Tag: Adapter Pack

Why would you want a WCF LOB SDK Adapter?

Introduction

In my last post I mentioned the registry content for registering a custom WCF LOB SDK binding as an adapter. I am still working out the details of how this should be done for a custom adapter and will be hoping how to do this in a walkthrough in a later post. 

To give you some preview of the process, the adapter class just needs to inherit from Microsoft.Adapters.Common.BizTalk from the BizTalk adapter pack rather than Microsoft.ServiceModel.Channels.Common.Adapter from the WCF LOB SDK. The abstract classes for Microsoft.Adapters.Common.BizTalk are included with the BizTalk Adapter Pack. The GUID values mentioned in the .reg file are set in the derived adapter classes and when calling the base class constructor for the adapter, WcfBtsAsdkAdapterBinding.

While it looks like it is possible to register a custom WCF LOB SDK binding as an adapter, the question comes up as to why would you ever want to do this when you can just use the custom binding in the WCF-Custom adapter anyway. This is one question I have asked repeatedly in reference to why the BizTalk adapter pack gives the developer the option of using the separate adapter rather than the bindings with the WCF-Custom adapter. At this time I am not sure if some of the scenarios I have come up with explain why the BizTalk adapter pack bindings are also exposed as custom adapters.

I wanted to take this post and describe a few scenarios that would be useful for having the capability of an adapter rather than a WCF-Custom binding.

Discussion

Deciding whether to expose a WCF LOB SDK binding vs. a full adapter is an important question that depends largely on the consumers of your data. If you want the same data and management of the connection to your data to be the same whether it is being called from .NET or BizTalk then use of the standard custom binding makes sense. You will only need to code the logic once as the custom binding. But there are typically many differences between .NET applications and BizTalk applications so it seems like there would be compelling reasons to have other settings or different settings based on whether the binding is being called from a BizTalk system. For example, SSO settings like the SSO Application Name and key should not be exposed unless the binding is being called from BizTalk. These properties will not make sense if you are providing a way to connect to your custom LOB data without going through BizTalk.

The full adapter does have a configuration limitation that prevents it from fully functioning as an equivalent to the WCF-Custom binding. The custom binding configuration exposes the custom behavior config window for all WCF-Custom adapter handler properties. At this point I am not sure if it is possible to have the custom full adapter to provide a customized property page for the adapter handler properties. Interestingly, all of the BizTalk adapter pack custom adapters have the properties button grayed out in the adapter handler window.  So it is not even possible to choose the same adapter handler configuration as found on the WCF-Custom adapter handlers so if you did use a full adapter rather than WCF-Custom you would still need to register the custom WCF behaviors in the machine.config. This could possibly be an overlooked scenario in the current implementation.

So theoretically it is possible to come up with a reasonably good scenario for splitting apart the properties and implementation based on the caller type. But due to the current BizTalk admin console limitation on the adapter handlers configuration, there may unfortunately be some tradeoffs.

Thanks,

1

Sample .reg file for WCF-LOB SDK Adapter registration

On the forums today someone was asking how to register a custom adapter based on the WCF LOB SDK. The question was not how to get it to show up in the bindings list for the WCF-Custom adapter, it was how to get the custom adapter to show up as an actual adapter. With the BizTalk adapter pack, the custom adapters show up both as custom bindings under the WCF-Custom adapter and as custom adapters under Platform Settings\Adapters. The WCF LOB SDK gives good examples for how to register the custom binding and there are some free tools to help with this like this one: http://regwcflobmsbuildtask.codeplex.com/. But there are not any .reg files in the samples folder for the SDK like there are for the samples found at c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010\SDK\Samples\Adapter Development\…

I developed one custom adapter using the older adapter framework for a major client to interface with the Endeca search index tool (www.endeca.com). Based on my experience working with the adapter framework, I knew there was probably a GUID value I could use to find the registry settings for registering a WCF LOB SDK adapter. So I opened the WCF-SQL adapter assembly in Reflector and found the GUID value. Then I opened the registry and searched it under HKLM\Software\Microsoft to find the registry keys for the WCF-SQL adapter. Although this was not surprising to me, it was interesting to see that many of the registry values are similar to the values given for the adapter framework settings in the .reg files of the SDK samples.

