Liza's Blog

What's Been Going On?

lizal — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 21:08:00 GMT

I've been very busy since we shipped BizTalk Server 2006. In addition to fixing tutorial bugs for each of the documentation refreshes we've published, last August I relocated to Chicago with my cats and started graduate school. For the last year I've been working full-time from the downtown Chicago office while going to school part time, working on a master degree in design. You can check out the program I'm in at www.ID.IIT.edu. I'm in the Master of Design Methods program.

Here are some of the projects I've completed at work:

- Published the SWIFT Adapters for BizTalk Server 2006 documentation (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7A5D8E00-9F6C-4AD0-8D63-93555CD7CCDD&displaylang=en)

- Updated the documentation for the SWIFT, HL7, and RosettaNet accelerators for the BizTalk Server 2006 R2 documentation.

- Completed the SWIFT adapter end-to-end tutorials. These will publish to the Web soon.

Lessons Learned

lizal — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:18:00 GMT

It has been a while, and now that I'm recommitting to this exercise, I want to share some thoughts about the experience. I've learned a couple of things about writing tutorials, especially step-by-step instructions for enterprise server applications.

The BizTalk Server 2006 end-to-end tutorials were:

- Tested as code multiple times by software test engineers.

- The first content in my division to go through Threat Model Assessment.

- Challenging, frustrating, fulfilling, a nightmare, an inspiration.

The tutorials continue to be broken. The comments and mail I've received through this blog continue to surface problems with Tutorial 3 in particular, and there is a recurring problem with the starter file for Tutorial 4. I'm beginning to feel jinxed. I know we've replaced the Tutorial 4 starter file a number of times, but the file distributed continues to be the wrong one.

A couple of lessons I've learned from this experience:

- Never, ever, ever put documentation support files in the \SDK folder of the product CD. The \SDK folder is sacred, and it makes PMs and developers too nervous to allow the documentation team to change and update our files as needed. In the future, we will deliver the files in our own folder.

- I am not anything like perfect. 400 pages of step-by-step instructions, deployment and configuration variations, etc., and there will always be errors. Even if the number of errors are significantly reduced, there will still be issues with user experience of the tutorials, and for every 'improvement', there is an equal and opposite problem introduced.

- Not all steps are equal. In an effort to provide information around complex steps, I ended up with a lot of lame content around not-so-complex steps in an effort to make all steps the same. I also missed differentiating between information that users only need to be told once with information that needed to be repeated. This led to the current constantly repeated reminders in almost every step: click to see controls! click to learn more about the tools!

Next Steps:

- I have 2 bugs open now, the first to make the updated tutorial support files available from the tutorial download page, and the second to fix the Tutorial 4 starter page. Hopefully both will be resolved soon.

- When I have the time I will republish the downloadable tutorial instructions. Various build problems have made this a very time consuming task. Some of the problems are supposed to be fixed now, and I'll find out if this is true or not. In the meanwhile, the most updated instructions are available in the BizTalk Server 2006 R2 documentation.

- I have a copy of the Tutorial 4 starter file that I manually fixed. It has not been thoroughly tested and officially checked in, but maybe it will help you today. I've attached a .ZIP containing the contents of C:\Tutorials\Lessons\BAS. (http://blogs.msdn.com/lizal/attachment/4173972.ashx)

A new and interesting BizTalk Blog

lizal — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 23:37:00 GMT

Why biztalk 24 * 7 ?

Biztalk 24 * 7 is an attempt by a Microsoft Biztalk server enthusiast Saravana kumar to put pointers to all the available resources for Biztalk under one roof. The left hand side navigations shows a glance of what you can get, I hope you got the idea. By the time of first release in January 2007 there were around 350 unique external BizTalk links. The site also features a special search engine designed for searching biztalk resources (Explained in detail later) using Windows Live Search and a special aggregator for BizTalk blogs. I'm planning to update the site every 15 days once, or whenever I find a must have new resource. Updates to the site will be communicated via my blog.

About Saravana Kumar

Saravana kumar [MCAD (Charter member), MCP (BizTalk 2004)] is an independent consultant focused solely on Microsoft based integration solutions using BizTalk Server. He is currently living and working in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Microsoft recently published his white paper Understanding Design-Time Properties for Custom Pipeline Components in BizTalk Server

Want to know more? Click Here

Looking for feedback on BizTalk Server 2006 Operations documentation

lizal — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:24:00 GMT

I am investigating updating the BizTalk Server 2006 Operations section of the documentation. A large part of my job is to improve our documentation by gathering customer feedback. Specifically I want to know what is missing, incorrect, unclear, or just needs work in any of the Operations topics.

To gather your feedback, I've created a short survey. You can access it here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=32373055498

I would greatly appreciate your completing the survey to provide feedback about the Operations content in the BizTalk Server 2006 product documentation. Additionally, please share the link to the survey if you have customers who have feedback about the Operations content. When you fill out the survey, please be as explicit and clear in your responses as possible so I can best understand what we need to change.

Thank you very much,

Liza

Updated instructions available

lizal — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 22:15:00 GMT

I've refreshed the tutorial documents on the download page here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6a5f6ef4-aeb8-4d8d-a521-37333a875ce4&displaylang=en. Let me know if you are using the latest instructions and the latest support files (see June 27 entry), and you are still experiencing problems.

Thanks,

Liza

Tester Reports No Errors

lizal — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 09:41:00 GMT

This may require further information. The bottom line is that the tester was unable to reproduce the error conditions you and I have run into. This could mean a couple of things:

1. We've finally fixed the problems. The updated support files (see the July 7 post) and the updated instructions (available in the latest doc refresh here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3294ddaf-9f67-409f-a92d-2f6070dc0d1a&displaylang=en) fixed all of the problems. (and I should probably buy some lottery tickets...)

