Looking forward to PDC 2008

It has been a while since I posted updates for WCF LOB Adapter SDK ... and it is good to see that Adapters product team has been very active at blogging about WCF LOB Adapter SDK and BizTalk Adpter Pack.  

I have been working on Microsoft Codename "Oslo" modeling platform since last year.  In a nutshell, the "Oslo" modeling platform consists of:

1. "Oslo" Repository  
2. "Oslo" Modeling Language (Microsoft Codename "M")
3. "Oslo" Modeling Tool (Microsoft Codename "Quadrant")

Douglas Purdy and Don Box are primary champions officially talking about "Oslo".   I, in particular, am part of "Quadrant" PM team and responsible for creating Quadrant domain-specific editing experience over the .NET 4.0 Workflows and Service models.

I can be found at the .NET (WCF, WF) and Windows Application Server booth at the PDC, around the Lounge or proctoring one of the hands-on-labs.  The following "Oslo" related talks are scheduled at PDC:

• A Lap around "Oslo" (Douglas Purdy, Vijaye Raji) 
• "Oslo": Repository and Schemas (Martin Gudgin, Chris Sells) 
• "Oslo": The Language (Don Box, David Langworthy)
• "Oslo": Customizing and Extending the Visual Design Experience (Florian Voss) ["Quadrant" focused talk]
• "Oslo": Building Texual DSLs (Chris Anderson, Giovanni Della-Libera)

Come by the booth if you have questions, feedback and/or want to learn more about "Oslo" modeling platform.

WCF LOB Adapter SDK SP1

Download WCF LOB Adapter SDK SP1 at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=106906.

Announcing the BizTalk Adapter Pack

At 2008 Microsoft Office System Developer Conference on Feb 11, 2008, Microsoft announced the availability of the BizTalk Adapter Pack.  You can find the links to the data sheet and BizTalk Adapter Pack Office Program at the following website (look for the two hyperlinks at the top).

http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/evaluation/adapter/default.mspx

Here is some high level information about availability:

• The BizTalk Adapter Pack will be generally available on March 1, 2008. The adapter pack is licensed per processor.
• The WCF LOB Adapter SDK SP1 will be available for free download from Microsoft Downloads site.
• An evaluation version of the BizTalk Adapter Pack will be available on http://download.microsoft.com after April 1, 2008.

FAQ

How is the BizTalk Adapter Pack Sold?

The BizTalk® Adapter Pack is offered separately from BizTalk Server, and does not require deployment of a middle-tier SOA or BPM infrastructure to connect to LOB applications.  The adapter pack is licensed per processor.  All Microsoft customers will be able to purchase the adapter pack through normal Volume Licensing channels.

Do I need BizTalk Server to use the BizTalk Adapter Pack? 

No.  The BizTalk Adapter Pack uses Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) for simple connectivity to line-of-business systems.  For more complex integration (orchestrations, use of business rules, etc.) customers that start with the BizTalk Adapter Pack can upgrade to BizTalk Server. 

Will BizTalk Server customers get the BizTalk Adapter Pack?

When the Adapter Pack ships, it will then be included with BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Developer, Standard, and Enterprise editions. It is not included in the Branch edition. Customers that have already purchased BizTalk Server 2006 R2 with Software Assurance will also have access to the BizTalk Adapter Pack through the Software Assurance program. 

Can I still get the adapters that were included with BizTalk Server 2006 R2?

The adapters that shipped with BizTalk Server 2006 R2 (including, JD Edwards, MQ Series, etc.) will continue to ship with BizTalk Server.  At this time, they are not available with the BizTalk Adapter Pack.

Can customers migrate from the Adapter Pack to BizTalk Server?

As a customer’s solution evolves and they need more extensive business process orchestration or scale, adapters can be easily migrated to a full BizTalk® Server implementation due to shared use of the WCF programming model.

When do customers use BizTalk Adapter Pack vs. BizTalk Server?

The BizTalk Adapter Pack provides a simplified way to connect to data from line of business systems or any custom .NET applications.  BizTalk Server provides additional capabilities such as service orchestration in SOA environments, EDI, RFID and business rules. 

