Biztalk Adapters

901 of 1119 | Will Windows Workflow Foundation Replace BizTalk Server - The answer is no.Here is anexcerpt from David Chappell`s excellent whitepaper: Introducing Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation: An Early Look Use Windows Workflow Foundation when: An application will itself host workflows. Windows Workflow Foundation lets workflow be built into an application, allowing the workflow to be deployed and managed as a native part of the application. Because it`s focused on integrating diverse applications rather than providing a general workflow framework, BizTalk Server always runs orchestrations within the BizTalk Server process. The business process being implemented requires human workflow. BizTalk Server addresses system workflow, and so it lacks Windows......

902 of 1119 | Will Windows Workflow Foundation Replace BizTalk Server ? - The answer is no. Here is an excerpt from David Chappell's excellent whitepaper: Introducing Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation: An Early Look  Use Windows Workflow Foundation when: An application will itself host workflows. Windows Workflow Foundation lets workflow be built into an application, allowing the workflow to be deployed and managed as a native part of the application. Because it's focused on integrating diverse applications rather than providing a general workflow framework, BizTalk Server always runs orchestrations within the BizTalk Server process. The business process being implemented requires human workflow. BizTalk Server addresses system workflow, and so it lacks W......

903 of 1119 | WSS Adapter webcast recording is now available on Microsoft Betaplace - I mentioned before that I`ll be doing a webcast on the Windows SharePoint Services native adapter included in BizTalk 2006 (see SeptemberWSSAdapterWebcast). The "BTS 2006 Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) Adapter Deep Dive" webcast is now available on the Microsoft Beta Place http://beta.microsoft.com/ , Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006, under the Additional File Downloads section. If you haven`t signed-up already in the BizTalk 2006 Beta program, then go to bts2006beta to see the instructions....

904 of 1119 | Avoid Premature Generalization - Youve no doubt heard me rant against premature optimization in the past, but Eric Gunnerson points out another Premature action to be avoided, Premature Generalization. His discussion centers around a very specific question of whether to use private properties to access private fields, or just allow access to the field. Note this discussion pertains to fields that are not publicly accessible via property nor direct access. The place youll often see premature generalization is when inexperienced developers start applying Design Patterns everywhere. If you need to instantiate a factory, implement an adapter class and use a bridge to the toilet just to take a dump, then you probably liv......

905 of 1119 | BizTalk Solution Designer: A First Look - I love the BTS 2004 messaging layer. You know that. But I`m the first to admit thatit hasn`t been the easiest thing for developers to use. I think the main usability issue stems from not being able to visualize what happens to a message as it enters, passes through, and leaves the system. There are numerous moving parts that come into play such asports, adapters, pipelines, maps, subscriptions, etc, and they`re configured across different controls and dialogs. This makes it difficult to approach a particular system and figure out what`s going on without spelunking around the different UI`s and stitching the overall configuration together in your head. Enter the BizTalk Solution Designer. Th......

906 of 1119 | Windows Vista Beta 2 Aero Glass is Amazing! - So,  I said in my last post that I didn`t get Aero Glass by default on my NVidia GeForce FX Go5200 but you can change this. I found how on this post on Neowin: Start > run, type in devmgmt.mscDisplay Adapters > right click on Geforce FX Go5200goto driversupdate driversdont do win updatedont searchchoose pick from listuncheck show compatible hardwareMan: nVidiaDevice: Geforce FX 5200 (LDDM) The thing that is amazing is all the visual candy that now works such as the Sliding Full Preview Alt-Tab feature and the Windows - Spacebar Window stacking! Holy cow this rocks! The only trouble is with the LDDM Glass driver I can only get 1024X768 instead of the regular 1440X900 widescreen which makes ......

907 of 1119 | BizTalk Server Futures: BizTalk Server Solution Designer - We had a bunch of fun recording this video for channel 9 on the BizTalk Server Solution Designer which is coming after BizTalk Server 2006 and was shown to folks at PDC along with a demo of Windows Workflow Foundation in an ASP.NET web-site talking to BizTalk Server (its pretty simple stuff you use web-services or the sharepoint adapter and all is good).  Anyways I hope you enjoy the video of the BizTalk Server Solution Designer.  To view it click here....

