Hi all

I have added a new functoid to the collection of functoids I am building. This time, I have programmed a functoid that converts between different datetime formats, which comes in handy when mapping between two schemas that have date elements, that require different formats of the date.

You can find version 4 of my functoid collection at http://www.eliasen.eu/DownloadSoftware.aspx

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eliasen

Hi all

Recently, I started using Windows Live Writer in large scale. Until then, I used the built in editing functionality of dasBlog, which is my blog software.

I must say, I love it!

Now, don't get me wrong, I have no other software products that do what Windows Live Writer does to compare it with, so there might be other and better products out there, but I am SO happy with not using the built in functionality of dasBlog anymore, I just had to tell you all

The obvious advantages for using Windows Live Writer over the built in functionality in dasBlog are the possibility to work offline, either if my blog is unavailable or if I am in a train, and so on.

But also, I am quite fond of the way I can have multiple entries as work in progress at the same time, edit existing posts, etc. And all in a thick client on my laptop.

Really, I am quite thrilled And I encourage all to use it... There is a newer version out than the 2008 that I am using, but it is a beta version, and some people have reported issues with using it against dasBlog, so I will wait a bit before I try that version.

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eliasen

Hi all

This is the second post in a series about solving the "If-Then-Else" problem in a map. In my first post I discussed how to use BizTalks built-in functionality to solve the problem. Neither of the three proposed solutions really seem nice to me, so I wondered how difficult it might be to code a custom functoid that does the trick. It turned out to be unexpectedly hard, and this post tries to clarify my findings and explain them.

So, to continue from my previous post, to me the best solution is to code your own functoid, that mimics the value mapping functoid, but adds an "else" part. So basically just a third parameter to the value  mapping functoid that is returned in case the first parameter is false.

For information about how to program a custom functoid, please visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa560879.aspx - I wont go into details about that here. I will just comment on the issues I have had with creating this particular functoid.

The final solution should give me the possibility to have a map like this one:

YES, I know my icons are very bad... Anyway, three inputs: a boolean and two values.

So, getting to the code, my first try looked like this:

-- BEGIN CODE
this.SetMinParams(3);
this.SetMaxParams(3);
this.Category = FunctoidCategory.ValueMapping;
this.OutputConnectionType = ConnectionType.AllExceptRecord;
AddInputConnectionType(ConnectionType.AllExceptRecord);
AddInputConnectionType(ConnectionType.AllExceptRecord);
AddInputConnectionType(ConnectionType.AllExceptRecord);
-- END CODE

I have removed irrelevant lines, such as setting up the resources, setting the ID, and so on.

First of all, in the code of a custom functoid, you need to specify which category the functoid should belong to. The possibilities are listed at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.biztalk.basefunctoids.functoidcategory.aspx. I hadn't really looked at this list, since I thought that the intellisense in VS.NET 2005 was good enough. Since my functoid is an advanced value mapping functoid, I chose he value mapping category. This turned out a but different than I thought. It turns out, that the category you assign to a custom functoid not only determines where in the toolbox it should be placed, but also sometimes some extra functionality is added to the functoid. Given my map above, I had expected that the created XSLT would just call my functoid with the three parameters and then my code would do the rest. But the generated XSLT looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt" xmlns:var="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003/var" exclude-result-prefixes="msxsl var s0 userCSharp" version="1.0" xmlns:s0="http://eliasen.eu.BizTalk.TestProject.InputSchema" xmlns:ns0="http://eliasen.eu.BizTalk.TestProject.OutputSchema" xmlns:userCSharp="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003/userCSharp">
  <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" method="xml" version="1.0" />
  <xsl:template match="/">
    <xsl:apply-templates select="/s0:InputRoot" />
  </xsl:template>
  <xsl:template match="/s0:InputRoot">
    <xsl:variable name="var:v1" select="userCSharp:LogicalEq(string(qualifier/text()) , &quot;Jan&quot;)" />
    <ns0:OutputRoot>
      <xsl:if test="string($var:v1)='true'">
        <xsl:variable name="var:v2" select="IfTrue/text()" />
        <OutputField>
          <xsl:value-of select="$var:v2" />
        </OutputField>
      </xsl:if>
    </ns0:OutputRoot>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

I have removed all the lines associated with the equals-functoid as that included three inline c# methods which are irrelevant. Anyway, as you can see, my functoid is not being called at all. Because I chose the ValueMapping category, the generated xslt assumes it is actually a built-in value mapping functoid and it totally overrules the logic inside the functoid.

So, this really came as a surprise to me... but well...it makes sense when you think about it, naturally. Some of the types of functoids just require logic that goes beyond the code inside a functoid.

So, the ValueMapping category just didn't work for me. Then I thought; "Oh, who cares?"? I will just use the String category instead, because those certainly do not have weird functionality around them... they get input and return a string as output, that is it. And the functoid will just appear in the String group in the toolbox in VS.NET.

That gave me a new headache, that was another surprise; You cannot connect the output of a logical functoid to the input of a string functoid. So... I was stuck.

One of my solutions would accept the output of a logical functoid as input, but my functoid logic was overridden. The other simply wouldn't accept the output of a logical functoid as input.

I have tried the following FunctoidCategories:

Category	Description
Assert	Terminates when logical functoid returns true. Has the wrong value in output field when logical functoid returns false.
Conversion	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
Count	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
Cumulative	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
DatabaseExtract	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
DatabaseLookup	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
DateTime	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
ExitenceLooping	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
Index	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
Iteration	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
Keymatch	Cannot compile. You get an "Object not set to an instance of an object" exception.
Logical	The output field isn't created.
Looping	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
MassCopy	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
Math	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
NilValue	Only creates output field if logical functoid returns true and then it adds the xsi:nil attribute and no value in the output field.
Scientific	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
Scripter	The scripting functoid has no script type set, either external or inline, so proper code cannot be generated for it.
String	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
TableExtractor	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
TableLooping	Needs the table grid configured and is therefore useless.
Unknown	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.
ValueMapping	Only creates the output field if the logical functoid returns true.
XPath	Cannot connect output of logical functoid to input.

So, basically, I haven't been able to do it... for now. Either I cannot connect a logical functoid to my custom functoid, I get an error either at compile time or something goes wrong semantically at runtime.

I haven't given up 100% yet... but I must say, that the task has turned out to be a whole lot more difficult than I thought it would be.

Look out for a part 3 in this series... if it comes, I will have solved this issue

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eliasen

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...

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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.

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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

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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