I have a StoredProcedure that returns a simple table containing several records:
DECLARE #STEPS_TABLE AS TABLE (OrchestrationID uniqueidentifier, [Message] nvarchar(1000));
-- LOADING THE VALUES HERE
SELECT * FROM #STEPS_TABLE As Step FOR XML AUTO, XMLDATA, ELEMENTS
I used the SQL Transport Schema Generation Wizard to create my schema and could configure the port correctly. If I use this schema on my orchestration, it works perfectly. BizTalk starts one instance of the orchestration everytime the #STEPS_TABLE has more than 1 record.
Reading Microsoft technical documentation, they recommend to get several messages in one call and then use the XML pipeline to disassemble the multi-row BizTalk message into a single-row BizTalk message.
I haven't used the XML pipeline before, so I tried the provided steps but couldn't get it to work.
Could somebody provide me a link to a "how to" (didn't find anything until now, after several hours of searching) or give me some hints to succeed.
Thanks in advance.
... some hours later I could figure it out myself. So if anybody comes across the same issue as me, here you have some guidelines to make it work on your environment.
At the end I followed a different walkthrough from Microsoft and avoided the pipeline recommendation altogether. The documentation I found is called "Disassembling Result Sets Using the SQL Adapter" and does exactly what i was looking for. You can just follow the whole walkthrough from Microsoft but avoid the creation of the send port and make some little adjustment on the receive port.
After following the technical document you will end up with two schemas, I will call them message and envelope (contains several messages) for the sake of this excercise. In your orchestration you can create a receiving port that maps to the message and then when you configure it as a SQL Port and you link it to your stored procedure (or select statement), you only have to change the Document Root Element Name to the envelope root name; the XML Receive pipeline (provided by default in BizTalk 2006) will do the magic of disassembling the messages contained in the envelope and instantiating an orchestration for each message.
The Microsoft "Disassembling Result Sets Using the SQL Adapter" walkthrough can be found under:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa562098(v=bts.20).aspx
Mission accomplished :)
Related
I’m trying to set up a very simple BAM scenario within BizTalk Server 2013R2 upon which to build, involving tracking just the time of all incoming messages processed by a port.
To this end I have :
Within Excel, created an Activity Definition (called
SimpleReceiveTest) containing a single Item called ReceiveTime of
type milestone (date/time), and a View Definition (also called
SimpleReceiveTest) containing just this Activity Definition and Item.
Imported this BAM definition spreadsheet using bm.exe
Added view rights to SimpleReceiveTest again using bm.exe
Launched the Tracking Profile Editor, imported the BAM Activity
Definition, and mapped ActivityID = MessageID and ReceiveTime =
PortStartTime by drag and drop from the Messaging Property Schema, as
shown below :
Set the Port Mappings for MessageID and PortStartTime to relate to a
test Receive Port ReceivePort1 that I am using for testing. This is
using a pass-through pipeline.
Saved and applied the above Tracking Profile
It is my understanding that for any messages received on port ReceivePort1 I should now get a tracking activity created. However this is not happening – there are no records in any of the BAM tables/views and no data is available within the BAM Portal.
I have tried restarting the hosts, and have verified that the TDDS_FailedTrackingData table is empty, there is nothing relevant in the event log, a Tracking host is running and the SQL Agent Jobs are running. I have also tried running these jobs manually.
Have I missed something, and am I correct in my expectation that this simple scenario should create tracked activities for any messages passing through the Receive Port? If so what can I try to further diagnose this?
Now fixed - it's actually a bug in vanilla BizTalk 2013R2 when using a standard pipeline that has been fixed in CU2.
FIX: BAM tracking doesn’t work when you use the XMLReceive or a custom pipeline in BizTalk Server
I am trying to use the wcf-sql adapter to call a stored procedure multiple times with different parameters. I have created the original schema using the wizard and then created the composite schema by hand. I understand what the error is telling me I just do not understand why I am getting the error and/or how to resolve it.
Error: Microsoft.ServiceModel.Channels.Common.MetadataException:
Object [dbo].[DEPT_NUM] of type StoredProcedure does not exist. The
message that is suspended in Biztalk looks like this...
<ns0:DINV_sumDepartmentInventory xmlns:ns0="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Sql/2008/05/TypedProcedures/dbo"><ns0:DEPT_NUM> 4</ns0:DEPT_NUM><ns0:INV_DATE>2016-03-21T00:00:00</ns0:INV_DATE><ns0:USERNAME>Service</ns0:USERNAME></ns0:DINV_sumDepartmentInventory>
This is the portion of the orchestration...
This is the map that is associated with the "transform_3" shape...
This is what the composite schema looks like...
I am expecting the output to more like this...
