Customer Reviews

Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 Unleashed

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've worked with BizTalk since its inception and awaited this edition of the "gospel according to Scott" with great anticipation but sadly, this a huge let down. It is back to square one and a beginner's / marketer's / business analyst's view of the world of business process automation but has nothing concrete in it to help make this product perform in the manner it is billed to do. For example, it takes an act of congress to add a custom adapter. It is pure luck if you add the web service adapter and don't fill up your event viewer in 30 seconds or less with WSSLib errors. Biztalk still has problems with large files even though having this product fully .NET framework compliant was supposed to be the holy grail. It dies on a 3MB HIPPA 820 file everytime. Embarassing! Ok, rant complete!

Scott, when will we get a book that is for the folks out here in production fighting the myriad of problems this product has and addresses how we can either fix them or work around them as the emerge from it daily?

Signed,

Sad Sam in Florida

I bought this book in the hopes of having a fast path to learning Biztalk Server 2004. This book is hopeless - indeed I've learned significantly more from doing the Microsoft tutorials and reading the online reference material than fro mthis book. I normally don't bother to write reviews on books I've purchased, but I feel so badly let down by these authors that I'd prefer to do my part in preventing other readers from being ripped off.

Having spent a (painful) month with BizTalk now, I have to say there is nothing in this book that has actually helped me with any of the issues I've encountered.

BizTalk Unleashed covers a lot of ground by not resting in any place long enough. Expression editor capabilites? Half a page won't help. Correlation giving you trouble? Two wordy pages won't yield any greater understanding. Need to know about configuring the native adaptors? The appendix chapter C isn't in the book or online yet. The list goes on and on.

This book is only useful as a feature introduction, and even then the webcasts offer a better use of your time for this purpose. Webcasts; samples; blogs; newsgroups and just old fashioned experimenting are still the only way to get started with BizTalk.

The Biztalk team should be ashamed, Biztalk 2004 is the worst documented Microsoft product I have seen in years. The product itself is stable and powerful - but the documentation is incredibly weak. This book provides a somewhat better approach to learning the basics than the product documentation - but thats really not much of a complement. Unfortunately, only the chapters that cover the basics are worth reading. The worst problem with this book is the lack of samples and code in critical areas. For instance, the chapter on developing adapters provides no full example, no sample code in the download, and no strategy for actually implementing an adapter. The chapter on orchestration correlation - no full example or sample code. There's a couple of chapters on "patterns" which offer little more than short scenario walkthroughs - thats not what patterns are. But the biggest insult of all is that the chapter on using the native (pre built) adapters was made an "Appendix" that was available online.. But its not there? Who are they trying to fool? Using the native adapters is critical information and the lack of this chapter should have prevented this book from being published. I realize biztalk is a big, new product - but the poor quality of the documentation, including this book, is going to hurt the products adoption.

I understand the frastrations of the other reviewers towards this book. BizTalk 2004 is quite different from the earlier versions. BizTalk 2004 is not well documented and there is no other reference book available. Many of us waited anxiously for the arrival of this book and hoped it would biring us extensive and in-depth coverage beyond what was available online, in particular since one of the authors is Scott Woodgate, the product manager of BizTalk, wellknown in BizTalk community.

To be fair, I believe this book desearves more than the current 2-star rating of average customer review. The authors promised "complete coverage" and they did a reasonable job to cover this product. If you are new to BizTalk, you have not choice. You should read this book since it is an authorative introduction.

Scott, I give you 4-star rating to encourage you to provide more in-depth material online at your blog site or in another book.

We can all do better by following your blog. After waiting this long, it's just too much elementary material.

Background: I have been working on BizTalk 2004 from quite some time. I learnt most about BizTalk 2004 from BizTalk community.

Detail:
1. As scott points out in one of his presentations, each feature of BizTalk (might) deserve a book. So putting all those topics into a 700 page book does not make justice to those topics. While going through this book, I never felt that I was learning some thing new.

2. In my opinion its always a bad idea to get those many Authors together for a single book. While it makes sense that the product is new and its not possible for a single person to write a book in the given time frame, its a terrible idea and makes the book boring when those many people are involved as there is no continuity of flow.

3. BizTalk is an EAI and B2B tool. It is a huge product and is/will be used in critical scenarios. For EAI or B2B applications having a good understanding of the 'infrastructure' and 'configuration' needed are critical. This book does not provide that. I would like to see an even more in-depth book about BizTalk. And where are case studies?

Good for: New BizTalk developers (Who just started) or for those who are lazy or busy to go through all the other sources available
Not for: Any one with 2-6 months of development experience or who had gone through most of the BizTalk blogs and Scott's Tutorial and fair amount of product documentation.

Conclusion: Good for some one who wants to know what BizTalk 2004 is and its features. Since its just 30 bucks, its not waste of your money. But dont expect a lot from this book.

Note: My rating is based on the content and composition of the book and not on my expectations of the book.

While the original "BizTalk Unleashed" by Susie Adams was an excellent book about a poor product, this is a poor book about an (apparently) excellent product.

Hardly any hardcore technical content. Calling trivial examples "patterns". The chapters about HWS, BAS and BAM left me totally in the dark. Definitely a missed opportunity.

I had been waiting this book for a lot of time, but the topics are for introduction to biztalk.I found a lot information (tutorials, hand on labs, presentations, etc.) about advanced topics in internet that the authors didn't go deep.

The Appendix C (online chapter) isn't published at this time.

The least the authors can do is review their own work and provide their readers with an errata or a list of corrections for the numerous errors in the book.

I would love to get my money back. Reselling it in the used-book market would be a disservice to the buyers.