This BizTalk solution consists of the following.
·
Schema – PORequest.xsd & POAck.xsd
·
Property Schema (For exposing the schema properties into an
orchestration and ports)
·
Map – A PORequest is mapped into a POAck message.
·
Orchestration – ProcessPO.odx – Sends out a POAck message. (See
Figure 2)
Schema
There are two schemas used in this application, a PORequest
schema and a POAck schema.
Map
A Map (PORequest-To-POAck-Map.btm) is used to transform a
PORequest message to a POAck message. See Figure 1.
Figure 1
Orchestrations
An Orchestration is essentially a Business Process. See
Figure 2.
The “ProcessPO” Orchestration performs the following:
·
The Orchestration picks up the PO Request message from the
receive location.
·
The PO message is transformed into a POAck message. The status
property is set to either APPROVED, REJECTED or ON_HOLD, based on the input
values in the PO. Refer to Figure 2.
·
If POAmount < $1000, then POStatus = “APPROVED.”
·
If POAmount > $ 5000 then POStatus = “REJECTED.”
·
Else POStaus = “ON_HOLD.”
These are fairly simple conditions in order to generate a
BAM report.
Figure 2
Preparing the BAM Observation Model
Once the Orchestration is up and running, the data required
for the BAM operation needs to be prepared.
The following sequence of steps describes the process of preparing
the BAM Observation Model.
Step 1: Create a new XLS file from the “BAM.xla” template. Locate
the BAM.xla file in the following directory in your BizTalk installation, “C:\Program
Files\Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006\ExcelDir.” This shall be the BAM
Observation Model.
Step 2: Click on the menu “BAM” and select the menu item
“BAM Activity…”
Step 3: The BAM Activity Wizard opens up. Click on the “New
Activity…” button. See Figure 3.
Figure 3
Specify the Activity name as “PurchaseOrderActivity.” Add
Items to this Activity by clicking the “New Item…” button. As you might
notice, there are several Item Types in an Activity.
|
Item Type
|
Description
|
|
Business Milestone
|
For example, the status of a purchase order request.
|
|
Business Data – Text
|
A string containing any alphanumeric characters. For
example, Ship to: City, State/Province and Zip/Postal code.
|
|
Business Data – Integer
|
A whole number value. For example, the total number of
items in the PO.
|
|
Business Data – Float
|
A decimal value. For example, the total dollar amount of
the PO.
|
In this example we have defined the various PO statuses as Milestones.
Finally, click on the “OK” button.
Step 4: The “BAM View Creation” wizard opens up (see Figure 4).
Specify the View Name as “POSummary” and select the Activity
listed. Click on the “Next >” button.
Figure 4
BAM View: A BAM View is the set of data you would like to
monitor or expose to the various stakeholders of the application.
Step 5: Select the items needed to add to the View. Choose
the “Select all items” checkbox. Finally, click the “Next >” button. See
Figure 5.
Figure 5
Step 6: Create “Aliases, Durations and Groups” as seen
Figure 6.
Durations: Duration specifies the amount of time, defined by
a beginning and ending milestone, for a particular activity item. For example,
the number of days a PO is valid.
Milestone Groups: Use a milestone group to put the related
milestones together, for example the beginning and end milestones that define
how long a Purchase Order is valid. You can then use the milestone group as a
single milestone.
Figure 6
Step 7: Create “Dimensions and Measures” as seen in Figure
7.
Measure: The measure is a single value which yields
information relevant to process management. For example, the “TotalPOAmount”
measure computes the total value of the PO order.
Dimension: Dimensions are defined in terms of measures. They
put the measure into various perspectives. For the “TotalPOAmount” measure, it
can be made relevant to a PODate, PONum or POStatus by defining in the Pivot
table.
Figure 7
Step 8: This is the “Excel Pivot table.” Note the
Dimensions and the Measures listed in the Pivot table field list as seen in
Figure 8.
Figure 8
Step 9: Export the data in the XLS sheet. Click on the menu
“BAM” and select the menu item “Export XML…” and specify a file name “POActivityViewExport.xml.”
Then save it in the local directory.
Deploying the BAM observation model to generate the BAM
infrastructure
The BAM observation model can be deployed using this simple
command:
BM deploy-all
-DefinitionFile:C:\BAMSolution\XlsFile\POActivityViewExport.xml.
NOTE: The file BM.exe is found at the following location.
“C:\Program Files\Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006\Tracking\”
Tracking Profile Editor (TPE)
The TPE is a tool that developers use to create or modify
tracking profiles, between items in a BAM activity and the BizTalk solution
sources for those items. The TPE consists of a graphical user interface that
allows developers to map a specific view of internal business processes, as
well as associated data, to orchestrations and ports using drag and drop
experience that does not require the developer to provide code.
The Tracking Profile Editor assumes that at least one BAM definition
has already been deployed (using BM.exe). The Tracking Profile Editor uses a
registry key that is set during BizTalk configuration to determine where the
Management database is located.
Figure 9
The Figure 9 shows the TP editor used to map the Activity
milestones and data with the Orchestration and the message payloads. Once the
mapping is completed, the tracking profile needs to be applied (see Figure 10).
A message confirming the successful application of the profile gets displayed.
See Figure 11.
Figure 10
Figure 11
BAM Portal
The BAM portal in BizTalk Server 2006 provides real-time,
end-to-end visibility into a business process. The BAM portal allows you to
perform searches, aggregate data, and set alerts on a BAM view, which is a
perspective on your business data. See Figure 12.
The PivotTable View area displays the PivotTable report that
we designed using the BAM Add-In for Excel.
The Pivot table, which we have created in the previous
section, would be displayed as shown in Figure 13. The Chart view of the same
pivot table is shown in Figure 14.
Figure 12
Figure 13
Figure 14