908 of 1119 | News: DLO offers "nano-ready" AutoPod charger - DLO on Tuesday introduced a redesigned AutoPod, which charges your iPod`s battery from a cigarette lighter or accessory adapter....

909 of 1119 | "I cannot access the MSMQC adapter properties in an orchestration" issue - Recently, somebody asked me how to access the MSMQ label from BizTalk, in order to access some information that is passed by its own C# application through the MSMQ label.See issue described below.----------------------------------Below I give my problem, Please give me a good solution for me.I have a C# application. It has an upload page. If user uploads a XML file,the C# application reads it and send this to MSMQ as a Message.The code is below. StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(Path); string str; str = sr.ReadToEnd(); System.Messaging.Message mm = new System.Messaging.Message(); mm.Formatter = new ActiveXMessageFormatter(); mm.Body = str.ToString(); mm.Label = UserID; mq.Send(mm); I crea......

910 of 1119 | Biztalk, Convoys, GetTempFileName, and InterceptorException - It’s late on a Friday.  I am still at the client site.  I just canceled my flight home.  It is my anniversary weekend (yep it is on 9/11, sure sucks).  We are hours from going live...  But, what does Exceptions.Types.InterceptorException GetTempFileName Failed mean   I ran into this problem while testing some recently updated Orchestrations that use Convoys to process messages received from multiple source systems in order.  A small change was made that removed a Send Shape and replaced it with a custom .net component call to a java web service.  Seems simple enough.   When the process encounters an exception, it uses the file adapter to write the file to disk and stops message process.  Th......

911 of 1119 | Biztalk, Convoys, GetTempFileName, and InterceptorException - It’s late on a Friday.  I am still at the client site.  I just canceled my flight home.  It is my anniversary weekend (yep it is on 9/11, sure sucks).  We are hours from going live...  But, what does Exceptions.Types.InterceptorException GetTempFileName Failed mean   I ran into this problem while testing some recently updated Orchestrations that use Convoys to process messages received from multiple source systems in order.  A small change was made that removed a Send Shape and replaced it with a custom .net component call to a java web service.  Seems simple enough.   When the process encounters an exception, it uses the file adapter to write the file to disk and stops message process.  Th......

912 of 1119 | BizTalk Server 2006 Beta-1 Webcasts - Join us for the next upcoming webcast: WSS Adapter Deep Dive (Adrian Hamza)September 14, 2005 8:00 AM PDT https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/joinid=S48F4P&role=attend&pw=42XXCXAUDIO: Toll Free Number: +1 (866) 500-6738, Participant Passcode: 185691 Look for all beta webcasts and related content to be posted to Betaplace.  Our POP3 and SMTP webcast (held today) will be posted there shortly. - Doug...

913 of 1119 | WSS, POP3, SMTP adapters webcasts - I will be holding a WSS Adapter Deep Dive webcast on September 14. Before that, on September 8, Erik Leaseburg will hold a POP3 and SMTP adapters webcast.See below anouncement from Doug Girard forwarded to BizTalk Beta testers. Beta testers, You`re all invited to a webcast this Thursday courtesy of the Technology Adoption Programs team and Erik Leaseburg.  Here are the details: BizTalk Server 2006 Adapters, with a focus on POP3 and SMTP (Erik Leaseburg)September 8, 2005 8:00 AM PDT WEBCAST: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/joinid=2GXPF2&role=attend&pw=42XXC AUDIO: Toll Free Number: 1-866-500-6738, Participant Passcode: 185691 The subsequent webcast will be: WSS Adapter Deep Di......

