1. Problem
You would like to reference
an XML schema in your BizTalk project, because you want to reuse an
existing BizTalk artifact or prebuilt schema component.
2. Solution
As an example, assume you have a simple Customer XML schema (CustomerSchema.dll) stored in an existing BizTalk project:
<Customer>
<FirstName> </FirstName>
<LastName> </LastName>
<MiddleInit> </MiddleInit>
<Age></Age>
</Customer>
To reference an existing schema, follow these steps:
Open your source project.
Within the Solution Explorer, right-click the References tree node, and select Add Reference.
Select
the Projects tab in the Add References dialog box if the schema you are
after is in the same project, or click the Browse tab, navigate to CustomerSchema.dll, and then click the OK button.
You now have referenced CustomerSchema.dll
and can use the inherent BizTalk artifacts in your current project. For
example, suppose that you want to use the DLL in a new map within your
current project. Follow these steps:
Right-click the project, and select Add => New Item.
In
the Add New Item dialog box, double-click Map. This opens a blank map
with left and right panes where you can enter the source and destination
schema, respectively.
Click Open Source Schema in the left pane.
In the BizTalk Type Picker dialog box, select the References tree node, and select the Client Schema reference.
Select the Customer schema.
3. How It Works
Referencing schemas gives you
the ability to reuse and reference existing BizTalk artifacts, as you
would normally reference other .NET artifacts. While this can be
powerful, you should always keep in mind partitioning and change
scenarios. For example, if you were to reference an existing deployed
artifact, to make changes to the referenced artifact, you would need to
remove the referenced artifact in the dependent project.
NOTE
One of the most important
things you can do is plan how to organize your BizTalk artifacts into
separate projects (and, in turn, assemblies). Intelligent namespacing is
the first step, separating schemas into appropriate projects is the
next. Since schemas are referenced by maps and by orchestrations, the
map and orchestration artifacts often should be kept in their own,
separate projects. Using small assemblies that have just a few artifacts
is the ideal approach, as these are far more easy to update and
redeploy than other methods of organization.
This example explored how to
reference a schema artifact in another project. BizTalk also gives you
the ability to reference schemas in Schema Import tasks.
