SAP DATA TYPES

When sending a document to SAP, or making a RFC or BAPI call you may get this error:

Microsoft.ServiceModel.Channels.Common.XmlReaderGenerationException: An error occurred when trying to convert the byte array [30-00-30-00-30-00-30-00-30-00-30-00-30-00-30-00] of RFCTYPE RFCTYPE_DATE with length 8 and decimals 0 to XML format. Parameter/field name: REF_DATE   Error message: Year, Month, and Day parameters describe an un-representable DateTime. ---> System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Year, Month, and Day parameters describe an un-representable DateTime.

Usually its the date field, most likely one you do not even use, and do not care about,  sadly SAP date format is different from yours, and a null date is a big no no. 

It comes down to how you generated your SAP schemas in the first place. 

 Add Generated Items/Add Adapter Meta Data/WCF-SAP 

Under the Configure Button are three tabs, set up your connection on the first two, and then there is binding properties.

Look at the metadata section, change the Enable Safe Typing to true, this will generate your schema with safe types, its a fancy way of saying that all of the types generated will be of type string, rather than of type datetime, long, int, etc...  SAP does not seem to care, it will do the conversion correctly now.

The node names do not change, just the types, so you can simply replace your current schema, keeping the same name, with the definition generated now. 

Then your problem, will go away, and SAP will once again be happy. 

AT RUN TIME: Ensure your send or receive port also has the same setting or it will not work. 

BizTalk Server 2013 is now Released to Manufacturing (RTM)!

I am excited to announce that BizTalk Server 2013 is now Released to Manufacturing (RTM)! BizTalk Server 2013 makes it easier than ever to build hybrid applications that span on-premises and the cloud.

BizTalk Server 2013 will be available on MSDN starting March 21. The English locale SKUs will be available for purchase starting April 2013. Other language SKUs will be available for purchase starting May 2013. 

This is the eighth release of BizTalk Server, another step in the on-going investments we are making in BizTalk.  In this release, we have focused on the “One BizTalk” vision and have invested both in the on-premises server and in the cloud. The cloud offerings, which will be released soon, include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) capabilities as well as Platform as a Service (PaaS) capabilities. Please stay tuned for exciting updates on this topic in the near future.

For the on-premises BizTalk Server 2013 release, we have focused on the following themes:

·        

         Cloud Connectivity

·         Ability to run existing BizTalk applications in the cloud (IaaS)

·         Improved Performance

·         Simplified Development and Management Experience

·         Support for the latest platform and standards

In terms of features, this translates to

• Integration with Cloud Services – BizTalk Server 2013 includes new out-of-the box adapters to send and receive messages from Windows Azure Service Bus, making it easy to build hybrid solutions. It also provides capabilities to host BizTalk endpoints in Azure through the Service Bus Relay providing a simple and secure way to connect external partners and application to BizTalk Server on-premises. New adapters include
  • WCF-BasicHttpRelay
  • WCF-NetTCPRelay
  • SB-Messaging
• RESTful services – BizTalk Server 2013 provides adapters to invoke REST endpoints as well as expose BizTalk Server artifacts as a RESTful service.
• Enhanced SharePoint adapter – Integrating with SharePoint using BizTalk Server 2013 is now as simple as integrating with a file share. We have removed the dependency on SharePoint farms, while still providing backward compatibility.
• SFTP adapter –Enables sending and receiving messages from an SFTP server.
• ESB – The ESB capabilities previously introduced in the ESB Toolkit are now fully integrated with BizTalk Server and the ESB configuration experience is vastly simplified to enable a quick setup.
• Dependency tracking - The dependencies between artifacts can now be viewed and navigated in the Admin console.
• Improvements in dynamic send ports –You now have the ability to assign a host handler per adapter, providing better scales and performance for dynamic send ports.
• XslCompiledTransform – The mapping engine now makes use of the enhanced XslCompiledTransform API, which provides significant improvements in mapping engine performance for complex maps.
• Ordered Send Port improvements –We have made changes to the BizTalk runtime engine which significantly increases the performance of ordered send port scenarios, for example in HL7 solutions that use the MLLP Adapter.
• BAM Alerts update – In previous releases of BizTalk Server, BAM Alerts feature had a dependency on SSNS (SQL Server Notification Services). With the current release of SQL Server (SQL Server 2012), SSNS is no longer available. However, we have made sure your existing BAM Alerts scenario work just the same even if your backend is targeting SQL Server 2012. If your backend is SQL Server 2008 R2, you will continue to require the dependency on SSNS.

