.

After some digging and a seemingly unrelated option appeared in Web Application –> General Settings.
Browser File Handling - Default setting: STRICT

This was the culprit, setting this to permissive did the trick.

Wow! Have a great weekend folks!

San Diego Connected Systems/Architect SIG – Slides and Demos

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:18:29 GMT

Last night I spoke to a great crowd at a joint meeting of the San Diego Connected Systems and Architecture SIGs. I talked about WCF RIA Services and focused on the internals of what is going on with deferred execution queries, metadata for entities, and the services under the covers, as well as exposing OData, SOAP, and JSON endpoints and consuming them.

Here are the slides and demos.

Los Angeles .NET Users Group Slides and Demos

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:10:03 GMT

I gave a talk on Monday evening at the Los Angeles .NET Users Group on WCF RIA Services, MVVM, and MEF. I was insanely ambitious thinking I could cover all those in one talk, but it was a fun talk nonetheless. It was a very interactive crowd with a lot of great questions about Silverlight in general, RIA Services, Entity Framework and other broader technology topics.

Here are the slides and demos.

How to Boost Performance of the ESB Routing and Transform Services – Part 2

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:09:00 GMT

Introduction In the first part of the article, we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of Dynamic Send Ports and we introduced two custom components that allow, respectively, to use Static Send Ports instead of Dynamic Send Port with an ESB Itinerary...(read more)

Microsoft Codename “Dallas” a hit at WPC 2010

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:06:10 GMT

Today at WPC 2010 both Steve Balmer and Bob Muglia spoke about Dallas. Dallas is revolutionary service build on Microsoft Azure Platform that enables ISVs and developers to subscribe to trusted public and premium data from various content providers like US Gov, UN, Singapore Tourism Board, WolframAlpha, LexisNexis etc…

Key announcements by Bob Muglia included preview of updated Dallas experience, Dallas GA in Q4, Dallas CTP3 in 30 days and new content provider partners.

Check out Zane Adam, GM Azure(SQL Azure, Azure AppFabric and Dallas)’s blog for more details. There is also some great information on the announcements on Dallas blog by Moe Khosravy(Group Manager, Dallas).

Awesome Tweet on Dallas after the demo…

#WPC2010

Interview on the Silverlight Show

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:32:28 GMT

In conjunction with the 10 part series on WCF RIA Services in am part way through writing for the Silverlight Show, I also did a short interview with them about RIA Services, Silverlight in general, and my background. You can find that interview here: http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/SilverlightShow-Interview-Featured-Article-Author-Brian-Noyes.aspx

Sending StreamInsight Events to BizTalk Through New Web (SOAP/REST) Adapter

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 03:40:59 +0000

One StreamInsight usage scenario frequently discussed by the product team involves sending a subset of events (or aggregated complex events) to the Enterprise Service Bus for additional processing and distribution. As I’ve mentioned before, StreamInsight doesn’t come with any out-of-the-box adapters. So if you want to make this usage scenario a reality, it’s up to [...]

Announcing Cumulative Update 2 for Biztalk Server 2006 R2 SP1

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 01:06:00 GMT

Keep your BizTalk Server up to date with the most recent cumulative update package for Biztalk Server 2006 R2 SP1. This package contains all of the Biztalk Server 2006 R2 hotfixes that have been released since the initial release of SP1.

CU#2 KB Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2211420
Biztalk Server Solution Center

Previous CU KB Articles:

CU#1 KB Article:

SSO/Biztalk Service fails to start after applying .NET 4.0

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:18:00 GMT

Recently we noticed an issue with ESSO with .NET 4.0 that could potentially affect Biztalk and HIS customers. We have released an update for ESSO on DLC along with a KB explaining the issue. The fix is also scheduled to go on the upcoming Microsoft Update.

SSO service fails to start after applying .NET 4.0. This is caused by a missing assembly registration entry in the SSO installation. The assembly is bound to CLR 2.0 but there is no specific entry for this requirement.

SSO is a required service for Biztalk and HIS and hence these services also would fail to start.

This issue can also be repaired by using the regasm tool to re-register the SSOSQL assembly. Regasm.exe is included with the .Net Framework.

32-bit Server
1.       Open a command window
2.       Go to C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
3.       Type: regasm “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Enterprise Single Sign-On\ssosql.dll”

64-bit Server
1.       Open a command window
2.       Go to C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727
3.       Type each of the following and hit ENTER:

32bit: regasm “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Enterprise Single Sign-On\win32\ssosql.dll”
64bit: regasm “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Enterprise Single Sign-On\ssosql.dll”

Note On a 64-bit server, regasm will need to be run for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of ssosql.dll.

