Microsoft BizTalk 2010 : Consuming ASDK-based Adapters - Using the ASDK development tools

Navigate to C:\LOBIntegration\Exam01\EchoAdapter\Setup32 directory and get familiar with the readme.doc file.

Launch setup.exe and follow the setup wizard. Accept the default values for all screens.

If you are working in a 64-bit environment, now navigate to C:\LOBIntegration\Exam01\EchoAdapter\Setup64 and repeat the procedure.

To get started, verify that the c:\temp folder exists on your computer. If not, please create it. If you recall, the adapter exposes the FileSystemWatcherFolder property to specify the folder to monitor for the files with *.txt extension. We will use the default value which is c:\temp.

Open Visual Studio and create a new BizTalk project with the settings shown in the following image. For the location, you can specify a folder of your choice.

Now, the most important part. We need to generate the schemas representing the operations exposed by the adapter that you intend to use with the current application. The tool of choice for the task is the Consume Adapter Service plug-in, a metadata browser and artifacts generation tool, which you installed recently as a part of the ASDK. Besides XSD schemas, this plugin also generates a physical port binding file. This means that you can configure the port automatically by importing the binding file using the BizTalk Administration Console. The binding file typically contains physical port configuration settings including the connection string to the target LOB and the port SOAP actions based on the operations for which metadata were generated.

• To reach the Consume Adapter Service window, first right-click on the EchoAdapterSample project and choose Add | Add Generated Items.

• Once the Add Generated Items window appears, in the Installed Templates column, select Consume Adapter Service and click the Add button to open the Consume Adapter Service Wizard window.

• The very first thing we need to do here is choose echoAdapterBinding from the Select a binding: drop down. If you don't see echoAdapterBinding in the drop down, make sure you installed the 32-bit version of the adapter.

• Once the binding is set, click the Configure button to bring up the Configure Adapter dialog to configure the connection string and set credentials, URI, and binding properties.

• The first step to generating the artifacts is establishing a connection to the target system. Most LOB systems require valid client credentials as part of the connection procedure and our Echo system is not an exception, though it is quite forgiving—after selecting Username for the Client credential type drop down, you can type in anything you like for the User name and Password, but please don't leave them blank.

• Further, besides valid credentials, in order to establish a connection we have to provide additional parameters such as host name, port number, and other LOB application specific parameters—this is what the URI Properties tab is for. Switch to this tab and note the properties presented there. As with the user name and password, you can type in anything you like or accept the defaults.

While the Echo Adapter requires only three elements to build the connection URI, the real-world adapters from the BizTalk Adapters Pack 2010 require more details in order to connect to their LOB systems. For comparison, the following image shows the properties required to establish a connection to SAP:

• Finally, we need to configure the bindings exposed by the adapter by setting the properties presented on the Binding Properties tab. For our scenario, we can accept the default values for all properties.

• Now, click OK to close the Configure Adapter dialog and return to the Consume Adapter Service window. Note that the Configure a URI text box now contains a configured connection string, which is built from the URI properties tab values.

• Provided the connection string we've built is correct, clicking the Connect button establishes an active connection to the Echo system. If the connection is accepted, we will see the category tree populated with outbound categories—the outbound contract type is what the Consume Adapter Service plugin chooses by default.

• Next, we need to select the operations that we want to use in our application and add them to the list of desired operations. In the Select a category tree click the Echo Category node, then in the Available categories and operations panel, select EchoString and click the Add button. This action adds EchoString to the list of desired operations at the bottom of the screen. The last step is to help the Consume Adapter Service add-in to generate descriptive file names by setting the file name prefix at the bottom of the screen to EchoOutbound.

• Finally, click OK to close the Consume Adapter Service Wizard window and return to Visual Studio, where we see two new files added to our BizTalk project. One file is the XSD schema for the EchoString operation, the other is an XML binding file. After deploying the application, you will import this file using the BizTalk Admin Console to create a physical WCF-Custom send port configured to perform the EchoString operation.

  Unfortunately, one of the inconveniences we have to deal with is that the Consume Adapter Service add-in doesn't allow generating artifacts for different contract types in one run. To generate the schema and binding file for the inbound operation, we need to open the Consume Adapter Service add-in again and repeat the procedure. On the Security tab, specify the username and password, for the properties on the URI Properties and Binding Properties tabs, you can accept the default values.

• Then, once you've established a successful connection, select Service in the Select contract type drop down, click EchoCategory in the Select a category panel, and add OnReceiveEcho to the list of desired operations. Set the Filename Prefix at the bottom of the screen to EchoInbound.

• Click OK to return to Visual Studio. Our Visual Studio solution with two new added files should now look like this:

• Finally, to complete the schemas, double click the EchoOutbound.xsd file to open the schema editor and distinguish the EchoStringResult field. We will use this field in our orchestration.

• Technically speaking, at this point, we have all bits and pieces required to build our BizTalk application. Before we proceed, let's make a few cosmetic changes.

  • First, rename the WcfSendPort_EchoAdapterBinding_Custom.bindinginfo.xml to SendPort.Bindinginfo.xml. Similarly, rename the WcfReceivePort_EchoAdapterBinding_Custom.bindinginfo.xml to ReceivePort.Bindinginfo.xml.

  • Next, we need to give more descriptive names for the receive port and receive location. Open the ReceivePort.bindinginfo.xml file, and change the ReceivePort and ReceiveLocation Name attributes as follows:

• For the SendPort.bindinginfo.xml file, locate the SendPort node and change the Name attribute to SendEchoString.

Now that we have prepared all the artifacts, we can proceed and build our sample application.

Add a BizTalk orchestration to the project and name it ProcessEcho.