Here is the WCF-SQL adapter registry content – shown below. Here is a link for just downloading the .reg file. This seemed like a missing sample file so I will be working on taking the Contoso and Echo adapters and creating registry files for them. There are a couple logical questions about what to do to your custom WCF LOB SDK code in order to make it work with the .reg file so I will be working on that next. Having the .reg file available makes it a lot easier to accomplish the adapter registration.

Thanks!

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{59b35d03-6a06-4734-a249-ef561254ecf7}]
@="WCF-SQL"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{59b35d03-6a06-4734-a249-ef561254ecf7}\BizTalk]
@="BizTalk"
"TransportType"="WCF-SQL"
"Constraints"=dword:0000030b
"ReceiveLocation_PageProv"="{86e62ea8-d681-4aac-a62b-f8e7dc0306b4}"
"TransmitLocation_PageProv"="{ea897b1c-08b9-4d21-87fa-223f7fc5acf3}"
"AdapterMgmtCLSID"="{dea558d0-6960-4f96-9bc7-9b3837689fc0}"
"AdapterMgmtTypeName"="Microsoft.Adapters.Sql.BizTalk.WcfBtsSqlManage, Microsoft.Adapters.Sql.BizTalk, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"
"InboundEngineCLSID"="{1ad7c0c2-cdd2-4e87-922c-6e89d9f8b0e2}"
"InboundTypeName"="Microsoft.Adapters.Sql.BizTalk.WcfBtsSqlReceiver, Microsoft.Adapters.Sql.BizTalk, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"
"OutboundEngineCLSID"="{6a640a11-2f39-42eb-96c7-490aac4f32f6}"
"OutboundTypeName"="Microsoft.Adapters.Sql.BizTalk.WcfBtsSqlTransmitter, Microsoft.Adapters.Sql.BizTalk, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"
"PropertyNameSpace"="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2006/01/Adapters/WCF-properties"
"AliasesXML"="<AdapterAliasList />"
"ReceiveHandlerPropertiesXML"="<CustomProps><WcfExtensions vt=\"8\" /></CustomProps>"
"ReceiveLocationPropertiesXML"="<CustomProps><Headers vt=\"8\" /><BindingType vt=\"8\" /><BindingConfiguration vt=\"8\" /><ReferencedBindings vt=\"8\" /><ServiceBehaviorConfiguration vt=\"8\" /><EndpointBehaviorConfiguration vt=\"8\" /><InboundBodyLocation vt=\"8\" /><InboundBodyPathExpression vt=\"8\" /><InboundNodeEncoding vt=\"8\" /><OutboundBodyLocation vt=\"8\" /><OutboundXmlTemplate vt=\"8\" /><DisableLocationOnFailure vt=\"11\" /><SuspendMessageOnFailure vt=\"11\" /><IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults vt=\"11\" /><CredentialType vt=\"8\" /><UserName vt=\"8\" /><Password vt=\"8\">Encrypted</Password><AffiliateApplicationName vt=\"8\" /><OrderedProcessing vt=\"11\" /><Identity vt=\"8\" /></CustomProps>"
"SendHandlerPropertiesXML"="<CustomProps><WcfExtensions vt=\"8\" /></CustomProps>"
"SendLocationPropertiesXML"="<CustomProps><Headers vt=\"8\" /><BindingType vt=\"8\" /><BindingConfiguration vt=\"8\" /><ReferencedBindings vt=\"8\" /><EndpointBehaviorConfiguration vt=\"8\" /><StaticAction vt=\"8\" /><UseSSO vt=\"11\" /><UserName vt=\"8\" /><Password vt=\"8\">Encrypted</Password><AffiliateApplicationName vt=\"8\" /><ProxyAddress vt=\"8\" /><ProxyUserName vt=\"8\" /><ProxyPassword vt=\"8\">Encrypted</ProxyPassword><InboundBodyLocation vt=\"8\" /><InboundBodyPathExpression vt=\"8\" /><InboundNodeEncoding vt=\"8\" /><OutboundBodyLocation vt=\"8\" /><OutboundXmlTemplate vt=\"8\" /><PropagateFaultMessage vt=\"11\" /><EnableTransaction vt=\"11\" /><IsolationLevel vt=\"8\" /><Identity vt=\"8\" /></CustomProps>"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{59b35d03-6a06-4734-a249-ef561254ecf7}\Implemented Categories]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{59b35d03-6a06-4734-a249-ef561254ecf7}\Implemented Categories\{7F46FC3E-3C2C-405B-A47F-8D17942BA8F9}]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{59b35d03-6a06-4734-a249-ef561254ecf7}\Install]
"Assembly"="Microsoft.Adapters.Sql.BizTalk, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"
"DateTime"="12/28/2010 00:20:47"
2

