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BizTalk Script Adapter

What Is It And How Does It Work?

BizTalk is a great tool. But there are times when you need to solve a simple problem quickly and find that doing it with BizTalk is just going to take too long. Enter the power of scripting.

Windows is great for rapid development. Microsoft provides a Windows script control that has been available for many years. This allows anyone to integrate scripting in to their products. It can also be integrated with .Net and therefore BizTalk. The Script Adapter takes full advantage of this; it combines the immediacy of scripting with the power of BizTalk. With the Script Adapter you can create a 'one way' or 'solicit response' send port that runs your scripts. This means you can integrate scripting in to your BizTalk solutions simply and quickly. The Script Adapter supports VBScript and JScript as standard.

When BizTalk sends a message to the Script Adapter send port, either via an orchestration or by a direct subscription, the Script Adapter runs your script passing in the message as a parameter. You can then interrogate the message, perform some calculations, call an external program, write to a file etc. You can write a script in your favourite scripting language – as long as it is supported by the Windows Script Control.

Version:

1.1

Platform:

BizTalk Server 2006

Release Date:

30th July 2007

Thinkscape are providing the BizTalk Script Adapter for free to anyone or any company that wants to use it.

These are the downloads that comprise the current release. Click to download them. Note that the user guide and license are also included in the installation.

BizTalk Script Adapter v1.1.zip User Guide.pdf License.rtf

Help & Support

If you need help or support with the script adapter, want to report a bug, or have a suggestion... support@thinkscape.com

History

The BizTalk Script Adapter was originally published on Got Dot Net, a site for hosting free software applications. Microsoft is now closing down Got Dot Net, and since the Script Adapter was written by a Thinkscape employee, we have decided the best place to host it is here where we are better able to provide support.

Version 1.1 has been reworked slightly from the original Got Dot Net version. We have ensured compatibililty for BizTalk 2006 and have added some new sample scripts and orchestrations, and improved the documentation.

Installation

The Script Adapter depends on the Windows Script Control which you should install first. You can download the Windows Script Control from Microsoft downloads here.

To install the Script Adapter, download the zip file above. Extract the setup files to a temporary folder. Double click setup.exe to begin the installation process. Follow the install wizard steps. Once installed, you need to register the adapter with BizTalk using the BizTalk 2006 Administration Console. There are instructions for how to do this in the user guide.

There are several samples provided with the Script Adapter. These can be installed automatically using the setup.bat file in the Samples folder where the Script Adapter was installed. Again, the user guide describes how to do this.

Commitment

In addition to providing a new home for the BizTalk Script Adapter, we are committed to providing support for the adapter and adding new enhancements in future releases.

How Easy Is It To Use?

Very easy! The example VBScript below is from one of the examples included in the installation. The script receives a message parameter passed to it by the Script Adapter. We can interrogate the message & do all the usual things you can with VBScript. In this case, the properties and the body of the message are dumped to a file. Great for debugging.

  Sub OnMessage ( Message, Configuration )
  ' create the file
  Dim FileSystem, Folder, File
  Set FileSystem = CreateObject ( "Scripting.FileSystemObject" )
  Set Folder = FileSystem.GetFolder ( Configuration )
  Set File = Folder.CreateTextFile ( Message.Id & ".txt", True )
  ' dump the context properties
  File.WriteLine ( "Message Context Properties" ) 
  File.WriteLine ( "--------------------------" ) 
  File.WriteLine ( "" )
  Dim Prop, Value, Item
  For each Prop in Message.Context
    Value = ""
    ' handle if its an array
    If IsArray ( Prop.Value ) Then
      Dim Counter
      For Counter = LBound ( Prop.Value ) To UBound ( Prop.Value )
        Item = Prop.Value
        Value = Value & Item ( Counter )
        If Counter < UBound ( Prop.Value ) Then
          Value = Value & ", "
        End If
      Next
    Else
      Value = CStr ( Prop.Value )
    End If
    File.WriteLine "Name = [" & prop.name & "] Namespace = [" & prop.namespace & "] Type = [" & TypeName ( prop.value ) & "] Value = [" & value & "]"
  next
  File.Close
End Sub

Integrating the Script Adapter in to your orchestration is the same as with any adapter. Configuring the adapter is straight forward too; create your send port, set up the three properties that the Script Adapter requires (configuration, language, and script) then bind the port to your orchestration. See the screenshots below.

About Thinkscape

Thinkscape are a software services provider specialising in Microsoft BizTalk Server and related products such as SQL Server, SharePoint, and .Net. We are 100% focussed on listening to our customers' needs and delivering value. Our excellence in these products has been acknowledged with our Microsoft Gold Certified Partner accreditation.

Our head office is in Hampshire, United Kingdom, with several development centres located across Europe.

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