<ns1:Request xmlns:ns1="http://BigY.PICSInventory.Updated_SQL_Schemas.Composite_SumDepartmentInventory" xmlns:ns0="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Sql/2008/05/TypedProcedures/dbo"><ns0:DINV_sumDepartmentInventory><ns0:DEPT_NUM>4</ns0:DEPT_NUM><ns0:INV_DATE>2016-03-21T00:00:00</ns0:INV_DATE><ns0:USERNAME>Service</ns0:USERNAME></ns0:DINV_sumDepartmentInventory></ns1:Request>
Any ideas what is wrong with the setup or what else I can try?
It looks like the Composite Operation is not composed correctly. It has to be a very specific structure with certain namespaces and Operation.
This Wiki Article explains the process step by step: BizTalk Server: Streamlining WCF SQL and Oracle Messaging-Only and Other Patterns
A while back I set up BizTalk to pick up a file via FTP and drop it into a network directory. It's all passsthru so I didn't use an orchestration.
Now I've been asked to execute a stored procedure once the file is picked up. The procedure contains no parameters and I do not need the contents of the file.
It seems like such a simple request but I can't figure it out. Is there any way to do this without over complicating things?
This can be accomplished through the use of either the WCF-SQL adapter or the WCF_Custom adapter with a SQL binding. You can do this using messaging only with just a SendPort with a filter/map on it thus no orchestration needed.
For the SOAP action header use TypedProcedure/dbo/name_of_your_stored_procedure and in the messages tab you can specify the paramters to the stored procuders as well as add a payload in the following manner:
<name_of_your_stored_procedure xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Sql/2008/05/TypedProcedures/dbo">
<parameter1>XXXX</parameter1>
<xml_parameter>
<bts-msg-body xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/schemas/bts2007" encoding="string"/>
</xml_parameter>
</name_of_your_stored_procedure>
In the above case xml_parameter will have the contents of the message payload passed to it.
The stored procedure should look something like :
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[name_of_your_stored_procedure]
#parameter1 int,
#xml_parameter nvarchar(max)
AS
BEGIN
-- your code goes here
END
More details can be found here
Regards Hasse
This MSDN page describes the process and has this to say: "You must create a BizTalk orchestration to use BizTalk Server for performing an operation on SQL Server."
However if you're really desperate not to use an orchestration I believe you have the option of setting the operation context property in a custom pipeline component. Then you can initialise the message in a map on a port. In theory this should work but I can't guarantee it.
I have an SQL Database and an ASP.NET website built to put data into the database.
One of the project requirements is to build a system that would let the user upload a Crystal Report to the server and run it as needed. This way, the user could create a customized report (for then turning into management, customers) that wouldn't force them to go through a developer.
I'm looking for suggestions on how to accomplish this goal.
Currently, I'm looking for a way to redirect the database connection in the Crystal Report from the database it was developed with to the database it will eventually run on. However, There doesn't seem to be a simple way to do this.
I'm also investigating the ReportViewer object. However, all the code I have seen involves specifying the query for the report in the code, which isn't acceptable.
One option (which I don't like at all) is to let them write their own queries so they can copy the results into Excel. This would mean a blank textbox and information about the structure of the database. Not a good idea for multiple reasons.
Another option is to create one report for each table (and maybe a few extras), let the user copy the data they want into Excel, and go on their merry way.
tl;dr How do I build a flexible reporting system?
=========================================
Continuation: 08/20/2012
I have decided to go the route of b.pell's extension methods. So far, it has gotten me closer than anything else. My code to bind to the CrystalReportViewer is below:
CrystalReportSource rs = new CrystalReportSource();
rs.Report.FileName = Server.MapPath("ReportFiles/") + Request["reportname"];
string connstring = System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["myConnectionString"].ConnectionString;
rs.ReportDocument.ApplyCredentialsFromConnectionString(connstring);
rs.ReportDocument.ApplyNewDatabaseName("myDBName", "mySchemaName");
rs.ReportDocument.Refresh();
CrystalReportViewer1.ReportSource = rs;
This comes very close to working. It works fine on my dev machine, but when I run the code on the server, it gives the following error:
Logon failed.Error in File CrystalReport2 {5D2E82E5-783E-4DFD-A770-C8AE72A51E4E}.rpt:
Unable to connect: incorrect log on parameters. Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. Exception Details: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException: Logon failed.Error in File CrystalReport2 {5D2E82E5-783E-4DFD-A770-C8AE72A51E4E}.rpt: Unable to connect: incorrect log on parameters. Source Error: An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.
The error is in this line in the code:
crTable.Location = String.Format("{0}{1}", prefix, crTable.Location.Substring(crTable.Location.LastIndexOf(".") + 1))
When I remove the call to ApplyNewDatabaseName, I am asked to enter the Server Name, the Database name, the Username and the Password or to select Integrated Security. I can't enter the Database Name or the Server Name (those fields are disabled).
Any thoughts?