WCF-SQL Adapter’s Database Schema Gotcha

 
Introduction
 
On a recent project I was working with BizTalk 2009 and SQL 2008 and the customer was interested in moving some database objects to a new SQL database schema (for example, from dbo to MySchema). In this post, I refer to types of schemas: BizTalk schemas (XSDs) and database schemas (SQL security mechanism).
 
I had been interacting with these database objects using the WCF-SQL adapter from the BizTalk Adapter pack. Typically, BizTalk’s port abstraction will take out all description of the physical connectivity details and provide you with a connection independent message type. Connectivity details are stored in the port properties and persisted as binding information. Through the use of the Adapter pack wizard, BizTalk schemas are created for interacting with various adapter data sources such as with the WCF-SQL adapter and SQL databases.
 
Initial Observations
 
So initially I expected the database schema change would not be a problem because the database object details were all specified as properties of the port. I modified the following port properties to point to the new schema, expecting this to work:
 
  • BizTalk WCF-Custom SOAP Action Headers such as TypedProcedure/dbo/MyProcCall to TypedProcedure/MySchema/MyProcCall
  • BizTalk binding properties with SQL information such as the properties notificationStatement, pollingStatement, or polledDataAvailableStatement, etc.

I restarted my BizTalk application and hosts and I started getting errors that referred to my old database schema. At this point I realized that the database schema is actually hard coded during the BizTalk schema generation process. This is a significant gotcha; that the changing of the database schema for custom objects that BizTalk uses requires a regeneration of the BizTalk schemas. The next section describes the steps I went through to correct the old database schema references after moving my database objects to the new database schema:

Resoluton

In addition to the deployment steps done above, I had to update several of my BizTalk solution artifacts. For my BizTalk solution, I was working with 5 different database objects and I did not want to delete all of my BizTalk schema files (approx. 15 different files) and go through the adapter wizard so many times. I decided to opt for a find and replace solution instead. Here are the steps I did to replace the old database schema references:

  • Open up the base and referenced BizTalk schemas using the Open With…, XML Editor. If you are interacting with rows of data then you may have separate referenced schema files that may also have the old schema in them.
  • Do find/replace and search for "/dbo" or whatever old database schema you are replacing. The "/" comes from the SOAP Action Header.
  • Save the schema changes.
  • Once you replace one database schema reference, your BizTalk schema will be in an inconsistent state until all of the database schema references have been updated. Try opening the BizTalk schema in the BizTalk schema designer and if you get a warning when opening you will know that there are still old database schema references to migrate. When all of the old database schema references are replaced you will no longer get a warning
  • Recompile
  • Then investigate the BizTalk map and orchestration files because these also contain hard coded references to the old database schema.
  • It would seem that a recompile of your BizTalk solution would regenerate the .cs files for the BizTalk maps and orchestrations, but I found this to not be the case. An approach I found that worked was to open any BizTalk maps and make an insignificant change (add a functoid and then remove it) just to change the file status to edited and then to save the map. This would refresh the generated map code.
  • Also, I opened all of my BizTalk orchestrations and double-clicked all of the Transform shapes and then checked the button "Open the map when I click the OK button" to change the file status to edited. This refreshed the generated orchestration code. Even though no actual changes were made the generated code was refreshed.
  • You could alternately remove all of the generated files such as those named like *.odx.cs or *.btm.cs
  • One disadvantage of this find & replace technique is that your old generated binding files will still refer to the old database schema so be sure to discard those.

Conclusion

This post has shown that a change to the database schema for SQL objects can have a major ripple effect on a BizTalk solution that uses the WCF-SQL adapter. I do not expect that changes to database schemas occurs very often so you may never encounter this but if you do, be prepared for a little bit of work to get the updated database schema names back into your solution. Thanks for reading!

