BizTalk 2006 - Windows SharePoint Services adapter : BizTalk Topics

Is there a way to configure one send port to send a message to a document library based on a parameter?

Adrian Hamza — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 01:59:00 GMT

This question comes up quite often that it deserves its own post. Is there a way to configure one send port to send a message to a variable destination based on a parameter? For instance when using WSS adapter, can you send a message to a different document library based on the message that's being processed?

The answer is yes, it's possible to do this in two ways:

using dynamic send ports, the destination URI and the configuration of the send port can be set programatically in the orchestration for every outgoing message. This method has the advantage that no ports have to be pre-created.
using role-links and parties. For each party you need to pre-create and configure a pyshical send port. You will have pretty much a party per destination. You enlist the parties in the appropriate role. Then, in the orchestration the only thing that you need to do is set the party associated with the role-link. The physical send port of the party associated with the role-link will be used to process the outgoing message.

I included below more information on how to do this using dynamic send ports which is the more simple & frequent approach.

The URL for a WSS adapter dynamic send port will be something like this:
     'wss://ServerName/sites/MySite/MyDocumentLibrary/' if you installed the web service on an HTTP site
     'wsss://ServerName/sites/MySite/MyDocumentLibrary/' if you installed the web service on an HTTPS site (notice the additional s in wsss://).

and you can set it programatically from the orchestration (like below) every time you sent out a message
     dynamicSendPortName(Microsoft.XLANGs.BaseTypes.Address) = "wss://ServerName/sites/MySite/" + lookedupDocLibName;

The rest of the send port configuration information must be set on the outgoing message using the Config* context properties documented here
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa547920.aspx

For instance:
    outgoingMsg(WSS.Filename) = "file1.xml";
    outgoingMsg(WSS.ConfigOverwrite) = "yes";
    etc.

Video 04-WSSAdapter-PropsInOrchestration.wmv shared here includes one such dynamic send port example
http://blogs.msdn.com/ahamza/archive/2006/04/18/WssAdapterVideosWebcasts.aspx

BizTalk Server 2004 SP2 Beta is available

Adrian Hamza — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 21:10:00 GMT

From my colleague Bill Ticehurst [MSFT]:

Hi all,

A beta release of Service Pack 2 for BizTalk Server 2004 is now available
from the Connect site. To obtain this beta perform the following steps:

- Go to http://connect.microsoft.com/
- Sign in with your Passport account (you need to do this step for it to be
visible)
- Click on Available Connections
- On the second table on the page you should see "BizTalk Server 2004 SP2
beta"

If you download and install this service pack then feedback on any issues or
problems encountered would be greatly appreciated (that's what beta is for
right!). The email address for feedback is bts4sp2f@microsoft.com .
Positive feedback will also be of value and is appreciated.

Thanks and regards,

- Bill Ticehurst [MSFT]

Custom Pipeline Component for Processing DBF, Excel and other ODBC types

Adrian Hamza — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 21:53:00 GMT

Matt Meleski implemented a custom pipeline component to process Excel or DBF files. I did not test this component myself but it seems that other people have tried and it worked well for them. This looks like a nice component that could complement the WSS adapter very nicely.

BizTalk Server 2006 TechCenter has been launched

Adrian Hamza — Tue, 02 May 2006 21:22:00 GMT

Yesterday, May 1st, we launched the BizTalk Server 2006 TechCenter (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/biztalk/). The TechCenter provides easy access to BizTalk Server 2006 technical documentation, downloads, and community, as well as to IT Pro favorites such as the Events & Errors Message Center. Each navigation page within the technical library includes quick access to search BizTalk Server newsgroups and knowledge-base articles as seen, for example, on the Getting Started page. Among many things, the site contains

Virtual labs
The end-to-end tutorial as downloadable Word docs
New content on Clustering BizTalk Server
Links to the Installation Instructions
Links to the Production Documentation published on MSDN

In addition to the TechCenter, we also launched the BizTalk Server 2006 Developer Center (http://msdn.microsoft.com/biztalk). This project constituted a complete rebuild of the previous BizTalk Server 2004 Developer Center. For May we are featuring orchestrations. This includes new code samples, an FAQ paper on orchestrations, and in-depth content surfaced from the core documentation. With the re-design of the site it's easier than ever to learn to develop, deploy, administer, and use BizTalk Server 2006.

from Michael McConnell / Technical Writing Lead / BizTalk Server

Parsing plain text messages/flat files received through POP3 adapter

Adrian Hamza — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 20:06:00 GMT

Recently I received this question from one of our customers, unfortunately his email address was wrong and I couldn't reply directly to him. Before leaving to the BizTalk Shipping party ... yuuhuuu... I thought to try and provide an answer. See below a scrubbed version of the email I received

I am trying to find someone to help me with few tips related to BizTalk 2006 and POP3 adapter - specifically parsing plain text messages as they are flat files.

