Step 6: Completing the Schedule for the Transaction Process
The first five steps of this process involved identifying the business, technical, and operational processes and then using BizTalk Orchestration to graphically represent the processes. The process continued with the creation of the specifications for the data and then mapping the information between trading partners and systems. This last step involves completing the XLANG schedule drawing by compiling it into an XLANG schedule that can be tested and then put into production.
Note
Not every application use of BizTalk Server requires the implementation of both Messaging and Orchestration services. Depending on the input and output format demands of the transaction, due to the overlap in functionality of these two services, an organization may find that only the Messaging or Orchestration service is required.
The BizTalk Orchestration XLANG Scheduler Engine
BizTalk Server comes with a service called the BizTalk Orchestration XLANG Scheduler Engine. This service controls the activation, execution, dehydration, and rehydration of an XLANG schedule. This process takes the final agreed-on business and technical process and puts it into a format that can be executed on the BizTalk Server.
The XLANG schedule defines the steps to be performed, the components that must be called, and the data that will pass through the BizTalk Server to fulfill the defined transaction process. When documents are sent from the XLANG schedule to the BizTalk Messaging Service, the name of a channel that will receive the documents must be defined. After the channel is defined, documents can pass from the BizTalk Messaging Service to the BizTalk Orchestration Service.
When in the BizTalk Orchestration Service, the document is either processed in XML format, or if the document is not in XML, the XLANG Scheduler Engine will need to embed the document in the engine's standard XML wrapper. When inside the XLANG schedule, the document can undergo any defined modifications. After processing the document, it can then be sent back to BizTalk Messaging or it can be sent out of the XLANG schedule to a private or public queue.
Schedule activation and execution are the processes that enable the schedule to be run and then ultimately be executed to process information. When schedules are unused, they are dehydrated and then dynamically rehydrated when needed. This dehydration/rehydration process minimizes the need to allocate resources of the BizTalk Server to processes that are unused, allowing for the optimization of the system to handle the needs of the transaction environment.