·         Support for latest LOB version and protocol standards - Additionally, we also support the latest LOB versions and protocol standards. For B2B, the enhancements include

• Support for X12 5040, 5050, 6020, 6030
• Support for EDIFACT D06A, D06B, D07A, D07B, D08A, D08B, D09A, D09B, D10A, D10B
• HL7 2.5.1

With this release, we are also moving to a per-core licensing model to keep BizTalk consistent with our SQL Server licensing.  The changes to BizTalk Server licensing reflect the evolution of the industry, along with new hardware deployment practices. With these changes, Microsoft will continue to offer industry-leading TCO to our customers.

Under the new Per Core licensing model, the net price impact to individual customers will vary based on how they deploy BizTalk Server 2013, their current capacity, and their future needs. For customers who are running BizTalk Server software on processors with four cores or less, the license cost for 

BizTalk Server 2013 remains consistent with BizTalk Server 2010, as core licenses are priced at one quarter the cost of a processor license. For customers running servers with higher capacity processors, licensing cost will grow with the increased power of their hardware. 

BizTalk Server 2013 offers expanded virtualization rights, options and benefits to provide greater flexibility when deploying in virtual environments. When deploying BTS 2013 in a virtual environment, you have the choice of licensing either individual virtual machines (VMs) as needed or to license for maximum virtualization to support highly virtualized and private cloud environments.

For more information on the per-core licensing, go to the InfoPedia site and download the customer-facing document “;BizTalk Server 2013 Licensing Datasheet and FAQ”.

200 Million Workers Want Windows 8 Tablets, Not iPads

I have installed windows 8.... I installed the enterprise edition, as I wanted all the good stuff and I had a single key allocated to me for this.

It was a lot more difficult than I would have thought to get it installed and running. 

I am up and running... It works, it is not windows 7.... It is different as is most new major releases of windows, if you look back over time..... Get used to it.

If you have touch, great, if you want to use the old desktop apps, even better, they all work...

Get used to the interesting features, the magic bar on the side, the lack of great support for multiple monitors on a pc,  and a new way of looking at your apps, with the fantastic live tiles....

Once you open the box fully and look inside, it's actually pretty decent, 100% better than ipads, yes not as many fancy apps in the app store, but remember..... those millions and millions of existing apps, games... etc that you used to have access to, you still have access to, go to the shop and buy them...... just as you always did...

Now look at the main user of windows, business....... I would like to draw you attention to the post recently:

200-million-workers-want-windows-8-tablets-not-ipads

On an iPad, I can not run ANY of my old apps,  on a windows tablet I can, I get the best of both worlds. Finally I can use word and excel on my tablet, as opposed to what you get on iPad.

I have a significant choice of device, manufacturer, and features of the hardware platform.

I firmly believe the PRO versions of windows 8, those that run intel and still run all of my old apps will be the way forward, and for business, give me something that can do both, I am already sold.... so the article above, is to me, right on the money.

Sorry Apple lovers, and thanks for leading the way again, I used to be an Amiga guy, but hey where are they now? I don't think those loyal to Apple will go away, but they will not be so popular, and those very annoying, very user unfriendly, mad house, apple stores will finally go away, replaced with a better store in the mall.

My $2 worth.

Windows 8 Shortcuts

With windows 8 my shortcuts did not work fully, well there is a whole bunch of new methods in windows 8, I thought it would be good to share.

1. Admin Menu: It's not the Start Menu so familiar in earlier versions of Windows, but the Admin Menu is as close as it gets in Windows 8. Windows + X pops it up from the bottom left corner.

2. Charms: When you hit Windows + C the Charms bar pops out from the right-hand side of the screen. Charms, a new Windows feature, are a set of tools such as Search, Share and Settings that are located in a Charms Bar that can be flicked in from the right side of the display on a touchscreen.

3. Settings: One of the Charms is Settings. To avoid calling out the Charms bar then choosing Settings it's possible to go directly to Settings: Windows +I. This will reveal the Power button, too. Click on that to reveal the Sleep, Shut down and Restart options, options users say are way too hard to find.

4. Sharing: If you are in an application and want to email or share its content with someone on a social network, hit Windows + H.

5. Second screen: If you are connecting to a second screen as you might presenting a PowerPoint in a conference room, use Windows + P.

6. Search: There are three layers of Search: Apps, Settings and Files. Using touch it calls for whisking out the Charms bar, selecting Search then choosing one of the three layers. With shortcuts, each layer can be reached with one command. They are: Apps: Windows + Q ; Settings: Windows +W ; Files: Windows + F

7. Snap an app: It's possible to snap an application on hold in the right or left quarter of the screen with a second active app occupying the rest of the screen. To snap to the right, press Windows + . ; to snap to the left, press Windows + Shift + .