We are currently evaluating BizTalk 2006. Parsing of the plain text email messages containing for example orders as the body of the message is one of our tasks.

Do you know of any good resource (blog, samples, ...) to recommend.

I already tried community newsgroups but no help there. I would expect that this is rather trivial task with BizTalk 2006.

POP3 adapter has a built-in MIME decoding feature which is enabled by default ("Apply MIME Decoding" property on POP3 receive location property page). So, when POP3 adapter receives a message, it will convert the email body into BizTalk message part. It will save other email headers on the BizTalk message context. You can use Flat-file disassembler component in the receive pipeline and retrieve the actual business data. You can find some basic information on POP3 adapter here: http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/techinfo/whitepapers/adapterwp.mspx (Open BTS2k6AdapterEnhance.doc)

Here is the online documentation for BizTalk Server 2006.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/bts06default/html/cadd3bdd-f13b-427d-8979-b2541aa5e21d.asp

If there are other questions, please follow up with me and I'll try to get some answers back to you. Please make sure you fill-in your email address correctly.

Upgrading from BT'04 GotDotNet WSS Adapter 1.0 to BT'06 native WSS Adapter

Adrian Hamza — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 09:30:00 GMT

I finally found some time and tried upgrading from BizTalk 2004 and GotDotNet WSS adapter to BizTalk 2006 and the native BT'06 adapter for Windows SharePoint Services. The idea was to start from a BizTalk 2004 installation with version 1.0 of Steve Resnick & Co. WSS Adapter (http://www.gotdotnet.com/workspaces/workspace.aspx?id=0d1aa85c-cf8d-497e-84f4-3ffec8db115f) , setup a simple messaging scenario using SharePoint, upgrade to BizTalk 2006, verify that messaging still works, upgrade to the native BizTalk 2006 WSS Adapter and then verify that messaging works with the new adapter.

I followed the steps below, in order to create a sample messaging test for SharePoint:

Created Source document library, then renamed it SourceDocLib (this trick causes the document library URL and the document library name to be different and this way I can see if WSSLib adapter really expects the URL or the display name of the document library). Created a View named ‘UpgradeDocuments’ that shows only those documents with ID >= 0 (probably all docs).
Created document library named 'Destination', then renamed it to 'DestinationDocLib'. Created folder ‘Dest Folder’. Added columns SharePointColumn1, and SharePointColumn2.
Created document library named 'Archive', then renamed it to 'ArchiveDocLib'. Created ‘My Folder’ folder in the library just created.
Created receive port and receive location for WSSLib adapter. Used all the fields available in order to make sure that similar field exists in native BT'06 adapter.
Created send port for WSSLib adapter, used all the fields.
(See the exported bindings or the UI captures below to see how the ports were configured. If you want to repro my test, after importing the bindings, you will have to update the filter on the send port to process messages received from the receive location by adding BTS.ReceivePortName == WSSLib-Receive condition. Only then start the send port.)
Sent test messages (see attached).
Exported all bindings.

See images below for the receive location and send port settings:

WSSLib - Receive Location	Receive Location XML <Config xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <pollingInterval>10</pollingInterval> <errorThreshold>10</errorThreshold> <site>http://demoappserver/Sites/BASSite</site> <folder>Source</folder> <view>UpgradeDocuments</view> <archiveFolder>Archive/My Folder</archiveFolder> <uri>http://demoappserver/Sites/BASSite/Source</uri> <userName /> <userPassword>******</userPassword> <userDomain /> </Config>
WSSLib - Send port (upper and lower part of configuration dialog box)
Send Port XML <Config xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <uri>wss://demoappserver/Sites/BASSite/Destination/Dest Folder</uri> <site>http://demoappserver/Sites/BASSite/</site> <folder>Destination/Dest Folder</folder> <overwrite>true</overwrite> <fileName>%GUID%</fileName> <fileExtension>xml</fileExtension> <fileNamespace>po0="http://MyTestNamespace"</fileNamespace> <userName /> <userPassword>******</userPassword> <userDomain /> <propertyName1>SharePointColumn1</propertyName1> <propertySource1>=//po1:PurchaseOrder/po1:Amount</propertySource1> <propertyNamespace1>po1="http://MyTestNamespace"</propertyNamespace1> <propertyName2 /><propertySource2 /> <propertyNamespace2 /> <propertyName3>SharePointColumn2</propertyName3> <propertySource3>=//po3:PurchaseOrder/po3:ChargeTo</propertySource3> <propertyNamespace3>po3="http://MyTestNamespace"</propertyNamespace3> <propertyName4 /> <propertySource4 /> <propertyNamespace4 /> <propertyName5 /> <propertySource5 /> <view/> </Config>

Once I configured the messaging I've sent a couple of messages through (see attached) to make sure that everything is working fine.

