Automated BizTalk Deployment

Introduction

At one of our customers, I set up a BizTalk environment with several applications, like applications for warehouse, subsidiary and customer interfaces. Some of these applications also use 2 separate servers, one in the internal network, and one in the DMZ network. These servers have completely different ports; for example. the DMZ server has ports connected to the outside world, which aren’t present on the internal server. Also, some applications are dependent on others, so deploying and undeploying has to be done in a specific order. To make this easy, I have set up a fully automatic BizTalk build and deployment setup. This is done by using PowerShell in combination with the BizTalk Deployment Framework. For my own reference, as well as for helping others set up an automated BizTalk deployment, I wrote this document. A basic understanding of BizTalk and PowerShell is needed to work with these examples. Special thanks go out to the blog of Randy Paulo.

Place root element in filename

To be able to see what type of message is in a file coming out of BizTalk, I created an encoding pipeline that includes the root element in the name of the file. Here is the execute method that I used.

/// <summary>
/// IComponent.Execute method is used to initiate the processing of the message in 
/// this pipeline component.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="pc">Pipeline context.</param>
/// <param name="inmsg">Input message.</param>
/// <returns>Original input message.</returns>
public Microsoft.BizTalk.Message.Interop.IBaseMessage Execute(IPipelineContext pc, 
    IBaseMessage pInMsg)
{
    // Create a new XML document
    XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
    
    // Get the XML data from the message
    xmlDocument.Load(pInMsg.BodyPart.Data);

    // Set the filename, starting with the root element, and adding a GUID to make
    // sure the filename is unique
    string filename = String.Format("{0}-{1}.xml", 
        xmlDocument.DocumentElement.LocalName, Guid.NewGuid()).ToUpperInvariant();

    // To be able to use the filename in the BizTalk file adapter properties, we
    // promote ReceivedFileName
    // This gives us the %SourceFileName% parameter we can use as the filename for
    // the file adapter
    pInMsg.Context.Promote("ReceivedFileName", 
        "http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003/file-properties",
        navisionFilename);
    
    // Go back to the start of the message
    pInMsg.BodyPart.Data.Position = 0;
    
    // Continue processing the message
    return pInMsg;
}

Add Namespaces

At our customer, we are using several BizTalk solutions to seperate different BizTalk applications. For example, we have an own application for interfaces for the warehouse system, subsidiaries, suppliers, etc. We also have one application with shared resources like mappings and schemas. When receiving files from Navision, they don't have a namespace, so we need to add this ourselves. We do this in the receive pipeline. Now to be able to use one pipeline to receive multiple types of messages, my collegue Rex van der Laan created a pipeline component that can add namespaces depending on the root element of the message. Here is the code that does this.

