Simple Biztalk Project

Introduction

This Article is designed for the BizTalk Beginners to start with the Simple application, which would give the outline experience in handling Messages in BizTalk.

In BizTalk, the flow of messages can be designed two different approaches.

1. Message only Solution (Without Orchestration)
2. Orchestration based solution

As I have covered the Message only solution on my other article, I am taking up the Orchestration based approach here. We should always keep in mind that,

In message only solution,

physical receive port is a publisher and physical send port is a subscriber.

In Orchestration based solution, the message makes a round trip to the orchestration

>Physical Receive port-Publisher

>Logical Receive port-Subscriber

>Logical Send Port-Publisher

>Physical Send Port-Subscriber

Lets design a simple solution to understand how orchestration based solution works...!

Scenario

To perform simple transformation using orchestration in BizTalk

Steps

1. Creating a biztalk Input & Output Schema
2. Creating a Map and testing the map
3. Configuring Biztalk Orchestration
4. Deploying BizTalk Application
5. Testing the Application

Tutorial

Get Ready...

1. Start>>Visual Studio 2010 >> Biztalk >> Biztalk Empty Project>> Name your Empty Project/Solution as SimpleBizTalkOrchestration

   

2. Create a Receive Schema Goto Solution Explorer>>Add new item>>Schema>>schema1(name it as ReceiveSchema)

   

   

3. ReceiveSchema>>In the Root RightClick(RC)>>Add New Child Element>>Name it as FirstName

4. Repeat the above step to create another elements as LastName

   

   

5. Repeat the steps 2 and 3 and create another schema (name it as SendSchema) and create an element as FullName

   

Creating a Map

1. Solution Explorer>>Add new item >>Map (name it as MapTransform)

   

2. You will find an interface with Source Schema and Destination Schema on Left and Right side of a Canvas

   

3. Click on source schema>>Biztalk Type Picker window will open>>Expand the Tree Structure>>Expand the Schema>> Select the Receive Schema and SendSchema for the Source and Destination respectively

   

4. Expand the root elements on Send and Receive schemas

   

5. Now Goto Toolbox>>String Functoid>>String Concatenation functoid>>Drag and drop to the canvas

   

6. From ReceiveSchema drag the connect the FirstName and LastName to the FullName

   

Test the Map

1. Generate an instance of input schema, by right click and click on generate instance.

   

2. Edit the file from its output location and Assign the generated xml’s full path to the input instance of map

   

3. Test the map by clicking on Test map

   

Configuring Orchestration

Orchestration is a logical representation of a flow of message in BizTalk. Let design the flow for our application with the below steps

1. Solution Explorer>>Add new item>>Orchestration (name it as SimpleOrch)

   

2. All the schemas have to be linked to a message in an orchestration. So we need to Assign the Receiveschema and SendSchema as a message. Goto Orchestration pane and create a message as ReceiveMsg

   

3. Assign the ReceiveSchema to the message type from the Schema tree selection

   

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 and assign SendMsg with SendSchema

   

5. Now, Drag and drop Receive shape Transform shape and Send shape from toolbox as shown below

   

6. Now we need to create Physical ports, Right click on the Port surface and click on New port.

   

   Double click on the new port and and go through the wizard,

   

   

   Configure the Port binding as shown below, you can also mention the Port binding as specify later

   

7. Repeat the above steps for Send port also as shown below

   

8. You can now see the physical ports being configured as below

   

9. But if you notice, you can see error icons on top of each shape, because we didn’t configured it yet.Now we need to tell receive shape,

1. what message it has to receive by assigning the RcvMsg to receive shape
1. Right click the properties of receive shape and assign RecvMsg to the message
2. To which physical port it has to be linked(Operation)
1. Assign RcvPort.Operation_1.Request to the operation

3. Activate to true, which will trigger your orchestration

Repeat the same for Send port with the configurations below

configure transform shape by double clicking the transform shape , in which we will assign the Maps for transformation as shown below

If you notice now, all our error icon has gone, which means we have configured all shapes.

Pre-Deployment Steps

In order to deploy the application, follow the below steps

1. All the BizTalk Application has to be signed before deploying. Got to project properties>>signing tab>>Create a new key and assign it
2. In Deployment tab, Give the Application name as SimpleBizTalkOrch,Our application will be deployed in this name in BizTalk Administration console.

Deploying the Application

All set, we are ready to deploy now J

Right click on the project , and click on deploy

Deploy succeeded message will be displayed in the output window.

Receive shape: It’s a logical receive port in orchestration which subscribes to the message

Post-Deployment Steps

1. Goto BizTalk Administration Console, check whether application is listed
2. Check whether Receive location, send port and Orchestration are unenlisted/disabled state
3. Goto Orchestration>>Right click on SimpleBizTalkOrchestration.SimpleOrch>>Properties>>Bindings tab>> assign the Host instance as BizTalkServerApplication

   

4. Now create desired input and output folder before starting the application, because receive location will not get started, if the location is non-existing
5. Now Right click on the application and start it
6. Make sure, Orchestration, Send port and Receive location are in started state
7. Restart the Host Instance
8. Your Application is Ready to Test now

Testing the Application

1. Create an XML Document as per the ReceiveSchema or use the generated instance
2. Make sure the XML file is prepared as ReceiveSchema Structure(FirstName and LastName as elements)

   

3. Copy that XML file and Paste it in the Receive folder which you had created
4. The Biztalk Application will pick up that XML file>. You can see the file will get disappeared with in a few seconds after you place that
5. When you open the Send folder you would find a generated XML file with the filename as Output.xml with the element FullName(as per our SendSchema)

Summary

The Message from the File location is picked up by the Physical receive port and published to the message box database, this message will be subscribed by the Logical receive port in orchestration. This incoming incoming message is transformed to another format using a map and published into message box through logical send port and this message is subscribed by the physical send port and sent to the destination file folder.

With this we have completed the simple BizTalk Orchestration Application, Have an Happy Start to the Biztalk J