Chapter 14. Integrating .NET
by Susie Adams
In This Chapter
Microsoft BizTalk Server Orchestration and BizTalk Messaging provide a robust set of tools and services that enable developers to automate business and data-exchange processes. These two services, the BizTalk Messaging Engine and XLANG Scheduler Engine, are built on a foundation consisting of COM and COM+, two Microsoft technologies that provide the services necessary to develop highly scalable distributed transactional applications. In July 2000, Microsoft officially announced Microsoft.NET, its next generation development platform and next generation component technology. This chapter discusses how to integrate and develop .NET Application Integration Components (AIC) and BizTalk Orchestration implementation objects.
The chapter begins with a brief conceptual discussion of .NET and the .NET Framework, then follows with a detailed description of the steps required to develop an application that implements a Bank debit and credit transaction using Visual Basic .NET, Visual Studio .NET, and BizTalk Orchestration. After we've created the .NET debit and credit classes, we will test them using a simple ASP.NET Web application and then compile and register them so that they can be accessed from a BizTalk Orchestration schedule. We will also construct a simple C# BizTalk Messaging AIC component that will consume an XML document and then save it to a local file directory.
Note
This chapter assumes a good working knowledge of BizTalk Orchestration and BizTalk Messaging, as covered in Chapter 4, “The BizTalk Editor”; Chapter 5, “The BizTalk Mapper”; Chapter 6, “Introduction to BizTalk Messaging”; Chapter 7, “Using the BizTalk Messaging Manager”; Chapter 9, “Introducing BizTalk Orchestration”; Chapter 10, “Using the BizTalk Orchestration Designer”; and Chapter 11, “XLANG Orchestration Engine,” of this book. We also assume that you have been exposed, at least conceptually, to .NET as well as to COM and COM+ programming techniques.