Thanks

Guru

BizTalk version overview updated

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:37:17 +0000

I updated the BizTalk version overview table. The table now also shows BizTalk 2010 information. I also updated the corresponding PowerShell script. Mainly for my own needs I moved the table to a place where I can easily find it. It is now a separate page accessible through the title bar of my blog. You can find it [...]

What is the Windows Azure AppFabric?

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 05:33:16 GMT

This is a great whiteboard video on Windows Azure AppFabric from Channel 9.

Updating an existing published web service doesn’t work

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:39:35 GMT

Hi all

The other day a developer who needs to call a BizTalk exposed web service approached me and told me that there was an error in the wsdl – something about the Response having the wrong fields.

So, I fixed it – I changed the XSD and ran the WCF Service Publishing Wizard again.

I called the developer and told him that everything was fine now. He refreshed his service reference and told me that everything was just as it was before. So I thought; Restart IIS.. and I did. Developer goes: Jan, what is wrong with you? Everything is still the same!

So now I actually need to start thinking…

Turns out, that silly I just did this:

Made my changes to the XSD
Recompiled
Run the Wizard

Point to the newly compiled assembly
Finish the wizard

BUT, what I forgot was to deploy the newly created assembly… or at least GAC it. Because the wizard, even though you point to a .DLL in the file system, will look for the assembly in the GAC with the same strong name and used that instead of the .DLL you chose. To me this is really silly… It could at least provide a warning that it will ignore the assembly I chose before ignoring it.

Anyway, after deploying the new assembly, everything worked just fine.

--
eliasen

BTARN Deploying XSD Based PIP's

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:53:06 GMT

The link below instructs the user in step #3: "Select the first folder under the XML folder, drag it to Solutions Explorer in Visual Studio, and drop it into your project. Repeat for each of the sub-folders in the XML folder, creating the same folder structure in your project." While this is a great way to get the schemas into the project it leaves out an important step. Click on one of the imported schemas and notice in the properties box the "Build Action" is set to "None". This must be changed to "BTSCompile" or nothing will be deployed. When the setting is correct the application should show the schemas from the BizTalk console.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb886929%28BTS.10%29.aspx

How to Boost Performance of the ESB Routing and Transform Services – Part 1

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:37:49 GMT

Introduction Recently I had chance to work with a couple of customers that make extensive use the ESB Toolkit (specifically, V 2.0 in this case) in their BizTalk solutions, and to exchange ideas with some of you regarding the alleged performance problems...(read more)

BAM Portal Configuration Error

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:26:13 +0000

When configuring the BAM portal on a x64 Environment I got this error and I had this previously but somehow forgot what was the fix. Start registering ASP.NET scriptmap (2.0.50727) at W3SVC/2/Root/BAM. Error when validating the IIS path (W3SVC/2/Root/BAM). Error code = 0×80040154 The error indicates that IIS is in 64 bit mode, while this [...]

What is SQL Azure?

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:53:38 GMT

This is a great whiteboard video on SQL Azure from Channel 9. Trying to consolidate resources on the blog. :)

What is the Windows Azure Platform?

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:50:58 GMT

This is a great whiteboard video on Azure from Channel 9.

Updated Ways to Store Data in BizTalk SSO Store

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:44:30 +0000

One of my more popular tools has been the BizTalk SSO Configuration Data Storage Tool. At the time I built that, there was no easy way to store and manage Single Sign On (SSO) applications that were used purely for secure key/value pair persistence. Since that time, a few folks (that I know of) have [...]

Invoking BAPI Transactions from a Workflow

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 06:15:00 GMT

When working with BAPI(s) in WCF SAP adapter, the transaction handling requires that the BAPI_TRANSACTION_COMMIT/BAPI_TRANSACTION_ROLLBACK call be issued on the same SAP connection that was used to execute the BAPI. The Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0 does not have a notion of “session” scope that can be used to club multiple LOB activities to use the same underlying WCF channel. Because of this limitation, the BAPI transaction scenario breaks if you use the LOB Activities. To get this scenario to work, you need to create a custom activity that will use the generated proxy class to make the BAPI call and then invoke the commit/rollback on the same proxy class instance. This ensures that the calls go over the same underlying WCF channel and thus the same SAP connection.