914 of 1119 | Web Services Architecture Domain Model - I`m not in a position to provide any details just yet, but a couple of us on the patterns & practices team have teamed up with heavy hitters like Jason Hogg, Beat Schwegler, Christian Weyer, Wojtek Kozaczynski, Maarten Mullender, Daniel Cazzulino, Victor Aprea, Hernan de Lahitte, and Pablo Galiano to provide some kick ass guidance around designing and developing Web services. During one of our meetings this week, we thought there might be some value in throwing together a domain model so we could make sure we were all singing from the same sheet of music when we used certain terms. This is a Visio version of what the whiteboard looked like after the meeting. This is by no means complete, b......

915 of 1119 | News: Nikon adds Wi-Fi to Coolpix digital cameras - Nikon Corp. has developed a couple of new digital still cameras with built-in wireless LAN adapters, the company said Thursday in a statement....

916 of 1119 | BizTalk 2004 and 2006 -> Processing a large message and a faster, less CPU intensive splitter pattern. - The following is a comparison of splitter orchestration patterns using BizTalk 2004 SP1 and BizTalk 2006 Beta 1. You can download the samples discussed below at the end of this blog entry and install and test on a BizTalk 2004 installation and/or BizTalk 2006 installation. Included in the download is a large test message (approximate size of 133 MB). Some details of the tests are as below: 1) All orchestration implementations split or debatch the same message. 2) The xml message to split is approximately 133 MB in size (on disk)3) There are a total of 80570 production orders in the message.4) An abbreviated message with just one complete production order looks like the below. 5) Each produ......

917 of 1119 | Databinding in a UserControl vs. WinForm - Alright, I answered another question in a newsgroup, but the question posed, while technical, gets an A+ for honesty. It starts like this: I`m tearing my hair out at the moment trying to work out why the aboveisn`t working! Now, the "above" is that a custom UserControl in a VSTO task pane does not do databinding as expected. It`s easy to repro, and it can be repro`d in a simple WinForm app. So, I dedicate this blog entry to Keni (the ng poster). Get your Minoxidil, and here are the steps: Create a WinForm app Add new custom control Add a new datasource (Northwind`s Regions table is fine) Drag the table form the Datasource window onto the custom control. A datagrid should appear on it......

918 of 1119 | Databinding in a UserControl vs. WinForm - Alright, I answered another question in a newsgroup, but the question posed, while technical, gets an A+ for honesty. It starts like this: I`m tearing my hair out at the moment trying to work out why the aboveisn`t working! Now, the "above" is that a custom UserControl in a VSTO task pane does not do databinding as expected. It`s easy to repro, and it can be repro`d in a simple WinForm app. So, I dedicate this blog entry to Keni (the ng poster). Get your Minoxidil, and here are the steps: Create a WinForm app Add new custom control Add a new datasource (Northwind`s Regions table is fine) Drag the table form the Datasource window onto the custom control. A datagrid should appear on it......

919 of 1119 | News: Westinghouse offers 17-inch widescreen LCD - Westinghouse Digital has introduced a new widescreen 17-inch LCD panel with DVI connector for US$229....

920 of 1119 | Sun, surf`s up, first a Loadfest and now a Loadgen - Sunny Seattle is not a myth.  I should always plant grass seed on July 21st because to date it has rained exactly once since!  Not so great on my grass but my vitamin D count is at an all-time high. I`m in a surf`s up mood, of course there isn`t much swimmable surf anywhere close to Redmond but it did drive some inspiration for a t-shirt you might see if you are attending PDC.  Speaking of PDC it is going to be a lot of fun - more on that later.  Unfortunately because of everything going on in preparation for PDC including a tour I`m doing this week across the USA I had to made a hard decision and I pulled out of TechEd NZ and Australia.  While that was super dissapointing for me personally......

921 of 1119 | Introducing JAXB2 reflection project - When you are working with JAXB-bound classes, it`s sometimes convenient to be able to parse those JAXB annotations by yourself. For example, some people are interested in implementing a subset of XPath engine on top of JAXB beans; Some other people are interested in writing a Swing JTable adapter for JAXB objects. When doing this kind of stuff, you`d like to know answers for questions like "does this class have a property that maps to attribute name" or "what`s the element name of this class"Post comment (0)...

