Real World BizTalk 2020 For Developers

Explore BizTalk as middleware and an ESB for B2B and EAI, coordinating data across adapters, transforming messages with XSLT, and enabling BPM with send/receive ports and retry logic.

Explain BizTalk architecture and the publish/subscribe model, detailing the message life cycle from receive ports and pipelines through adapters to XML conversion, subscriptions, orchestration, and encode steps.

Explore the BizTalk runtime architecture, covering the message box database, receive and send ports, adapters, pipelines, orchestrations, the business rule engine, and BAM with dehydration and batching concepts.

Explore how a BizTalk host groups host instances across servers, assigns receive locations, orchestrations, and send ports to specific machines, and supports 32-bit and 64-bit host options.

Learn how BizTalk applications group artifacts and entities to organize integrations, and how the BizTalk admin console views schemas, receives, sends, maps, pipelines, with search and move capabilities.

Get an overview of BizTalk adapters, including WCF and built-in receive adapters, with examples like soap, http, pop3, ftp, and the file system in BizTalk admin console.

Explore how BizTalk schemas use the XSD standard with annotations to convert flat files to XML, and how envelope and property schemas support reusable name and address data.

Examine BizTalk maps, including map components and functoids, and learn to validate and deploy XSLT-based maps with c sharp scripting, using left and right schemas.

Explore how orchestrations coordinate business processes with graphical shapes, receive and process messages, loops, and decide shapes, and connect orchestrations from one to another in the BizTalk admin console.

Learn BizTalk pipelines, including pass-through and XML receive and transmit options, and explore custom pipelines that convert XML to CSV, with search and replace using regex in Visual Studio.

Explore the BizTalk business rule engine, using the rule composer to define shipping rules with priorities, defaults, and carrier methods, invoked from orchestration to modify XML messages.

Explore edi flows with x12 and edifact in biztalk, from 850 purchase orders to 855, 856 advanced shipment notices, and 810 invoices, plus as2, van networks, and trading partner management.

Learn how BizTalk BAM captures end-to-end data across orchestrations, tracks KPIs, and builds dashboards using activities defined in Excel, with viewing via Bam portal (deprecated) and alternatives like Power BI.

Explore the BizTalk ESB toolkit as an enterprise service bus built on BizTalk, covering the itinerary concept, exception management, a dedicated database, and Visual Studio integration.

Master the BizTalk server admin console by creating a receive port and location, a send port, and a pass-through file system workflow with publish-subscribe.

Enable and view BizTalk tracking to inspect inbound and outbound messages, including body and context, by enabling global, pipeline, and port level tracking and ensuring SQL Server Agent runs.

Explore common BizTalk errors, including suspended messages, directory not found, and no subscribers found, and learn to resume suspended instances via the BizTalk admin console and event logs.

Learn how to route a single BizTalk message to multiple subscribers using separate send ports or a send port group, with filters and macros to rename archived files.

Understand the three BizTalk port states: started, stopped, enlisted—and how enlist, start, stop, and un enlist move between them, with stopped as a rare hold state.

Create a BizTalk project in Visual Studio, build a customer order schema with line items and a shipping method enum, generate and validate on-disk XML samples, and plan multi-schema maps.

Create FedEx shipment and UPS shipment schemas in a BizTalk project, using attributes, renaming to ship to name, and mapping fields like ship from city, state, and zip.

Generate a data instance from the Fedex Shipment schema and validate files against the schema, creating and organizing sample XMLs in Visual Studio.

Create your first Biztalk map from customer order to Fedex shipment in Visual Studio, using a mapping grid for left and right schemas, and functoids for concatenation and simple math.

Test a BizTalk map with input and output, then inspect the XSLT behind the map. Validate the map, fix errors, and review the generated XSLT and field mappings.

Create a second BizTalk map from customer order to UPS shipment in Visual Studio, reuse the prior approach, set default country, and concatenate first and last names, then test.

Deploy your BizTalk project to enable content-based routing, archive orders, and route via maps from order to UPS and Fedex, with promoted fields and signed assembly deployed to the GAC.

Deploy and configure BizTalk 2020 artifacts, set up receive and send ports for xml data, apply maps and promoted fields, and test dropping files with archive and filtering.

Identify the 2–3 common errors in XML receive pipelines, such as bad XML and schema or namespace mismatches, and learn quick BizTalk diagnostics to fix and redeploy schemas.

Deploying the same schema twice triggers a runtime error: multiple schemas match the message type, blocking lookup; fix by undeploying duplicate or enabling allow unrecognized message in the receive location.

Build a simple biztalk orchestration in Visual Studio that receives an order, uses a business rule engine to choose a shipper (FedEx or UPS), and maps and simulates the response.

Develop a FedEx shipment response and a map from FedEx request to response in BizTalk orchestration. Test with sample XML and inline C# code, and adjust schema naming.

Debug and build C# code in Visual Studio to enhance maps before orchestration, handling data types and inline scripting for shipping costs and tracking numbers, and test maps.

Build and deploy a BizTalk orchestration in Visual Studio that processes customer orders, using a receive activation, messages, shapes, and a Fedex/UPS decision flow with transforms and port bindings.

Deploy and test a BizTalk orchestration by configuring signing, binding host and ports, starting services, and tracking the orchestration through inbound and outbound messages.

Learn to add a business rule to an orchestration using BizTalk's business rule engine, define policies and rules for customers like Dell and Amazon, set carriers, and test before deployment.

Publish and deploy the business rule in the BizTalk orchestration, manage rule versions, restart hosts, and test shipping scenarios via file drops and the orchestration debugger.

