If you are maintaining a BizTalk Server 2009 environment, you have likely encountered the “Ghost Error” phenomenon: you open an orchestration, and several shapes are marked with red error icons. However, when you check the Error List, it’s empty, and the project builds perfectly.
📝 One-Minute Brief
BizTalk Server 2009 developers often face a bug where the Orchestration Designer displays “red exclamation” error icons on shapes despite there being no actual logic errors. This “false positive” visual bug occurs even if the solution compiles without issues. Microsoft released a specific hotfix to resolve this UI synchronization problem, ensuring the designer correctly reflects the state of the code. This post provides the context and the solution to clear these ghost errors.
Problem
In Microsoft Visual Studio, you create a Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 project by working in BizTalk Server 2009 Orchestration Designer. A red exclamation point appears on the Expression shape to indicate that there is an error in the expression that is in the shape. When you open the Expression shape, you find that parts of some messages are underlined by red marks to indicate that the parts are missing types. Additionally, you receive the following error message when you compile the project:
X2003: #error: “The expression that you have entered is not valid.”
Cause
- This problem occurs because Orchestration Designer provides types to the project compiler in an incorrect order.
Hotfix
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2429050/cumulative-update-package-1-for-biztalk-server-2009
Applies To
- Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 Branch
- Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 Developer
- Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 Enterprise
- Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 Standard
According to Tomas Restrepo, this hotfix also solved the problem with consuming WCF Services within the same BizTalk project as the orchestration that uses them.
Don’t let visual bugs slow down your development. While BizTalk 2009 is a legacy version, maintaining a clean workspace is essential for efficiency. Applying this hotfix is the best way to ensure that when you see an error icon, it actually means something is wrong.