I think what you're looking for is the Reporting Services, part of Business Intelligence
Or maybe you can setup a UI that let the users pick the tables and columns they need for the report (this way you can limit the information they can access) an write a Dinamic Query Builder Function or something like that.
I answer the changing Crystal Reports connection question a lot (it's something I'd think Crystal would make easier, but I wonder if they don't because that's what their server product does). :D Anyway, you can set the database credentials at runtime. Crystal is very particular in the order it's done, but I have some code that I turned into extension methods that do the trick. This code will go through the main report and all sub reports and change the connection information. This assumes that all sub reports connect to the same database that the main report does (if not, you'll need to modify it to handle multiple connections, but this rarely comes up at least with what I do).
Extension methods to change connection info: http://www.blakepell.com/2012-05-22-crystal-reports-extension-methods
It would be used something like this (although, you're binding to a viewer probably and not exporting, so you could ignore that, this is just for example).
Using rd As New ReportDocument
rd.Load("C:\Temp\CrystalReports\InternalAccountReport.rpt")
rd.ApplyNewServer("serverName or DSN", "databaseUsername", "databasePassword")
rd.ApplyParameters("AccountNumber=038PQRX922;", True)
rd.ExportToDisk(ExportFormatType.PortableDocFormat, "c:\temp\test.pdf")
rd.Close()
End Using
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("c:\temp\test.pdf")
You could use the Crystal Viewer at this point to deliver the reports and store the report in a database or on the file system (with a db meta data table) and have some predefined connections the user could select from that would be applied when it is run.
You also have the option to write your own front end. In this scenario a user would select a report from your meta data (you could put whatever security on it you wanted, I use AD). Then you can read the report parameters in and lay them out on the web form. When the user fills them in, you then sanatize them and pass them to the report via these extensions and you can output Excel, PDF, Word Doc, RTF, etc. A little more overhead and not the nice preview view, but can work well (I've done something like this in the past). Hope this helps.
About "...let them write their own queries" part of your question.
The solution can be to use some query builder component with friendly user interface which hides from users the complexity of your database and avoid any possible SQL injections.
There are few such products on the market. One of them is called EasyQuery, another one is build by Aspose if I'm not wrong. Try to search in Google for "query bulider for asp.net" or ".net query builder component".
Apparently, using AttachDbFilename and user instance in your connection string is a bad way to connect to a DB. I'm using SQL server express on my local machine and it all seems to work fine. But what's the proper way to connect to SQL server then?
Thanks for your explanation.
Using User Instance means that SQL Server is creating a special copy of that database file for use by your program. If you have two different programs using that same connection string, they get two entirely different copies of the database. This leads to a lot of confusion, as people will test updating data with their program, then connect to a different copy of their database in Management Studio, and complain that their update isn't working. This sends them through a flawed series of wild goose chase steps trying to troubleshoot the wrong problem.
This article goes into more depth about how to use this feature, but heed the very first note: the User Instance feature has been deprecated. In SQL Server 2012, the preferred alternatives are (in this order, IMHO):
Create or attach your database to a real instance of SQL Server. Your connection string will then just need to specify the instance name, the database name, and credentials. There will be no mixup as Management Studio, Visual Studio and your program(s) will all be connecting to a single copy of the database.
Use a container for local development. Here's a great starter video by Anna Hoffman and Anthony Nocentino, and I have some other resources here, here, and here. If you're on an M1 Mac, you won't be able to use a full-blown SQL Server instance, but you can use Azure SQL Edge if you can get by with most SQL Server functionality (the omissions are enumerated here).
Use SqlLocalDb for local development. I believe I pointed you to this article yesterday: "Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB."
Use SQL Server Compact. I like this option the least because the functionality and syntax is not the same - so it's not necessarily going to provide you with all the functionality you're ultimately going to want to deploy. Compact Edition is also deprecated, so there's that.
Of course if you are using a version < SQL Server 2012, SqlLocalDb is not an option - so you should be creating a real database and using that consistently. I only mention the Compact option for completeness - I think that can be almost as bad an idea as using AttachDbFileName.
EDIT: I've blogged about this here:
Bad Habits : Using AttachDBFileName
In case someone had the problem.
When attaching the database with a connection string containing AttachDBFile
with SQLEXPRESS, I noticed this connection was exclusive to the ASP.NET application that was using the database. The connection did block the access to all other processes on the file level when made with System.Data.SqlClient as provider.
In order to assure the connection to be shareable with other processes
instead use DataBase to specify the database name in your connection string
Example or connection string :
Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;DataBase=PlaCliGen;User ID=XXX;password=ZZZ; Connect Timeout=30
,where PlaCliGen is the name (or logical name) by which SQLEXPRESS server knows the database.
By connecting to the data base with AttachDBFile giving the path to the .mdf file
(namely : replacing DataBase = PlacliGen by AttachDBFile = c:\vs\placligen\app_data\placligen.mdf) the File was connected exclusively and no other process could connect to the database.