BizTalk 2010 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (Expert's Voice in BizTalk) [Paperback]

Mark Beckner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 29, 2010 | ISBN-10: 1430232641 | ISBN-13: 978-1430232643 | Edition: 1

BizTalk 2010 Recipes provides ready-made solutions to BizTalk Server 2010 developers. The recipes in the book save you the effort of developing your own solutions to common problems that have been solved many times over. The solutions demonstrate sound practice, the result of hard-earned wisdom by those who have gone before.



Presented in a step-by-step format with clear code examples and explanations, the solutions in BizTalk 2010 Recipes help you take advantage of new features and deeper capabilities in BizTalk Server 2010. You’ll learn to provide rich mapping support, extended electronic data interchange (EDI) and trading partner management capabilities, and to deploy the growing range of adapters for integrating with the different systems and technologies that you will encounter.



Author Mark Beckner doesn’t overlook core functionality, either. You’ll find recipes covering all the core areas: schemas, maps, orchestrations, messaging and more. BizTalk Server 2010 is Microsoft’s market-leading platform for orchestrating process flow across disparate applications. BizTalk 2010 Recipes is your key to unlocking the full power of that platform.

What you’ll learn

• Automate business processes across different systems in your enterprise.
• Build, test, and deploy complex maps and schemas.
• Implement the business rules engine (BRE).
• Develop business activity monitoring (BAM) solutions.
• Manage electronic data interchange (EDI) with trading partners.
• Monitor and troubleshoot automated processes.

Who this book is for

BizTalk 2010 Recipes is aimed at developers new to Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010. Experienced BizTalk developers will also find great value in the information around new functionality in the 2010 release such as that for mapping and for EDI trading partner management. Those brand new to BizTalk will appreciate the clear examples of core functionality that help them understand how best to design and deploy BizTalk Server solutions.

Table of Contents

1. What’s New in BizTalk Server 2010
2. Document Schemas
3. Document Mapping
4. Messaging and Pipelines
5. Orchestrations
6. Adapters
7. Business Rules Framework
8. EDI Solutions
9. Deployment
10. Administration and Operations
11. Business Activity Monitoring

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mark Beckner is a technical consultant specializing in business development and enterprise application integration. He runs his own consulting firm, Inotek Consulting Group, LLC, delivering innovative solutions to large corporations and small businesses. His projects have included engagements with numerous clients throughout the U.S., and range in nature from mobile application development to complete integration solutions. He has previously authored BizTalk 2010 Recipes, Pro EDI in BizTalk Server 2006 R2, and Pro RFID in BizTalk Server 2009, and has spoken at a number of venues including Microsoft TechEd. In addition to BizTalk, he works with SharePoint, MSCRM, and custom .NET development. Beckner, his wife Sara, and his boys Ciro and Iyer live in New Mexico. His website is http://www.inotekgroup.com and he can be contacted directly at [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (December 29, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430232641
• ISBN-13: 978-1430232643
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 1.3 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #569,195 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Computers & Technology > Networking > Data in the Enterprise > Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential! January 2, 2011

By Richard Broida

Format:Paperback

No book does a better job of showing you how to use the many powerful features of BizTalk. Each chapter contains a short, clear, yet realistic example of how to perform a specific BizTalk task. There's never any complex setup required, so you can work through most chapters in half an hour or less. Via these small steps the book covers nearly all the essential parts of BizTalk, including the rules engine, EDI and BAM.

The biggest disappointment with this new edition is the inadequate coverage of BizTalk's support for WCF. The examples of how orchestrations can expose and consume web services use WCF, but the section on Adapters discusses the old HTTP and SOAP adapters without mentioning the WCF adapters. This could lead you to think that WCF is only used with orchestrations, which is not the case. Worse, the chapter on connecting to SQL Server uses the old (and now deprecated) SQL adapter instead of the new WCF-based SQL adapter. To get a firm grasp of WCF in BizTalk you should consult Richard Seroter's SOA Patterns with BizTalk Server 2009.

To design successful BizTalk solutions you need a bit more architectural orientation than this book provides, and for that I recommend Dunphy's Pro BizTalk 2009 and the Seroter book. But to acquire hands-on mastery, BizTalk Recipes is indispensable, both as a tutorial and a reference.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A diverse, task-based approach to learning BizTalk 2010 July 7, 2011

By Max Weber

Format:Paperback

Overall, I think the read was worthwhile since it helped me fill in some knowledge gaps in BizTalk and introduced me to some of the new features in BizTalk 2010. I am looking at this from the perspective of an experienced BizTalk 2006 R2 developer.

