RE: .NET objects (C#)

From: Charles Young (CharlesYoung_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 01/09/05 

Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 14:01:02 -0800

Nathan - sorry to disagree with you, but this is quite wrong. The BizTalk
Message Box, and BizTalk Receive and Send handlers treat all message content
fundamentally as a stream of bytes, and don't care or know about the type.
Adapters can pass any content in - it doesn't have to be XML. You can prove
this very easily. Just bind a Send port directly to a Receive port, using,
say, the File adapter, and select Pass-through pipelines (pipelines that
contain no comoponents). You can now happily submit files containing any
old content. Nothing is serialized into XML.

Pipelines only convert content to XML if they include some component, such
as Microsoft's Flat File disassembler component, that does this task.
Microsoft's disassemblers also create a MessageType property on the message
to state what kind of XML content they return to the pipeline.

You can't use maps on Receive or Send ports unless the message content is
XML by the time it reaches the map, and the message has the MessageType
property. This is why you have to use an XML pipeline, containing an XML
Disassasembler, if you want to perform an inbound map, even if the message
you submit via your adapter contains XML. The XML Disassembler works out
what kind of XML you are using and sets the MessageType property accordingly.

When a message containing non-XML is routed to an orchestration, you may
encounter problems. Generally, if you use a .NET class as the type of the
message received by the orchestration, BizTalk will at this stage attempt XML
de-serialization - i.e., it will by default expect the message content to be
an XML document representing a serialized instance of your .NET class.
However, you can link a custom .NET class to a .NET formatter (e.g., the
binary formatter) using the CustomFormatter attribute defined by BizTalk.
If you then use your custom class as the message type BizTalk will attempt to
de-serialize the message content using the formatter. You can create your
own formatters to serialize and de-serialize whatever content you are
submitting.

If you don't need to access message content in your orchestration, you can
use the undocumented Any schema defined in Microsoft.XLANG.BaseTypes as the
type for your orchestration message(s). This allows you to pass messages
containing any content of any type into your orchestration. Rather
confusingly, you can also use XmlDocument to do the same thing!! You can't
easily get at the message content when you do this, although it is possible
using undocumented (and dangerous) techniques. However, the message can
happily be returned with its content unchanged back to the message Box to be
routed on to a Send port in the normal way.

In summary, it is quite possible to pass non-XML content all the way through
BizTalk, including through orchestrations, without ever converting it to XML
or even de-seraialising it into .NET objects.

Sorry to so sharply contradict your post, but that's how things are. It is
a pure myth that BizTalk is an XML-only server.

Charles

"Nathan Jeffery [MSFT]" wrote:

> Ports and pipelines only natively understand xml. In fact, the first thing that happens to a .NET message or message part is it gets XML serialized. The
> BizTalk programming model contains .NET message and message parts, but that is simply a convenience because internally everything about
> messaging is XML.
>
> Now what you could do is XSD.exe to your .NET type (denote it by T) and produce an XSD schema (denote it by X) and then create a helper function that
> serializes an instance of T to XML of ‘type’ X and then just follow the SubmitDirect sample.
>
> Hope that helps
>
>
> --------------------
> >Thread-Topic: .NET objects (C#)
> >thread-index: AcTDceT57sqDFFFyQxClSytFs0W1pA==
> >X-WBNR-Posting-Host: 63.166.226.90
> >From: "=?Utf-8?B?RWQ=?=" <Ed@discussions.microsoft.com>
> >Subject: .NET objects (C#)
> >Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 11:59:01 -0800
> >Lines: 5
> >Message-ID: <A0BB533B-B0BA-47A1-9E25-8B5C700437CA@microsoft.com>
> >MIME-Version: 1.0
> >Content-Type: text/plain;
> > charset="Utf-8"
> >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> >X-Newsreader: Microsoft CDO for Windows 2000
> >Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message
> >Importance: normal
> >Priority: normal
> >X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.3790.0
> >Newsgroups: microsoft.public.biztalk.general
> >NNTP-Posting-Host: TK2MSFTNGXA03.phx.gbl 10.40.1.29
> >Path: cpmsftngxa10.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGXA03.phx.gbl
> >Xref: cpmsftngxa10.phx.gbl microsoft.public.biztalk.general:21361
> >X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.biztalk.general
> >
> >Is there a sample where a .NET object is passed directly to a biztalk receive
> >port? Similar to the SubmitDirect sample expect rather than sending XML us a
> >.NET object.
> >
> >Thanks!
> >
>
> Sorry I don't take feature request for WinRes: it belongs to the .NET Framework SDK. I'm a consumer of WinRes, just like you...
> --------------------
> >From: Thomas Adams <thomas.o.adams@gmail.com>
> >Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.internationalization
> >Subject: RE: How to launch WinRes in full screen mode by another program?
> >Date: 29 Sep 2004 19:31:46 GMT
> >Organization: DFN.CIS Senior Customer
> >Lines: 17
> >Message-ID: <Xns9573DB02E2782thomasoadamsgmailcom@127.0.0.1>
> >References: <2qh8rpFvi6jiU1@uni-berlin.de> <r3R$vnkpEHA.3636@cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl>
> >X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de cGk7xWd2iWxkO9HVbF7isQODBzMeOPRUidb0ZHc/H3nGY=
> >User-Agent: Xnews/06.08.25
> >X-Converter: MorVer Version 1.0.305
> >Path: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGXA03.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP08.phx.gbl!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!fu-
> berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!not-for-mail
> >Xref: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl microsoft.public.dotnet.internationalization:947
> >X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.internationalization
> >
> >Hi
> >
> >Your assumption is correct. I did not want to call out its long name
> >since I didn't know if that could be regarded as breach of NDA. :)
> >
> >Thanks for the explanation. Do you take feature requests for WinRes?
> >I'd like to see a "remember last size and location" some day...
> >
> >~T.
> >
> >xuy@online.microsoft.com (Xu Yang[MSFT]) wrote:
> >
> >
> >--
> >
> > [Formerly appended fullquote was nuked by morver,
> > the versatile morphing server.]
> >
>
> I'm afraid that LocStudio (when you say LS, I assume you are using LocStudio) does not have the option, and WinRes does not remember its size and
> location when it was shut down.
> If you are trying to call it in your own application, you can always use ProcessWindowStyle.Maximized when you start the process.
>
> --------------------
> >From: Thomas Adams <me4@privacy.net>
> >Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.internationalization
> >Subject: How to launch WinRes in full screen mode by another program?
> >Date: 11 Sep 2004 21:26:17 GMT
> >Organization: DFN.CIS Senior Customer
> >Lines: 9
> >Message-ID: <2qh8rpFvi6jiU1@uni-berlin.de>
> >X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de 9sj2ViefNkwlw4tmA89WfA6mie8fmrCfbXqlIJqRehUb0=
> >User-Agent: Xnews/06.08.25
> >X-Face: #Rk@TOQ|^!ZG|&z6lA@-CY>/xB[Ei1mG*&S.+A5z;Ng?3OxX[#DVZw!"o!c`S|p:(zsX-EkdZZ(IVnFRTX%!:Sv^L&Gk~s]vJ@Z~%Rm@G]fr*r2P}u5
> *&k/-_2+&Qowj6hiJ1b$^JQf:uy9456HIdKq*B`NC##kyO,>7"Ztnav+=71b*"E+DIme;{i&)ii{#6e?i8P,1Xpc[q0}i:Tm];B1
> >X-Converter: MorVer Version 1.0.305
> >Path: cpmsftngxa10.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTFEED01.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP08.phx.gbl!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!fu-
> berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!not-for-mail
> >Xref: cpmsftngxa10.phx.gbl microsoft.public.dotnet.internationalization:902
> >X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.internationalization
> >
> >Hi
> >
> >Let's imagine you're using a translation environment (LS) that's
> >launching WinRes every now and then. Is it possible to open WinRes in
> >full screen mode in this case? It's quite annoying that it doesn't
> >remember if I switch it to full screen mode the next time it is invoked.
> >
> >thanks,
> >Thomas
> >
>
>
>
>

Relevant Pages

  • RE: How does Biztalk store received XML messages?
    ... the content (XML data in your case) is stored in stream as ... body part of the biztalk message alone with Context property. ... The question I have for you is typically an Orchestration depicts a ... > instantiates an assembly that looks up their manager and a variety of ...
    (microsoft.public.biztalk.general)
  • RE: BizTalk Xlangs EmptyPartException
    ... The problem was because a XML sintax error on XML ... It is interesting the error happens only if I used BizTalk mapping, ... BizTalk, from Solution Explorer, just right click over schema file and ... copy and use it as orchestration input. ...
    (microsoft.public.biztalk.general)
  • Re: Using .Net objects as messages
    ... Yes Craig that will work. ... The orchestration compiler will generate code ... the XML into your .NET type. ... Is it possible to have BizTalk pass a message ...
    (microsoft.public.biztalk.general)
  • Re: .NET objects (C#)
    ... Are there any examples of .Net classes using the BizTalk formatter or custom ... Nothing is serialized into XML. ... > message received by the orchestration, BizTalk will at this stage attempt ...
    (microsoft.public.biztalk.general)
  • RE: BizTalk with Web Services
    ... If you want to receive an XML message back, ... passing back the XML as a string, then yes you would have to create a Schema ... on the BizTalk side and then construct the BizTalk Message in the ... > send to the web service. ...
    (microsoft.public.biztalk.general)