I get alot of questions about this - for those of you who have been mentally scarred with early editions of BizTalk (haven't we come along way since then there was a BizTalk Partner Edition (lower priced for hub/spoke type implementations) which was limited in some way with the number of Orchestrations/Tradining Partners etc etc. (like 10 Orchs, 2 partners from memory).

With BizTalk 2006 R2 we have the Branch Edition which retails for approx USD$1500 and it gives you........

- BizTalk Business Rules Engine (alot of people are wanting to use the BRE as a centralised rule store in a cost effective manner, until now it was BizTalk Standard at least that you needed to get, as the BRE is not available separately)

- BizTalk RFID (what can I say here!!!)

A perfect application of the Branch Edition is to drop this in on your trading partner's site typically meaning less time to get up and running (for the price, if consultants are spending more than 1.5 days trying to establish communications with the other end, then you should be considering the Branch Edition as it understands all the classic forms of comms with BizTalk 'proper'. By no means is it limited to just BTS)

I thought I'd also give you the more formal description of what the Branch Edition has/has not under the hood:

---------------------------------------------

BizTalk 2006 R2 Branch Edition

BizTalk Branch Edition is a specialty version of BizTalk Server designed for hub and spoke deployment scenarios including RFID.

Scenarios:

1.     Hub-Spoke Deployment. In this scenario the Branch edition is located in the regional / or point of sale locations and communicate with the hub (BizTalk Enterprise Edition).

2.     RFID Deployment. In this scenario the BizTalk Edition applies rules and business process to the raw data and communicates with the hub (BizTalk Enterprise Edition) to send aggregated business data.

3.     Standalone Deployment. In this scenario the Branch Edition is used to execute a business process, execute rules on the business data but not communicate with any central or hub.

Supported Capabilities:

1.     General Transport Adapters like FILE, HTTP, HTTPS, MSMQ, FTP, SMTP, POP3 are available

2.     RFID Manager and RFID Adapter

3.     Host Integration Adapter

4.     Remote or local SQL Server database is supported. SQL Server Databases may be installed on a failover Windows Cluster providing high availability of the BizTalk Databases.

5.     BizTalk base capabilities like Messaging, Orchestration, BRE, BAM, Management & Operations and Development Tools are available

Limitations:

1.     No Line of Business Adapters are available.

2.     No Accelerators are available.

3.     Only one BizTalk Application can be deployed.

4.     BizTalk Server Group supports only one BizTalk Server. This means there is no fault tolerance, no scale-out, and no failover clustering

5.     A maximum of 2 – Processors are supported

6.     No Virtual Processor is supported. This means the dual core is not leveraged in dual core processors

7.     Two or more Branch Editions separately deployed in different locations cannot communicate with each other

References:

1.     http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/editions/default.mspx

 

Hot off the 'Hot-Cross Bun' RFID Conveyor belt (Happy Easter all also!!!) - myself and local Sharepoint MVP funny man - Ivan Wilson will be delivering the sessions...
(How do you have a conversation with more than 3 MVPs in the room??? you don't- they all talk about themselves - that's mine, not Ivan's)
which will be great news....just have to get the content together...shhhhh...you didn't hear me say that

MS Partner Training Schedule in the land of MOSS

This is for an Instructor Led 'Chalk & Talk Session' designed for Pre-sales Technical Consultants, Technical Consultants, Technical Project Managers, Architects and Business Analysts 

Dates First:
Brisbane – April 3 & 4
Melbourne – April 7 & 8
Sydney – April 10 & 11

REGISTER HERE

What is being covered is:

1.     MOSS Capability Overview - a brief discussion of the six major functional areas in SharePoint 2007: o    Collaboration o    Portals o    Search o    Web Content Management o    Business Forms o    Business Intelligence 2.    Understanding the "MOSS Building Blocks" - a description of both the physical and logical components that make up a SharePoint solution. We discuss how they fit together and how you can combine these to ensure your solutions can scale to meet demand 3.    A tour of the Central Administration site - gain an insight into how a SharePoint Farm is administered. 4.    Applications, Site Collections and Subsites - explore the main components used to build any SharePoint site. Learn what capabilities are managed at each level. 5.    Inside a sub-site - now that we understand the high level components we can get into the details of what makes up a subsite. We examine: o    Document Libraries and the SharePoint Document Management concepts o    Lists o    Web Parts o    Security o    Navigation Controls 6.    Search - we look into the rich functionality in MOSS to allow users to quickly locate content that exists inside and outside of SharePoint. We look at how the search capabilities are administered and what options are available to fine-tune the search engine to match your client's needs. 7.    Web Content Management - we look at how SharePoint incorporates Web Content Management functionality. This overview includes: o    Workflows o    Master Pages o    Page Layouts o    Content Deployment o    Variations o    Examples of public sites that use MOSS 8.    Business Data Catalog - the BDC provides a framework to gain access to information stored in third-party products. Learn how SharePoint can make use of this content directly within its own environment

REGISTER HERE

32/64 bit BizTalk considerations and the 64-million dollar question - "How big can my current setup go?"