922 of 1119 | Microsoft Adds Eight Application Adapters for BizTalk Server - Technology purchase from iWay Software enhances BizTalk Server application connectivity. BizTalk Server 2006 Beta 1 is also now available for download....

923 of 1119 | News: Belkin offers Dock Adapter for iPod shuffle - Belkin has introduced an adapter that lets the iPod shuffle work with Dock Connector-compatible peripherals....

924 of 1119 | More Binding File Magic... - In my last entry, I discussed some ways that can making working with binding files a bit easier.  Here is another post in that same vein that addresses a common pain point... Un-escaping TransportTypeData One of the annoying things about binding files is that adapters only have a string element available to store adapter-specific information for send ports and receive locations.  As a result, adapters will store escaped XML (or even "doubly escaped" xml...)  This can be extremely hard to manage, especially for adapters such as MQSeries that keep quite a bit of information in this form.  To solve this pro......

925 of 1119 | More Binding File Magic... - In my last entry, I discussed some ways that can making working with binding files a bit easier.  Here is another post in that same vein that addresses a common pain point... Un-escaping TransportTypeData One of the annoying things about binding files is that adapters only have a string element available to store adapter-specific information for send ports and receive locations.  As a result, adapters will store escaped XML (or even "doubly escaped" xml...)  This can be extremely hard to manage, especially for adapters such as MQSeries that keep quite a bit of information in this form.  To solve this problem, I introduced a new command-line to......

926 of 1119 | News: Griffin PowerJolt juices up iPods, shuffle - Griffin`s PowerJolt can recharge an iPod shuffle or any iPod equipped with a Dock Connector....

927 of 1119 | Version 2.6 of the Deployment Framework... - Version 2.6 of the Deployment Framework is now available (see the download links - the full download, core, and tools have all been updated.)  Future work in this area will be about augmenting the already-great deployment story in BizTalk 2006!  The release notes below will (likely) only be interesting for folks that are using the framework extensively. Interesting Features: If you populate the bizTalkHosts property with the name of the Hosts that you are using, the `servicecontroller` nant task is used for the stop/start of BizTalk services, with a configurable timeout st......

928 of 1119 | Version 2.6 of the Deployment Framework... - Version 2.6 of the Deployment Framework is now available (see the download links - the full download, core, and tools have all been updated.)  Future work in this area will be about augmenting the already-great deployment story in BizTalk 2006!  The release notes below will (likely) only be interesting for folks that are using the framework extensively. Interesting Features: If you populate the bizTalkHosts property with the name of the Hosts that you are using, the 'servicecontroller' nant task is used for the stop/start of BizTalk services, with a configurable timeout stored in the 'biztalkHostResetTime' nant property. This requires......

929 of 1119 | Sharepoint Adapter for Biztalk 2006 Overview - I came across Adrian Hamza’s blog today.  His blog seems to be totally dedicated to the Sharepoint Adapter for Biztalk.    It looks like it will be a great resource for information on anything related to Sharepoint and Biztalk integration.   The post I like best gives a detailed comparison between the GotDotNet Sharepoint Adapter and the new Biztalk 2006 Sharepoint Adapter.    I think the best new “feature” of the Sharepoint Adapter is that it will be supported by Microsoft.  I know this has held up a lot of customers from using it in the past. ...

930 of 1119 | Sharepoint Adapter for Biztalk 2006 Overview - I came across Adrian Hamza’s blog today.  His blog seems to be totally dedicated to the Sharepoint Adapter for Biztalk.    It looks like it will be a great resource for information on anything related to Sharepoint and Biztalk integration.   The post I like best gives a detailed comparison between the GotDotNet Sharepoint Adapter and the new Biztalk 2006 Sharepoint Adapter.    I think the best new “feature” of the Sharepoint Adapter is that it will be supported by Microsoft.  I know this has held up a lot of customers from using it in the past. ...