With the BizTalk Adapter Pack customers can start with a simple point-to-point connect and then simply upgrade to BizTalk Server as their needs evolve.  This means that our customers have a broader set of choices for connecting systems across platforms. 

Are we planning an update to the BizTalk Adapter Pack?

Yes.  We are working on updates.  A roadmap will be available in the near future.

What is the BizTalk Adapter Pack: Office Developers Program?

This program is for Office developers who would like to build applications or connections from line of business systems to SharePoint using the BizTalk Adapter Pack.  We provide access to the BizTalk Adapter Pack, support and guidance.  Through the program, we will make it easier for Office developers to connect line of business data to the Office applications commonly used by millions of people around the world.

What is the goal of BizTalk Adapter Pack: Office Developers Program?

The goal of this program is to engage the SharePoint community and to provide us with customers who can help us expand the BizTalk Adapter Pack scenarios, specifically those that include MOSS and OBAs. 

Are any customers live on the Adapter Pack today?

Yes, 7 customers that participated in the TAP program are live today.  Case studies will be available in the near future.

WCF-based BizTalk Adapter Pack is released to manufacturing!

The adapters team is very happy to announce the release of the following products on Jan 31, 2008:

• BizTalk Adapter Pack
• WCF LOB Adapter SDK SP1

BizTalk Adapter Pack contains the new WCF-based adapters for SAP, Siebel and Oracle Database. These adapters are developed using WCF LOB Adapter SDK and can be used within any .NET application including SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and BizTalk Server 2006 R2.

The details of GA and product launch will be launched in next few days.  Stay tuned!

The next adapter planned for addition to the BizTalk Adapter Pack is WCF-based adapter for SQL Server 2005/2008 (yes, it's about time!)  The adapter team would like to get your feedback on types of features you would like to see in this new SQL adapter.  If interested, you can either submit your comments publicly or contact us.

Understanding various WCF communication options

David Chappell has written an interesting paper outlining various messaging options available in the .NET Framework 3.5 including WCF channels, RESTful communication and BizTalk Services.  There is also a section on WCF LOB Adapter SDK in this document under the heading - "Communication with line-of-business applications using adapters".  I recommend reading this paper, if you want to get an high level overview of the WCF LOB Adapter SDK.  The paper is called Dealing with Diversity: Understanding WCF Communication Options in the .NET Framework 3.5.

Bill Gates' last day at work video from CES 2008

Happy New Year to everyone!

Check this funny video out about Bill Gates' supposed last day at work with cameo appearances by many celebrities including Matthew McConaughey, George Clooney, Jay-Z, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Bono, Jon Stewart and Sen. Barack Obama. This video was shown during his final keynote session at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2008 in Las Vegas.

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&tab=soapbox&from=msnvideo&showPlaylist=true&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:be9075bb-df0a-41c9-8d86-7ded46627e26

Read this article for more information about the keynote.

WebSphere Web Services and WCF Protocol Level Interoperability

The following articles from IBM demonstrate achieving interoperability at the protocol level (SOAP, WS-A, WS-RM, WS-SC) between the IBM WebSphere Application Server 6.1 Feature Pack for Web Services and WCF.  The multi-part article is named "Achieving Web Services interoperability between the WebSphere Web Services Feature Pack and Windows Communication Foundation".

• Part 1 - SOAP & WS-Addressing interoperability for sync & async message exchange patterns 
• Part 2 - Configure and test WS-Security

The articles make use of WCF custom bindings to configure version of SOAP, and apply WS-Addressing and WS-Security policies.

SOA, SAAS, ESB, ISB, REST, WCF, BizTalk Services Channel 9 Video

Check out Steve Swartz, Clemens Vasters and David Chappell talk about above buzzwords in this Channel 9 video. It's a great video that covers a wide variety of topics related to services.  See the video also to see what answers were provided when Charles asked the question - Is WCF complex?".

Power of instructional mini-videos

Besides technology, I have interest in "reading" and "watching" home improvement articles.  And this interest usually gets stronger during major life events like buying/selling/moving. I go to a book store and my eye naturally gravitates towards the Home and Garden magazines or when I turn TV on, I naturally have to switch to HGTV to see what's going on. Vern Yip, Carter Ooserhouse, you rock! :-) I hope to put this learning in practice when I buy my own next home. 