Create a FedEx correlation by defining a correlation type and set on the order ID, then receive the FedEx response and archive it to disk.

Practice testing BizTalk orchestrations by simulating long running, dehydrated states and rehydration after responses. Validate correlation by unique order IDs and observe persistence points across inbound and outbound messages.

Learn to export and import BizTalk business rules with the deployment wizard, create and deploy XML rule files, and understand their XPath, if statements, and reverse polish notation.

Build a validation pipeline in BizTalk, validate XML against a schema, configure document specs, and test with a sales tax value to surface type errors.

Learn how to integrate a custom Biztalk pipeline component to modify inbound messages, using regex or string replace, deploy via GAC, and test in a receive pipeline.

Create a flat file schema for a csv using the biztalk flat file schema wizard, defining a repeating customer record, comma delimiter, and integer age.

Build a csv receive pipeline with a flat file disassembler, configure a header schema, deploy and test via inbound/outbound folders, and map csv to xml.

Convert XML to CSV with a BizTalk syn pipeline using an assembler for outbound processing. Configure header schemas and default header values, and resolve document specification issues.

Master the basics of well-formed XML, including comments, namespaces, and unique root elements, using Notepad++ tools to validate, pretty print, and troubleshoot syntax.

Automate schema creation by converting an XML file with BizTalk's generated schema wizard, handling well-formed XML, installing the schema generator, and using two interrelated XSD schemas.

Explore XPath fundamentals, practice with notepad plus plus and XPath tester tools, and learn to extract full name, age, and other attributes from XML using brackets, namespaces, and predicates.

Explore schema reuse by importing a name and address reference into a flight info schema, linking schemas, and generating realistic XML instances with XPath as you reuse components.

Learn how to debatch a multi record XML file using envelope schemas in BizTalk, configure body XPath, and implement a double hop archive and process workflow.

Explore how promoted fields become context fields in BizTalk, using quick promote and property schemas to filter messages by airline and airports, and ensure changes take effect after deployment.

Download and unzip the OAGIS schemas, then create a BizTalk project in Visual Studio and include the XSD to work with a purchase order via openapplications.org/ten.

Explore how to validate schemas and generate test instances in BizTalk using right-click tools, fix type name collisions, and interpret validation feedback to create realistic sample data.

Explore sequence and choice groups in BizTalk schemas, define min and max occurrences, use any element and all group features, and validate generated instances.

Explore how XML represents empty, missing, and nullable elements, including empty strings, minOccurs=0, and x:nil="true". Learn how these cases affect XSLT output and mapping.

Map a flight reservation to flight data using a grid, linking by name or structure. Manage multiple pages, drag and drop between tabs, and preview grid to keep functoids organized.

Explore how XSLT behind a BizTalk map uses string concat to build passenger names, validate and test maps, and debug with breakpoints, stepping, and variable watch windows.

Explore string functoids in BizTalk maps, using concatenate and constants with mapped fields; compare left and right trim, and learn substring and length versus end position.

Explore mapping hierarchical contact data to a flat file with BizTalk functoids, using iteration, index, and value mapping with logical functoids to extract the cell phone.

Create a C# class library with a switch-based airport code to city-state lookup, then call it from a BizTalk scripting functoid via an external assembly.

Reverse the mapping from flight data to flight reservation by splitting first and last names with find and length. Build a looping factoid and table extractor to generate gated outputs.

Embed partial XSLT inside a scripting functoid in BizTalk maps using inline XSLT or inline call template, then test and troubleshoot with project references.

Explore essential XSLT concepts for real-world use, including the choose when/otherwise pattern, sorting, select distinct values, for-each loops, moonshine grouping, and embedded lookups with keys and variables.

Map flight reservation to flight data using XSLT 1.0 in a BizTalk 2020 project, edit the generated XSLT, refine variables and loops, and configure custom XSLT paths with grid properties.

Explore practical XSLT 1.0 mapping techniques by testing maps in Visual Studio, validating XML syntax, and wiring C# extensions via a custom extension XML to translate airport codes into cities.

Demonstrate using XSLT 1.0 templates as reusable subroutines and calling templates with parameters. Apply XPath to extract the first contact's work email, with debugging tips and syntax notes.

Refactor an XSLT 1.0 map with a callable template to generate work, home, and cell phone outputs, using variables and conditional output.

Explore using Saxonica to run XSLT 3.0 within BizTalk, compare editions, and troubleshoot via command-line testing and Visual Studio, including streaming and schema awareness features.

Explore using a spreadsheet to document BizTalk mapping for business analysts and developers, framing output first, mapping to inputs, and recording transformations, comments, and dates.

Deploy a BizTalk application by identifying dependencies, exporting and adapting bindings for production, exporting MSI or DSLS, importing production bindings, installing DLLs, and starting the application on the target system.

Learn to export and import msi files and bindings for production and test environments in BizTalk, connect schema lessons and flight reservations, and manage host instances and the GAC.

Deploy DLLs directly by importing them as BizTalk assemblies, optionally into the GAC, and automate with the BTSTASK command line or a batch file to replace MSI-based deployment.

Develop seamless deployment of business rules using the business rule engine deployment wizard, exporting and importing policies (and vocabularies when used), and deploying them to the BizTalk databases.

Learn to install a .NET assembly into the global assembly cache using GACUtil from the command prompt, including admin access and handling overwrites.

BizTalk 2020 adds an audit log to track who changed artifacts in the admin console and when, with configurable entries in the BizTalk Server Operational Data Service.