931 of 1119 | Writing Effective BizTalk Server Adapters - Understand the issues you`ll encounter writing BizTalk adapters, and get the tricks of the trade for solving these issues: batching operations, adapter housekeeping, performance optimizations, deployment, and more....

932 of 1119 | Scuba diving in the South of France - Plongee a la Cote d`Azur - I am currently vacationing in the South of France, spending time with family, scuba diving and taking UW pics. I have uploaded some pictures that I took with my Sony DSC-W7 in an Ikelite housing and the Ikelite DS-125 flash to Flikr (if only our own MSN Groups would allow for more than 2MB of images per Passport account). I have been taking underwater pictures for a while - since 1994 to be exact. It started with renting a Sea&Sea Motormarine II while on my first dive vacation in Cozumel, Mexico and quickly developed into one of those expensive hobbies (travel and gear) that makes sure that you will never retire early :-). Shortly after returning from Cozumel, I decided that I wanted to hou......

933 of 1119 | Scuba diving in the South of France - Plongee a la Cote d`Azur - I am currently vacationing in the South of France, spending time with family, scuba diving and taking UW pics. I have uploaded some pictures that I took with my Sony DSC-W7 in an Ikelite housing and the Ikelite DS-125 flash to Flikr (if only our own MSN Groups would allow for more than 2MB of images per Passport account). I have been taking underwater pictures for a while - since 1994 to be exact. It started with renting a Sea&Sea Motormarine II while on my first dive vacation in Cozumel, Mexico and quickly developed into one of those expensive hobbies (travel and gear) that makes sure that you will never retire early :-). Shortly after returning from Cozumel, I decided that I wanted to hou......

934 of 1119 | Installed Windows Vista Beta 1 on Main Laptop - Those who know me well know that I can`t stop playing with bleeding edge technology and that I get real fustrated when I can`t get something to work. For the last week, I have been attempting to run Windows Vista in a huge VPC (1.2 GB of virtual RAM). I would get so fustrated as everything took forever - it would literally take 20-30 seconds for a window to come up and some things much longer. As the VirtualPC Blog says, “Windows Vista Beta 1 does not have drivers for our emulated video card, SCSI adapter and sound card.  The video and SCSI drivers are installed as part of the Virtual Machine Additions - however there is no way to get our sound card to work.”  So aggainst all common wisdom,......

935 of 1119 | BizTalk Server New Adapters - Microsoft is providing eight new application adapters forBizTalk Server that it has acquired from iWay software early in 2006. The adapters in question are: Oracle Db Oracle Apps SAP PeopleSoft Siebel TIBCO Rendezvous TIMCO JMS Clarify Scott Woodgate has made a brief comment on this announcement....

936 of 1119 | Adapters, adapters, adapters - In more good news today we announced our revamped adapter strategy.  Yes you asked for the major adapters directly from Microsoft and we listened. The specifics are: Siebel, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards Enterprise One and One World, Oracle Business Suite and Database, TIBCO Rendezvous and Enterprise Messaging Service and Amdocs Clarify. Many more details will be forthcoming as we getting closer to launching these in the 2006 launch timeframe. Existing customers of the .NET IWay versions of these adapters get a good deal as we will provide you the Microsoft adapter for the cost of software assurance only so continue to purchase the IWay versions for BizTalk Server 2004 until our versions are comp......

937 of 1119 | Adapters, adapters, adapters - In more good news today we announced our revamped adapter strategy.  Yes you asked for the major adapters directly from Microsoft and we listened. The specifics are: Siebel, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards Enterprise One and One World, Oracle Business Suite and Database, TIBCO Rendezvous and Enterprise Messaging Service and Amdocs Clarify. Many more details will be forthcoming as we getting closer to launching these in the 2006 launch timeframe. Existing customers of the .NET IWay versions of these adapters get a good deal as we will provide you the Microsoft adapter for the cost of software assurance only so continue to purchase the IWay versions for BizTalk Server 2004 until our versions are comp......

