Introduction

Integrating a company's internal applications has traditionally been difficult. Integrating them with external customers, suppliers, or other applications has been even more difficult. Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002 helps alleviate many of these integration challenges in both the enterprise and Internet environments. BizTalk Server 2002 unites enterprise application integration (EAI) and business-to-business (B2B) integration and helps orchestrate business processes for internal applications as well as cross-company business processes.

If you are reading this book, you are probably involved in process integration at some level. Maybe you are responsible for integrating an internal system with other internal applications. Perhaps you have been asked to integrate your Web-based commerce application with your back-end legacy manufacturing system. BizTalk Server's strong support for industry standard data formats and transport protocols including XML, CSV, EDI, HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP, SSL, S/MIME, and x509v3 certificates makes it a powerful tool in a developer's integration toolbox.

Instead of just skimming the surface of what BizTalk Server has to offer, this book provides an overarching view of how BizTalk Server impacts the traditionally difficult application integration tasks developers face.

Who Is This Book's Intended Audience?

This book is intended for both intermediate and advanced users who already know something about BizTalk Server but are still unsure of its various intricacies, technical complexities, and implementation details. The book begins with a brief introduction to BizTalk Server and its related technologies; however, most chapters deal with the more challenging aspects of developing an application that employs one or more of BizTalk Server's application services. Detailed information and example code is given on the new BizTalk 2002 features as well as the correlation of BizTalk Messaging and Orchestration services, the integration of .NET, and the RosettaNet and HIPPA BizTalk Server accelerators.

What Do You Need to Know Prior to Reading This Book?

This book is intended to augment a developer's knowledge of specific BizTalk server topics; therefore, this book assumes a basic knowledge of BizTalk Server and its capabilities. It is also helpful to have some knowledge about Microsoft development tools and languages including Visual Studio 6, Visual Studio .NET, and Visual Basic. Many examples include application code written using one or more of each.

What Will You Learn from This Book?

This book covers a wide range of implementation and development tools, techniques, and technologies for use with BizTalk Server. You will learn everything from the basic foundation and history of XML to how to create, transform, process, and configure BizTalk server specifications, maps, and BizTalk Messaging.

What Software Will You Need to Complete the Examples Provided with This Book?

Each chapter in the book minimally requires the use of the developer version of BizTalk Server 2000. At the time of the writing of this book, BizTalk Server 2002 was in release candidate status, and as such most of the chapters have been tested and discuss BizTalk Server 2002 features and functionality. The two accelerator chapters require either BizTalk Server 2000 or BizTalk Server 2002 with service pack 1 for each of the accelerators. From a developer perspective, Visual Studio 6.0, including Visual Basic and Visual C++ are required as well as the PDC 2001 or better version of Visual Studio .NET for the two chapters discussing the integration of .NET.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is divided into the following parts:

• Part I. Setting the Stage for BizTalk Server: This part briefly introduces the basic concepts fundamental to the BizTalk Server product, including the business problems addressed by BizTalk Server's services and a quick introduction to XML and XML programming concepts. It then concludes with an introductory chapter on BizTalk Server.

• Part II. BizTalk Server Messaging: This part discusses BizTalk Server Messaging services and its associated tools. It begins with an introduction to the BizTalk Editor and BizTalk Mapper. Both the Mapper and Editor chapter include step-by-step examples on how to create BizTalk Server specifications and maps. After you've mastered the tools, we move on to an introduction to BizTalk Messaging Services and the configuration of BizTalk Messaging properties, including the use of the BizTalk Messaging Desk.

• Part III. BizTalk Server Orchestration: Part III introduces and then discusses BizTalk Server Orchestration in detail. It begins with an introduction to business process workflow concepts and the BizTalk Orchestration Designer. It then walks through a step-by-step explanation of how to create and run a BizTalk Orchestration schedule.

• Part IV. Advanced BizTalk Server Topics: This part includes content on advanced BizTalk Messaging and Orchestration topics including BizTalk Messaging and Orchestration correlation and the integration of .NET and .NET Web Services.

• Part V. Extending BizTalk Server: This part discusses how to extend the capabilities of BizTalk Messaging using Application Integration Components and the BizTalk configuration object model. It concludes with a detailed discussion on how to create custom BizTalk serializers and parsers.

• Part VI. BizTalk Server Administration: This part addresses how to install, deploy, and manage BizTalk Server applications and services.

• Part VII. Line of Business Adapters and Industry Toolkits: This part discusses two BizTalk Server accelerators, HIPPA and RosettaNet. It introduces the concepts surrounding the standards and then explains in detail how to install and build applications that use them.

• Part VIII. Appendixes: This book includes two appendixes. The first discusses XML and its associated technologies. The second serves as a reference to the BizTalk Server Editor document properties.

What's on the Sams Web Site for This Book

The associated code files described in this book are available on the Sams Web site at http://www.samspublishing.com/. Enter this book's ISBN in the Search box and click Search. When the book's title is displayed, click the title to go to a page where you can download all the code in a chapter-by-chapter zip file format.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following typographic conventions are used in this book:

• Code lines, commands, statements, variables, and any text you type or see onscreen appears in a mono typeface. Bold mono typeface is often used to represent the user's input.

• Placeholders in syntax descriptions appear in an italic mono typeface. Replace the placeholder with the actual filename, parameter, or whatever element it represents.

• Italics highlight technical terms when they're being defined.

• The icon is used before a line of code that is really a continuation of the preceding line. Sometimes a line of code is too long to fit as a single line on the page. If you see before a line of code, remember that it's part of the line immediately preceding it.

• The book also contains Notes, Tips, and Cautions to help you spot important or useful information more quickly. Some of these are shortcuts to help you work more efficiently.