Here’s a code snippet that illustrates the use of custom Code Activity to execute BAPI_MATERIAL_SAVEDATA

public sealed class BapiMaterialSaveDataActivity : CodeActivity<BAPIRET2>

{

// TODO: Expose any properties for setting the arguments

protected override void Execute(CodeActivityContext context)

{

BapiBUS1001006Client client = new BapiBUS1001006Client();

// TODO: Intialize the parameters

BAPIPAREX[] EXTENSIONIN = new BAPIPAREX[0];

BAPIPAREXX[] EXTENSIONINX = new BAPIPAREXX[0];

BAPI_MEAN[] INTERNATIONALARTNOS = new BAPI_MEAN[0];

BAPI_MAKT[] MATERIALDESCRIPTION = new BAPI_MAKT[1];

BAPI_MLTX[] MATERIALLONGTEXT = new BAPI_MLTX[0];

BAPI_MFHM[] PRTDATA = new BAPI_MFHM[0];

BAPI_MFHMX[] PRTDATAX = new BAPI_MFHMX[0];

BAPI_MATRETURN2[] RETURNMESSAGES = new BAPI_MATRETURN2[0];

BAPI_MLAN[] TAXCLASSIFICATIONS = new BAPI_MLAN[0];

BAPI_MARM[] UNITSOFMEASURE = new BAPI_MARM[1];

BAPI_MARD STORAGELOCATIONDATA = new BAPI_MARD();

BAPI_MARDX STORAGELOCATIONDATAX = new BAPI_MARDX();

BAPI_MARMX[] UNITSOFMEASUREX = new BAPI_MARMX[1];

BAPIMATHEAD HEADDATA = new BAPIMATHEAD();

BAPI_MARC PLANTDATA = new BAPI_MARC();

BAPI_MARCX PLANTDATAX = new BAPI_MARCX();

BAPI_MARA CLIENTDATA = new BAPI_MARA();

BAPI_MARAX CLIENTDATAX = new BAPI_MARAX();

// Execute the BAPI

BAPIRET2 result = client.SAVEDATA(CLIENTDATA, CLIENTDATAX, null,

null, null, null, HEADDATA, null,

null, null, null, PLANTDATA,

PLANTDATAX, null, null,

STORAGELOCATIONDATA, STORAGELOCATIONDATAX,

null, null, null, null, null,

null, ref EXTENSIONIN, ref EXTENSIONINX,

ref INTERNATIONALARTNOS,

ref MATERIALDESCRIPTION,

ref MATERIALLONGTEXT, ref PRTDATA,

ref PRTDATAX, ref RETURNMESSAGES,

ref TAXCLASSIFICATIONS, ref UNITSOFMEASURE,

ref UNITSOFMEASUREX);

// Commit the BAPI

client.BAPI_TRANSACTION_COMMIT("X");

return result;

}

}

Sandeep Prabhu,

BizTalk Server Team

Handling of authentication for LOB Activities - Part II

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 05:57:00 GMT

In the previous blog post, we went over how to pass authentication information for WCF SQL, WCF Oracle DB, WCF SAP and WCF Siebel adapters. WCF Oracle E-Business adapter poses some additional challenges since in some case two sets of credentials – one for the Oracle DB and one for the Oracle E-Business server – may be required. Below are few options that can be used to authenticate in such scenarios.

Using custom endpoint behavior

The approach is exactly the same as defined in the previous blog post. In addition to retrieving the Oracle DB credentials and populating the ClientCredentials behavior, we will additionally retrieve the Oracle E-Business credentials and populate the relevant binding properties with that information.

        public void
            ApplyClientBehavior(
                ServiceEndpoint endpoint,
                ClientRuntime clientRuntime
            )
        {
            ClientCredentials clientCredentials = endpoint.Behaviors.Find<ClientCredentials>();
            Debug.Assert(clientCredentials != null, "ClientCredentials behavior not present");

            // TODO: Add your code to retrieve the credentials from a secure
            //       store. For illustration purpose, the values are hard-coded
            clientCredentials.UserName.UserName = "Foo";
            clientCredentials.UserName.Password = "Bar";

            // TODO: Add your code to retrieve the credentials from a secure
            //       store. For illustration purpose, the values are hard-coded
            PropertyInfo oapUsername = endpoint.Binding.GetType().GetProperty("OracleUserName");
            Debug.Assert(oapUsername != null, "OracleUserName binding property not present");
            oapUsername.SetValue(endpoint.Binding, "FooApps", null);
            PropertyInfo oapPassword = endpoint.Binding.GetType().GetProperty("OraclePassword");
            Debug.Assert(oapUsername != null, "OraclePassword binding property not present");
            oapPassword.SetValue(endpoint.Binding, "BarApps", null);
        }

Putting the credentials in the configuration file

The Oracle E-Business credentials can be specified by setting the binding properties – oracleUserName and oraclePassword – in the configuration file. Note that this poses a security risk since the credentials are now stored in clear text in the config file. You need to ACL that file properly.

The Oracle DB credentials can be specified using any of the mechanisms specified in the previous blog post.

Sandeep Prabhu,
BizTalk Server Team