UPGRADE

I followed these steps http://geekswithblogs.net/darko/archive/2006/01/24/66866.aspx in order to upgrade to BizTalk 2006. The upgrade went through without problems. Another place where you can find upgrade information is this blog http://blogs.msdn.com/biztalk_upgrade/default.aspx Because my BizTalk 2004 installation had the BAS feature installed, after upgrade, both BAS and Windows SharePoint Services Adapter Web Service features were installed on the machine (even though the latter does not show up as enabled in setup, it's there because BAS requires it). If your BizTalk 2004 installation didn't have BAS, after upgrading your SharePoint box, you will have to start setup, add Windows SharePoint Services Adapter Web Service feature, and configure it. That's easy and straight forward so I won't go into details.

After upgrade, I browsed to the BAS site (SharePoint site) to see if SharePoint was still working fine and it didn't. I received the following error:
This Windows SharePoint Services virtual server has not been configured for use with ASP.NET 2.0.50727.42. For more information, please refer to Knowledge Base article 894903 at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=42660.

Troubleshoot issues with Windows SharePoint Services

The KB article just tells you to run one command. I run the command below:

stsadm.exe –o upgrade –forceupgrade –url http://demoappserver/sites/BASSite

restarted IIS and after that the BAS site shown up without problems. I started the BizTalk services that I stopped during upgrade, sent a few SharePoint messages through and everything worked fine.

Updating the ports

So I proceeded to update the receive location and send port in order to change from WSSLib adapter to 'Windows SharePoint Services' adapter. First thing I did, was to stop the BizTalk Host Instances that were used by the WSSLib adapter. This is probably not necessary, but in a couple of cases I noticed that the WSSLib ports don't shutdown appropriately and I didn't want to run into issues. After that, for each of the receive location or send port I changed the 'Transport Type' property from 'WSSLib' to 'Windows SharePoint Services' and then re-configured the send port/receive location like below.

'Windows SharePoint Services' - Receive Location	Receive Location XML <ReceiveLocation xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"> <SiteUrl>http://demoappserver/Sites/BASSite/</SiteUrl> <WssLocation>Source</WssLocation> <ViewName>UpgradeDocuments</ViewName> <ArchiveLocation>Archive/My Folder</ArchiveLocation> <NamespaceAliases></NamespaceAliases> <ArchiveFileName></ArchiveFileName> <Overwrite>no</Overwrite> <ErrorThreshold>10</ErrorThreshold> <PollingInterval>10</PollingInterval> <BatchSize>20</BatchSize> <OfficeIntegration>optional</OfficeIntegration> <Timeout>100000</Timeout> <AdapterWSPort>80</AdapterWSPort> <uri>wss://demoappserver:80/Sites/BASSite/Source?ViewName=UpgradeDocuments</uri> </ReceiveLocation>
'Windows SharePoint Services' - Send port (upper and lower part of configuration dialog box)
Send Port XML <SendPort xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"> <SiteUrl>http://demoappserver/sites/BASSite/</SiteUrl> <WssLocation>Destination/Dest Folder</WssLocation> <Overwrite>yes</Overwrite> <NamespaceAliases>po0="http://MyTestNamespace"; po1="http://MyTestNamespace"; po3="http://MyTestNamespace"</NamespaceAliases> <FileName>%MessageID%.xml</FileName> <OfficeIntegration>optional</OfficeIntegration> <TemplatesDocLib></TemplatesDocLib> <TemplatesNamespaceCol></TemplatesNamespaceCol> <CustomTemplatesDocLib></CustomTemplatesDocLib> <CustomTemplatesNamespaceCol></CustomTemplatesNamespaceCol> <PropertyName1>SharePointColumn1</PropertyName1> <PropertySource1>%XPATH=//po1:PurchaseOrder/po1:Amount%</PropertySource1> <PropertyName2></PropertyName2> <PropertySource2 /> <PropertyName3>SharePointColumn2</PropertyName3> <PropertySource3>%XPATH=//po3:PurchaseOrder/po3:ChargeTo%</PropertySource3> <PropertyName4></PropertyName4> <PropertySource4 /> <PropertyName5></PropertyName5> <PropertySource5 /> <PropertyName6></PropertyName6> <PropertySource6 /> <PropertyName7></PropertyName7> <PropertySource7 /> <PropertyName8></PropertyName8> <PropertySource8 /> <PropertyName9></PropertyName9> <PropertySource9 /> <PropertyName10></PropertyName10> <PropertySource10 /> <PropertyName11></PropertyName11> <PropertySource11 /> <PropertyName12></PropertyName12> <PropertySource12 /> <PropertyName13></PropertyName13> <PropertySource13 /> <PropertyName14></PropertyName14> <PropertySource14 /> <PropertyName15></PropertyName15> <PropertySource15 /> <PropertyName16></PropertyName16> <PropertySource16 /> <Timeout>100000</Timeout> <AdapterWSPort>80</AdapterWSPort> <uri>wss://demoappserver:80/sites/BASSite/Destination/Dest%20Folder</uri> </SendPort>