The material is pretty diverse and spread across 11 chapters - each covering a different area of BizTalk. Each chapter is broken down into several (8 to 25) sections that take the following format: problem, followed by solution, followed by an explanation. While this format works for some of the content, it does not work for all of it and can end up confusing the reader. Here, I believe a tradeoff was made for consistency over accuracy because the "how it works" section does not always describe the "how" but the "why" or the "when."

I believe a beginner to intermediate BizTalk developer would gain the most out of this book, while some value can still be had for the intermediate to advanced BizTalk developer - though not as much since Mark does not cover the deeper scenarios that they may be looking for. The book covered core scenarios in key areas well - schemas, maps, and orchestrations. It also covered other core scenarios or features in other areas such as business rules, EDI, deployment, administration, business activity monitoring, and non-WCF adapters. I especially liked chapter 1 of the book being all about the new features in BizTalk 2010. While it might seem confusing for a new to BizTalk developer, it is great for those that have used previous versions of BizTalk.

I was hoping that areas outside the core product such as ESB Toolkit would be covered and thought it a strange omission that WCF adapters were not included in the Adapters chapter or anywhere in the book at all.... They have been a part of BizTalk since 2006 R2. This was probably the largest disappointment in the book for me personally, as I was looking forward to Mark's take on WCF adapters.

Overall, I thought reading BizTalk 2010 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach was worth my time. For the developer with beginner to intermediate-level skills in BizTalk development, I would rate this book a 4+ out of 5. For intermediate to advanced skillsets, I would rate this book a 3 out of 5, since it did not cover more advanced and/or obscure topics. Read more ›

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for Beginning to Intermediate BizTalk Developers February 18, 2011

By Ed Jones

Format:Paperback

BizTalk 2010 Recipes is a great book for the BizTalk developer who would like a basic step-by-step instruction list or a reference book on how to perform most tasks in the BizTalk environment. BizTalk is a large and difficult product to learn and master and Beckner's book provides a great resource for the beginning to intermediate level BizTalk developer to do just that.

The layout of the book is very straightforward. A standard BizTalk task is presented, step by step instructions are provided to complete the task and then an explanation of some of the major technical points is given. I found the first section of the book on the new features of BizTalk 2010 to be particularly useful and recommend it for any user of previous BizTalk versions to get up to speed.

Beckner writes in a very accessible style--this book is an incredibly easy read. The examples are appropriate and "real world" enough to be useful and the explanations are technically sound and understandable. It is also covers all the basic functionality within BizTalk-schemas, maps, orchestration, BRE, etc. as well as some of the less-used features such as EDI.

Although I really liked Beckner's writing style and the step-by-step approach to performing BizTalk tasks, I felt that the book does in some ways falls short of the goal provided in the title. While I was looking for a resource for discussion and insight into solving more Business or Architectural oriented problems, I found the approach in BizTalk 2010 Recipes to be more of a run-down of BizTalk features and a description of how to use them.

That is a valuable service all in itself, and I highly recommend this book for that use.... However, if you're really looking for something to help with BizTalk "recipes" from a business problem or architectural patterns point of view, another book, such as Seroter's BizTalk SOA book might serve that purpose better. Read more ›

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book written by a BizTalk expert February 24, 2011

By Jack Wayne

Format:Paperback

Here are some of the things the areas where BizTalk is currently used in the industry:
* Document Schemas
* Document Mapping
* Messaging and Pipelines
* Automating Business Processes (through Orchestrations) by communicating with diverse software systems in large enterprises
* Business Rules Framework
* EDI Solutions
* Machine-centric workflow
* Human-centric workflow (in conjunction with Microsoft SharePoint Server)
* Business Activity Monitoring
* Integration of Web services
* RFID support
This book does an outstanding job covering the topics above. Messaging is the core functionality in BizTalk and this book includes 10 separate "recipes" on messaging and pipelines with detailed code samples.
It also includes 23 "recipes" on Orchestrations including handling long running transactions which is required knowledge for all BizTalk professionals both new and experienced. I was recently wondering about how to build a workflow that needs to execute business rules based on dynamic information. I came upon Recipe 7.7 in this book and this gave me what I needed.
Adapters start and end any process within BizTalk. This book has an entire chapter devoted to Adapters which includes 12 separate "recipes".
One of the most compelling new features of BizTalk 2010 is EDI Solutions. BizTalk EDI Solutions can be very complex. The chapter on EDI Solutions does a good job explaining EDI Schemas, EDI maps, complex mappings in XSLT, creating and configuring a Trading Partner, configuring an EDI envelope, creating custom EDI pipelines and a whole lot more.
Topics on Deployment, Administration and Operations are also covered in sufficient detail. I am impressed with the coverage of topics considering that BizTalk is a vast subject....
Overall, this is one book I will keep at my desk as long as I use BizTalk 2010. I applaud APress and the author for an excellent job. Read more ›