Chapter 5 described a fictitious company called Arnold, Wilbur, and Olivia Corporation (AWO), and presented a sales order process built on BizTalk Server. In this exercise, you’ll install the sample application and review the business process. The application includes both an orchestration that handles the majority of the sales order process and messaging that sends the manufacturing instructions from the engineering team to the factory. The BAM solution needs to capture data from both the orchestration and the manufacturing instructions.

1. Run the installation batch file for the sample code at C:pro bam sampleschapter sixprepare.bat.
2. If you didn’t complete the exercises in Chapter 5, run the batch file C:pro bam sampleschapter fivefinished.bat. This will create the activity and views you need for the exercise.
3. Using Visual Studio 2008, open the solution Orders.sln in C:pro bam sampleschapter sixcode.
4. The solution contains two projects. The Orders project is the AWO sales order business process. The TestHarness project contains several maps that are used to simulate the actions of other software systems outside the business process.
5. Examine the OrderProcess orchestration, shown in Figure 6-2. You’ll see that it’s a fairly simple series of sends and receives. This business process is deliberately simplified so that you can focus on learning BAM techniques.
   

   Figure 6-2. AWO’s sales order process

6. In Solution Explorer, double-click each XSD file to examine the schemas in the Orders project. Each schema represents a message that is either sent or received by the sales order process.
7. From the Start menu, select BizTalk Server 2009 BizTalk Server Administration to open the BizTalk Administration Console.
8. Open the BizTalk Server group, and then open the Applications folder, shown in Figure 6-3.
   

   Figure 6‑3. The Applications folder

   The sample contains three applications: Orders, TestHarness, and ManufacturingTransmit. Orders contains the AWO sales order orchestration, ManufacturingTransmit is a messaging-only solution that transmits manufacturing instructions from the Engineering department to the Manufacturing department, and TestHarness is used to simulate external systems in the Engineering, Purchasing, and Accounting departments.

9. Open the Orders application, open the Orchestrations folder, and then double-click the OrderProcess orchestration to examine its bindings.
10. Open the TestHarness application, open the Send Ports folder, then double-click each of the send ports and examine their properties. For each send port, look at the Filter tab to examine how it is connected to a receive port. Also, examine the Outbound Maps tab to examine the maps that generate the responses from the simulated Engineering, Accounting, and Purchasing departments.
11. Open an instance of Windows Explorer, and browse to the C:pro bam sampleschapter sixfiledrops folder. You will see that this folder contains a batch file called FileMove.bat, shown in Listing 6-1.

Listing 6-1. The FileMove.bat File

set /a loopcount=0
:start
sleep 60
rem Advance orders one step in processmove “c:pro bam sampleschapter six
filedrops oengineering*.*” “c:pro bam samples
chapter sixfiledrops empengineering”
move “c:pro bam sampleschapter sixfiledrops
topurchasing*.*” “c:pro bam sampleschapter sixfiledrops emppurchasing”
move “c:pro bam sampleschapter sixfiledrops
toaccounting*.*” “c:pro bam sampleschapter sixfiledrops empaccounting”
rem Advance the loop count variable
set /a loopcount=%loopcount%+1
rem Check for the fifth iteration
if %loopcount%==5 (goto :skip) else (goto :start)
:skip
rem Copy manufacturing instructions
move “c:pro bam sampleschapter sixfiledropsmanuftemp1*.*”
    “c:pro bam sampleschapter sixfiledropsmanuftemp2”
rem Jump back to start of file
set /a loopcount=0
goto :start

This file is another part of the test harness that simulates the work of the Engineering, Purchasing, and Accounting departments. As an example of how the batch file works, consider the simulated behavior of the Engineering department. When the OrderProcess orchestration receives a new order, it immediately writes the order through a port called ToEngineering that stores the outbound file in a folder called C:pro bam sampleschapter sixfiledrops oengineering. Once per minute, the FileMove batch file will move any files in the toengineering folder into the tempengineering folder. The TestHarness BizTalk application has a receive location pointed to tempengineering that will pick up the file, map it to the engineering response format, and write the file to the fromengineering folder. This simulates the behavior of the systems used by the engineering department and provides the message received in the RcvEngineering shape shown in Figure 6-1.

