Last Monday I presented, once again, a session in the Integration Monday series. This time the topic was BizTalk Server: Teach me something new about Flat Files (or not). This was the fifth session that I deliver:
- The first time I presented a session on BizTalk Server Tips & Tricks for Developers and Admins (Deep Dive) (June 22, 2015)
- The second time was Real Case Scenarios Where BizTalk NoS Ultimate Can Improve Our Efficiency (August 31, 2015)
- Followed by Creating reusable pieces in Logic Apps (April 18, 2016)
- And BizTalk Mapping Patterns, Best Practices (April 25, 2016)
And I think will not be the last! However, this time was different for many aspects and in a certain way it was a crazy session… Despite having some post about BizTalk Server: Teach me something new about Flat Files on my blog, I didn’t have time to prepare this session (sent to a crazy mission for a client and also because I had to organize the integration track on TUGA IT event), I had a small problem in my BizTalk Server 2016 machine in which I had to switch to my BizTalk Server 2013 R2 VM, interrupted by the kids in the middle of the session because the girls wanted me to have dinner with them (worthy of being in this series)… but it all ended well and I think it was a very nice session with two great real case samples:
- Removing headers from a flat-file (CSV) using only the schema (without any custom pipeline component)
- And removing empty lines from a delimited flat file, again, using only the schema (without any custom pipeline component)
For those who were online, I hope you have enjoyed it and sorry for all the confusion. And for those who did not have the chance to be there, you can now view it because the session is recorded and available on the Integration Monday website. I hope you like it!
Session Name: BizTalk Server: Teach me something new about Flat Files (or not)
Session Overview: Despite over the year’s new protocols, formats or patterns emerged like Web Services, WCF RESTful services, XML, JSON, among others. The use of text files (Flat Files ) as CSV (Comma Separated Values) or TXT, one of the oldest common patterns for exchanging messages, still remains today one of the most used standards in systems integration and/or communication with business partners.
While tools like Excel can help us interpret such files, this type of process is always iterative and requires few user tips so that software can determine where there is a need to separate the fields/columns as well the data type of each field. But for system integration (Enterprise Application Integration) like BizTalk Server, you must reduce any ambiguity, so that these kinds of operations can be performed thousands of times with confidence and without having recourse to a manual operator.
In this session we will first address: How we can easily implement a robust File Transfer integration in BizTalk Server (using Content-Based Routing in BizTalk with retries, backup channel and so on).
And second: How to process Flat Files documents (TXT, CSV …) in BizTalk Server. Addressing what types of flat files are supported? How is the process of transforming text files (also called Flat Files) into XML documents (Syntax Transformations) – where does it happen and which components are needed. How can I perform a flat-file validation?
Integration Monday is full of great sessions that you can watch and I will also take this opportunity to invite you all to join us next Monday.