938 of 1119 | Biztalk 2006 Suspended Message Routing and Error Reporting - Suspended message routing is arguably the greatest and most anticipated new feature in Biztalk 2006.  Suspended message routing gives you the ability to subscribe to messages that fail inside the messaging system.  Matt Hall going into detail on how to generate Error Reports for Suspended Message Routing and what properties you have available to subscribe to.  In addition, the documentation that ships with Beta 1 cover this is great detail. The ability to react to errors in the messaging system goes much deeper then just “No Matching Subscription” errors.  You now have the ability to easily handle all messaging errors that occur inside a pipeline, an adapter, and even maps.  That’s right, ......

939 of 1119 | Biztalk 2006 Suspended Message Routing and Error Reporting - Suspended message routing is arguably the greatest and most anticipated new feature in Biztalk 2006.  Suspended message routing gives you the ability to subscribe to messages that fail inside the messaging system.  Matt Hall going into detail on how to generate Error Reports for Suspended Message Routing and what properties you have available to subscribe to.  In addition, the documentation that ships with Beta 1 cover this is great detail. The ability to react to errors in the messaging system goes much deeper then just “No Matching Subscription” errors.  You now have the ability to easily handle all messaging errors that occur inside a pipeline, an adapter, and even maps.  That’s right, ......

940 of 1119 | Biztalk 2004 Prepend to SourceFileName Macro Sample - Biztalk 2004 provides a variety of built in macros for dynamically naming files.  A full list of macros can be found in the help guide or here.    Recently, I have been looking at SourceFileName.  I have posted a sample in the past that covers how to name output files inside your Orchestration using the %SourceFileName% macro.  In that sample, I completely override the File.ReceivedFileName property with a new value.  The File.ReceivedFileName property is the data source for the %SourceFileName% macro.   What if I wanted to append or prepend data to the original file name  When using the File Receive Adapter, the File.ReceivedFileName property looks like this: “c:\somepath\FileName.xml”. ......

941 of 1119 | Biztalk 2004 Prepend to SourceFileName Macro Sample - Biztalk 2004 provides a variety of built in macros for dynamically naming files.  A full list of macros can be found in the help guide or here.    Recently, I have been looking at SourceFileName.  I have posted a sample in the past that covers how to name output files inside your Orchestration using the %SourceFileName% macro.  In that sample, I completely override the File.ReceivedFileName property with a new value.  The File.ReceivedFileName property is the data source for the %SourceFileName% macro.   What if I wanted to append or prepend data to the original file name  When using the File Receive Adapter, the File.ReceivedFileName property looks like this: “c:\somepath\FileName.xml”. ......

942 of 1119 | BizTalk 2006 Beta 1 - Download, setup, configuration - This Tuesday I have subscribed to the Microsoft BizTalk 2006 Beta program and today (Thursday) I have finally received the email with the approval allowing me to download and play with the bits. In this post I will walk you through my experience downloading the bits, running setup and configuration for Windows SharePoint Services 2003 and BizTalk 2006 Beta 1 in order to play with the native WSS Adapter. This post will focus on a single machine deployment scenario but I will also point out separately what you need to know when performing a distributed deployment. Download Windows SharePoint Services 2003 with SP1 In order to play with WSS adapter you will have to download and install Windows......

943 of 1119 | My Wss Adapter blog/tools To Do list - Here are some of the things that I am would like to cover in this blog in the future. These are just some of the ideas that I have, I do not guarantee that I will get to all of them, or any of them for that matter, but I`ll do my best to get to at least some of them.1 - Complete Wss Adapter tutorials 1 through 3 - I will complete the tutorials and I will comment each of the steps explaining why each particular step is needed. Normally, this info should be already in the tutorial, but since this is a beta, the documentation does not have this information. I will also make the completed tutorials available for download.2 - Detailed comparison of native WSS Adapter and GotDotNet adapters  - Th......