using System; using System.ComponentModel; using System.IO; using System.Reflection; using System.Xml; using Microsoft.BizTalk.Component.Interop; using Microsoft.BizTalk.Message.Interop; namespace Company.BizTalk.PipelineComponents { /// <summary> /// Custom component for adding a default namespace to a document. /// It is possible to define a namespace for an explicit root element by defining /// the root element and the namespace like this: /// RootElement1 = Navision_SOC /// Namespace1 = http://www.business.com/BizTalk/Common/v100 /// Adds namespace http://www.business.com/BizTalk/Common/v100 to an XmL document /// with rootelement Navision_SOC. /// RootElement1 and RootElement2 in combination with Namespace1 and Namespace2 /// work simular. /// It is also possible to define a default namespace. /// If a rootelement isn't defined to by one of the above rootelements, then the /// default namespace is used. /// </summary> [ComponentCategory(CategoryTypes.CATID_PipelineComponent)] [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Guid("6BC4F961-EF65-4190-BC6D-F57AA063D938")] [ComponentCategory(CategoryTypes.CATID_Decoder)] public class NamespaceAdderComponent : Microsoft.BizTalk.Component.Interop.IComponent, IBaseComponent, IPersistPropertyBag, IComponentUI { #region Properties /// <summary> /// First root element to look for. /// </summary> private string _RootElement1; /// <summary> /// First root element to look for. /// </summary> public string RootElement1 { get { return _RootElement1; } set { _RootElement1 = value; } } /// <summary> /// Namespace to be used for the first defined root element. /// </summary> private string _Namespace1; /// <summary> /// Namespace to be used for the first defined root element. /// </summary> public string Namespace1 { get { return _Namespace1; } set { _Namespace1 = value; } } /// <summary> /// Second root element to look for. /// </summary> private string _RootElement2; /// <summary> /// Second root element to look for. /// </summary> public string RootElement2 { get { return _RootElement2; } set { _RootElement2 = value; } } /// <summary> /// Namespace to be used for the second defined root element. /// </summary> private string _Namespace2; /// <summary> /// Namespace to be used for the second defined root element. /// </summary> public string Namespace2 { get { return _Namespace2; } set { _Namespace2 = value; } } /// <summary> /// Namespace to be used if root element does not match any of the previous /// root elements. /// </summary> private string _DefaultNamespace; /// <summary> /// Namespace to be used if root element does not match any of the previous /// root elements. /// </summary> public string DefaultNamespace { get { return _DefaultNamespace; } set { _DefaultNamespace = value; } } #endregion #region IBaseComponent members /// <summary> /// Name of the component /// </summary> [Browsable(false)] public string Name { get { return "NamespaceAdderComponent"; } } /// <summary> /// Version of the component /// </summary> [Browsable(false)] public string Version { get { return "1.0.0.0"; } } /// <summary> /// Description of the component /// </summary> [Browsable(false)] public string Description { get { return "Adds a namespace to the root element, using the root element" + "to decide what namespace to add"; } } #endregion #region IPersistPropertyBag members /// <summary> /// Gets class ID of component for usage from unmanaged code. /// </summary> /// <param name="classid">Class ID of the component.</param> public void GetClassID(out System.Guid classid) { classid = new System.Guid("6BC4F961-EF65-4190-BC6D-F57AA063D938"); } /// <summary> /// Not implemented. /// </summary> public void InitNew() { } /// <summary> /// Loads configuration properties for the component. /// </summary> /// <param name="pb">Configuration property bag.</param> /// <param name="errlog">Error status.</param> public virtual void Load(Microsoft.BizTalk.Component.Interop.IPropertyBag pb, int errlog) { object val = null; // Read the first root element from the property bag val = this.ReadPropertyBag(pb, "RootElement1"); if (val != null) { this._RootElement1 = ((string)(val)); } // Read the first namespace from the property bag val = this.ReadPropertyBag(pb, "Namespace1"); if (val != null) { this._Namespace1 = ((string)(val)); } // Read the second root element from the property bag val = this.ReadPropertyBag(pb, "RootElement2"); if (val != null) { this._RootElement2 = ((string)(val)); } // Read the second namespace from the property bag val = this.ReadPropertyBag(pb, "Namespace2"); if (val != null) { this._Namespace2 = ((string)(val)); } // Read the default root element from the property bag val = this.ReadPropertyBag(pb, "DefaultNamespace"); if (val != null) { this.DefaultNamespace = ((string)(val)); } } /// <summary> /// Saves the current component configuration into the property bag. /// </summary> /// <param name="pb">Configuration property bag.</param> /// <param name="fClearDirty">Not used.</param> /// <param name="fSaveAllProperties">Not used.</param> public virtual void Save(Microsoft.BizTalk.Component.Interop.IPropertyBag pb, bool fClearDirty, bool fSaveAllProperties) { // Save the first root element this.WritePropertyBag(pb, "RootElement1", this.RootElement1); // Save the first namespace this.WritePropertyBag(pb, "Namespace1", this.Namespace1); // Save the second root element this.WritePropertyBag(pb, "RootElement2", this.RootElement2); // Save the second namespace this.WritePropertyBag(pb, "Namespace2", this.Namespace2); // Save the default root element this.WritePropertyBag(pb, "DefaultNamespace", this.Namespace2); } #region utility functionality /// <summary> /// Reads property value from property bag. /// </summary> /// <param name="pb">Property bag.</param> /// <param name="propName">Name of property.</param> /// <returns>Value of the property.</returns> private object ReadPropertyBag( Microsoft.BizTalk.Component.Interop.IPropertyBag pb, string propName) { object val = null; try { pb.Read(propName, out val, 0); } catch (System.ArgumentException) { return val; } catch (System.Exception e) { throw new System.ApplicationException(e.Message); } return val; } /// <summary> /// Writes property values into a property bag. /// </summary> /// <param name="pb">Property bag.</param> /// <param name="propName">Name of property.</param> /// <param name="val">Value of property.