My sister recently bought a new house and she have been asking me lots of tips about things such as home organization, remodeling, etc.  I sent her links to various resources available on the Web.  But she kept asking me the same questions again and again! She basically wanted me to fly over there and just do it for her!  I then tried another tactic, which basically involved sending her selected "How to" Videos from Expert Village. I initially started with sending her the "How to organize your life" videos.  The key was to send her useful and filtered information in a display format that she liked.  Now she is asking me less and going to Expert Village to search for a video first, but ofcourse, she still wants me to come there and do it for her. :-)

Anyways, it is important to have a collection of related information in a site that you can trust.  The MSDN Channel9 is such venue for Microsoft and its customers to share conversations and dialogs.  Many of Microsoft's MVPs and RDs have their own blogs and websites that provide useful information for Microsoft technology users around the world.  What if Microsoft was to provide a venue like Expert Village for MVPs/RDs to podcast short and sweet "how-to" videos on MS technologies?

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Posters

At BizTalk booth in TechEd Developers 2007 in Barcelona, we had some large posters displaying the capabilities and architecture of BizTalk.  We distributed many paper copies of these posters at the conference.

Those posters are available for download. 

• BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Capabilities Poster
• BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Runtime Architecture Poster
• BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Database Infrastructure Poster

I think these posters do a good job at somewhat "whiteboxing" the mystery of BizTalk Server. :-)

You can find more information about these posters at BizTalk Server Team Blog.

TechEd Developers Barcelona - Nov 6

Maha and I did an interactive session on "Developing adapters with WCF LOB Adapter SDK".  Here is an abstract on the session:

"The Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Line-of-Business (LOB) Adapter SDK provides a uniform way to expose your existing LOB applications to a wide variety of integration applications, including products like Microsoft's BizTalk Server and Office SharePoint Server, as well as user-developed .NET applications.

The session will begin with by introducing the WCF LOB Adapter SDK.  It will focus on the high level architecture of the Adapter SDK and its relationship with Windows Communication Foundation. You will see how the Adapter SDK extends WCF Channel Model to provide metadata browse, search and dynamic service contract generation functionality. Get a walkthrough of high level steps involved in creating a custom adapter. The remainder of the session will provide an overview of new WCF-based adapters being shipped as part of Microsoft BizTalk Adapter Pack, which includes adapters for SAP, Siebel, and Oracle Database.

Attendees will gain an understanding of how LOB adapters play an important role in any Service Oriented Architecture. You will see examples of how a single WCF-based adapter can be consumed within any .NET application, such as Microsoft's BizTalk Server, SQL Server, SharePoint Server, and your own custom .NET applications."

Thanks to all who attended this session and provided their feedback.  The session feedback is very important for us to target the content/structure for future sessions.  Ofcourse, I also would like to hear about your integration scenarios and how WCF LOB Adapter SDK and/or BizTalk Adapter Pack provide value.

I attended Aaron Skonnard’s talk on BizTalk WCF Adapters In-Depth after my session.  Aaron also has a great paper on WCF adapters in BizTalk Server 2006 R2, which can be downloaded from here.

The MVP / Regional Director dinner was across the conference center / Hotel Hilton in Tapas Diagonal Mar restaurant in the evening.   I had the pleasure of chatting with not only BizTalk MVPs but also with folks who are spread horizontally across many .NET technologies.  I was genuinely impressed by their commitment towards .NET Framework related technologies.   I chatted with BizTalk Server MVPs who want Microsoft to continue to invest in this technology.  

The La Ramblas was packed with many joyous Scots who were cheering for the match with Spain to be held on Wednesday.

