Connected Systems

BizTalk Services Release 9 is Available

Yesterday we put the R9 release of BizTalk Services in production at http://labs.biztalk.net.

The updated SDK describes the new functionality.

Have fun and let us know what you think.

Charles Young on BizTalk Services R9

Charles Young just posted about BizTalk Services.

Charles provides an overview and information about the new access control capabilties in R9. He also provides information about working in the pre-production environment (PPE) and dealing with BizTalk Services SDK uninstall issues.

Charles writes:

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.

BizTalk Services Release 9 - Coming Soon

We're just about ready to release BizTalk Services R9. Some of the new features include:

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

You can start using R9 in the BizTalk Services preproduction environment (PPE) located at http://labs-ppe.biztalk.net. Detailed information about new features can be found in the SDK reference.htm file.

Instructions on the PPE can found in an earlier post. When using the PPE remember to set RELAYENV=PPE as described.

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

BizTalk Services Release 8 is Available

As planned, on Thursday we put the update into production at http://labs.biztalk.net.

I'm pretty excited about the new access control system.

The web site and SDK have a lot of new information.

Have fun!

A New Release - On the Way

We expect to release an update to Labs.BizTalk.NET - probably on Thursday July 5th - but it depends on you…

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:

Uninstall the existing BizTalk Labs SDK.
Go to http://labs-ppe.biztalk.net
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.)
Download the PPE SDK - http://labs-ppe.biztalk.net/GetStarted.aspx
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.
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));