BizTalk Expert Series: ESB

An Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is an architectural pattern and a key enabler in implementing the infrastructure for a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Real-world experience has demonstrated that an ESB is only one of many components required to build a comprehensive service-oriented infrastructure (SOI). 

The BizTalk ESB Toolkit is a collection of tools and libraries that extend BizTalk Server's capabilities of supporting a loosely coupled and dynamic messaging architecture to enable rapid mediation between services and their consumers. Enabling maximum flexibility at run time, the BizTalk ESB Toolkit simplifies loosely-coupled composition of service endpoints and management of service interactions.

This three-day course is designed for experienced BizTalk developers and architects who are responsible for planning, creating, and deploying BizTalk Server applications that utilize features of the ESB Toolkit. Attendees of this course will learn how to incorporate ESB Toolkit functions into existing and new BizTalk Server applications to provide more dynamic runtime experiences. 

This course culminates in a day-long workshop in which students build an end-to-end integration solution utilizing the skills learned in this course.

In this course, attendees will receive live instruction from one of our expert trainers, in-classroom demonstrations, challenging hands-on labs, and an electronic copy of the presentation materials and lab guide with hands-on activities.

At the completion of this course, attendees will be able to:

• Identify ESB implementation scenarios
• Install and configure the BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.1 components
• Examine the functionality of the internal ESB engine
• Process messages using ESB itinerary services
• Create custom itinerary services
• Call the ESB resolution transformation services
• Configure external systems to resolve ESB endpoints
• Capture and route failed BizTalk messages
• Extract and normalize exceptions
• Monitor exceptions in the web-based ESB Management Console
• Manage exceptions using custom event handlers
• Extend the ESBG core components
• Create complex itineraries

Audience: Experienced BizTalk Server Developers who have attended QuickLearn Training's BizTalk Developer Immersion course or have at least one year of hands-on experience developing BizTalk Server applications.

Pre-requisites: Students should be experienced in core BizTalk Server development concepts and skills. The course assumes that attendees already know how to create schemas, maps, pipelines, and orchestrations, and are looking to expand their BizTalk Server development skills to include the features in the ESB Toolkit.

Course Outline:

Module 1: Understanding the BizTalk ESB Toolkit

• Reviewing BizTalk and SOA
• What Is an Enterprise Service Bus?
• Examining the ESB Toolkit
• BizTalk ESB Version Comparison

Module 2: Installing the ESB Toolkit

• Installation Overview
• Installing and Configuring the Toolkit
• Identifying ESB Toolkit Components

Module 3: Processing Messages Using the ESB Itinerary Mechanism

• Examining the Itinerary Mechanism
• Receiving and Sending ESB Messages
• Creating and Deploying ESB Itineraries

Module 4: ESB Pipeline Processing

• Commonly Used ESB Pipeline Components
• Other ESB Pipeline Components

Module 5: The ESB Resolver and Adapter Provider Framework

• The Role of ESB Resolvers
• The Role of ESB Adapter Providers

Module 6: Using ESB External Services

• Using ESB Web Services

Module 7: Exception Management and the ESB Management Portal

• ESB Exception Fundamentals
• Capturing Exceptions
• Extracting and Normalizing Exceptions
• Reporting ESB Exceptions
• Using the ESB Management 

Module 8: Modifying and Extending the BizTalk ESB Toolkit

• Custom Resolvers
• Custom Itinerary Services
• Custom ESB Off-Ramps

Module 9: End-to-end Workshop using ESB

• Overview of the ESB Workshop Scenario
• Workshop Artifacts