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BizTalk.org - a briefing

Hutson, Neil
 
 Neil  Hutson
 Biztalk Application Architect
  Berkshire 
 Microsoft Corporation  
 Reading 
 United Kingdom 
Microsoft Corporation,  Reading  Berkshire United Kingdom email: neilhut@microsoft.com web site: www.microsoft.com
 Biography
 Neil Hutson - Neil Hutson has worked for Microsoft for over 5 years and is currently the technical owner of the Microsoft Biztalk Initiatives within the EMEA region, focusing on helping solution vendors, enterprise customers and systems integrations to develop application integration strategies using the XML technology. Before this, Neil worked as a senior application architect, working with leading Independent Solution Vendors developing Enterprise Resource Planning and Supply Chain solutions. Over this time, Neil has gained significant experience of XML, related Biztalk Technologies and Microsoft's Commerce platform. In his spare time Neil enjoys mountain biking and windsurfing.
 Abstract
 The Microsoft® BizTalk™ Framework is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) framework for application integration and electronic commerce. It includes a design framework for implementing an XML schema and a set of XML tags used in messages sent between applications. Microsoft Corp., other software companies and industry standards bodies will use the BizTalk Framework to produce XML schemas in a consistent manner. The BizTalk Framework itself is not a standard. XML is the standard. The goal of the BizTalk Framework is to accelerate the rapid adoption of XML.
 

BizTalk Framework overview

 BizTalk Framework schemas - business documents and messages expressed in XML - will be registered and stored on the BizTalk.Org Web site. Any individual or organization can download the framework and use it to implement and submit XML schemas to the Web site. As long as the schemas pass a verification test, they are valid BizTalk Framework schemas. The BizTalk.Org Web site will provide an automated submission and validation process. Individuals or organizations can freely use XML schemas from the BizTalk.Org Web site within their applications, as long as the schema is published for public use.
 Businesses will also have the option of publishing their schemas on the BizTalk.Org Web site in a secure area for private use between trading partners. A steering committee composed of software companies, end users and industry standards bodies will provide guidance on how the BizTalk.Org Web site is organized and managed.
 The BizTalk Framework schema design will be based on World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards for XML schemas as these standards are adopted.
 

Benefits

 The BizTalk Framework provides the following benefits:
 
  • Road map for consistent XML implementations. Many companies report a strong interest in XML. XML, however, is so flexible that this is similar to expressing a strong interest in ASCII characters. XML enables advancements, but they are hard to achieve without a consistent framework for XML implementations. The BizTalk Framework implements a set of rules that make it possible for a broad audience to adopt a common approach to using XML. Further, as companies move beyond data modeling using XML and start automating business processes, BizTalk Framework message elements define a core set of XML elements, attributes and tags that allow the development of rich message passing technology that is optimized to understand the BizTalk Framework. This is important because XML forms the basis for an on-the-wire contract that binds systems, eliminating the need to find a common API or implementation platform.
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  • Easier mapping across schemas. By formalizing the process of expressing business process interchanges in a consistent and extensible format, the BizTalk Framework makes it easier for independent software vendors (ISVs) and developers to map from one business process to another, enabling faster adoption of electronic interchange in a wide variety of industries using open standards such as XML.
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  • Design target for software vendors. By establishing a critical mass of schemas implemented in a consistent format, the BizTalk Framework provides a clear design target for tools and infrastructure ISVs building the next generation of electronic commerce and application integration products.
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  • Framework for standards bodies. The BizTalk Framework provides a platform for migrating an existing set of industry interchange standards to XML. This is especially useful for the EDI community.
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  • Repository for BizTalk schemas. The BizTalk Framework Web site will be an interactive place where industry groups and developers can publish their schemas. The Web site will allow public and private publication based on the decision of the publishing organization. Once a BizTalk Framework schema is accepted and published, the repository will provide versioning and specialization support for BizTalk Framework schema adoption and alteration. The repository will support dynamic detection of schemas, processes and visualization maps connected to any given version of a BizTalk Framework schema.
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  • Showcases for best practices in developing XML interchanges. Many organizations involved in the standardization of business interchanges are more skilled in business process modeling than in systems programming and XML. These groups can turn to the BizTalk Framework Web site to discover best practices for implementing their own schema or to discover pre-existing XML schemas they can use in their applications.
    •  Microsoft will natively support the BizTalk Framework in its product line and will publish XML schemas to the BizTalk Framework Web site for public use. Other software vendors supporting the BizTalk Framework have also made this commitment.
     

    BizTalk Framework architecture principles

     The BizTalk Framework is designed to foster application integration and electronic commerce through data interchange standards based on XML. It assumes that application programs are distinct entities, and application integration takes place using a loosely coupled, message-passing approach. There is no need for a common object model, programming language, network protocol, database or operating system for two applications to exchange XML messages formatted using the BizTalk Framework. The two applications simply need to be able to format, transmit, receive and consume a standardized XML message.
     Messages are the basis for the most significant contributions of the BizTalk Framework. A message flow between two or more applications is a means to integrate applications at the business-process level by defining a loosely coupled, request-based communication process. Since many business processes involve one party performing a service at the request of another party, the mapping of messages to requests is natural. Approaches making tighter integration demands, such as those based on special programming languages or shared distributed computing "platforms," are highly appropriate to tightly connected applications on single machines or in controlled environments, but they do not adequately support distributed, loosely coupled, extensible business process integration. An XML-based messaging system with open, extensible wire formats captures the essentials of a business communication while allowing flexible implementations.
     Microsoft anticipates that the vast majority of interchanges - the exchange of XML documents and messages between trading partners or applications - implemented using the BizTalk Framework will use a simple HTTP post transport, but business can also use other transports including FTP and message queuing technologies including IBM Corp.'s MQSeries and the Microsoft Message Queue Server.
     Since few software applications today provide native support for XML, Microsoft anticipates businesses and software companies implementing layers of adapters to enable their existing applications to participate in the first generation of BizTalk Framework interchanges. For many applications, these adapters take an existing function call, translate it into an XML document, and route the document to a target destination, whether it is a trading partner or another application within a corporate intranet.
     Until applications have native support for XML, these types of BizTalk Framework interchanges will require layered software that transforms native data types into XML and then performs the XML document routing. The BizTalk Framework will also provide support for schemas describing more complex interchanges involving multiple documents exchanged in a sequence. End-user companies have built these types of XML document transformers and routers in-house. Microsoft is developing a BizTalk Server that automates many of the functions required in a BizTalk Framework interchange. Software products potentially capable of supporting BizTalk Framework interchanges are available today from companies like webMethods and DataChannel Inc. The important point is that BizTalk Framework interchanges do not require any specific software product from any individual software vendor.
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