Connected Systems

Earlier this year, Microsoft released a CTP version of a new technology stack called 'BizTalk Services'.   In July, they updated this with a new release.    It is only now, at long last, that I've got around to playing with BizTalk Services, thanks to the gentle pursuasion of my colleague, Andy James (CTO at SolidSoft).   I must say that I am very pleased that Andy applied some pressure.   This is a really interesting development in the BizTalk world, and having now had a chance to stub my toe against the tyres (I'll leave the full-blown kicking until a future date), I feel rather excited about the possibilities this technology opens.

I have provided an overview of BizTalk Services at http://geekswithblogs.net/cyoung/archive/2007/10/09/115944.aspx.   I have also written an article on the Identity Service that is part of the stack.   This is at http://geekswithblogs.net/cyoung/archive/2007/10/09/115943.aspx.   I have published some notes on solving problems when installing the SDK.   These are at http://geekswithblogs.net/cyoung/archive/2007/10/09/115942.aspx.

• The Identity Service can provide access control for web services
• Users can define groups and these groups can be used by the access control rules
• Applications can provide HTTP support from behind a firewall
• The Connectivity Service has higher throughput, better streaming support, and improved hybrid-mode support

With this release we are making a significant change in the way we roll out a new release.  Specifically we want to work developers to make sure that the roll out goes smoothly. So before we release to production, we are giving you time to test your applications on a pre-production version of BizTalk Services and hoping you will let us know if you see any issues.  Instructions for how to do this are included below.

In terms of new features in the release the biggest change is that we now offer flexible, user-configurable access control.  Right now we are using this to gate use of the names at biztalk.net. For example, if I make a stock picking service available at http://connect.biztalk.net/services/john/stockpicks then I can decide who can send or listen to messages from the service.

Of course, one of the implications of this is that is that if you do not set up your access control rules correctly others will not be able to access your application.  

In a follow-up post, I will discuss how this new access control capability works under the hood and look at how developers will be able to use it as a hosted authorization service to manage access for a wide range of services.

We also updated the web site - there is some new content, better navigation, and so on.  And we added the new information card icon.

To use the BizTalk Labs pre-production environment (PPE) you will need to do the following:

1. Uninstall the existing BizTalk Labs SDK.
2. Go to http://labs-ppe.biztalk.net
3. Create a new account in the PPE environment.  (To do create the labs account you will also need a PPE Windows Live ID (WLID) identity.  Note that a PPE WLID is different from the production WLID so unless you have already created a PPE WLID you will need to create a new one.)
4. Download the PPE SDK - http://labs-ppe.biztalk.net/GetStarted.aspx
5. Create a system environment variable called “RELAYENV” set to the value “PPE”.  This step is very important and easy to forget.  To do this go to Control Panel --> System --> Advanced --> Environment Variables --> System Environment.  Make sure you restart VS or command windows before testing.
6. Test your applications and give us feedback.

Note that we are currently investigating an issue with the multicast capability generating an unnecessary address that is not based off an account name.  The following workaround may help:

    // Set the client base address to match the client Listen access rule
    ((RelayBinding)channelFactory.Endpoint.Binding).ClientBaseAddress =
        new Uri(String.Format("sb://{0}/services/{1}/client",
        RelayBinding.DefaultRelayHostName, username));

If you get the chance to try out the new release, please let us know what you think.