Summary of my contributions on MSDN Code Gallery and TechNet Gallery in the last half of 2013

We are getting close to the end of another year, and this is the right time to do a personal end-of-year review and make some work/life balance. To do some of your own personal planning for the year ahead. What personal goals do you want to achieve over the next 12 months? But also to look back and reflect on what you achieved in the last year. So, following one of my previous posts, this is the list of my contributions in the last six months on MSDN Code Gallery and TechNet Gallery.

MSDN Code Gallery is your destination for downloading sample applications and code snippets, as well as sharing your own resources.

List of contributions on MSDN Code Gallery:

• How to Call Orchestrations developed in a different Visual Studio Solution: In the past, I developed a demo on “How to Call Orchestration from another project or from another BizTalk Application” (this demo is composed of one Visual Studio Solution with two different projects). However, there were a few questions about how we can accomplish that using two different solutions… well, it’s the exact same process, but to help clarify this topic and to better help the community members who placed the questions, I decided to create a different demo.
• BizTalk Mapper Extensions UtilityPack for BizTalk Server 2013: A new version of BizTalk Mapper Extensions UtilityPack with several useful functoids to include and use in a map, which will provide an extension of BizTalk Mapper capabilities.
• BizTalk Mapper Extensions UtilityPack for BizTalk Server 2010: A new version of BizTalk Mapper Extensions UtilityPack with several useful functoids to include and use in a map, which will provide an extension of BizTalk Mapper capabilities.
• BizTalk Mapper Extensions UtilityPack for BizTalk Server 2006/2009: A new version of BizTalk Mapper Extensions UtilityPack with several useful functoids to include and use in a map, which will provide an extension of BizTalk Mapper capabilities.
• BizTalk Mapper Patterns: Working with Multiple input messages or joining messages: When sending messages from one system to another, it is common for the target system to require more information than the source system can provide. This is a common behavior that we all certainly come across in orchestrations.
• BizTalk Mapper Patterns: How to Send Orchestration Variables Into Maps: Basically this can be another example of Content Enricher Pattern that we explain here: BizTalk Mapper Patterns: Working with Multiple input messages or joining messages (Content Enricher Pattern), or you may need to pass orchestration variables into the map to make some transformation logic, in any of the ways, the best way we will accomplish this is to use the same technic explain in the previous demo, i.e., dragging a “Transform Shape” into the orchestration and setting multiple input messages under “Source Transform”.
• BizTalk Mapper Patterns: Working With Multiple Output Messages (Splitting Msgs): Another common pattern is working with multiple output messages or split messages. This technique can also be called the Content Filter.
• BizTalk Mapper Patterns: Working with Constant Values inside maps: Sometimes we would like to use constant values within a BizTalk map to suppress certain lack of “static” information in the source messages, which are required in the final message, or to supply in elements that don’t change (or rarely change), such as a billing address or a company name. The best use of constant mapping depends on the situation and requirements you are developing against.

TechNet Gallery is your destination for finding resources written in VB Script, PowerShell, SQL, JavaScript, or other script languages, or other kinds of resources (docs, Visio file and so on).

List of contributions on TechNet Gallery:

• BizTalk Infrastructure and Solution Overview Samples: Creating documentation is boring, and it can be a challenging task. However, documentation is an important part of every BizTalk Integration project or for infrastructure operations management and administration. They will help you in many critical situations and will reduce the time needed to carry out different procedures, like finding where the machines are hosted, how many machines your environment has, what the actors (systems, protocols) are in a given solution, and so on. This contribution is a list of diagram samples that you can use in your documentation describing the infrastructure, solution, and Technical overview of your BizTalk Solution/Environment.
• Monitoring Windows Updates and Pending Restarts on the servers using PowerShell: The script will monitor all the servers with Windows Updates ready to be installed, Windows Updates configured to be checked manually, or servers that require a reboot. Servers that do not fall under these conditions will not be listed.
• PowerShell to Configure BizTalk Server Host and Host Instances: One of the tasks that we need to do in all our new BizTalk environments over and over again is creating and configuring the Host, Host Instances, and, of course, the adapter handlers. This PowerShell script will help you to automate this process according to some of the Best Practices.
• Collection of Visio 2013 Stencil for BizTalk Server: New version of Visio 2013 Stencil for BizTalk Server with several modern flat Visio 2013 shapes for representing BizTalk Server physical architectures, Integration architectures, or solutions diagrams in Visio 2013.
• Collection of Visio 2010 Stencil for BizTalk Server: New version of Visio 2010 Stencil for BizTalk Server with several modern flat Visio shapes for representing BizTalk Server physical architectures, Integration architecture,s or solutions diagrams in Visio 2010.
• Enable all the required IIS features for BizTalk Server with PowerShell: Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) provides a Web application infrastructure for many BizTalk Server features. BizTalk Server requires IIS for the following features: HTTP adapter, SOAP adapter, Windows SharePoint Services adapter, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption, and BAM Portal. This PowerShell script helps you automate the process of configuring IIS with all the required features for BizTalk Server.

Hope you find this helpful! If you liked the content or found it useful and would like to support me in writing more, consider buying (or helping to buy) a Star Wars Lego set for my son. 

Author: Sandro Pereira

Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community. View all posts by Sandro Pereira