BizTalk 2006 native adapter for Windows SharePoint Services versus GotDotNet Windows SharePoint Services adapter, which one should you use? In my previous post, I have mentioned the shared source WSS Adapter available on GotDotNet and the fact that Microsoft has included a similar adapter in BizTalk 2006. So which one should you use? Well….the BizTalk native adapter if you ask me. But if you want to decide for yourself then look at the table below that compares the two adapters.  I highlighted the better adapter capabilities using bold. I will follow up with a later post to detail each of these feature comparisons and why I have considered one adapter or the other to have a better implementation. Don’t hesitate to comment on this if you consider that information below is not accurate.

Feature BizTalk native adapter GotDotNet v2 adapter My Comments
Automatic setup and configuration
Available out of the box		 Yes No Automatically setup and configured when installing and configuring BizTalk Server 2006.
Dynamic integration with InfoPath
Discover the appropriate InfoPath solution and use it to open the XML document.		 Yes No The BizTalk native adapter supports searching in document libraries for a matching InfoPath solution that can be used to open the Xml document.
Custom InfoPath Integration through pipeline Yes Yes The standard XmlTransmit pipeline or a custom pipeline can be configured to add an InfoPath PI to the Xml document in order to have the Xml document open in InfoPath.
Performance counters Yes No BizTalk native adapter implements a total of 10 performance counters.
Message property promotion into WSS
BizTalk metadata or values extracted from the message using XPATHs can be saved in the SharePoint file columns.		 Yes (16 columns max) Yes (5 columns max) Very similar capabilities but the syntax is slightly different. Both adapters support %MessageID% macro, GotDotNet adapter also supports the random %Guid% macro. BizTalk native adapter supports combining multiple macros including the XPATH macro.
File name definition
File name definition based on message content and BizTalk properties.		 Yes Yes Similar capabilities but different syntax (see Unified expression syntax).
Archive - file name definition and overwrite settings
Archive file name definition based on message content and BizTalk properties. Overwrite setting can be set explicitly for archived files.		 Yes No The BizTalk native adapter allows you to specify a file name when the received file is archived. This is useful because different users use different file naming conventions but the archived files in general require a consistent naming convention. The overwrite archived files setting can also be configured explicitly.
Unified expression syntax Yes No BizTalk native adapter supports same expression syntax for all receive location/send port properties. GotDotNet adapter has different syntax for different fields. BizTalk native adapter has a more consistent expressions syntax and more robust expressions validation. It also supports combining multiple macros including the XPATH macro.
Promotion of WSS file metadata to BizTalk message context properties
WSS file information is made available to BizTalk through message context properties. These properties can be used from pipelines, orchestrations, CBR, etc.		 Yes Yes All GotDotNet adapter context properties except ReceivedView are supported by the BizTalk native adapter or can be computed from a similar property.
BizTalk native adapter supports additional properties and it also supports custom SharePoint columns through WSS.InPropertiesXml property.
Send to list
Sending documents to an arbitrary list (instead of document library).		 Yes No In this case the document itself is not stored in WSS but the property promotion still happens so a new list item is created and the column values are retrieved from the message. Receiving from a list is not supported.
Dynamic send ports Yes Yes Both adapters fully support dynamic send ports. All send port properties can be configured through the context properties.
Physical ports configured through context properties Yes Yes Both adapters support configuration of all physical send port properties through the context properties.
The BizTalk native adapter is more flexible, it supports all GotDotNet supported scenarios and more. BizTalk native adapter allows BT admins to change the send port settings defined in orchestration without recompiling the orchestration.
Runtime/Web Service interaction over HTTPS Yes No Both adapters support exchanging messages with HTTP/HTTPS SharePoint sites but only BizTalk native adapter can do it over HTTPS. BizTalk native adapter runtime supports HTTP/HTTPS when communicating with the adapter web service. The GotDotNet adapter seems to not support HTTPS for communication with the adapter web service (this might be a bug).
Username/Password in SSO per endpoint No Yes GotDotNet adapter supports Username/password properties stored in SSO in order to connect to the WSS using other credentials than the host credentials. BizTalk native adapter supports only integrated authentication/NTLM.
Multiple receive locations pointing to same document library Yes Yes Same capabilities. The URI scheme and format are different.
Support for binary messages Yes Yes Can be used to move Office or PDF files using PassThrough pipelines.
Batching Send
Receive		 Receive BizTalk native adapter implements batching both on send and on receive side. GotDotNet adapter implements batching only on receive side. Batching on send should improve performance.
Error threshold on receive Yes No BizTalk native adapter receive locations can be configured to automatically shutdown after a specified number of consecutive errors. This feature can be disabled by setting error threshold to zero.
Source code available No Yes GotDotNet adapter is made available by Microsoft under a Shared Source License so the code is available. BizTalk native adapter is shipped with Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 as a native adapter and no source code is available.
Supported by Microsoft Yes No BizTalk native adapter is shipped with BizTalk 2006 so IMO it is supported by Microsoft. GotDotNet adapter is not supported by Microsoft.
Performance/stress tests N/A N/A Nothing available yet.