(EBZ239)Building and Mapping XML Schemas Using Microsoft® BizTalk® Server 2004

Michael Woodsmwoods@microsoft.comSr. Technical Product ManagereBusiness Server Group

Agenda

Session goals

XML and schema languages

BizTalk Server 2004 and schemas

Tools User Experience and Features

Demo (most of our time spent here)

Discussion, feedback, heckling, etc.

Session Goals

Provide background on schemas and their effect on tools

Introduce you to the newest Editor and Mapper, hosted in Visual Studio

Non-goalTeach XSD, XSLT (for that, go to… http://www.w3c.org/XML)

XML And XML Schema

XML Is Just XML, Right?

BizTalk Server 2004:XSD complete

BizTalk Server has always been XML centric, and can certainly process XML data streams

XML is described by a schema

The various schema languages have conceptual intersections

Other Schema Languages

DTD (Document Type Definitions)Pro: Came first; Cons: Non-XML syntax; not strongly typed

XDR (XML Data Reduced)Pros: XML syntax; XSD subset; Cons: Not W3C rec; global typedef scope

XSD (XML Schema)Pros: W3C rec; powerful OM alignment; Cons: Newer; business applicability?

BizTalk Server 2004And XML Schema

BizTalk Schema Support

XSD (XML Schema)Tools, Engine, OM, and Data: Namespaces, element groups, inheritance, scoping, run-time type overrides, the works

Other Supported SchemaXSD generators for DTD, XDR, and well-formed XML instance data

Schema And Tools Design

Tree-based instance view great fit for describing business messages

Common terminology like “record” and “field” can appeal to the broadest selection of disciplines

Challenge: XSD shows throughAttributes, elements, element groups

Tree limitation: Hard to show some intra-schema relationships (e.g., keys)

Editor And XSD And Demo

<Schema> node as container now supports many root nodes

Omnipresent <sequence> group hidden for the most part

Complex concepts like equivalence (e.g., inheritance) show through

No editing capability for key/keyref and substitution groups

XSD commonality with Visual Studio .NET

Mapper And XSD And Demo

Underlying schema less of a concern to many mapping scenarios

Mapper aware of some XSD (e.g., <choice> only has 1 child)

Wildcard structures like <any> and <anyAttribute> have limitations

Tool does not care where the XSD came from

XML Tools User Experience

Development Environment

XML Tools (and all BizTalk dev tools) hosted in Visual Studio IDE

Great integration withProject system – file properties and source control

Property Browser – better at-a-glance, multi-selection intersect, extensibility

Toolbox – Mapper Functoid container

Output Window, Task List, etc.

More On Project System

All file-level tasks managed hereSchema Editor edits *.xsd

Mapper edits *.btm (BizTalk Map)

Create new and open existing schemas and maps by adding files to a project

Access schema generators

Generate, validate, and test instance data against schemas and maps

2004 Versus 2002 And Older

More windows in Visual Studio

Schema and map properties relocated

Many features reorganized for better fit to Visual Studio experience

More schema and map connectednessBetter reuse = rapid development

Some risk of unintended side-effects

Stability Amid The Changes

All the old features are still there

EditorStill about defining structure using an instance-based tree view

MapperStill about defining transformations using graphical links, and “Functoids”

Great support for migration (maps and schemas) from earlier versions

Usability Feedback Cycle

Extensive usability studies already added many features, refined others

Better recognition of the “personas” or customer roles and responsibilities

Technical preview and several training events in the last 6 months

General Beta announced in June!

Participate at http://www.microsoft.com/BizTalk/Beta

Editor Focus And Features

Editor Focus

Support XML Schema (XSD) while also abstracting it

Integrate with Visual Studio .NET

Enable rapid schema developmentType reuse

Multi-selection: Eliminate steps

Make Tool ExtensibleAPI for custom schema generators

API for custom annotations and views

Editor Feature Highlights

Easy-to-use XSD support

Schema generators and migration for jumpstarting development

More visual cues (icons), at-a-glance features, and Search

Interactive schema views for learning XSD, sight debugging, etc.

Problem abstraction: One tool to model any kind of data

Editor And Non-XML

“Flat file” support spun off to extension module: only see it when you need it

Several improvements to support for data-level issues

Nested positional records

Multi-character delimiters

Unlimited delimiter depth

Variable ambiguity resolution control

Mapper Focus And Features

Mapper Focus

Left-to-right (source-to-target) mapping metaphor continued

Functoid architectureUse W3C-approved mechanism for XSLT call-out (i.e., the Functoids)

Give user control over multiple implementation options (.NET, script)

Buffer users from XSLT 98% of the time

Mapper Feature Highlights

XSD support (incidental)

Compiler improvements (other than XSD-related)

Integrated testing, errors and warnings, task list management

More ways to reuse Scriptor Functoid implementation

Mapper Feature Highlights

Power user: Can write inline XSLT

Map development accelerantsAuto-map

New Functoid: Bulk Copy Functoid (required to map <any>)

The other new Functoid: Table Looping Functoid – targets hard-coded output looping

demodemo

Actual Demo:The Award-Winning XML Tools!

More BizTalk Server 2004 Sessions

EBZ302 OrchestrationEBZ303 Human Workflow Services EBZ304 Admin, Deploy, and SecureEBZ306 Advanced OrchestrationEBZ327 InfoPath & BizTalk ServerEBZ329 XML ToolsEBZ330 EAI End-to-End SampleEBZ342 Rules EngineEBZ343 Business Activity Monitoring

Community ResourcesCommunity Resources

http://www.microsoft.com/BizTalk/community

BizTalk Server 2002 Newsgroupshttp://www.microsoft.com/BizTalk/community/newsgroups

BizTalk Server 2004 Beta Newsgroupshttp://www.microsoft.com/BizTalk/Beta

User Groups: http://www.biztalkug.com/

Sites of Interesthttp://www.topxml.com/b2b/

http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/entservers/

Ask The ExpertsGet Your Questions Answered

I will be at the booth: directly after this sessionvarious other times during the week

If you:miss me at the booth,want to set a time to meet,or just want to keep in touch… :^)

Email:mwoods@microsoft.comIM:dumbassmike@hotmail.com

evaluationsevaluations

© 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.© 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.This presentation is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.This presentation is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.