TechEd Developers Barcelona - Nov 5

Today was the first day of the conference and along with my conference backpack and speaker shirt, people were also being handed a safety guideline sheet.  The keynote was delivered by S. Somasegar, the VP of Developer Division at Microsoft.  Then I attended Matt Winkler's session on .NET 3.5, which covered a lot of technology pieces.  Other than the vast number of sessions available, these conferences are a great venue to share experiences with people from so many countries.  It was my pleasure to meet many MVPs and Microsoft Regional Directors for various technology areas including C#, BizTalk Server, .NET Framework, SharePoint, Office Business Applications and Live Platform.  It was great to attend Connected Systems Division (courtesy of Shy Cohen) dinner at this restaurant with address 87 La Ramblas (don't remember the name).  Being new to Microsoft, it was an opportunity for me to chat with some well-known "personalities" in their respective fields --- Kate Gregory (a fellow Canadian from Ontario), Stephen Forte, Remi Caron, Ani Babian, Gokce, Martin Kulov, Steve Martin and Vittorio Bertocci.

Barcelona - Nov 4

I was forced up by my alarm at 8:00 am in the morning to a nice oceanside view.  OK it may not be the ocean view that one expects in places like Hawaii or Maldives, still I find having an ocean view appealing than a concrete view.  I was still jet lagged and after not being able to sleep for most of the night, I decided the best cure for this jet lag is to just get out of the hotel and get going.  After breakfast in the hotel, I managed to drag myself out of the hotel around 10:00 am.  The first thing was to go to an ATM across the street and withdraw some Euros.  I had a map of Barcelona, water to keep me awake and my comfortable shoes for walking.  My goal was to just walk around the Barcelona old city center, take photos and relax with a nice drink in open outdoor plazas reading my book on this beautiful sunny day.

1) Hilton to Torre Agbar / Agbar Tower

Last time I was in Barcelona was in 1999 as part of my Europe backpacking trip.  It was very interesting to see this phallic looking building stand out in front of other older architecture and Monserrate mountains.  Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia is few kilometers north west of Toree Agbar.  I walked on Av. Diagonal from the hotel towards the direction of this tower.  I could have take a bus, metro or even taxi from the hotel, but I really wanted to wake up. :-)   As the name implies the road runs diagnoally from North West to South East.  If you keep going West from the Hotel Hilton, you will end up north of the Barcelona City Center.  After about fifteen minutes of walking, I took a tram and got off near the Agbar Tower. From here I started walking South East towards Parc de la Ciutadella on Av. Meridiana.  Here I could just view the daily life of people in Barcelona - people jogging, walking their dogs, families with kids in strollers -- not many tourists.  Other than the magazine vendors and some cafes, all the other shops were closed.

2) Arc de Triomf

The Parc de la Ciutadella was in front of this Arc de Triomf. I looked for Champs Elysees like street near this Paris' Arc de Triomphe sibling and found my way into the Gothic District.  Now I was beginning to see many tourists, wanting to take their pictures in front of this Arc.  This was a busy place, filled with both locals and tourists.  I went under the Arc and then turned left to walk towards the Gothic District. 

3) Gothic District 

Unlike the perpendicular roads in United States, there are many small streets and roads that one can take and not every small street is marked on the tourist map.  My trick of not getting lost was to keep track of some key landmarks.  You can find some posts which highlight which way to walk for some famous tourist attractions.   You can go into the narrow streets and find some small cafes.  You will have 3-4 cafes in the row that have very small seating inside, which are supplemented by outdoor chairs/tables in the open plaza marked by their restaurant names.  You can just grab an open chair and a server will come server you.  Here a lot of souvenier shops were open, selling postcards, Gaudi inspired t-shirts, Flamenco dancer costumes, ceramic dolls and hand-painted drawings amongst other usual touristic things.  Over the years, I have grown to avoid these side shops, as I realize that many of these things either collect dust or don't last long due to poor quality of workmanship.  I tend to spend a little more money and collect famous artwork replicas that signify the city I am visiting.  I couldn't find what I was looking for in these souvinier shops.   I finally found some hidden shops that didn't look like souvenier shops and did some shopping.  The owner was nice enough to let me pick up my stuff on my way back, instead of me having to carry them around for rest of the day.  Can these vendors be trusted? I just took a chance that they may not recognize me when I get back (i.e. if I can find my way back into this really tiny street in Barri Gotic). 