944 of 1119 | Wss Adapter questions - These are some of the questions raised by early users of the WSS adapter. I assumed that people didn`t want to see their names listed here, so I took the liberty and removed all the names and also rephrased some of the questions. Q: What are the differences between the WSS adapter in 2006 which is available out of the box, and the WSS adapter for 2004 which could be downloaded from gotdotnetA: See my previous blog entry http://blogs.msdn.com/ahamza/archive/2005/07/27/443823.aspx At some point I will follow up in the blog with a detailed comparison of each feature. Q: Can you use WSS adapter to archive Word/Excel docs contained in a SharePoint document librariesA: Yes, the new WSS Adapter ca......

945 of 1119 | News: MacWireless offers 3-port Powerline network adapter - MacWireless now offers a three-port Powerline network adapter....

946 of 1119 | BizTalk 2006 Beta1 has been released - Well folks, its here no, not my blog ... BizTalk 2006 Beta1 has been released (see http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/evaluation/bts2006beta.mspx ) and soon we should hear the verdict from the customers. I have been working at Microsoft for the last 5 years (almost), the last 3.5 years as a developer on BizTalk. I was part of the team that shipped BizTalk 2004 and I really liked the product, especially the design and the flexibility that came with it. That being said, BizTalk 2006 is going to be sooooo much better. Microsoft really listens to customers feedback and this should be visible in BizTalk 2006. But Im going to stop here and let you judge it for yourself or otherwise some people wil......

947 of 1119 | BizTalk Server 2006 Beta 1: Download! -  We have just posted Beta 1 of BizTalk Server 2006, visit here and register to gain access to the Beta 1 Build, it’s open to all!   BizTalk Server 2006 (codename Pathfinder) is a great leap forward especially with regard to the Setup and Administration tools that have been completely reworked and address a huge amount of pain that customers have had with BizTalk Server 2004, all of the demos I’ve done so far of the new MMC Snapin which integrates a lot of the “Live” Reporting features of HAT with a fully capable Administration tool has blown customers way.   On top of that there are some awesome improvements with BAM which makes it even better; I’ll detail some of those soon.   Per Host Th......

948 of 1119 | BizTalk Server 2006 Beta 1: Download! -  We have just posted Beta 1 of BizTalk Server 2006, visit here and register to gain access to the Beta 1 Build, it’s open to all!   BizTalk Server 2006 (codename Pathfinder) is a great leap forward especially with regard to the Setup and Administration tools that have been completely reworked and address a huge amount of pain that customers have had with BizTalk Server 2004, all of the demos I’ve done so far of the new MMC Snapin which integrates a lot of the “Live” Reporting features of HAT with a fully capable Administration tool has blown customers way.   On top of that there are some awesome improvements with BAM which makes it even better; I’ll detail some of those soon.   Per Host Th......

949 of 1119 | BizTalk 2006 Beta (Last one to comment) - Will this be the last place on the web that trumpets the BizTalk 2006 beta  Likely not, but I did see it in quite a few places today. Head to http://beta.microsoft.com with your passport and `BizTalkBetaTeam` for a guest ID, and then wait patiently.  (While you`re waiting, consider building out a VPC image with VS2005 beta 2 and, presumably, the latest SQL 2005 bits.  SQL 2000 would be fine as well, as BizTalk 2006 will not require SQL 2005.) This...is going to be a great release.  Nothing so revolutionary that you can`t leverage all the skills that you (or your staff) have already learned.  Yet, there are many,......

950 of 1119 | BizTalk 2006 Beta (Last one to comment?) - Will this be the last place on the web that trumpets the BizTalk 2006 beta?  Likely not, but I did see it in quite a few places today. Head to http://beta.microsoft.com with your passport and 'BizTalkBetaTeam' for a guest ID, and then wait patiently.  (While you're waiting, consider building out a VPC image with VS2005 beta 2 and, presumably, the latest SQL 2005 bits.  SQL 2000 would be fine as well, as BizTalk 2006 will not require SQL 2005.) This...is going to be a great release.  Nothing so revolutionary that you can't leverage all the skills that you (or your staff) have already learned.  Yet, there are many, many important feat......