</param> private void WritePropertyBag( Microsoft.BizTalk.Component.Interop.IPropertyBag pb, string propName, object val) { try { pb.Write(propName, ref val); } catch (System.Exception e) { throw new System.ApplicationException(e.Message); } } #endregion #endregion #region IComponentUI members /// <summary> /// Component icon to use in BizTalk Editor. /// </summary> [Browsable(false)] public IntPtr Icon { get { return IntPtr.Zero; } } /// <summary> /// The Validate method is called by the BizTalk Editor during the build /// of a BizTalk project. /// </summary> /// <param name="obj">An Object containing the configuration properties. /// </param> /// <returns>The IEnumerator enables the caller to enumerate through a /// collection of strings containing error messages. These error messages /// appear as compiler error messages. To report successful property /// validation, the method should return an empty enumerator.</returns> public System.Collections.IEnumerator Validate(object obj) { return null; } #endregion #region IComponent members /// <summary> /// IComponent.Execute method is used to initiate /// the processing of the message in this pipeline component. /// </summary> /// <param name="pc">Pipeline context.</param> /// <param name="inmsg">Input message.</param> /// <returns>Original input message.</returns> public Microsoft.BizTalk.Message.Interop.IBaseMessage Execute( Microsoft.BizTalk.Component.Interop.IPipelineContext pc, Microsoft.BizTalk.Message.Interop.IBaseMessage inmsg) { // Create the message that will be sent out when processing is done IBaseMessage pOutMessage = null; // Create an empty XML document XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument(); // Boolean indicating if the namespace has been set bool isNamespaceSet = false; try { // Get the data of the XML message xmlDocument.Load(inmsg.BodyPart.Data); } catch (Exception e) { throw new Exception("Error converting message to xml", e); } // Check if we specified the first root element // If we did, check if it is this document's root element if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(_RootElement1) && xmlDocument.DocumentElement.Name == _RootElement1 ) { // Set the namespace for this message pOutMessage = SetNamespace(inmsg, xmlDocument, _Namespace1); // The namespace has been set isNamespaceSet = true; } // Check if the namespace was allready set earlier // If not, check if we specified a second root element // If we did, check if it is this document's root element if (!isNamespaceSet && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(_RootElement2) && xmlDocument.DocumentElement.Name == _RootElement2) { // Set the namespace for this message pOutMessage = SetNamespace(inmsg, xmlDocument, _Namespace2); // The namespace has been set isNamespaceSet = true; } // Check if the namespace was allready set earlier if (!isNamespaceSet) { // Set the namespace for this message pOutMessage = SetNamespace(inmsg,_DefaultNamespace, xmlDocument); } // Check if setting the namespace went ok if (pOutMessage == null) { // If not, set the output message to be the same as the input message pOutMessage = inmsg; } // Go to the start of the output message pOutMessage.BodyPart.Data.Position = 0; // Return the message for further processing in the pipeline return pOutMessage; } /// <summary> /// Set the namespace of a XML message. /// </summary> /// <param name="pInMessage">The message in which we want to set the /// namespace.</param> /// <param name="defaultNamespace">The namespace we want to set.</param> /// <param name="XmlDocument">The data of the xml message.</param> /// <returns>Original input message.</returns> private IBaseMessage SetNamespace(IBaseMessage pInMessage, string defaultNamespace,XmlDocument xmlDocument) { // Check if a namespace was provided if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(defaultNamespace)) { // Used to set the namespace string systemPropertiesNamespace = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003/system-properties"; // Promotion of the messagetype string messageType = defaultNamespace + "#" + xmlDocument.DocumentElement.Name; pInMessage.Context.Promote("MessageType", systemPropertiesNamespace, messageType); // Used to set the xmlns namespace string xmlnsNS = "http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/"; // Add the namespace to the xml document XmlAttribute attributeNode = xmlDocument.CreateAttribute("xmlns", xmlnsNS); attributeNode.Value = defaultNamespace; xmlDocument.DocumentElement.SetAttributeNode(attributeNode); // We will write the new XML into the message pInMessage.BodyPart.Data = new MemoryStream(); // Save the XML into the message xmlDocument.Save(pInMessage.BodyPart.Data); // Go to the start of the message pInMessage.BodyPart.Data.Position = 0; } // Return the message return pInMessage; } #endregion } }

File Splitter

For one of the interfaces I was working on we get a flat file with information for multiple identifiers. We needed to split this file so that we only have 1 identifier per file. For this we create a new disassemble pipeline component. We will add 2 attributes to the class. The first is StartIndex, an integer which will define the location of a unique identifier in the file, for example a identifiercode. The second is Length, an integer that indicates how long the identifier is. Also add a Queue to the class, which will hold the new messages.

/// <summary> /// Split an incoming message. /// </summary> public class FileSplitter : IBaseComponent, IDisassemblerComponent, IComponentUI, IPersistPropertyBag { /// <summary> /// Used to hold disassembled messages. /// </summary> private System.Collections.Queue qOutputMsgs = new System.Collections.Queue(); /// <summary> /// Namespace used to set the promoted properties. /// </summary> private string systemPropertiesNamespace = @"http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003/system-properties"; /// <summary> /// The start index of the identifier. /// </summary> private int _startIndex; /// <summary> /// The start index of the identifier. /// </summary> public int StartIndex { get { return _startIndex; } set { _startIndex = value; } } /// <summary> /// The length of the identifier. /// </summary> private int _length; /// <summary> /// The length of the identifier. /// </summary> public int Length { get { return _length; } set { _length = value; } } }