BizTalk Server Administration Web Console

In the old days, we had to use Visual Studio for managing our BizTalk Server instances. Installing development tools on production systems seems to be the wrong way of administration, but we had no choice. When Paul Somers developed BizTalk 2004 Administration Tool and put it on GotDotNet (Currently it is moved to Codeplex http://www.codeplex.com/BizTalkAdminTool), we can finally manage BizTalk without installing developer tools.

When BizTalk Server 2006 released, MMC based BizTalk Server Administration tool is included and it's a great tool after using HAT. We can easily see the status thru the Dashboard called BizTalk Group Hub Page. But we still have to do an installation for every console that we want to manage from.

When we look at the new server application, most of them includes both windows and web console. Some of the web consoles include limited functionality, but you can do crucial jobs like monitoring and basic definitions.

For these reasons, I started working on BizTalk web admin console and created BizTalkWebAdmin project on Codeplex (http://www.codeplex.com/biztalkwebadmin). This version includes very limited functionality;

• List applications
• List, add, update and delete send ports
• List, add, update and delete receive ports
• List, add, update, delete and bind receive locations

I started working with ESB Guidance project and used this project's parts like ESB.BizTalkOperations, ESB.BizTalkOperationsService and ESB.Exception.Management and changed some parts. I also used BizTalk.Explorer.OM namespace for managing BizTalk. But this limits my management web services portability. Because of this dll reference, my web services have to run on a BizTalk server machine.

In the future, I will try to port this functions to PowerShell and make my web console independent from BizTalk server machine.

BizTalk Server 2006 R3 is on the way

As of April 22, 2008, some details about BizTalk Server's new release are announced at Steve Martin's blog. Especially integration with the 2008 family of Windows Server, Visual Studio and SQL Server and also with .NET Framework 3.5 will be available for the next release.

New features, which are officially announced are;

• New web service registry capabilities with support for UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Integration) version 3.0
• Enhanced service enablement of applications (through new and enhanced adapters for LOB applications, databases, and legacy/host systems)
• Enhanced service enablement of "edge" devices through BizTalk RFID Mobile
  Enhanced interoperability and connectivity support for B2B protocols (like SWIFT, EDI, etc)
• SOA patterns and best practices guidance to assist our customer's implementations

While we are waiting for announcement of the BizTalk Server's new version, it is announced that BizTalk Server 2006 R3 will be an incremental release. CTP of BizTalk Server 2006 R3 is planned for later this year and RTM is planned at the first half of 2009.