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Watch this short TechTalk from TechEd on "What an ESB is and how to leverage BizTalk Server as an ESB?"
An Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is an architectural pattern and a key enabler in implementing the infrastructure for a service-oriented architecture (SOA)
ESB is only one of many components required to build a comprehensive service-oriented infrastructure (SOI)
The increasing adoption of SOA and the proliferation of Web services have revealed an ever growing need to provide a managed layer between services and their consumers
An ESB provides support for interaction between heterogeneous services and interfaces that might be mismatched, or that might change over time
An ESB addresses integration problems in a way that maximizes the re-use of services and maintains flexibility
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The BizTalk ESB Toolkit is a collection of tools and libraries that extend BizTalk Server capabilities of supporting a loosely coupled and dynamic messaging architecture. It functions as middleware that provides tools for rapid mediation between services and their consumers. Enabling maximum flexibility at run time, the BizTalk ESB Toolkit simplifies loosely coupled composition of service endpoints and management of service interactions.
The BizTalk ESB Toolkit provides key building blocks that are required for implementing a comprehensive SOI including:
Endpoint run-time discovery and virtualization - The service consumer does not need to be aware of the service provider location and endpoint details; a new or modified service provider can be added to the ESB, without interruptions to the service consumer.
Loosely coupled service composition - The service provider and service consumer do not need to be aware of service interaction style.
Dynamic message transformation and translation - The mapping definition between distinct message structure and semantics is resolved at run time.
Dynamic routing - Run-time content-based, itinerary-based, or context-based message routing.
Centralized exception management - Exception management framework, services, and infrastructure elements that make it possible to create, repair, resubmit, and compensate fault messages that service consumers or BizTalk components submit.
Quality of service - An asynchronous publish/subscribe engine resolves different levels of service availability and provides high availability, scalability, and message traceability for ESB implementations.
Protocol transformation - Providing the ability for service provider and service consumer to interact via different protocols including WS-* standards for Web Services. For example, a service provider can send an HTTP Web Service request, which will result in sending a message via Message Queuing.
Extensibility - Provides multiple extensibility points to extend functionality for endpoint discovery, message routing, and additional BizTalk Server adapters for run time and design time.
For more information on the ESB Toolkit, please refer to the ESB Developer Center. This is an information center for developers and architects who are interested in implementing ESB patterns using BizTalk Server and the ESB Toolkit.
The Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.1 extends the capabilities of BizTalk Server 2010. The following list summarizes the additional support extended in Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.1:
Support for Visual Studio 2010 Visualization and Modeling SDK for the Itinerary Designer.
Support for both .NET Framework version 4 and .NET Framework 3.5.
Support for itineraries developed in BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0.
Support for copying and pasting itinerary shapes in the Itinerary Designer.
Note: Copying an itinerary shape copies all properties associated with the shape:
A new itinerary project template, BizTalk ESB Itinerary designer, provides an easy option to create itinerary projects under BizTalk Projects.
Opening a new project in the Itinerary Designer sets the export mode to Strict by default.
Note: The Default export mode supports opening itineraries created in ESB Toolkit 2.0:
Added a new itinerary model property, Require encryption certificate in the Itinerary designer to enable and disable encryption certificate while validating the itinerary. This flag is set to True by default.
Q. Why was the name “ESB Guidance” changed to BizTalk ESB Toolkit?
A.
With the release of the BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 and the associated renaming from “ESB Guidance,” the goal is to provide the toolkit as a BizTalk Server value-add with a better support model that results in a broader customer adoption. This will hopefully help customers develop mature ESB implementations that will be ready for enterprise-wide deployments.
Q. When was the BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.1 officially released?
The BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.1 along with documentation was released in conjunction with BizTalk Server 2010.
Q. From where are downloads provided?
You can download the BizTalk ESB Toolkit and documentation from the Microsoft Download Center. The toolkit is packaged as binaries and samples in a Windows Installer.
Q. Will source code for signed binaries be provided?
No.
Q. What license is used for the BizTalk ESB Toolkit?
It is a standard Microsoft, free, binary-only license.
Q. How will the BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.1 be packaged?
It will be packaged as a binary-only Windows Installer (32- and 64-bit).
Q. Will BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.1 bug fixes be provided?
Bugs will be addressed on a best-effort basis, by the BizTalk ESB Toolkit Team.
Q. Where do customers file bugs and requests?
Product support for the ESB Toolkit 2.1 is the same as BizTalk Server 2010. Go to Support Options for more information.
Q. What is the BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.1 forum commitment?
Assistance is provided through forums, with a one-year notice of deprecation plans. Any fixes and responses to questions in the forums are best effort, and we will continue to leverage the community to provide peer assistance, though with a capability to issue critical fixes if necessary.
Q. Where is the online community hosted?
A dedicated ESB Toolkit Forum is provided on MSDN, and can be located from within the BizTalk Dev Center.
This video demonstrates BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 itineraries in a process that uses dynamic messaging. Focusing on the developer experience, it starts with a simple itinerary, and then adds UDDI resolution, followed by custom orchestration services.
Click here for more BizTalk how to videos.
This video demonstrates BizTalk Server and BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 in a process that uses dynamic messaging. It also shows how to use Microsoft Office SharePoint Server to provide human intervention into a process, and demonstrates BizTalk’s Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) capabilities. This compelling demo features a simple scenario, yet shows the power of the Microsoft stack.
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