Hi all

I am doing a lot of functoid implementation these days, and therefore, I have for instance decided to find out what these FunctoidCategories are and where in the toolbox the different categories belong.

In the toolbox, we have the following groups of functoids:

• String
• Mathematical
• Logical
• Date/Time
• Conversion
• Scientific
• Cumulative
• Database
• Advanced

I still remember my first custom functoid - I was really expecting that in my code I could decide in which group my functoid should appear and maybe even create my own group. But that isn't the case. There are 24 different FunctoidCategories that I can assign my functoid, and only the above 9 groups. You can read more about the different functoid categories here. Basically, I will just give a very short resumé of this information and then I will match each category to a group in the toolbox, so you have this information for future reference.

So, this is what I know:

Category	Toolbox group	Description
Assert	Advanced	For internal use only.
Conversion	Conversion	Converts characters to and from their numeric representation, and to convert numbers from one base to another.
Count	Advanced	For internal use only.
Cumulative	Cumulative	Performs various kinds of accumulation of the value of a field that occurs multiple times in a source document and outputs a single output.
DatabaseExtract	Database	For internal use only.
DatabaseLookup	Database	For internal use only.
DateTime	Date/Time	Adds date, time, date and time, or add days to a specified date, in output data.
ExistenceLooping	Advanced	For internal use only.
Index	Advanced	For internal use only.
Iteration	Advanced	For internal use only.
Keymatch	Advanced	For internal use only.
Logical	Logical	Controls conditional behavior of other functoids to determine whether particular output data is created.
Looping	Advanced	For internal use only.
MassCopy	Advanced	For internal use only.
Math	Mathematical	Performs specific numeric calculations such as addition, multiplication, and division.
NilValue	Advanced	For internal use only.
Scientific	Scientific	Performs specific scientific calculations such as logarithmic, exponential, and trigonometric functions.
Scripter	Advanced	For internal use only.
String	String	Manipulates data strings by using well-known string functions such as concatenation, length, find, and trim.
TableExtractor	Advanced	For internal use only.
TableLooping	Advanced	For internal use only.
Unknown	Advanced	For internal use only.
ValueMapping	Advanced	For internal use only.
XPath	Advanced	For internal use only.

To see this for your self, download

. Unzip the zip file, copy the dll to "%BTS%\Developer Tools\Mapper Extensions", where %BTS% is the installation folder of BizTalk. Then go to VS.NET 2005 and reload the toolbox. If you want use one of the functoids, remember to also GAC the dll. All the functoids have the exact same implementation, but they do not generate the same XSLT by the mapper because of the chosen category. Perhaps a new blog post on that later on...

--
eliasen

Hi all

I have often wondered why the built-in functoids doesn't encompass an If-Then-Else functoid. The Value Mapping functoid only has an If-Then-part and not the Else-part.

This is the first of two blog posts. This post will explore how to solve the issue with the built-in functionality of BizTalk. The next post will be about creating a custom functoid to do the job instead and the issues that come with this task.

So, using the built-in functionality:

Imagine this input schema:

And imagine this output schema:

My goal, now is to create a map that will map the value of the "ifJan" element to the destination IF the "qualifier" element equals the word "Jan" and otherwise the value of the "ifNotJan" element should be mapped.

So basically, given this input:

<ns0:IfThenElseInput xmlns:ns0="http://IfThenElse.IfThenElseInput">
  <qualifier>Jan</qualifier>
  <ifJan>ifJan</ifJan>
  <ifNotJan>ifNotJan</ifNotJan>
</ns0:IfThenElseInput>

I want this output:

<ns0:IfThenElseOutput xmlns:ns0="http://IfThenElse.IfThenElseOutput">
  <field>ifJan</field>
</ns0:IfThenElseOutput>

And given this input:

<ns0:IfThenElseInput xmlns:ns0="http://IfThenElse.IfThenElseInput">
  <qualifier>NotJan</qualifier>
  <ifJan>ifJan</ifJan>
  <ifNotJan>ifNotJan</ifNotJan>
</ns0:IfThenElseInput>

I want this output:

<ns0:IfThenElseOutput xmlns:ns0="http://IfThenElse.IfThenElseOutput">
  <field>ifNotJan</field>
</ns0:IfThenElseOutput>

Using a map and the built-in functoids, that would look like this:

 

Basically, you need one value mapping functoid for each possible value to pass on, and a logical functoid for each value as well, to use in the value mapping functoid. The "String Concatenate" functoid is just my way of returning the string to use for the qualifier - in this case: "Jan".