1

Simplify the Install Experience of the BizTalk SAP Adapter

During a recent project I was using the BizTalk SAP Adapter to interact with a custom BAPI that was exposed as an RFC. In order to get the Add Adapter Service Wizard in BizTalk to work properly, I had to install all of the SAP dependency libraries on the BizTalk server. I was amazed at how complicated this whole process was. There are a couple things I would like to do in this blog post:

  • Give the names of all of the files that must be used for 32-bit and 64-bit installs of the SAP dependencies for the 6.4 version of the SAP RFC SDK.
  • Provide a shell script for copying all of the SAP dependencies for 32-bit and 64-bit installs of the SAP dependencies
  • Provide some additional details on the SAP Adapter installation.

The reasons I am posting on this is because I think the InstallGuide.htm which is included with the BizTalk Adapter Pack is a little vague. The file is already very long and inclusive but some important details like the names of many of the SAP client files is not included. Below is an expanded list of directions for the 6.4 version of the SAP client dependency installation:

SAP client version

Required drivers

6.4 32-bit
  • librfc32u.dll (SAP RFC SDK 6.40 UNICODE). This is available as part of SNOTE* 413708. The instructions to download this are available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=94691.

    [BC Comment] Copy to C:WindowsSystem32

  • DLLs available from SAP as part of the package, UCLIB.SAR. See SNOTE* 785368 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=94692) for more information. This package is available as part of SAP KERNEL 6.40, which is available from the SAP Service Marketplace. While downloading the SAP Kernel, make sure you download the “database independent” version.

    [BC comment] So the following DLLs will need to be copied to c:WindowsSystem32:

    • icudt26l.dll
    • icudt30l.dll
    • icuin26.dll
    • icuin30.dll
    • icuuc26.dll
    • icuuc30.dll
  • DLLs available from SAP as part of R3DLLINST.zip. This contains Microsoft run-time DLLs and can be downloaded from the SAP site. See SNOTE* 684106 for more information. You can download the .zip file from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=94693. This link has an “Attachments” option from where you can download the package.

    [BC comment] So the following DLLs will need to be copied to c:WindowsSystem32:

    • mfc71.dll
    • mfc71u.dll
    • msvcp71.dll
    • msvcr71.dll
  • If you will be using SAP Secure Network Communications (SNC) to connect to an SAP system, you must also have the relevant DLLs from SAP. These DLLs are different for 32-bit and 64-bit platforms and are available with SNOTE* 352295. You can download the DLLs from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=104032. This link has an “Attachments” option from where you can download the package. The names of the DLLs are:
  • Copy to C:WindowsSystem32: gsskrb5.dll, gssntlm.dll
  • [BC Comment] To create a simple deployment package for all of the DLLs, copy all of the DLLs from the above steps to a separate folder. Then use the following script to install all of these into the correct place. I found using a script was a lot easier for administrators and vastly simplified the overall process. Here is the script (rename to .bat after downloading): InstallSAPDLLs32-bit.txt
———-

————————————————————————————-

6.4 64-bit
  • librfc32u.dll 64-bit (SAP RFC SDK 6.40 UNICODE). This is available as part of SNOTE* 413708. The instructions to download this are available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=94691.

    [BC Comment] Copy to C:WindowsSystem32

  • librfc32u.dll 32-bit (SAP RFC SDK 6.40 UNICODE). This is available as part of SNOTE* 413708. The instructions to download this are available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=94691.

    [BC Comment] Copy to C:WindowsSysWow64

  • DLLs available from SAP as part of the package, UCLIB.SAR. See SNOTE* 785368 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=94692) for more information. This package is available as part of SAP KERNEL 6.40, which is available from the SAP Service Marketplace. While downloading the SAP Kernel, make sure you download the “database independent” version.