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa577523.aspx

Enjoy!

Came across a great article - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa559162.aspx

Good Sizing goodies!!

Check this out - http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/capabilities/reader/ interactive and all. Scroll/Zoom + click on a section where the help and various MSDN articles come up - fantastic....shame my blog isn't silverlight capable....yet :)

Hi all - in a recent post I came across an updated version of the BizTalk Adapter Pack V1.0.
Doing a search on the web will yield you to a bunch of *.CHM files, but still no *download* link!

I'm on the hunt - here's a 'close' page, but still no download link http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/evaluation/adapter/default.mspx

The Adapter Pack has RTM'ed and is available on the Standard/Developer + Enterprise BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Editions.

Looks like I'll be up for up for a MSDN download or two.....

If you're thinking about cracking on with Silverlight - then here's the place to start.

This was covered earlier today(yesterday) in MIX08

http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2008/03/05/download-links-for-mix08-announcements.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D399733E-D4A9-44FD-821B-1C52D3C677E3&displaylang=en

More web standards compliant.....is the phrase.

I've now managed to get a moment to share a fantastic experience with you.

What a trip!!! I was away for 2 weeks in total with the first week spent in San Jose at the Office Developer Conference (ODC) 2008 which as good to touch base with some of the Sharepoint folks and see how others solve challenges that drive me up the wall.

Being in a hotel in the middle of 'Silicon Valley' Clayton and I were struggling to find Wireless internet access - the frustrating thing was that everywhere else in the town there were at least 20 networks on offer....except in our hotel room. We found a spot on the window ledge.

Then I flew up to Seattle to meet up with my enthusiastic cousin which resulted in a sneaky trip up to Whistler skiing
The snow was absolutely fantastic!!!!

The second week of my trip turned to the Business end where I had to step up, be prepared and present.
Enter BizTalk RFID Solution Days!!!

The first face I saw when I walked into the Conference was Anush's down in the foyer - Well done Anush for such a great conference!

The way the week was to play out:

• First two days was the conference with sessions and presentations
• The second two days was the training where I had 102 students and fortunately we planned that I was co-presenting with Venkatesh who was the BizTalk RFID Product Architect (he's moved on now and started S3Edge.com). He is a wealth of knowledge and a great person to ask all the 'Why' questions to.
  (he's also related to a great friend of mine here in Australia which was a total surprise!!!)

From the conference (2 days prior to training) I caught up with a buddy of mine Scott Allen (Microsoft App Plat TS - BI, BTS, SQL guru) who has just successfully completed building a 'RFID Lab' within Microsoft NZ. I've got to check it out sooner rather than later - sounded fantastic.

Scotty inspired me with his take on BizTalk RFID - he said "If you tell clients we've got a show on BizTalk RFID, they think they need to have supply chains and infrastructure - it becomes very specialised they feel. If you pitch BizTalk RFID at something around How to reduce the carbon footprint of your production line or increasing production efficiencies then the whole world comes running"

That said - he was getting huge amounts of CEOs from the big end of town to these sessions with a tour of the BizTalk RFID Lab. Well done Scotty!

So Anush grabbed center stage at the beginning of the conference and there were some great messages coming out of the speakers. One of the most noticeable messages for me was "Everyone is waiting for the Wallmart mandates to drive the RFID space, that may have been the case 2 yrs ago. Now we have reached enough critical mass in the industry to really see the explosion in RFID that is occurring"

Australia has been using RFID for years in cattle, lifestock, shipping and now wheat. What Microsoft BizTalk RFID has done is to 'domesticate' the whole process of getting connected and responsive. I was talking to a local CEO of a International Meat exporting business on the weekend - he was very interested in the BizTalk RFID story as his main concern facing his company is traceability. Everyone involved in the supply chain wants traceability - by the time the consumer sits down and uses the product, they want to know everything about it. In this case the meat.

Onward to the Training Arena (held on the MS campus) - training 102 people on Microsoft BizTalk RFID I needed to be prepared the best I could which involved a couple of trips to the MS Technical Services Group (TSG) to get things 'just right' for classroom setup.

Firstly - I want to say "WELL DONE TO ALL THE CREW who sat the course". In 12+yrs of teaching, I was amazed at your ability and enthusiasm!!!
(We actually created the RFID course from scratch and it's amazing to see what's in your head play out better than you expect)

I made a pledge to the class from the outset - From 102 students, I was going endeavor to help get 102 students across the line so they all had working BizTalk RFID Solutions in front of them.

What a great class - I enjoyed it as much as what they did. Out of 102 students I fully expected some students to come up to me by lunch time on the first day and say "Mick, you know this course - it's not what I envisaged etc etc" - 102 completed the course!!!