You can also do it using one scripting functoid like this:

where the scripting functoid is an "Inline XSLT Call Template" scripting type, and the script looks likes this:

<xsl:template name="IfThenElse">
  <xsl:param name="qualifier" />
  <xsl:param name="ifJan" />
  <xsl:param name="ifNotJan" />
  <xsl:element name="field">
    <xsl:choose>
      <xsl:when test="$qualifier='Jan'">
        <xsl:value-of select="$ifJan" />
      </xsl:when>
      <xsl:otherwise>
        <xsl:value-of select="$ifNotJan" />
      </xsl:otherwise>
    </xsl:choose>
  </xsl:element>
</xsl:template>

Now... IF my good friend Henrik Badsberg is reading this, then by now he is screaming: "USE A BLOODY C# SCRIPTING FUNCTOID!!!!!"

This, naturally is also an option:

with an "Inline C#" script containing this script:

public string IfThenElse(string qualifier, string ifJan, string ifNotJan)
{
  if (qualifier == "Jan")
    return ifJan;
  else
    return ifNotJan;
}

Both scripting solutions can be altered to accept the output of a logical functoid as the first input. Just change the string "Jan" to "true" in the scripts, and change the name of the parameter if you want.

Now then... I am not a big fan of either of these three options. Generally, I avoid scripting functoids when I can because it is difficult for a new developer to know what is happening when he opens the map because he will have to open up all scripting functoids and find out (and remember) what they do. Also, I am not really a big fan of the first solution either. First of all, there are too many functoids, and it can messy if this solution is needed several times in a map. Secondly, you get a warning every time you compile, because you have two inputs to one element.

In my next post, I will look into creating a custom functoid that does the job and I can tell you right now; That isn't as easy as I had imagined...

--
eliasen

Hi all

On October 29'th I did a BizTalk presentation for the Aalborg .NET User Group. It was the first in AANUG, so it makes sense that the topic should be the best topic ever

Those who were present will remember that I completely broke the time frame I was bound by, and didn't even make it all the way through my presentation.

Weird, how I always get side tracked when I talk about something I am good at and/or like

Anyway, this blog post has two purposes:

1. Just a little more advertising for Aalborg .NET User Group. If you live close by, sign up and come to our meetings
2. To make the slides available.

   They can be found here.

   Only in Danish, I am afraid.

--
eliasen

Hi all

So, I have just added one more functoid to the collection of functoids. This time, I have added a string replace functoid, as I think that is really missing from the standard functoids that BizTalk supplies.

You can get version 3 of my functoid collection here: http://www.eliasen.eu/DownloadSoftware.aspx

And for those of you that are not bothered to read further on the download page than the download section, let me just repeat some text from the download page:

-- BEGIN QUOTE

As you can probably see from my extremely lousy icons, layouts, and so on, graphics really isn't one of my strong sides. So if you are good at creating icons and so on, and would like to help me with this part, please contact me.

-- END QUOTE

--
eliasen

Hi all

I have just added a new functoid to my collection (which now consists of TWO functoids ). This new functoid is a functoid that simply returns a new GUID.

You can download it at http://www.eliasen.eu/DownloadSoftware.aspx

--
eliasen

Hi all

I have had on my to do list for ages, that I should start developing some functoids that might be nice to have.

Well, finally I have started, and my first functoid can be downloaded from http://www.eliasen.eu/DownloadSoftware.aspx.

Note, that the eliasen.eu domain has just been moved from one hosting company to another, which means that the link might not work for another day or so.

Comments, bug reports, suggestions, and so on are very welcome.