    [BC comment] So the following 32-bit DLLs will need to be copied to c:WindowsSysWow64:

    • icudt26l.dll
    • icudt30l.dll
    • icuin26.dll
    • icuin30.dll
    • icuuc26.dll
    • icuuc30.dll

    Very similar 64-bit DLLs will need to be copied to C:WindowsSystem32:

    • icudt26l.dll
    • icudt30l.dll
    • icuin26.dll
    • icuin30.dll
    • icuuc26.dll
    • icuuc30.dll
  • DLLs available from SAP as part of R3DLLINST.zip. This contains Microsoft run-time DLLs and can be downloaded from the SAP site. See SNOTE* 684106 for more information. You can download the .zip file from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=94693. This link has an “Attachments” option from where you can download the package.

    [BC comment] So the following DLLs will need to be copied to c:WindowsSystem32:

    • mfc71.dll
    • mfc71u.dll
    • msvcp71.dll
    • msvcr71.dll
  • If you will be using SAP Secure Network Communications (SNC) to connect to an SAP system, you must also have the relevant DLLs from SAP. These DLLs are different for 32-bit and 64-bit platforms and are available with SNOTE* 352295. You can download the DLLs from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=104032. This link has an “Attachments” option from where you can download the package. The names of the DLLs are:
    • For 32-bit copy to C:WindowsSysWow64: gsskrb5.dll, gssntlm.dll
    • For 64-bit copy to c:WindowsSystem32: gx64krb5.dll, gx64ntlm.dll
  • [BC Comment] To create a simple to use install script for 64-bit it is a little more complicated because the names are the same for many of the DLLs for 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Make a folder to hold the files and then make sub folders for UCLIB-32, UCLIB-64, RFC-32, and RFC-64. Copy all of the 32-bit UCLib files to UCLib-32 and similarly for UCLIB-64, RFC-32, and RFC-64.
  • Then use the following script in the root folder of the install files to install all of these into the correct place. I found using a script was a lot easier for administrators and vastly simplified the overall process. Here is the script (rename to .bat after downloading): InstallSAPDLLs64-bit.txt
 I wonder if the reason Microsoft is not able to provide a redistributable of these SAP components is due to SAP licensing restrictions. In any case, these directions will help you simplify the complexity of the SAP adapter dependencies’ install and dramatically improve the install experience after you get all of the files downloaded.
 
Thanks,
 
3

WCF-SQL Adapter Modernizes BizTalk SQL Adapter Capabilities

In my spare time I have been playing and testing all of the latest released capabilities of BizTalk Server 2009. During some of my time I have been working with the new WCF-SQL adapter that exposes a new WCF binding, SqlBinding, as part of the latest Adapter Pack. If you have ever worked with the BizTalk SQL adapter you know that the wizard in Visual Studio frequently caused problems and unfortunately these shortcomings were never adequately addressed in a service pack or updated release. Usually it was required that you just take a working example of the SQL adapter and then manually modify it to work with your database objects. More often than not you probably just avoided the SQL adapter completely and worked with the database through ADO.NET calls in an orchestration or custom pipeline. Now with the updated Adapter pack the WCF-SQL adapter finally modernizes the SQL adapter experience and gives you a stabile and very functional environment for interacting with SQL via an adapter. This article will highlight some of its capabilities and provide a walkthrough of the new WCF-SQL adapter wizard.

All of my testing has been with the BizTalk 2009 Beta loaded on a Windows Server 2003 box with Visual Studio 2008 (including SP1) installed. I installed the BizTalk Adapter Pack found at https://connect.microsoft.com/content/content.aspx?ContentID=10580&SiteID=218. To add a schema based on the WCF-SQL adapter, open or create a BizTalk project in Visual Studio 2008 and right-click on the project. Clcik on the Add New Item > Add Generated Items as shown below:

wcf-sql_1-1

Then after the window loads you should see the following window:

wcf-sql_2-1

Click on "Add Adapter Metadata" and then click "Add". This will open up a general window that is used for several different adapters. After installing the BizTalk Adapter Pack V2, you should see an item listed in the listview called WCF-SQL. You should also see the older SQL item listed as well as any other Adapter Pack or Line-of-Business (LOB) adapters. You will need to enter a SQL server name and database in the combo boxes below the listview. I entered my local SQL Server instance and my BizTalkMgmtDb as seen in the screenshot below:

