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BizTalk Server 2006 Beta2 is out - What's new in WSS Adapter?

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Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 Beta2 is now available on Microsoft Beta Place. If you have not signed up already for BizTalk 2006 Beta program you can follow the instructions that I posted in this previous post in order to download the bits. If you have already signed up for BizTalk Beta 1 then you can just go to https://beta.microsoft.com, sign in with your account and download the latest BT 2006 beta.

The setup/configuration is pretty much the same so you can follow the steps from my previous post but now you have to use the RTM version of Visual Studio 2005 and Windows SharePoint Services 2003 with SP2.

BizTalk 2006 Beta 2 is a production-ready build, and of course upgrade from Beta 2 to RTM will be supported.

So, what's new feature wise in Windows SharePoint Services adapter included in BizTalk 2006 Beta 2 when compared to previous Beta 1? See below:

  • new macros %Filename% and %Extension% are supported in all send port/receive location fields that accept macros. These macros are replaced at runtime with the filename and extension values computed from the WSS.Filename context property of the message being processed. All messages that are received from SharePoint have this property automatically initialized to the filename of the SharePoint file that generated the BT message. As a result these macros will be replaced with the filename and extension of the original SharePoint file (if the message originated from SharePoint), or with the filename and extension defined in the orchestration/custom pipeline if the orchestration/custom pipeline specifies a value for the WSS.Filename context property of the message. Unlike the rest of the WSS adapter macros, these two macros cannot be used in WSS adapter context properties values that are defined in an orchestration/pipeline. This feature addresses a part of Edgardo's well justified complaint that he made a while ago . The other part of the complaint (about Versioning support) was not possible to address in this release but it might be addressed by a future release.
  • the send port "Microsoft Office Integration" setting now supports an "Yes (InfoPath Form Library)" option. If this option is enabled and the XML message is being sent to a SharePoint InfoPath form library, the XML file being created will automatically be linked to the InfoPath solution attached to the SharePoint form library so that the file will open up in InfoPath. When Microsoft Office Integration is set to "Yes (InfoPath Form Library)", no values are required for the other Microsoft Office Integration fields but the message must be sent to a SharePoint InfoPath Form Library.
  • The behavior for "Optional" setting of "Microsoft Office Integration" send port property has been changed slightly to accomodate the new value "Yes (InfoPath Form Library)". When Office Integration is set to “Optional”, the adapter will try to use both discovery mechanisms ("Yes" and "Yes (InfoPath Form Library)"). If both mechanisms return a solution, the solution found in the Templates Document Library/Templates Fallback Document Library will be preferred. If no InfoPath solution is found the message will not be suspended, instead it will be saved as-is (no change here).
  • the send port "Overwrite" setting now supports a Rename option. If a file with the same name exists in SharePoint, the name of the file being created will be made unique by appending the message identifier %MessageID% to it. This option is not supported for receive location 'Archive Ovewrite' property.