8. Running Apps: Thumbnails of apps that are running are concealed off the left side of the screen. Pressing Windows + Tab reveals them.

9. To close an app: It's just like it was in Windows 7: Alt + F4 .

10. The desktop: While it's different from the traditional desktop, it is much more familiar territory than the Start Screen. Typing Windows + D brings up the Desktop...Same as Windows 7

WCF SQL operations

When adding WCF sql ports to BizTalk, you can add a whole host of different types of operation with SQL and it’s incredibly powerful. 

The problem is with all these options, the wizard rarely makes a binding file for you, it will make the schemas, but the binding file contains that extra little bit of magic…

The key to all of this in the SOAP action header you specify on the port.

There are your basic ones:

TableOp/Insert/dbo/Employee

TableOp/Update/dbo/Employee

If you read this, it will do a table operation and insert or update employee record(s) in the employee table.

Then there is of course stored procedures for both send and receive ports. 

TypedProcedure/dbo/StoredProcedureName

Simple enough, however maybe you have a few operations you want to do, you want to go for a more composite operation. 

Your Soap action can be CompositeOperation

The message you send can do a whole host of things, for example, insert into a table, and when done, run a stored procedure.

You have your insert schema, and your execute stored procedure schema, that the wizard generates, now bundle this into the following structure and all of a sudden a whole world of opportunities opens up.

<xs:element name="Request">

    <xs:complexType>

      <xs:sequence>

        <xs:element ref="ns0:Insert" />

        <xs:element ref="ns1:CompareEmployee" />

      </xs:sequence>

    </xs:complexType>

  </xs:element>

  <xs:element name="RequestResponse">

   <xs:complexType>

    <xs:sequence>

     <xs:element ref="ns0:InsertResponse" />

     <xs:element ref="ns1:CompareEmployeeResponse"/>

    </xs:sequence>

   </xs:complexType>

  </xs:element>

Then there are the Generic operations, vastly undocumented, for example a SQL reader, that can execute SQL against the database and return the results of the query…

Your Soap Action header would be: GenericOp/ExecuteReader

The schema looks like this:

  <ExecuteReader xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Sql/2008/05/GenericTableOp/">

    <Query>[PL/SQL STATEMENT1];[PL/SQL STATEMENT2];…</Query>

  </ExecuteReader>

Have a look at some of the more unknown options available, and you start to see the power in all of this. 

Operation	Soap Action  Header
ExecuteNonQuery Request	GenericOp/ExecuteNonQuery
ExecuteNonQuery Response	GenericOp/ExecuteNonQuery/response
ExecuteReader Request	GenericOp/ExecuteReader
ExecuteReader Response	GenericOp/ExecuteReader/response
ExecuteScalar Request	GenericOp/ExecuteScalar
ExecuteScalar Response	GenericOp/ExecuteScalar/response

Refer to this link for more: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd788372%28v=bts.10%29.aspx

BizTalk 2013 *Beta* Released

BizTalk has existed in one form or another since the early Site Server Days, then BizTalk 2000-2002 and then BizTalk 2004, and now all the way to 2013.... Welcome BizTalk Server 2013 (previously called BizTalk Server 2010 R2)

I have been using it as part of the TAP, it still rocks like BizTalk always does, but now it's great in the cloud.... finally. 

It is available for download at Microsoft Download Center.

BizTalk Server 2013 Beta offers significant enhancements to the already rich integration capabilities by including the following feature additions:

• Integration with Cloud Services: BizTalk Server 2013 Beta includes new out-of-the box adapters to send and receive messages from Windows Azure Service Bus. It also provides capabilities to transfer messages using different relay endpoints hosted on Azure.
• SB-Messaging adapter: This version introduces the SB-Messaging adapter to send and receive messages from Service Bus entities like Queues, Topics, and Relays. You can use the SB-Messaging adapters to bridge the connectivity between Windows Azure and on-premises BizTalk Server, thereby enabling users to create a typical hybrid application (read more here).
• WCF-BasicHttpRelay Adapter: Microsoft BizTalk Server uses the WCF-BasicHttpRelay adapter when receiving and sending WCF service requests through the BasicHttpRelayBinding. The WCF-BasicHttpRelay adapter enables you to send and receive messages from the Service Bus relay endpoints using the BasicHttpRelayBinding (read more here).
• WCF-NetTcpRelay Adapter: Microsoft BizTalk Server uses the WCF-NetTcpRelay adapter when receiving and sending WCF service requests through the NetTcpRelayBinding (read more here).
• RESTful services: BizTalk Server 2013 Beta provides adapters to invoke REST endpoints as well as expose BizTalk Server artifacts as a RESTful service.
• WCF-WebHttp Adapter: Microsoft BizTalk Server uses the WCF-WebHttp adapter to send messages to RESTful services. The WCF-WebHttp send adapter sends HTTP messages to a service from a BizTalk message. The receive location receives messages from a RESTful service. For GET and DELETE request, the adapter does not use any payload. For POST and PUT request, the adapter uses the BizTalk message body part to the HTTP content/payload (read more here).
• Enhanced SharePoint adapter: Integrating with SharePoint using BizTalk Server 2013 Beta is now as simple as integrating with a file share. We have removed the need for dependency on SharePoint farms, while still providing backward compatibility (read more here).
• SFTP adapter: After Microsoft, in 2009, improved the FTP adapter by extended to support FTPS, BizTalk Server 2013 Beta enables sending and receiving messages from a secure FTP server using the SSH file transfer protocol (read more here).
• ESB Toolkit integration: With BizTalk Server 2013 Beta, ESB Toolkit is now fully integrated with BizTalk Server. Also, the ESB Toolkit configuration experience is vastly simplified to enable a quick setup (read more here).
• Dependency tracking: A typical BizTalk Server application involves various artifacts such as orchestrations, send ports, receive locations, pipelines, schemas, maps, and the likes. All these artifacts have dependencies on each other. The dependencies between artifacts can now be viewed and navigated in Admin console (read more here).
• Improvements in dynamic send ports: BizTalk Server 2013 Beta provides the ability to set host handler per adapter, instead of always using the default send handler of the adapters (read more here).
• Updates to the supported EDI schemas: BizTalk Server 2013 introduces support for the following EDI schemas:
• X12: 5040, 5050, 6020, 6030
• EDIFACT: D06A, D06B, D07A, D07B, D08A, D08B, D09A, D09B, D10A, D10B
• XslCompiledTransform: BizTalk Server mapping engine makes use of XslTransform API for mapping needs. With BizTalk Server 2013 Beta release, the mapping engine makes use of the enhanced XslCompiledTransform API. This will provide improvements in mapping engine performance.
• Ordered Send Port improvements: With BizTalk Server 2013 release, we have made changes to the BizTalk runtime engine which increases the performance of ordered send port scenarios.
• BAM Alerts update: In previous releases of BizTalk Server, BAM Alerts feature had a dependency on SSNS (SQL Server Notification Services). With the current release of SQL Server (SQL Server 2012), SSNS is no longer available. However, we have made sure your existing BAM Alerts scenario work just the same even if your backend is targeting SQL Server 2012. If your backend is SQL Server 2008 R2, you will continue to require the dependency on SSNS.

System Requirements

• Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012

The software is for evaluation and deployment planning purposes only. If you plan to install the software on your primary computer, we recommend that you back up your existing data prior to installation.
To run BizTalk Server 2013 Beta you need:

• 32-bit (x86) platforms: Computer with an Intel Pentium-compatible CPU that is 1 GHz or faster for single processors; 900 MHz or faster for double processors; or 700 MHz or faster for quad processors
• 64-bit (x64) platforms: Computer with a CPU that is compatible with the AMD64 and Extended Memory 64-bit Technology (EMT64T), 1.7 GHz or faster processor recommended for BizTalk Server 2013 Beta
• 2 GB of RAM minimum (more recommended)
• 10 GB of available hard-disk space
• VGA monitor (1024 x 768) or higher-resolution monitor
• Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

To use BizTalk Server 2013 Beta you need the following software:

• SQL Server 2012 or SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 [Required for selected features only]
• Microsoft Office Excel 2010 [Required for selected features only]
• SQL Server 2005 Notification Service [Required for selected features only]
• SQLXML 4.0 with Service Pack 1 [Required for selected features only]
• Internet Information Services (IIS) Version 7.5 and 7.0 [Required for selected features only]

All these capabilities will be available in Windows Azure Virtual Machine platform gallery soon.

Windows Azure Conference

As a community event, hosted on channel 9, there is to be the Windows AzureConf.
 
This is a free event for the Windows Azure community. This event will feature a keynote presentation by Scott Guthrie, along with numerous sessions executed by Windows Azure community members. Streamed live for an online audience on Channel 9, the event will allow you to see how developers just like you are using Windows Azure to develop applications on the best cloud platform in the industry. Community members from all over the world will join Scott in the Channel 9 studios to present their own inventions and experiences.

WHERE WHEN:

November 14, 2012
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM PST
Channel 9


For more information visit here:  http://www.windowsazureconf.net/