Receive Adapters Versus Send Adapters
For the latest version of Commerce Server 2007 Help, see the Microsoft Web site.
Each of the four BizTalk Server adapters that are supplied with Commerce Server function in two distinct ways: as a receive adapter and as a send adapter. If you decide to use BizTalk Server and one or more of the adapters supplied with Commerce Server to exchange data with another application, you will need to decide which of these two types of adapters is appropriate in each case.
Largely, the decision of whether to choose a receive adapter or a send adapter depends on which side of the data exchange, Commerce Server or the other application, is going to initiate the exchange of data. Is it an event within a line-of-business (LOB) application that will initiate the data exchange? For example, is it an order being fulfilled by a warehouse, and the consequent updating of the status of the order to "shipped," that will initiate the data exchange? Or are you interested in distributing the product catalogs that you create and maintain using the Commerce Server Catalog Manager to one or more of your trading partners so that they may also sell your products on their own Web sites? In the former case, you should choose a send adapter, and in the latter case you should probably choose a receive adapter.
The following table compares and contrasts the characteristics of the Commerce Server receive and send adapters.
Receive Adapter Characteristics |
Send Adapter Characteristics |
|---|---|
Used to initiate periodic exports of data from Commerce Server into BizTalk Server, driven by a schedule that you configure. |
Used to process requests for data from Commerce Server and to import data into Commerce Server, both driven by another application placing specific messages into the BizTalk Server MessageBox Database. |
Support a single one-way message for exporting data from Commerce Server. |
Support several different pairs of solicit-response messages for querying Commerce Server and for importing data into Commerce Server. |
May require up-to-date message schemas to be generated using Commerce Server tools and deployed to BizTalk Server. .gif "Note") Note:
If you keep the default receive pipeline choice of PassThruReceive when you configure a receive adapter endpoint, and you do not plan to validate, transform, or otherwise examine the message within BizTalk Server, you do not need to generate or deploy the corresponding Commerce Server system schema.
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May require up-to-date message schemas to be generated using Commerce Server tools and deployed to BizTalk Server. Note:
If you keep the default send and receive pipeline choices of PassThruTransmit and PassThruReceive, respectively, when you configure a receive adapter endpoint, and you do not plan to validate, transform, or otherwise examine the message within BizTalk Server, you do not need to generate or deploy the corresponding Commerce Server system schema.
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Other BizTalk Server programming and/or configuration required to process export messages through BizTalk Server to their ultimate destination in another application. |
Other BizTalk Server programming and/or configuration required to deliver solicit messages through BizTalk Server from their ultimate source in another application, and to process response messages through BizTalk Server to their ultimate destination, potentially in another application. |
Configured within the BizTalk Server Administration Console or by using BizTalk Explorer within Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008. |
Configured within the BizTalk Server Administration Console or by using BizTalk Explorer within Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008. |
Are associated with BizTalk Server receive locations and receive ports, both of which must also be configured within the BizTalk Server Administration Console or by using BizTalk Explorer within Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008. |
Are associated with BizTalk Server send ports, which must also be configured within the BizTalk Server Administration Console or by using BizTalk Explorer within Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008. |
Typically only a single receive adapter endpoint configured for any one Commerce Server system, unless specialized filtering is used to either split an export between multiple receive adapter endpoints, or different types of exports are required. For more conceptual information about how receive adapters work, see Receiving Messages from Commerce Server. |
Send adapters are designed to allow multiple endpoints to be configured for a single Commerce Server system, with each such endpoint handling a different type of message. For more conceptual information about how send adapters work, see Sending Messages to Commerce Server. |
See Also
Other Resources
Different Adapters for Different Commerce Server Systems
Receiving Messages from Commerce Server