wcf-sql_3-1

You do not need to enter a port for this adapter so just leave this one blank and click Next. The following screen shows the form that is loaded next to help you determine which SQL objects to include in the WCF-SQL schema. If you worked with the previously mentioned rudimentary SQL adapter in BizTalk, at this point you would be presented with the option of entering a command text or a single SQL object name for the wizard to use to generate the schema. But the WCF-SQL adapter wizard provides database object browsing and filtering to further simplify the task of schema generation. The following screenshot shows the form when it is initially loaded:

wcf-sql_4

If you merely want to use the database you specified earlier in the wizard, click the configure button and then click OK to generate the default URI of mssql://.//?. Then click Connect to connect to the database specified. This will enable the bottom half of the screen where you can expand the categories of database objects and then find one or more objects to select. It is also possible to select a different database and/or configure additional database connectivity properties via the Configure button’s window. Below is an image of the Configure button’s window with the SSO database details specified:

wcf-sql_5

I have found that it is not possible to specify "(local)" for the SQL instance name as shown above so do not try this. Below is the form changed to allow selecting from several of the SSO databases’s tables:

wcf-sql_6

The "Search in Category" box in the middle of the form provides a way to filter the list of database objects. I have found that it is possible to use wildcards in this box by the percent character "%" but not by the asterisk – "*". Once you have selected objects to generate a schema for, click OK. Visual Studio will generate a schema and a related code class as well.

The designer experience provided by the WCF-SQL adapter wizard is a huge step forward for the creation of BizTalk SQL schemas.

1

WCF LOB SDK flies under the Radar – BDC Extensions Await

Recently I worked on a BDC project and I was able to get a taste for what is possible for out-of-the-box SharePoint integration with external systems. The tricky aspect of BDC web service integration is that it only works with older web services – ones that use Basic Profile. The challenge of this is that you are limited in the integration options that are available because you must rely on the older SOAP and HTTP protocols. There are Office SDK samples that showcase integration with SAP and Siebel over BDC web services or Oracle over BDC database connections, but I was wondering how I would expose PeopleSoft or some other enterprise system that cannot be reached with a Basic Profile web service or a database connection.
 
Based on my BizTalk background, I knew that I could use the PeopleSoft adapter through BizTalk and then expose a BizTalk orchestration as a Basic Profile web service that could then be consumed by the BDC. So essentially this would be like a BDC bridge over BizTalk. This is when I started exploring the WCF LOB SDK as an interesting technology because the BizTalk adapter pack 1.0 is based on this SDK and it basically provides enterprise integration over WCF. Very few people are playing with the WCF LOB SDK, mostly because I think it seems confusing and has a poor name. The SDK is targeted at BizTalk developers with its "adapter" terminology, but it is really more of a way to talk about BDC from an adapter-oriented mindset. The LOB terminology should connect in your mind the LOB aspects of the BDC. If you look at the BDC documentation, the concepts are all about connections rather than adapters, but the WCF LOB SDK redefines the adapter concept by describing it as part of the channel infrastructure. So the future for the BDC is a redefined adapter based in WCF.
 
I found a few links that tie together the BDC adapters <-> WCF LOB SDK concepts, which really give us a glimpse of how the WCF LOB SDK is going to actually become more valuable from a MOSS perspective as the MOSS product is enhanced to support WCF. Usage pattern 7 on http://blogs.msdn.com/biztalk_adapter_development/archive/2007/07/09/wcf-lob-adapter-usage-patterns.aspx mentions how future BDC enhancements will rely on the WCF LOB SDK. It looks like Jesus Rodriguez also played with some of these scenarios: http://weblogs.asp.net/gsusx/archive/2007/07/12/sharepoint-bdc-wcf-adapters-and-more.aspx. The dates on these links suggest these concepts are old news but it is still relevant because the BizTalk adapter pack 1.0 was only recently released. The plans for this SDK go way back but the vision for how it will be used in the future seem to be missing. The WCF LOB SDK gives us a vision for the future of the BDC, which should include having a better designer experience for BDC developers as well as a much richer level of connectivity and flexibility. So the ROI for the WCF LOB SDK is still down the road, but once MOSS can support WCF it will be possible to integrate these other enterprise systems like PeopleSoft straight from the BDC. This is an exciting vision for the future of the BDC technology and a great reason to get your hands dirty with the WCF LOB SDK.
 
Thanks, 
0

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