Let me share some interesting facts:

1. 102 students started.... 102 students completed a working BizTalk RFID end-to-end solution.
2. Some students had 1+yrs experience in BizTalk RFID.....others were seeing it for the first time.
3. One lady hadn't cut a line of code in 15yrs and was very excited.
4. Many different industries were represented in the room, from medical foundations to services to agricultural.....
5. I had to run around with a USB key only once - fortunately I had help.
6. One the first day students were still doing labs at 7pm.
7. Two days is not long enough :)
8. It was absolutely fantastic to have the major players from the BizTalk RFID Product group there in the room and on hand. Anush, Sudhir, Rama and of course Venkatesh (who has a great needed sense of humour for a trainer) - big thank you guys. Wouldn't have been the same without you.
9. Reporting Services reports worked really well.....note - getting the right connection string is key.
10. Mick - please connect power to your laptop when presenting and running VPCs off it.....otherwise we all get an early coffee break

Fantastic and a big thank you to all that were responsible for much making it better than I imagined!!!

We had a promising turnout last Wednesday - thanks for your time guys.

I asked the question what would you like to cover this year/things to happen etc..... the XBOX night won unanimously (don't blame you :) )

I took down some notes which looked like this: - you can get the 'official version' HERE

I was just alerted to this whitepaper that has a very good discussion about using WF versus when to use BizTalk.

For those of you that are previous readers of my blog I'm an avid fan of WF and BTS working together to solve solutions rather than a common message voiced by at times MS - "you *must* choose one or the other". I did a webcast on this years ago.

Kent Brown the author does a very good job - well done!!!

BizTalk Server 2006 or WF? Choosing the Right Workflow Tool for Your Project

See you there folks - let's kick off 2008 in style!!!

What's new in the .NET 3.5 Framework from a BizTalk perspective

Fellow MVP Thomas has provided a sample that delves into the dark depths of BizTalk Server and its Adapter configurations.



Check out his Custom Prop Page Sample

Thanks Thomas!

The new 'Adapter Framework' (in BizTalk speak - this would be the Adapter V2.0 Framework) is now available.

This new WCF based Adapter Framework allows developers to build, deploy and execute standalone Adapters - whether BizTalk Server is present or not.

The framework is designed very much for standalone application (& can be 'plugged' into BizTalk R2 if desired), and as a .NET developer you can consider this as an additional .NET library that provides the abilility to allow you to build standalone adapters for your .NET applications (e.g. console app, or Word)

p.s. The BizTalk Adapter Pack is built ontop of this framework.

Grab SP1 below:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=0F8007D7-F0C9-4169-8B9C-BA55F8F4C153&displaylang=en

Kirk Allen Evans recent blog post caught my 'silverlight eye'.



Shows some interesting effects that can be done with Silverlight and importantly has the src code there for you to learn from.

Well done Kirk!

I'm about to run training at the Microsoft BizTalk RFID Solution Days and I was contemplating rebuilding my host O/S which is Win2008 RC1 x64.

The RFID devices that the students will walk away with are USB based.

I use a third party USB Sharing software to share the USB ports to the VPCs. The thing I've noticed is that using the USB drivers the sharing and responsiveness works a treat.

The problem is that there are no - 64 bit USB drivers for the RFID1 device.....until now!!! :)

I decided to 'fudge' a *.INF file that installs the x64 bit drivers much in the same fashion as the i386 drivers.

So my current setup is:

(a) Host - Win2K8 x64, RFID devices plugged into it with x64 USB Drivers.

(b) USB Sharing Software

(c) Inside a VPC (using Hyper-V) running the 'client' of the USB Sharing I install the x32 bit USB Drivers.
This VPC is running x32 BizTalk RFID and basically the course!

We're cooking!

Grab the drivers below

Went and caught a session by Chris Johnson around the Studio extensions for Sharepoint, an area that needs to catch up with the pace of the adoption of the product

This Visual Studio Integrated toolset goes a long long way in bridging the gap and streamlining development in Sharepoint.
Features, manifest explorer etc etc.

One of the biggest features in this release is the ability to control the Sharepoint Solution Deployment process for e.g. Chris originally created a solution with 3 Features in it, where he drag' dropped the 3 Feature elements into 1 Feature.

http://blogs.msdn.com/cjohnson/archive/2008/02/12/visual-studio-2005-extensions-for-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0-version-1-1-rtm-user-guide-part-1.aspx

Enjoy!!!

The conference is going well and it's good to catch up with some familiar faces such as Angus Logan and Andrew Connell.

Basically a message that I'm getting out of the conference so far is that to do Development in/for Sharepoint is to grab a collection of 'helper tools' (that each presenter has built or partially built) to do a little bit along the way.
Collectively they do things like:

• Create Feature/Element XML of your current project getting ready for deployment.
• Packaging a VSNET Project into a Sharepoint Solution
• Easy Solution Deployment
• Visual Studio Extensions for Sharepoint 1.1 (should have a VSNET2008 version in June)
  

All in all there's a bunch of little tools needed (some I mentioned in a previous post) in and outside of VSNET. So I'd imagine it's a bit of a 'watch this space' with respect to Microsoft and their 'official toolset' for developers.

Off to catch some more sessions and will report back soon.....