2. There is something else going on, such as an issue with the product editions we use to test the tutorials compared to the editions you use to run the tutorials. If you are using the updated instructions and the updated support files, and you encounter an error, either in the instructions, or an error condition when trying to complete the tutorials, please send me e-mail and include details about the editions and configuration you are using. Adding comments to the blog is great, but it doesn't provide me a way to work with you directly.

Thanks,

Liza

Headed to Chicago

lizal — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 09:31:00 GMT

Next week I am relocating to Chicago. I've already found the Midwest BizTalk User Group and I plan on attending the Chicago meetings. I'll still be writing BizTalk Server content while attending graduate school.

Liza

Tutorial fixes -- Attachment

lizal — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 01:53:00 GMT

I've been informed that if you are using a RSS feed, it takes extra effort to access the attachment. Try this link instead: http://blogs.msdn.com/lizal/attachment/649048.ashx

Fresh Tutorial Fixes

lizal — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 23:44:00 GMT

We have made a number of corrections to the files contained in Tutorial_update.zip (attached). The corrections to these files should alleviate some of the problems you have had with Tutorials 2 and 3. To use the updated files, you must replace the correct existing file with the correct updated file.

OrderService.odx replaces c:\tutorial\solutions\BAS\OrderProcess\OrderProcess\ OrderService.odx
B2BOrchestrations_B2BProcess_ReceiveASN_Port.asmx.cs replaces c:\tutorial\solutions\B2BSolution\B2BOrchestrations_webservice\App_Code\B2BOrchestrations_B2BProcess_ReceiveASN_Port.asmx.cs
B2BOrchestrations_B2BProcess_ReceiveInvoice_Port.asmx.cs replaces c:\tutorial\solutions\B2BSolution\B2BOrchestrations_webservice\App_Code\B2BOrchestrations_B2BProcess_ReceiveInvoice_Port.asmx.cs
Setup.bat replaces c:\tutorial\solutions\B2BSolution\Setup.bat
ReplacePKToken.vbs replaces c:\tutorial\solutions\B2BSolution\ReplacePKToken.vbs

Additionally, there are some corrections I will make to the instructions which I will post an update for shortly. Planned changes include the following:

1. In Before You Begin the tutorials

Add a topic that lists the most recent updates
Improve Step 1: Install BizTalk Server 2006 for the tutorials so that it describes the platform used to test the tutorials. Also include any information about installing other editions of Visual Studio that I have.

2. In Tutorial 2

Remove Lesson 1, Step 2: Enable Web Service Publishing for Windows Server 2003 only.

3. In Tutorial 3

Rewrite Solution undeploy/redeploy tasks to use the BizTalk Administration console and Windows interface.
Fix some typos.
Add instructions for fixing the embedded tokens. You can find the instructions in this blog post: http://www.dotnetslackers.com/newsgroups/microsoft_public_biztalk_server/ng-86953_Problem_with_Tutorial_3_Lesson_3_failure_executi_.aspx. Note that in the updated files, you replace the placeholder tokens that appear as "xxx..."s instead of an actual token. Make sure you fix all instances of the token placeholder in each file.

The BizTalk Server 2006 Best Practices Analyzer is available now!

lizal — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 23:47:00 GMT

Now you will now why I haven't updated the tutorials in the last few weeks. We just shipped the Best Practices Analyzer, and now it is available for down load. You use the Analyzer to check your BTS installation and configuration against our list of best practices. Each issue the analyzer reports is supported by a brief article outlining how to fix and where to look for more information.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/biztalk/downloads/bpa.mspx

Re-testing the tutorials with a twist

lizal — Tue, 23 May 2006 04:00:00 GMT

As you can see from the numerous issues posted on this blog, the tutorials are not as perfect as I had planned. While these tutorials went through a number of formal test passes, there still remain discrepancies between the tester experience and the user experience.

The change I'm making to my personal test pass is that I've installed the Developer edition of Visual Studio 2005. Now that may be a no-brainer, but I only recently started suspecting that this may be an issue. It turns out that the platform I've been using includes the Team Architect edition.

More later on the results of this experiment.

Tutorial - Lesson 3 Step 5 Problem

lizal — Tue, 23 May 2006 03:57:00 GMT

From the newsgroups:

Suggestion for fixing: When installing VS.NET, install the visual designer. Even though the documentation states not to install it.

Original question: When trying to open the solution that is referenced in Step 5 (B2BSupplierWebService.sln) I get the following error:

'The application for the project "http://localhost/B2BSupplierProcessPO" is not installed.'

'Make sure the applications for the project type () is installed.'

Any ideas as to what would cause this and how to correct it?

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Download Page Issues --- FIXED!!

lizal — Wed, 17 May 2006 20:53:00 GMT

I just checked and the corrected page is now live.

There seems to be some issues with the official download page for the BizTalk Server 2006 Tutorials. I am investigating and we will have it fixed shortly. In the meanwhile, the files are available in the posts below -- some are on page 2 (link at the bottom).

Thanks,

Liza

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Tutorial 3 / Lesson 3 / Step 4

lizal — Wed, 17 May 2006 02:07:00 GMT

On my installation the BizTalk Web Services Publishing Wizard doesn’t appear on the Visual Studio Tools menu, it is available from the “Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006” program group from the Start menu.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Tutorial 3 / Lesson 2 / Step 3

lizal — Wed, 17 May 2006 02:05:00 GMT

Isn’t it always going to be the case that the B2BSchemas is not visible in the Correlation Properties dialog? If so, I think you should promote the information in the note to appear before the step 6 instruction.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.