General Feedback - Mapper functoids in April 2012 release

Question

I tried out the April 2012 release and was testing out the updates to the mapper. I had to manually add the additional map functoids to the toolbox because not all of the ones were showing up there. On my system I think it only showed the functoids from a few releases ago until I manually added the others.

When I added the additional functoids, the add/remove toolbox items tab group was called something like "Map Components" which is not very descriptive. I suggest using a more descriptive name for the add/remove toolbox items so it is clear it is for ServiceBus maps.

The list functoids look very interesting but it is difficult to understand how and when I need to connect them. I also think some of the icons seem too busy for such a small icon, it is hard to distinguish the meaning for some of the functoid icons.

It is nice to see the context property functoid being adopted by Microsoft. There were quite a few other ones that were good additions to the toolset of functoids.

Thanks,

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If this answers your question, please use the "Answer" button to say so | Ben Cline

Answer 1

Hi Ben,

Thanks for your feedback!

We have also heard reports of the functoids in the toolbox not getting refreshed from other folks. We will look into what's causing this and fix it. On other machines where you might be running into this issue, please use 'Reset Toolbox' for now (Right-click in Toolbox and select 'Reset Toolbox'. We will also fix the name for the tab group.

Regarding the list functoids, we will provide better documentation on how they are designed to be used. You can look at the following blog-posts that demonstrate how you can use lists to solve a couple of scenarios:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2012/02/08/solve-complex-data-restructuring-using-the-list-operations-in-the-service-bus-eai-edi-mapper.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jonathan_moons/archive/2012/02/10/grouping-and-sorting-in-the-new-azure-transform-designer.aspx

When you say some of the icons seem too busy, are you referring to the icons for the List operations, or for other operations as well? Can you please give us a list of the functoids where you felt so? We'll go back and take a look at how we can address this.

Please keep the feedback coming!

Thanks,

Kranthi.

Answer 2

Thanks Kranthi for the information.

Just to clarify what I meant about "too busy," I just thought there may have been too many symbols on the icon - the meaning was not exactly clear from the icon. I will go back and review them again and let you know.

Thanks!

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If this answers your question, please use the "Answer" button to say so | Ben Cline