Application number and BizTalk version

Question

This will be a simple question for some knowledgable soul :)

I am thinking of using BizTalk Workgroup (the small version) for what I consider a small problem.  I have been led to believe however that the smaller version of BizTalk is knobbled and will restrict what I want to do. My understanding is that the only difference between the two is scalability (clustering etc) and the number of applications it can host (5 or unlimited).

Someone has indicated that making your application re-usable (breaking code into libraries etc) can be restricted by the WorkGroup version. Is this true and is it because they become "extra" applications.  This is not what I thought, I thought that all orchestrations, web services, input/output ports bundled together constitute an application.

My problem is quite simple. I want to call a web services, process the XML and write out a file. I have to call back to the web service to update status etc.  My second task is to wait for the response files, pick them up, process them and call a web service. Now I would think that whole thing was 1 application no matter how I structure the code. Is that true?

Later I want to add web services that BizTalk publishes. Perhaps say 10. 3rd parties call these service and I perform slightly different XML transformation logic as I did in the first application but some would be the same.  So I would factor out that code and call it fom the 10 web services with slightly different processing.  In my mind I would be adding 10 input services to the original application, still 1 application? True?

What I am asking I suppose is if I create a application with 10 input and 10 output web service calls that flow through 1 or more orchestrations (if that is the right term) is that 1 application?

What defines an application and can factoring code into libraries trip the "application" definition and use up 1 of my application licenses?

Sorry for the long question but if I get the wrong answer :) BizTalk will be a non starter :(

thanks

Answer 1

Hi,

BizTalk Server Standard Edition is indeed limited to 5 applications. An application is only a logical container within Biztalk. You can put as many BizTalk artifacts in an application as you want. You have full control over the application where the artifacts reside. IMHO above functionality would fit in Standard Edition.

Be aware that when you have load on your server you won't be able to scale out (Multiple BizTalk Servers and SQL Servers).
You're also correct that the main difference in editions is scalability. see also: http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/en/us/editions.aspx

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HTH, Randal van Splunteren - http://biztalkmessages.vansplunteren.net - Please mark as answered if this answers your question.

Answer 2

Thanks for that, it makes me feel a little more confident :)

Are there any other restrictions about an application construction that means you have to break up an application into smaller applications?

What I am recalling (from 2003!) is that BizTalk uses a postbox type arrangement. I could be wrong!  Is there a limitation of one of these per application?  Adding more requires a sub-division of the application?  If that is the case is the limitation of the postbox throughput only or is there anything else that "requires" that you create a new postbox, therefore application? Perhaps message types or something?

I am just after finding out if there is "something" that forces you to sub-divide your application other than simple scalability

thanks again

Answer 3

Hi,

There are no hard restrictions. In some cases it might be better (not required) from a deployment or maintainability point of view to break things up in more than one application. This is no hard requirement however and you'll be fine when you put everything in one application.

Don't know exactly what you mean by "postbox arrrangement" but there are no further restrictions concerning the messagebox database or number of subscriptions.

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HTH, Randal van Splunteren - http://biztalkmessages.vansplunteren.net - Please mark as answered if this answers your question.

Answer 4

thanks again.

Someone has pointed out to me that the Standad edition is limited to one message box. What is the impact of that? I assume it is just scalability and not one message box per message type or something?

"Single server solution/single message box"

I suppose I can answer my own question :) given that I have one message box but can have 5 applications it is OK they share and obviously they may have many message types.

Is my assumption correct?

Answer 5

Hi,

Yes, your assumption is correct.

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HTH, Randal van Splunteren - http://biztalkmessages.vansplunteren.net - Please mark as answered if this answers your question.

Answer 6

thanks, your help is appreciated.