2008-04-25
2008-04-22
The way ahead / O caminho
The way ahead is harder because they are no longer with us (physically), but it's also easier because they were with us (and still are, in a different way).
/
O caminho que temos pela frente é mais difícil porque eles já não estão connosco (fisicamente), mas ao mesmo tempo é mais fácil porque eles estiveram connosco (e continuam, de uma forma diferente).
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O caminho que temos pela frente é mais difícil porque eles já não estão connosco (fisicamente), mas ao mesmo tempo é mais fácil porque eles estiveram connosco (e continuam, de uma forma diferente).
2008-04-21
Launch applications by typing their name
A student of mine was running a nice utility for Windows to launch applications just by typing their name. It's called Launchy and it's free!
(It is very similar to QuickSilver and Namely for Mac).
(It is very similar to QuickSilver and Namely for Mac).
2008-04-14
BizTalk bug hunting
BizTalk is a daunting development environment. If everything works as expected, we're fine! If it doesn't, then you don't even know where to start looking!
Here are some tips on BizTalk bug hunting to help you get started:
1st - check service instance database
Go to BizTalk Administrator, BizTalk Group, Show suspended service instances (if you don't find it here, try the dehydrated section).
If your instance is listed here, you can look at the exception report. Read the message and try to interpret it from the server's perspective.
2nd - use Health and Activity Tracking (HAT) to look at messages and debug orchestration
BizTalk logs its steps for each process in a database, and HAT allows you to access the database. Use this if the exception message itself is not enough to find out what's happening. Beware, too much detail can confuse as well as help.
3rd - check Windows Event Viewer
If the problem is in the server the best place to find out something is the Windows Log. Use the Event Viewer (Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer).
Happy hunting!
Feel free to post here about other tips on BizTalk bug hunting. Your input is welcome!
Here are some tips on BizTalk bug hunting to help you get started:
1st - check service instance database
Go to BizTalk Administrator, BizTalk Group, Show suspended service instances (if you don't find it here, try the dehydrated section).
If your instance is listed here, you can look at the exception report. Read the message and try to interpret it from the server's perspective.
2nd - use Health and Activity Tracking (HAT) to look at messages and debug orchestration
BizTalk logs its steps for each process in a database, and HAT allows you to access the database. Use this if the exception message itself is not enough to find out what's happening. Beware, too much detail can confuse as well as help.
3rd - check Windows Event Viewer
If the problem is in the server the best place to find out something is the Windows Log. Use the Event Viewer (Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer).
Happy hunting!
Feel free to post here about other tips on BizTalk bug hunting. Your input is welcome!
BizTalk main concepts and best practices
This semester I'm teaching a course about Enterprise Applications' Integration. We're using Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006.
This is a brief concept map of BizTalk concepts:
Shapes
- Send
- Receive
- Construct Message
- ...
Message
- Schema
- Distinguished field
- Promoted field
- Map
-- Functoid
Correlation
Business rules
- Policy
- Vocabulary
You can find more information about this in the BizTalk Library.
I've also recommended my students the following best practices:
1 - Shapes first, connections next, bindings last
This helps to keep the development focus on one problem at a time.
2 - Follow a consistent naming convention
It can be prefix-based (Port_...) or suffix-based (..._Port) or something else. But do use one!
3 - Use small and simple orchestrations to try out components
Use small and simple projects to try out the features of BizTalk. Tutorials are good for the overall solution, but most of the times you need to solve a particular problem at hand, and testing it in the middle of a complex orchestration won't help. Create a test project, try what you want and then use what you learned in the main project.
This is a brief concept map of BizTalk concepts:
Shapes
- Send
- Receive
- Construct Message
- ...
Message
- Schema
- Distinguished field
- Promoted field
- Map
-- Functoid
Correlation
Business rules
- Policy
- Vocabulary
You can find more information about this in the BizTalk Library.
I've also recommended my students the following best practices:
1 - Shapes first, connections next, bindings last
This helps to keep the development focus on one problem at a time.
2 - Follow a consistent naming convention
It can be prefix-based (Port_...) or suffix-based (..._Port) or something else. But do use one!
3 - Use small and simple orchestrations to try out components
Use small and simple projects to try out the features of BizTalk. Tutorials are good for the overall solution, but most of the times you need to solve a particular problem at hand, and testing it in the middle of a complex orchestration won't help. Create a test project, try what you want and then use what you learned in the main project.
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