Feedback: Development experience

Question

I do realize it is CTP - but a few items worth considering in a future release:

• Tabs within the Mapper.  In one of my POCs i mapped an SAP IDOC.  I like to break the mapping of various SAP segments into tabs.  For instance I like to have the Control Record on one tab, Header on another tab and then each subsequent SAP Segment placed in a tab for maintainability.
• I don't like the new Schema Editor.  I don't find it very intuitive.  I prefer the one that is included in BizTalk much better.
• I am not sure why generating a sample xml document requires so many mouse clicks.  Why can't I just right mouse click on the xsd in the solution explore and right mouse click "Generate new xml document."  This type of simplicity has been included for the Maps/Transforms -> right mouse click "Test Map".  It is simple and easy to find.
• When using the BizTalk Adapter Pack - Consume Adapter Service Wizard why not generate the schemas when you click the "OK" button.  This is the way it works with BizTalk 2010.  Having to then run the "Add Schemas to <project>" seems a little redundant.
• Wrapping the Operation in single quotes ' ' (when specifing SOAP Action) seems to be catching a bunch of people off guard.  It may be worth it to add a validation step in that dialog box.  If/when this gets to RTM it will confuse a lot of people.

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http://kentweare.blogspot.com

Answer 1

Thanks for your feedback Kent . These points help us in refining the experience going forward . Some of these are already being worked upon and on the rest we may come back to discuss a better/ideal experinece with you :) and then take it forward .

For generating a sample schema instance doesn't the XML Schema Exploerer help ? A snapshot below .

The last issue you have mentioned is the one quite a few have run into and we are evaluating to see whats the best fix for that .

Answer 2

Thanks for the response Harish.

What you have displayed in your image does work, but I was more concerned with the amount of mouse clicks that it takes to get there.  I hate to keep referring back to BizTalk, but when you want to generate sample XML all you have to do is right mouse click on the XSD file and select "Generate XML".

In the current CTP (the way I have experienced it) you need to:

• Double click on Schema
• Click on XML Schema explorer
• Expand XML tree
• Right mouse click on root node and then "Generate XML"

Initially (as I suggested in another post) I missed this functionality all together because it was nested so deep.

Kent

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http://kentweare.blogspot.com

Answer 3

In this CTP, the Schema Explorer experience you have mentioned below is the default VS Schema Explorer and most of the VS users are probably used to that experience. We do not have our own schema explorer like there was in Biztalk. We are currently evaluating the need of having our own schema explorer to provide a richer experience especially in the context of enabling Flat file based scenarios.

Please continue to provide feedback about your top productivity pain points which will help us prioritize our future investments.

Answer 4

Hi,

Regarding the schema editor, I echo what Kent is saying. The VS schema editor does not cut it. It is OK when doing some basic work with schemas, but as schmas are used extensivly in integration projects its just not productive enough.

I have installed the CTP bits in two envirnments, and tried to use the VS schema designer, but in both cases I installed the BizTalk development tools, and the BizTalk schema designer is so much more productive.

>>We are currently evaluating the need of having our own schema explorer to provide a richer experience especially in the context of enabling Flat file based scenarios.

The BizTalk scchema designer is a good starting point. I think there are a few improvements that could be made to make, such as differen icons for repeating records (like in the new transform editor).

If there is not a good schema desidner in the dev tooling, I feel that developers will either install the BizTalk developer tools, or use XML Spy.

Regards,

Alan Smith

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Answer 5

Thanks Alan for the feedback . We are considering options to see which tool will help in boosting productivity the most .

Continue to share your feedback on the Biztalk schema editor too since if we decide on bringing that in then we could address those concerns while doing so .