Adapters enable communication between BizTalk Server and external systems or trading partners. Users configure adapters by creating send ports and receive locations that define the properties for each adapter instance. In many cases, adapters support both send and receive operations. However, some adapters only support one‑way communication.
📝 One-Minute Brief
A step‑by‑step whitepaper that explains how to install, configure, and use the classic BizTalk Server HTTP Adapter to receive messages in BizTalk Server 2020. Although often misunderstood or assumed deprecated, the HTTP Adapter remains fully supported and widely used. This guide helps developers and administrators correctly configure IIS, enable the BTSHTTPReceive component, and build a working end‑to‑end scenario for receiving messages via HTTP.
The HTTP Adapter is one of the adapters that support two-way communications, but unlike other adapters, this adapter has two characteristics that define it:
- The HTTP “Receive” Adapter that is responsible for delivering messages to BizTalk is, in fact, a DLL that runs inside Internet Information Services (IIS).
- And for that reason, it must be configured in IIS – it is not there out-of-the-box.
In this whitepaper, we explain the step‑by‑step process for installing and configuring the HTTP Adapter to receive messages correctly.
Some of you may believe the HTTP adapter is deprecated, but it isn’t. The only deprecated adapters are the old SAP adapter, which was removed, and the SOAP and SQL adapters, which still appear in the Administration Console. The HTTP adapter is a classic component, but it remains fully supported and widely used today.
The idea for this whitepaper came from real needs and customer requests. During a training session, several attendees struggled to understand the HTTP adapter because its configuration is unusual and unlike any other adapter in BizTalk Server. A week later, I faced the same challenge again while helping another client. That experience, combined with frequent questions from the field, pushed me to create a clear, step‑by‑step guide that explains how to install and configure the HTTP adapter to receive messages through HTTP requests.
There is a similar whitepaper that I wrote in the past: BizTalk Server 2016: Receiving messages through the HTTP Adapter installation whitepaper focuses on BizTalk Server 2016, as the name suggests. This new one is just a small update to the BizTalk Server versioning and should be updated to the latest version of BizTalk Server.
What’s in the Whitepaper for you?
This whitepaper will give you a detailed understanding of the following:
- Prerequisites.
- Configure the HTTP Receive Adapter in IIS.
- Configure the HTTP Adapter Receive and Send Handlers:
- Receiving messages using the HTTP Adapter.
- Testing our solution.
Where can you download it?
You can download the whitepaper here:
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