We spend a bit of our time interacting with customers, partners and other concerned citizens who take the time to write out some feedback. Microsoft is very customer focused and spends time working through these "verbatims" at different levels. The Connected...

Are you interested in a concise summary of some of the scale-out options for BizTalk Server R2? How about if the summary was a poster you could print out, tack to a wall, and cover with Post-It's? If so, look no further than the BizTalk Server 2006...

BizTalk Server has a vibrant community full of smart folks offering up tricks, tips and gems. Some great sites include the following listed in no particular order and definitely incomplete: BizTalk Server at Codeplex . The BizTalkDisassembler...

Marty and Scott have an article in this month's MSDN Magazine, "8 Tips and Tricks For Better BizTalk Programming". Each tip (I am not giving any away) is reinforced with useful details and examples. The article also includes a short list of resources...

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Beta 2 is now available from the Microsoft Connect Site. If you are not a member of the BizTalk Server 2006 R2 connect community, you can still get a copy of the beta through the Microsoft Connect Site, but it takes some persistence...

Do you have a hankerin' for a 117 meg (55 meg compressed) PDF file containing the full documentation set (almost 20k pages) for BizTalk Server 2006? Hanker no more because it is now available here . Is this too much to digest at one sitting? Let me...

Still lurking...

There are software tools for just about anything these days. One class of tools lets users like you and me convert a CHM into other formats including, not surprisingly, PDF. Sure, you could grab a copy of most of the BizTalk Server 2006 documentation...

And they want their music back. You do too? Check out Club 977 The 80's Channel and plug in. Come on Eileen!

The uber collection of all SDK samples published to the BizTalk Server developer center has gone live here . Make sure you have some megs available on yer hard drive -- about 50 or so -- or you will be unhappy when you unpack 'em. I caught a couple...

Still here, just not full of compelling content for the ol' blog.

Do you have any questions about BizTalk Server that you have been itching to ask but haven't? Post them here or send them to me v/o this blog and I will try to chase down an answer. Here are a few disclaimers/rules/humorous asides: No existential...

We have received a few requests to create a single zip file containing all of the SDK samples on the BizTalk Server Developer Center Code Samples page . Since this is something I can do quickly outside of formal channels, I grabbed a copy of all of the...

Short post, this one. While flying around the west coast, I fell into a discussion of the relative merits of Eclipse versus Visual Studio. I tend to use Visual Studio and, for smaller files or quick edits, Ultra Edit. I did take a look at Eclipse a...

Is there a BizTalk Server 2006 orchestration in your future? This post is a modest attempt to catalog some of the many useful tidbits of information out on the web. It will evolve over time. Legend blog = blog post core = BizTalk...

A new whitepaper Understanding Design-Time Properties for Custom Pipeline Components in BizTalk Server is available here . From the blurb: This article explores the details of designing and building Microsoft® BizTalk® Server 2004 and BizTalk Server...

Looking for information about writing a map in BizTalk Server 2006? This post is a modest attempt to catalog some of the many useful tidbits of information out on the web. Legend blog = blog post core = BizTalk Server 2006 core...

Liza, a Technical Writer on the BizTalk Server 2006 Documentation team, is investigating updating the Operations section of the documentation. A large part of this effort is accomplished through customer feedback and in finding out what is missing, incorrect...

Back in school, someone loaned me a copy of Ways of Seeing by John Berger. Since it is still in my possession, I obviously forgot to return it. I wonder if Jane is annoyed? She would likely be more annoyed knowing that I did not get around to reading...

I first heard "Born to Run" as a senior in high school. Soon after I heard it, I bumped into a good friend of mine in the halls between classes and said I had heard this great new song. When he asked what it was, I told him "Born to Run". "Yeah? Bruce...

Still here. Stuff: Sonic the Hedgehog for the XBOX 360 isn't so good . Make sure you play the demo and by all means rent it if you think you must own it. RIP Sonic. Season 2 of Pinky and the Brain is out in time for the holidays . What are...

Writing is nothing more than gathering words. Some writers gather words from experience, some through observation, and others by research and interviews. Great writers assimilate information, gathering their words subconsciously, and jumble them on a...

BizTalk Server 2006 is a complex program comprised of many moving parts and a multitude of related systems that, when combined, solve complex business problems. Developing for BizTalk Server requires attention to a number of details from the obvious ...

Here is what you should know about the anti-patterns I post: Solutions presented generally follow best practices and draw on the experience of BizTalk practitioners, the extensive docmentation, blogs, newsgroups, and other sources as needed. Some...

Name: Everything but the Kitchen-Sink Map Description: Given a complex process with many complex rules, everything (business logic, related and unrelated procedures, etc) is shoved into the map. Symptoms: Symptoms include...