Question from Student:
So far in my readings I’ve been able to get a better understanding of what Biztalk is and the functionalities it provides as a whole.
If one is designing a custom application that utilizes functionalities of Biztalk, is there a way to embed it into your application when the situation does not call for the entire tool?
I see a lot of functionality within BizTalk that will come in handy for projects I’ve seen implemented at my company, but they don’t necessarily need the entire BizTalk. At some points it seems like using a bazooka to swat a fly.
BizTalk has a wealth of functionalities but the current environment here doesn’t call for all of them all at once.
How Do I scale down BizTalk to allow for smaller requirements?
That way, smaller projects have the potential to grow into larger scaled projects that will require even greater functionalities from BizTalk.
Instructor Response:
Regarding your question of “If one is designing a custom application that utilizes functionalities of Biztalk…” this has been a topic which comes up pretty often. Even Microsoft noticed that a number of applications we were building had workflow as a natural part of the application. For instance, SQL Server has a workflow component (SQL Server Integration Services), SharePoint needed workflow, Office needed a workflow component, not to mention Project Server, Exchange, and many others. And of course there’s BizTalk Server… which already included an excellent workflow engine which was being actively developed and improved with each release of BizTalk.
The problem was that each of these development teams was developing their own workflow engine. So instead of each team “re-inventing the wheel”, we decided to make the capability of providing workflow an extension of .NET Framework so anyone can leverage workflow within their application (including Microsoft). This extension of the .NET Framework 3.0 is called Windows Workflow Foundation. Using Windows WF, you can very easily embed workflow within your application. And you’ll see in the next releases of a lot of our products that they will also utilize Windows Workflow Foundation. In the future, BizTalk will also support Windows Workflow Foundation (as a matter of fact, the same development team is working on both BizTalk and Windows Workflow Foundation).
If you’re currently developing an application which needs to include workflow within it, I would recommend Windows WF. But if you need to develop an application which includes workflow across your organization and systems, I would recommend BizTalk.
Keep in mind that BizTalk is a true enterprise class server which provides many (many) features that are not included in Windows WF. In order to show where BizTalk fits, and where Windows WF fits, check out this slide deck:
http://dustins.officeisp.net/Shared%20Documents/Compare%20BizTalk%20and%20Workflow%20in%204%20Slides.ppt
But of course Windows WF does not address the communication capabilities that BizTalk’s adapters cover… so with that, Windows Communication Foundation can fill some of the gaps, but definitely not all. BizTalk adapters far outreach WCF in a number of ways.