You may be wondering why the sample uses a batch file in addition to the TestHarness application. The batch file sleeps for 60 seconds between copies, slowing down the sales order process. One of the goals of the BAM implementation is to track the duration of the sales order process. If the process completed immediately, the BAM data showing progress would be less interesting to look at.

In this exercise, you’ll use the TPE to capture data from AWO’s sales order orchestration.

1. From the Start menu, select BizTalk Server 2009, and then click Tracking Profile Editor. The TPE will open in a new window (see Figure 6-4).
   

   Figure 6-4. The TPE just after it is loaded from the Start menu

   As mentioned previously, the TPE is divided into two panes: the activity pane on the left of the screen, and the event source pane on the right of the screen. The activity pane will contain a list of the items in the observation model that need to be captured. The event source pane will contain an orchestration or schema that is used the source of data being captured.

2. Click the link in the activity pane that is labeled “Click here to import a BAM Activity Definition.”

   A list of all activities deployed on the system will be displayed, as shown in Figure 6-5. In addition to activities you have deployed, you may see several activities that are defined by the EDI components, if you have the EDI/AS2 feature of BizTalk installed.

   Note BizTalk’s EDI feature is primarily used to implement the X.12 and EDIFACT message formats that are often employed in B2B applications. If you’re not familiar with EDI, don’t worry, you don’t need to use the EDI tools to implement BAM.

   

   Figure 6-5. The Import BAM Activity Definition dialog box

3. Select the Orders activity. Leave the Retrieve the Current Tracking Settings for This Activity Definition check box unselected, and click the OK button to continue. Figure 6-6 shows how the TPE should appear after you’ve imported the Orders activity.
   

   Figure 6-6. The TPE after loading the Orders activity

4. Click the link in the event source pane that is labeled “Click here to select an event source.” This will bring up a list of all BizTalk assemblies deployed to your server, as shown in Figure 6-7.
5. Select the Orders assembly, and click the OK button. The TPE will display a list of orchestrations defined by the assembly (see Figure 6-8).
6. Select the OrderProcess orchestration, and click the OK button. The TPE will display a simplified diagram of the orchestration.
   

   Figure 6-7. The Select Event Source Parent Assembly dialog box

   

   Figure 6-8. The Select Orchestration dialog box

7. Several of the milestones in the activity are used to capture the time when a particular message was sent or received by the orchestration. Drag the RcvNewOrder shape from the orchestration to the OrderReceived milestone in the activity (see Figure 6-9).
   

   Figure 6-9. The TPE after dragging the RcvnewOrder shape to the OrderReceived milestone

8. Drag the shapes listed in Table 6-1 to their corresponding milestones.

   

9. Right-click the RcvNewOrder shape, and select MessagePayloadSchema. This will show the schema for the order message that activates the orchestration. Open the Schema element, and then open the Root element.
10. Drag the AgentNumber element from the event source pane to the AgentNumber data item in the activity pane.
11. Drag the elements listed in Table 6-2 to their respective activity items (see Figure 6-10).

    

    

    Figure 6-10. The TPE after dragging the payload elements to the activity fields. The balloon points to the Return to Parent button.

12. Click the Return to Parent button to return to the orchestration diagram.
13. Right-click the RcvEngineering shape and select Message Payload Schema.
14. Drag the elements shown in Table 6-3 to the activity indicated.

    

    You also need to capture the engineering control number in a continuation, as you will use this to match the orchestration with the manufacturing instructions message. Each row in the activity should include data from both an orchestration and a set of manufacturing instructions. That’s the job of BAM continuations. Continuations are based on using a unique identifier to match data items that relate to the same instance of a business process. If you’re familiar with correlation in BizTalk orchestrations, the concept of continuations will seem familiar to you. In this case, the continuation will match an orchestration with a manufacturing instructions message.

15. Right-click the Orders activity, which is the topmost element in the activity pane, and select New Continuation. Name the continuation EngControl.
16. Drag the ControlNumber element from the EngResponse schema to the continuation. This means that when the EngResponse message is received, the continuation will be initialized with the value of the engineering control number.
17. Click the Select Event Source button near the top-right of the TPE, and choose Select Messaging Payload. The TPE will display the Select Event Source Parent Assembly dialog box shown earlier in Figure 6-6.
18. Select the Orders assembly, and then select the ManufInstructions1 schema. This will display the schema for the manufacturing instructions.
19. Drag the elements listed in Table 6-4 to their corresponding activity items.

