New Biztalk Visual Studio Interview Preparation Guide

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A link specifies the basic function of copying data from an element or attribute in an input instance message to an element or attribute in an output instance. You create links between records and fields in the source and destination schemas at design time. This drives the creation, at run time, of an output instance message conforming to the destination schema from an input instance message conforming to the source schema.

To route binary data you can use pass-through pipelines on the receive location and send port. BizTalk will route (copy) the data from the source (receive location) to the destination (send port). If you want to route the binary data based on some information in the binary data then you write a custom Disassembler to promote the properties you need from the incoming message to route the binary data.

☛ Sign the project with strong name key
☛ Give the name to the Application

BizTalk uses a combination of namespace#rootnode to define the schema type of a message, thereby making a MessageType unique (for example: http://mynamespace.com#MyRootNode). In other words, BizTalk uses this combination to identify and resolve schemas references.

At the command prompt, from the folder where you want to store the key file, type the following command, and then press ENTER: sn /k file_name .snk. In Visual Studio Solution Explorer, right-click the project and then click Properties. Click the Signing tab and choose Browse in the Choose a strong name key file drop down box.

Clean Solution is used to delete any intermediate and output files (mostly assemblies). With only the project and component files left, new instances of the intermediate and output files (mostly assemblies) can then be built.

Build means compile and link only the source files that have changed since the last build, while Rebuild means compile and link all source files regardless of whether they changed or not.

Yes, we can have a schema without target namespace and its message type will be the Root node.

An <Any> element in a schema designates a specific location in the schema where new elements or attributes can be added. When BizTalk uses the schema to process a message containing unknown elements or attributes in the designated location, the schema will still consider the message valid.

Yes. Technically it is possible.

.btproj is a Visual Studio BizTalk project file.

No. To promote XML record its ContentType property should be set SimpleContent.

A message created in BizTalk Orchestration is bound to a schema, this is a typed message. In un-typed messages, the message is bound to System.Xml.XmlDocument instead of a schema.

That depends of the BizTalk Version/Visual Studio that you are using! In previous version you could create and configure port through the BizTalk Explorer view in Visual Studio, but since BizTalk Server 2010 the BizTalk Explorer view was removed from Visual Studio.

AssemblyInfo.cs contains information about assembly, like name, description, version, etc. It can be located under Project-->Properties-->AssemblyInfo.cs

A flat file schema defines the structure of a class of instance messages that use a flat file format, either delimited or positional or some combination thereof. Because the native semantic capabilities of XSD do not accommodate all of the requirements for defining the structure of flat file instance messages—such as the various types of delimiters that might be used for different records and fields within the flat file—BizTalk Server uses the annotation capabilities of XSD to store this extra information within an XSD schema. BizTalk Server defines a rich set of specific annotation tags that can be used to store all of the required additional information.

Different Types of BizTalk Schemas: An XML Schema is basically a contract of your message and defines it. The XML Schema definition (XSD) language defines the structure of an XML instance message, and this is the intended purpose of XSD, such schemas use XSD in a straightforward way.

☛ • Schemas and Maps in its own project
☛ • Or Schemas and Maps together in its own project
☛ • Orchestrations in its own project
☛ • Pipelines in its own project

☛ • Add a reference to that class.
☛ • Make sure your Orchestration is Long Running transactional.
☛ • Add an Atomic scope.
☛ • Create an Orchestration variable of that class inside the scope.
☛ • Create an instance on that object inside the scope.
☛ • Call the method.
☛ • Bonus: Mention the class must be strongly signed and in the GAC.

It is a known issue of Visual Studio. Visual Studio will not successfully compile a project if it would result in an assembly larger than 75 megabytes (Mb).

Development for BizTalk Server is done through Visual Studio <version> (depends on BizTalk version). Visual Studio has templates for BizTalk artifacts like orchestration, pipelines, schemas and maps, so a BizTalk solution can be created (design time) and deployed to the BizTalk runtime. Besides artifacts .NET development can be done in creating pipeline components, custom functoids, custom adapters, and .NET helper classes to aid in orchestrations. As a BizTalk professional Visual Studio is your friend and required to build BizTalk solutions.

The rule here is, if you don’t want the schema element to appear in send port filters/debugging information then make it a distinguished field.

• Use a Sequential Convoy to process the messages in the order they are received into the Message Box.
• Make sure Ordered Delivery is set to True inside the Orchestration Receive Port.

☛ A. It is basically an Integration server. It helps in Integrating Enterprise Applications at one common point.
☛ B. Solutions can be developed really fast with BizTalk Server. Effort spent will be less.
☛ C. Updates can be handled in an easy way and maintenance will be easy. BizTalk Server supports Versioning of Artifacts.
☛ D. Negative scenarios can be handled easily with BizTalk Server- e.g. If some Service is down, we can set Retry Mechanism,
☛ E. Alternate Transport Mechanism. It even supports service windows. We can take advantage of enlist and stop features and prevent losing even a single Message.
☛ F. BizTalk is designed to operate in Multi Server Environment. We can run the application on various servers to manage load and Availability.
☛ G. MessageBox DB designed for optimum performance.
☛ H. Advantage for customers on cost saving in terms of development time.
☛ I. BizTalk has a number of Tools like BRE, BAM, SSO which be effectively used.
☛ J. It can be used to communicate with wide range of Legacy Applications. There is always a scope to develop custom Components.

Build Order is the sequence in which the projects will be build when the whole solution is build and yes it can be changed.

No. Indeed BizTalk Mapper Editor, Schema Editor, Orchestration editor and Pipeline editor are embedded in Visual Studio. However BAM and BRE tool are not embedded.