Switch to the OrchestrationView and create three orchestration messages with the following values:

• Identifier: msgReceiveNotification, Message Type: Walkthrough.EchoInbound

• Identifier: msgEchoStringRequest, Type: Walkthrough.EchoOutbound.EchoString

• Identifier: msgEchoStringResponse, Type: Walkthrough.EchoOutbound.EchoStringResponse

To construct the outbound message, add a map to the project and name it.

8. Inbound_To_Outbound.

Specify OnReceiveEcho as the source message type, for the destination schema, specify EchoOutbound, and select EchoString as the root node. Once the source and destination schemas are set, connect the content and aName elements.

Next, we need to sketch the orchestration flow. From the toolbox, drag on the orchestration surface the shapes in the order and with the properties as follows:

• Shape: Receive, Name: ReceiveNotification, Activate: True, Message: msgReceiveNotification

• Shape: Construct, Name: ConstructEchoOutbound, Message Constructed: msgEchoStringRequest. Inside the Construct drag the Transform shape and configure it with the following values: Name: Transform, Input Messages: msgReceiveNotification, Map Name: Inbound_To_Outbound, Output Messages: msgEchoStringRequest

• Shape: Send, Name: SendEchoString, Message: msgEchoStringRequest

• Shape: Receive, Name: ReceiveEchoResponse, Message: msgEchoStringResponse

• Shape: Expression, Name: WriteToLog

Configure the WriteToLog expression shape to execute the following code:

To enable the orchestration for receiving and sending messages, we need to add two logical orchestration ports. The first port will be a one-way port for receiving an initial inbound message; the second will be a Request-Response port for sending an outbound message to the adapter for processing and receiving a response. Right-click on the Port Surface and select New Configured Port to start the Port Configuration Wizard. Here are the settings for the first one-way port.

• Name: ReceiveInitialEcho

• Port Type: Create New Port, Port Type Name: InitialEchoType, Communication Pattern: One-Way, Access Restriction: Internal

• Port Direction of Communication: I will always be receiving messages on this port, Port Binding: Specify later

Run the Wizard one more time to create a logical port for the outbound operation.

• Name: SendEchoString

• Port Type: Create New Port, Port Type Name: SendEchoStringType, Communication Pattern: Request-Response, Access Restriction: Internal

• Port Direction of Communication: I will always be sending request, and receiving response on this port, Port Binding: Specify later

Join the logical ports with the relevant shapes. Connect Request of the ReceiveNotification receive port with the ReceiveNotification shape. For the SendEchoString send port, connect Request with the SendEchoString shape, and Response with the ReceiveEchoResponse shape. When you finish, the orchestration should match the following image:

Build the application and address error messages, if any.

The last thing to do before we deploy the application is specify a strong name key for the application assembly, and provide the name for the BizTalk application. In the Solution Explorer, right-click on the project name and select Properties. From the Project Properties window, switch to the Signing tab to specify a strong name key file. You can either generate a new, or use any existing key file from your computer. Then, activate the Deployment tab and type Exam01_Walkthrough for the application name.

Almost there; we are finally at the deployment stage. Go to the BizTalk Admin Console and create a new application named Exam01_Walkthrough. You have to create the application first; otherwise Visual Studio will deploy the solution in the default application in the group.

In the Solution Explorer, right-click on the solution name, select Deploy, and wait for the message confirming that the deployment succeeded.

To complete the deployment, we need to create the application physical ports. This is where the binding files, generated for us by the Consume Adapter Service plugin, come into play. Open the BizTalk Administration Console, expand the Applications node, right-click Exam01_Walkthrough, and select Import|Bindings. Navigate to the solution directory and import the binding file for the receive port. Then, repeat the procedure to import the bindings for the send port. Disregard a pop-up message informing you of the application name not matching and click Yes.

For security reasons, the Consume Adapter Service addin doesn't include the usernames and passwords when generating binding files. For the physical ports, we have to set them manually using the WCF-Custom Transport Properties window. Let's start with the send port. In BizTalk Administration Console, double-click the SendEchoString port, then click Configure, switch to the Credentials tab, and type in any username and password.

Specify the username and password for the receive location. In the BizTalk Admin Console, double-click the EchoWcfCustom_ReceiveNotification receive location and then click Configure to open the WCF-Custom Transport Properties window. As you can see, for the receive location, this window has a slightly different look. There is no Credentials tab; instead, you have to switch to the Other tab and specify the username and password there.

The last step before we start the application is to bind the orchestration. In the BizTalk Administration Console, double click ProcessEcho orchestration to open the Orchestration Properties window. Activate the Bindings tab and set the properties as shown in the following image:

Click OK to close the Orchestration Properties window and then start the application.

Double-click the SendEchoString send port. In the Send Port Properties windows click Configure to open the WCF-Custom Transport Properties window.

In the Action text box of the SOAP Action Header section, note the value of the Name attribute, which is EchoString. What you have to do is to make your orchestration logical send port name match the value of the Name attribute. The first option is to change the logical port name from Operation_1 to EchoString and then, of course, to re-deploy the application.

An alternative option, if you don't want to redeploy the application, is to set the Name attribute value to Operation_1, so that the content of the Action box looks as follows:

Although from a pure technical standpoint this is a perfectly valid solution, using such non-descriptive names is a questionable practice and should be avoided. We presented it here with the only purpose being to illustrate the concept. The best approach is not to leave the operation name with the default value Operation_1, but to give it a descriptive name upon designing the orchestration and then adjust the physical port action mapping.

So, let's do it right and just change the logical port operation name to EchoString. Once done, re-deploy the application. Now, you can create a file containing a single word "Echo", drop it to the C:\temp folder, and watch the event log for the echoed messages returned by the Echo adapter. Please don't forget, the file must have a TXT extension.