Last Monday, I once again presented a session in the Integration Monday series. This time, the topic was BizTalk Server: Teach me something new about Flat Files (or not). It was the fifth session I have delivered in this series:
- My first session was BizTalk Server Tips & Tricks for Developers and Admins (Deep Dive) on June 22, 2015.
- The second, titled Real Case Scenarios Where BizTalk NoS Ultimate Can Improve Our Efficiency, followed on August 31, 2015.
- On April 18, 2016, I presented Creating reusable pieces in Logic Apps.
- A week later, on April 25, 2016, I delivered BizTalk Mapping Patterns, Best Practices.
And I’m quite sure this won’t be the last session.
This one, however, was different in many ways. In some respects, it was a slightly crazy session. Despite writing posts about BizTalk Server, such as Teach Me Something New About Flat Files, I didn’t have time to properly prepare. I was sent on a last‑minute client mission and was also busy organizing the integration track for the TUGA IT event.
To make things more interesting, I ran into a problem with my BizTalk Server 2016 machine and had to switch to a BizTalk Server 2013 R2 virtual machine. In the middle of the session, my kids interrupted to ask me to have dinner with them. Honestly, that moment alone was worthy of being part of this series.
Even with all that, everything ended well. The session turned out to be very enjoyable and included two great real‑world examples:
- Removing headers from a flat file (CSV) using only the schema, without any custom pipeline component
- Removing empty lines from a delimited flat file, again using only the schema and no custom pipeline component
For those who attended live, I hope you enjoyed the session, and I apologize for any confusion along the way. For everyone else who couldn’t join, the session was recorded and is now available on the Integration Monday website. I hope you enjoy watching it.
What We Cover in This Session
In this session, we start by exploring how to implement a robust file transfer integration in BizTalk Server. We focus on practical patterns such as content‑based routing, retry mechanisms, and backup channels. These techniques help increase reliability and resilience in real‑world scenarios.
Processing Flat Files in BizTalk Server
Next, we dive into flat file processing in BizTalk Server. We look at how BizTalk handles text‑based formats such as TXT and CSV files. The session explains which flat file types BizTalk supports and how the processing pipeline works.
We also cover syntax transformations. You’ll learn how BizTalk converts flat files into XML, where this transformation happens, and which components are involved. Finally, we demonstrate how to validate flat files effectively within BizTalk Server.
Join Integration Monday
Integration Monday features many high‑quality sessions that you can watch online. I’d also like to take this opportunity to invite you to join us next Monday for another great integration‑focused discussion.
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