Once I updated all the send ports and receive locations, I re-started the host instances, and sent a few messages through. All the messages were processed correctly in the same manner as before and this concluded my upgrade experience. Please notice that my upgrade test was done using version 1.0 of the WSSLib adapter. On GotDotNet there is an RC for the WSSLib adapter version 2.0. A comparision of that WSSLib2 adapter and BizTalk 2006 native 'Windows SharePoint Services' adapter can be found here http://blogs.msdn.com/ahamza/archive/2005/07/27/BizTalk2006WSSAdapters.aspx The only feature supported by WSSLib2 that is not available in the native BT'06 adapter is storing the Username/Password in SSO per send port/receive location. The native BT'06 adapter uses the identity of the host instance to connect and authenticate with SharePoint. Upgrade from WSSLib2 to BT'06 native WSS Adapter should be just as straight forward.

Regardless of the adapter version from which you are upgrading, if you are using some of the adapter context properties in your orchestrations you will have to update your orchestrations to use the WSS.* context properties and that will require you to recompile and redeploy your orchestrations.

BizTalk Server 2006 has RTM'd

Adrian Hamza — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 20:22:00 GMT

BizTalk Server 2006 has RTM'd today ... best BizTalk ever, shipped on time and a very high quality server product. See the announcement here.

http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/story/0,10801,109944,00.html

http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/breakingnews.jhtml?articleId=183702861

Of course, my favorite BT'06 features are are WSS Adapter, BAS and BAM ... because my colleagues and I worked on many of these features ... ;-)

I've been working in BizTalk team for 4 years now, this is my second BizTalk release, and I really like the things that I do here. The product and the people are great, there are MANY great opportunities, the mix of technologies that we use or develop is exciting and challenging. This is one of the best places to be at Microsoft. If you are interested, check this post on how to get your resume posted and join the team http://blogs.msdn.com/biztalk_server_team_blog/archive/2006/03/21/556067.aspx
Normally, I would get borred working on the same product for 4 years, but that was not the case with this product. I decided to stay with the BizTalk team and work on the next version of BizTalk that should be even better. However, I will change teams inside BizTalk, I am moving to the engine/message box team. I have admired the work they've done for quite a while now and that seems to be the right place for me going forward.

If you haven't done this already, take a look at the latest BizTalk release here http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/default.mspx

BizTalk Server product management team has a new blog

Adrian Hamza — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 01:58:00 GMT

Let's say welcome to the BizTalk Server product management team that has a new blog, with Mike Woods, Kris Horrocks, Steve Sloan, and Mark Berman contributing content every week. They’re ready to carry the momentum leading up to and after the ’06 release with great posts, so keep an eye on their blog.

If you are new to BizTalk then take a look at 'BizTalk Beginner Training Roadmap'

"I cannot access the MSMQC adapter properties in an orchestration" issue

Adrian Hamza — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 05:09:00 GMT

Recently, somebody asked me how to access the MSMQ label from BizTalk, in order to access some information that is passed by its own C# application through the MSMQ label.
See issue described below.
----------------------------------
Below I give my problem, Please give me a good solution for me.
I have a C# application. It has an upload page. If user uploads a XML file,the C# application reads it and send this to MSMQ as a Message.
The code is below.

StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(Path); string str; str = sr.ReadToEnd(); System.Messaging.Message mm = new System.Messaging.Message(); mm.Formatter = new ActiveXMessageFormatter(); mm.Body = str.ToString(); mm.Label = UserID; mq.Send(mm);

I create a Orchestration with receive and send ports. The receive ports looks message from the MSMQ using MSMQ adapter. then I use schemas and maps to transfer the Message. After that, I use a file adapter for save the final message to a folder.

Every thing works fine. My problem is, I want to identify the User who uploads the file. In C# application I set the label for the message as USERID.

I want to save the name of the output file is [userid].xml.

I use %SourceFileName% and MsgOut(FILE.ReceivedFileName) to rename the output file. But how to get the userid from the C# application and set the file name. I cant able to access MSMQT.Label in Expression Editor. Because I use MSMQ adapter. Please give me a good solution.

The main problem is identify the user who uploads the file.
----------------------------------
The problem with the existing implementation of MSMQC lies in the MSMQPropertySchema.xsd file that seems to be incorrect.
This XSD schema must be updated so that the properties are marked as context properties. To do this, select each property and change the "Property Schema Base" property from default value (no value) to MessageContextPropertyBase. Once you do this, re-build and re-deploy the updated schema project, and you should be able to access these properties from your orchestration.
This is how the schema should look like

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<xs:schema xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003/msmqc-properties" xmlns:b="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003" targetNamespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003/msmqc-properties" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:annotation>
    <xs:appinfo>
      <b:schemaInfo schema_type="property" xmlns:b="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003" />
    </xs:appinfo>
</xs:annotation>
<xs:element name="AppSpecific" type="xs:int">
    <xs:annotation>
      <xs:appinfo>
        <b:fieldInfo propertyGuid="ec76abf6-1c10-4383-8182-635eaf20a790" propSchFieldBase="MessageContextPropertyBase" />
      </xs:appinfo>
    </xs:annotation>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="ArrivedTime" type="xs:dateTime">
    <xs:annotation>
      <xs:appinfo>
        <b:fieldInfo propertyGuid="3d8ae2da-2f26-4422-a68a-67f005cf32c8" propSchFieldBase="MessageContextPropertyBase" />
      </xs:appinfo>
    </xs:annotation>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="Authenticated" type="xs:boolean">
    <xs:annotation>
      <xs:appinfo>
        <b:fieldInfo propertyGuid="36e29190-e4cc-4e64-b181-4a63488ccd75" propSchFieldBase="MessageContextPropertyBase" />
      </xs:appinfo>
    </xs:annotation>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="CorrelationId" type="xs:string">
    <xs:annotation>
      <xs:appinfo>
        <b:fieldInfo propertyGuid="d16e9d65-f742-4982-9c71-59089fa23b22" propSchFieldBase="MessageContextPropertyBase" />
      </xs:appinfo>
    </xs:annotation>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="Id" type="xs:string">
    <xs:annotation>
      <xs:appinfo>
        <b:fieldInfo propertyGuid="c0e64a4d-8a6f-4b21-936c-5531abb255f4" propSchFieldBase="MessageContextPropertyBase" />
      </xs:appinfo>
    </xs:annotation>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="Label" type="xs:string">
    <xs:annotation>
      <xs:appinfo>
        <b:fieldInfo propertyGuid="1ff2b7af-2dd8-4b38-8360-2373e5fb05f6" propSchFieldBase="MessageContextPropertyBase" />
      </xs:appinfo>
    </xs:annotation>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="Priority" type="xs:int">
    <xs:annotation>
      <xs:appinfo>
        <b:fieldInfo propertyGuid="7f13d6b8-21c6-4914-9025-b91dc03c0b24" propSchFieldBase="MessageContextPropertyBase" />
      </xs:appinfo>
    </xs:annotation>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="ResponseQueue" type="xs:string">
    <xs:annotation>
      <xs:appinfo>
        <b:fieldInfo propertyGuid="8cf607f9-165e-43c8-b730-07559d876b5c" propSchFieldBase="MessageContextPropertyBase" />
      </xs:appinfo>
    </xs:annotation>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="SentTime" type="xs:dateTime">
    <xs:annotation>
      <xs:appinfo>
        <b:fieldInfo propertyGuid="603ffea4-4fd9-443c-9362-b662b8aacddb" propSchFieldBase="MessageContextPropertyBase" />
      </xs:appinfo>
    </xs:annotation>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="SourceMachine" type="xs:string">
    <xs:annotation>
      <xs:appinfo>
        <b:fieldInfo propertyGuid="32fbdf7b-d19f-4e27-9b45-331810780eef" propSchFieldBase="MessageContextPropertyBase" />
      </xs:appinfo>
    </xs:annotation>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>