    

20. Right-click the Orders activity, and select New Continuation ID. Name the continuation ID EngControl.

    Note The continuation ID must have the same name as the continuation created in step 26. The names are used to match up the continuation with the continuation ID.

21. Drag the ControlNumber element to the continuation ID.
22. Click the Select Event Source button, and then choose Select Messaging Property. Drag PortEndTime to the ManufacturingReceived activity item.

    You have just set up several items that will be captured from the manufacturing instructions, which are transmitted through BizTalk Messaging. For each of these items, you need to specify the messaging port where the data will be captured.

23. Right-click the Operations element under the ToolOperations activity item, and then select Set Port Mappings.
24. In the port list, select ManufOut, as shown in Figure 6-11, and then click the > button to select this port.
    

    Figure 6-11. The Select Ports dialog box

25. You will also need to associate the ManufOut port with each of the items listed in Table 6-5.

    

    Now that the tracking profile has been built, you will save it as a file and also apply it to the server.

26. From the Tools menu, select Set Management Database. Confirm that the correct server and database names are set. The defaults are the local machine and the BizTalkMgmtDB database. In a typical single-machine development environment, these are the correct choice. If no changes are needed, click the Cancel button.
27. From the File menu, select Save As. Save the tracking profile in the TrackingProfiles folder that you created in Exercise 5-1. Use the file name orderprofile.btt. This will save a copy of the tracking profile in case you need to modify it later. (If you didn’t do Exercise 5-1, save the file in any convenient folder.)
28. From the Tools menu, select Apply Tracking Profile. This will apply the tracking profile to the BizTalk management database and initiate the capture of BAM data.

If you applied a tracking profile but didn’t save a file copy, it’s easy to get the tracking profile back from the database.

1. If the TPE is open, close it, and then reopen a fresh copy. If the TPE isn’t open, start it. You’ll want to perform this exercise using a copy of the TPE with no profile loaded.
2. Click the link in the activity pane that is labeled “Click here to import a BAM Activity Definition,” and select the Orders activity. Select the Retrieve the Current Tracking Settings check box, and then click the OK button to continue.
3. When the activity loads, you will also see the currently-applied tracking profile.
4. If you want to remove the tracking profile from the database, select Remove Tracking Profile from the Tools menu, or use the bttdeploy utility covered later in this chapter.

In this exercise, you will run some orders through the sample to capture some data.

1. Open a copy of Windows Explorer, and navigate to C:pro bam sampleschapter sixfiledrops. Double-click FileMove.bat to start the batch file. It will loop until you close it.

   Note The batch file continually attempts to move files that are generated by the orchestration. If there are no files to move, the batch file will display an error message but continue operating. Don’t worry about these error messages; this is how the batch file is supposed to work.

2. From the Start menu, select BizTalk Server 2009 BizTalk Server Administration to open the BizTalk Administrator. Open the BizTalk Server group, and then open the Applications folder. Right-click the Orders application, and then select Start. Start the TestHarness and ManufacturingTransmit applications in the same manner.
3. Copy several files from the Order Samples folder and drop them into the New Orders folder. About five minutes later, you should see the manufacturing instructions show up in the ToManuf folder. If you see files in this folder, the sample is working.
4. Open SQL Server Management Studio, and then connect to the database engine on the machine that has your BAMPrimaryImport database.
5. Open the Databases icon. Open the BAMPrimaryImport database, and then open Views. Right-click the dbo.bam_Orders_AllInstances view, and select Open View. If you see any data, BAM is capturing data from the sample.

   Note Chapter 7 is devoted to working with data captured by BAM. For more explanation of this view, see Chapter 7.

In this exercise, you’ll learn to use the bttdeploy tool to deploy a tracking profile.

1. From the Start menu, right-click Command Prompt, and select Run As Administrator. This will start a command shell with administrator privilege.

   Note You must be a local administrator to run the bttdeploy command. These instructions assume that you have a single-server installation and you used the default database names. If that is not the way your system is set up, you may need to add the /mgdb option to each of the following commands.

2. Change the directory to your Tracking Profiles folder.
3. Enter the following commands:
   path %path%;C:Program FilesMicrosoft BizTalk Server 2009Tracking
bttdeploy /remove orderprofile.btt

   This command removes the tracking profile you created previously.

4. Enter the following command:
   bttdeploy orderprofile.btt

   This command reapplies the tracking profile.