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Typical 5-day BizTalk Server 2006 Developers Course Outline
(Outlines for all other courses are available by request)
Understanding BizTalk Server Architecture and Administration
This session offers a high-level overview of BizTalk
architecture and tools, while running 50 robust BizTalk solutions under load in a simulated
production environment.
Recipes include:
- How to Start and Stop BizTalk Services
- How to Identify and Diagnose Problems
- How to Generate BizTalk Server Activity Reports
- How to Modify Port Properties at Run-time
Treasures include:
- Seeing BizTalk Server in action
- Understanding interaction between core components
- Ideas for designing BizTalk Solutions
- Tracing message flow from beginning to end
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Developing a Simple BizTalk Messaging Solution
This session goes through the entire design-build-deploy-test lifecycle process
to master Publish-Subscribe message routing.
Topics include:
- Proprietary BizTalk XML Schema extensions
- Persisted metadata as context properties
- Namespaces
- Promoted Properties
- Subscription filters and bindings
- BizTalk Projects in Visual Studio 2005
Recipes include:
- How to Build Maps in the BizTalk Mapper
- How to Configure Ports to Use Maps
- How to Create a New BizTalk Project
- How to Create or Import an XML Schema Using the BizTalk Editor
- How to Promote Schema Properties
- How to Validate Schemas and Generate Messages
- How to Deploy BizTalk Solutions
- How to Test BizTalk Messaging Solutions
Treasures include:
- Solving multiple schema deployment problems
- Archiving messages
- Stovepiping messaging solutions to implement business processes without orchestrations
- Using XML envelopes to overcome limitations of promoted properties within the payload message
- Mastering content-based and context-based Pub-Sub routing
- How the BizTalk Message Factory works with Adapters, Pipelines, and the Message Box database
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Developing a Simple BizTalk Orchestration Solution
This session goes through the entire design-build-deploy-test lifecycle process
for Developing a Simple BizTalk Orchestration Solution.
Tools include:
Recipes include:
- How to Create Re-usuable Orchestration Templates for Common Patterns
- How to Handle Exceptions in Orchestrations
- How to Consume Web Services in Orchestrations
- How to Call .NET Class Methods in Orchestrations
- How to Use the Transform and/or Message Assignment Shape to create or transform messages in Orchestrations
- How to Debug Orchestrations
- How to Publish Orchestrations as Web Services
Treasures include:
- When to use Orchestrations vs. Messaging Solutions
- Understanding how messages and message types work in Orchestrations
- Understanding how ports and port types work in Orchestrations
- Understanding the difference between strongly-typed schema-based messages vs. generic messages of any type in Orchestrations
- Best Practices for Orchestration Project Architecture
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Advanced BizTalk Mapping Techniques
Tools include:
- BizTalk Mapper functoids
- BizTalk Mapper properties
- BizTalk Mapper extensions
Recipes include:
- How to map loops for repeating nodes
- How to convert data between nodes
- How to map conditional node processing
Treasures include:
- Reducing the number of functoids in a map
- Reducing the number of links in a map
- Capturing validation and transformation errors in a map
- Using BizTalk maps outside of BizTalk
- Best practices for database lookups and "multipart message merging"
- Best practices for map change modifications
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Developing an Advanced BizTalk Messaging Solution
Designs include:
- Using Custom Pipelines and Pipeline Components
- Using BizTalk Adapters
- Flat File Processing
- Encryption
- Handling Attachments
- Message Splitting and Batching
Recipes include:
- How to Configure Pipeline Components in Custom Send and Receive Pipelines
- How to Parse and Serialize Flat File Messages
- How to Wrap Messages in an XML Envelope
- How to Configure Ports for the FTP Adapter
- How to Configure Ports for the POP3 Adapter
- How to Configure Ports for the SMTP Adapter
- How to Build and Deploy Custom Send or Receive Pipelines
Treasures include:
- Messages of any type, (not merely XML and flat files) can be processed using BizTalk Server
- When to use Adapters vs. Pipeline Components for processing messages
