Pro Mapping in BizTalk Server 2009

Learning good map design techniques for BizTalk Server will make ahuge difference to the processing speed of your implementation, as well as to the scalability and maintainability of your code. Regardless of your experience, expert authors Jim Dawson and John Wainwright ensure you make the right choices to reap the rewards and avoid the potential penalties of poor design.

Pro Mapping in BizTalk Server 2009 provides in–depth coverage of all aspects of mapping to enable you to quickly and efficiently incorporate logic that will fulfill your mapping requirements. While the mapping techniques will be useful for all versions of BizTalk Server, the code is tailored toward BizTalk Server 2006 R3 and demonstrates the latest approaches to standard maps,electronic data interchange, and RFID components. You’ll refer again and again to the multiple solutions that will help solve your new mapping challenges, and soon find this is an essential reference for any BizTalk implementation.

What you’ll learn

• Solve complex problems within the mapping engine rather than by resorting to custom programming.
• Become familiar with facets of the EDI standard, such as ASCII X12 and EDIFACT, the types of mapping problems these standards cause, and solutions to those problems.
• Discover a migration path for developers familiar with the Mercator, Gentran, Application Integrator, and other mapping engines to move to the BizTalk engine.
• Reduce the cost of mapping by decreasing the time required to complete and test complex maps.
• Get a clear description of the simpler methods that can be employed to solve seemingly complex problems.

This book is suitable for BizTalk developers of any level of experience who are faced with mapping challenges. The material is presented in a clear, concise way to aid understanding by as wide an audience as possible.

Microsoft BizTalk Server is a business process management server that uses “adapters” to allow it to communicate with a wide variety of different software systems in order to automate and integrate business processes. Fundamental to this process is its ability to map data from one schema of data to another in order to achieve seamless communication. This process is critical to BizTalk’s ability to integrate software systems and—if badly designed—can result in crippling performance penalties and code that is neither scalable nor maintainable.

This book provides a comprehensive explanation of how the BizTalk Server 2009 mapping system works, the best practices that are in use, and a wide range of solutions to common (and not so common) mapping problems that BizTalk developers will encounter in their professional lives.

Jim Dawson spent his first life in the U.S. Marine Corps, including a tour in Vietnam as an infantry platoon and company commander. Since then, his has gathered more than 25 years experience in development, including working as a programmer analyst, systems analyst, EDI analyst, BizTalk integrator, team leader, project manager, and departmental director. He has programmed in C, C++, C#, VB, XSLT, PHP, SQL, HTML, FORTRAN, PL1, and Assembly. He has worked with the BizTalk mapping engine for the last six years, concentrating on applying BizTalk to EDI uses. Jim is currently a managing partner of Second Star Professional Services (SSPS), LLC, a Microsoft Registered Partner that provides expert electronic commerce implementation and integration services related to EDI.

John Wainwright has over 30 years of experience working in information management, holding positions as a programmer analyst, project manager, and IT manager . After 12 years as a software developer, working primarily with manufacturing software systems, he began working as a consultant in EDI, focusing mainly on implementing EDI for supply chain management, transportation, and distribution, and managed a group dedicated to outsourced mapping. He is currently a managing partner of Second Star Professional Services (SSPS), LLC, where he has spent most of his time over the last 6 years doing BizTalk mapping. He's also had extensive mapping experience with Mercator and Application Integrator. He claims that he's never seen a purchase order map he didn't like.