The Cathedral was under construction and fundraising activities were in effect.  After spending some time in Gothic District and the Cathedral, I entered into the street of La Ramblas.  At this time of the year, you can already see Christmas light decoration on the streets.  These lights look great in the narrow pebblestone streets. 

3) La Ramblas 

From the tiny streets near the Cathedral, I got out into the La Ramblas near the Pla de la Boqueria. You can view many attractive buildings on this lively street. The street was filled with street performers and open street cafes.  Parts of this streets are shady - especially at night.  I had remembered this from my last trip here and even read some articles beforehand on general safety guidelines in the city.  This was primary reason why I didn't want to carry too many bags in my hand.  

4) Columbus Monument (Monumento a Colon), Port Vell and Maremagnum

If you continue walking south on La ramblas towards the water front, you will begin to see the magnificent statue of Colombus.  Apparently, you can go to the top of the monument for fabulous ariel views, which I didn't do.  This place was even more crowded.  You can cross the Port Vell into Maremagnum a modern shopping center with lots of shops, restaurants and IMAX cinemas.  This was the sunset time and I enjoyed watching the sun setting by the mountains, cable gondolas from the world trade center and many boats in the harbour.  I walked in and around the mall for a while and then headed back with a flood of people back towards the city.  I walked fast to find the shop where I had left my shopping bags.  I think I mostly blended in with locals, as I had my camera and map tucked away in my purse.  I avoided having lost looks most of the time.  And amazingly enough I was able to backtrack my way into the shop, which was near some great restaurants that were filled NOT with tourists but locals.  I decided to have a cup of nice spanish coffee before calling it a day and heading over to the hotel.  I took Metro (1.25 Euro per ride) from Place Catalunya on a Red Line and then switched over to Yellow Line towards La Pau, getting off at Forum station close to Hilton.

Overall, I had a nice Sunday in Barcelona.  If I can find time (from hectic conference schedule) to see three more places (La Pedrera, Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell), during the conference, I will be very happy! If not ... I will just have to come back!! :-)

TechEd Developers Barcelona - Nov 3

I took a shuttle at 4:30 PM from Redmond to Sea-Tac Airport to catch a 7:30 PM PST British Airways flight to Barcelona via London Heathrow airport.  It was really nice to share the heavy traffic shuttle ride with Matt Winkler (WF technical evangelist) and Kristen (who is speaking on Visual Studio tooling for Office Applications) .  After almost 9 Hour long flight from Seattle to London, 3 hour layover in London shuttling around from terminal to terminal and finally reaching Barcelona around 6:00 pm local time.  There were many Microsoft folks travelling on this flight.  Some of us took a wrong baggage claim exit (Baggage A) and had to go back through into the terminal departures to finally join the rest of the crowd in Baggage B.   After all that I finally checked into the speaker hotel, Hilton Diagonal Mar, two hours later, which was followed by an immediate reaction to call it a night.   Sunday is the only "free" day I have in Barcelona, so I intend to spend it sight-seeing.  There are many good sessions at this conference and I am looking forward to attending them. 

What is BizTalk Adapter Pack?

BizTalk Adapter Pack contains a collection of key Line-of-Business (LOB) application adapters for enabling Windows applications to integrate with the LOB applications using WCF programming model.  These adapters are written using WCF LOB Adapter SDK. 

The first set of WCF-based adapters in BizTalk Adapter Pack are:

• Microsoft BizTalk Adapter 3.0 for mySAP Business Suite
• Microsoft BizTalk Adapter 3.0 for Oracle Database
• Microsoft BizTalk Adapter 3.0 for Siebel eBusiness Applications

The most common question that we get with this is - "Can I use these adapters outside of BizTalk Server 2006"?

The answer is YES.  The adapters are not dependent on BizTalk specific programming model. 

Then the next question I get is - "Why is it not called WCF Adapter Pack"?  This is when I just defer the question over to our marketing team. :-) The general answer is that BizTalk is a brand name and not a product name in this context.

The BizTalk Adapter Pack team has a blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/adapters where you can get continued attention from the product team on your queries on both WCF LOB Adapter SDK and BizTalk Adapter Pack.

You can view the BizTalk Adapter Pack Beta 2 Installation Guide to find out required dependencies.