- Using Message Batches to Maintain Ordered Delivery of Messages
- Using Message Splitting to Process Messages Faster
- Understanding and Using Multipart Messages
- Required Interface and Configuration for Custom Pipeline Components
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Comparing Data Access Tools
This session addresses pros and cons of various options for data access
Tools include:
- Orchestration Designer
- SQL Adapter
- SQL Server 2005 Integration Services and Notification Services
- Oracle Adapter
- ODBC Adapter
- .NET components
Recipes include:
- How to Generate SQL-based request-response schemas
- How to Utilize SQL Schemas, message and port types in orchestrations
- How to Configure SQL Receive Locations and Solicit-Response Send Ports
- How to Set Properties for Multipart Message Schemas
Treasures include:
- Understand limitations and caveats of the SQL Adapter
- Execute stored procedures from orchestrations
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Developing An Advanced Orchestration
Topics include:
- Message Correlation
- Transactions
- SQL Adapter
- Business Rules
- Direct Binding
Recipes include:
- How to utilize atomic and long-running transactions
- How to configure correlation in asynchronous orchestrations
- How to utilize the SQL Adapter within an orchestration
- How to configure Direct Binding and Orchestration Parameters
- How to call a specific version of a Business Rules Policy within an orchestration
- How to configure Dynamic Routing in Orchestration Ports
- How to manage BizTalk Services from an orchestration
Treasures include:
- Using Orchestrations as "controllers" to respond to events and invoke processes, without directly handling actual message payloads
- Optimizing the Orchestration Engine
- Using the Microsoft Enterprise Framework for Data Access and Logging
- Calling a specific version of a Business Rules Policy that governs processing and routing decisions
- Understanding dehydration and persistence points
- Write effective XLANG/s expressions
- Determine when helper components should be used
- Modifying message structure in custom .NET components
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Deploying BizTalk Solutions in Production Environments
Topics include:
- Version Control for Change Management
- Deployment Scripts
- Installation Packages
- Multi-Host Environments
Recipes include:
- How to Dynamically Generate Deployment Scripts
- How to Configure Redundant Host Instances for newer assembly versions on the Production Servers
- How to Capture Configuration Changes to Production Servers
- How to Capture Deployment Changes to Production Servers
Treasures include:
- Running Different Assembly Versions Side-by-side
- Avoiding need to restart BizTalk Services
- Utilizing config files to store server configuration variables
- Importance of modular project architecture in the Change Management Process
- Why NanT or deployment scripts are superior to .msi deployment
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Monitoring BizTalk Solutions and Generating Reports
Tools include:
- Health and Activity Tracking (HAT)
- Business Activity Monitoring (BAM)
- BizTalk Performance Counters
- SQL Reporting Services
- SQL Notification Services
- Any data store (regardless of technology)
Recipes include:
- How to Configure Tracking Properties for Messages, Ports, Pipelines, Orchestrations, and Business Rules
- How to Use archive ports for auditing, debugging, and resuming processes
- How to Utilize a custom tracking database to capture all information for end-to-end business processes in real-time and beyond the confines of the BizTalk Server domain
- How to Create practical, self-service user-interfaces for business users
- How to Configure Performance Counters and Set Threshholds for Logs, Alerts, and Executables
- How to Create a Report using BizTalk Tracking Data
- How to Publish the report on the SQL ReportServer website
Treasures include:
- Running Different Assembly Versions Side-by-side
- Avoiding need to restart BizTalk Services
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Designing a BizTalk Solution
Tools include:
- Whiteboard
- BizTalk Design Template Library
Recipes include:
- How to Design a BizTalk Solution
- How to Test a BizTalk Solution
- How to Document a BizTalk Solution
- How to Manage a BizTalk Project
- How to Configure a BizTalk Server Group
Treasures include:
- Build highly-optimized and reliable BizTalk solutions.
- Troubleshoot problems and implement appropriate error-handlers
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