--
eliasen

Hi all

I have changed the config of my blog software (dasBlog) so all comments have to be approved by me. I hate to have to do this, but apparently, the upgrade to a newer version has made it easy for spammers to write silly comments with links to all sorts of weird web sites (I guess they are weird - naturally, I have never clicked on one...). I have already delete 5 inappropriate comments to posts, and they seem to come faster and faster.

I will ask the programmers of dasBlog to see what is happening, and then disable the approval flow once I have it solved.

I apologize for the inconvenience.

--
eliasen

Hi all

So, it is time for the second part of the series about using the FarPoint BizTalk adapter for Excel spreadsheets. You can find my first post in the series, which was about the installation of the component here.

So, this post is about the wizard that guides you through creating a schema for an Excel spreadsheet.

I created a simple spreadsheet to test with. It has two sheets, which you can see here:

Basically, two sheets - one with order lines and one with comments. So, firing up the wizard:

The first thing to do is to add a new item to your project, and choose the new schema type "Spreadsheet Schema Wizard". The wizard fires up automatically, when you click "Add".

The first screen of the wizard isn't really a surprise It wants to you tell it which file to use as a base for the schema, and give a target namespace and inform it about what code page to use.

When browsing for files, I noticed that the components apparently not only deals with spreadsheets (Excel 97-2003 as well as 2007) but also delimited files. So note to my self: Look at that functionality later on - maybe it is better than BizTalks built-in support for that, or perhaps more suitable in some situations. Maybe that's a blog post that will appear at some point

So, a few more settings to set, all of which are described in the documentation.

Now, it shows me the data in the first sheet of the spreadsheet. It has removed all cells that it has decided are not used for data. Now, I need to select the cells with data in them, like this:

and when I click on the next sheet (Comments), I get to select data from that sheet as well:

Notice, that I can only select rows - I can not select single cells or leave some columns out.

The next step is to select names for the columns, choose whether they should be elements or attributes and also the data type of the columns.

There are four data types available, double, float, datetime and string.

Just to find the difference between the float and double, I chose one of each in my example and clicked "Finish".

The resulting schema looks like the one above. For each sheet, there is a sheetname attribute, a header record and a record for the data, which is reoccurring. The double and float elements were translated into the xs:float and xs:double types... not really surprising, you might say

Looking at the properties of the schema, the path to the base spreadsheet has been pre filled for you in the "Input Instance Filename" and the type is set to "Native".

When validating the instance, I get this XML, which looks like I expected it to.

So, to sum up, the wizard is really simple to use and it takes basically no time to create the schema.

The major thing I would like to see improved is that I can only have one type of data in one sheet, meaning that the data in all rows must be for instance order lines, inventory items, or something like that. I can't have an order header and the order lines in the same sheet, and I can't have a sheet with an order header which spans multiple lines. This really restricts the spreadsheets that can be parsed.

My next post in the series will be about the runtime, where I will setup a running instance of my project and see how it functions at runtime.

--
eliasen

Hi all

For those of you, who use Togi as a Twitter client, there is now a Danish translation of it available for download... and, as you will notice on the page, I did the Danish translation Although... I use the English version myself... but that is besides the point

--
eliasen

Hi all

So, I finally decided to try out the FarPoint BizTalk adapter for Excel spreadsheets. It's always nice to have tried as many adapters as possible, so I can use this knowledge when talking to customers.

This post is the first of a series of posts about this product. The first post is about installation and the basic functionality. The next posts will go deeper into separate functionality.

Let me just make one thing clear before I begin: I am not in any way affiliated with FarPoint Technologies, nor are they paying me anything to write these posts.

So, to begin; The installation was easy. Just a next-next-finish wizard. All the information needed from you is the product code, a serial number, and the installation folder, if you want to change that.

After installation, I have the functionality I would expect from this kind of product:

1. Pipeline components to use in pipelines
   
2. Schema extension for the schemas
   
3. Wizard to help me create the schemas
   
4. Documentation
   

So, to sum up:

1. The installation is easy.
2. The architecture of the solution seems to be exactly what I would expect, ie. pipeline components, schema extensions and a wizard.

My next post in the series will take a deeper look at the wizard for creating schemas for use by the pipeline disassembler and assembler.

--
eliasen