One of the most powerful and overlooked features in both BizTalk Server 2004 and the upcoming BizTalk Server 2006 is the use of Send Port Groups to route a single message to more that one destination. A send port group is a collection of send ports that BizTalk Server can use to send the same message to multiple destinations in one configuration. This is a "key" feature of BizTalk Server's "Publish and Subscribe" architecture where a publisher can have more than one subscriber.
Let's say you need to map an inbound XML document to three different outbound formats and send each outbound document to a different system. All that's required is a Send Port Group and a simple Filter Expression. The Send Port Group handles the Filter Expression with each Send Port using it's own map! If any of the three transmissions fail, you can resubmit the failed message without resending the other two documents.
I've tried more complicated solutions but I find myself coming back to this feature again and again in both BTS2004 and now in BTS2006.
Posted
02-15-2006 8:40 PM
by
Jeff Lynch