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Step 13: Create and Configure Ports

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In this step, you use the Port Configuration Wizard to create and configure ports in Orchestration Designer. Ports specify how your orchestration sends and receives messages to and from business processes. Each port has a type, a direction, and a binding. The properties together determine the direction of communication, the pattern of communication, the location to or from which BizTalk Accelerator for HL7 (BTAHL7) sends or receives the message, and how the communication takes place. BTAHL7 uses the Minimum Lower Layer Protocol (MLLP) adapter as a send port. The MLLP adapter uses TCP sockets communication to interface with other applications, such as laboratory applications, insurance applications, and legacy line-of-business applications. The MLLP Send Adapter represents a BizTalk Server adapter that is:

  • Customized. The adapter only ships with BTAHL7, as opposed to shipping with BizTalk Server.

  • Protocol/Transport. The adapter is not an application or data adapter.

  • Static. The adapter configuration does not involve a custom user interface.

  • Asynchronous. The adapter does not block the Messaging Engine thread, which enables increased performance of all adapters that BizTalk Server hosts.

  • Nontransacted. The adapter is not a transacted receive or send BizTalk Server adapter.

  • Regular. The adapter does not run in a separate application process.

  • Both One-Way and Two-Way. The adapter supports both One-way and Request-Response/Solicit-Response modes of interaction.

    The MLLP adapter can submit individual messages or submit messages in a batch. The beginning of an MLLP message is marked with a wrapper character, hexadecimal 0x0b (also known as the Start Block or SB character), and the end of the message is marked by the combination of a hexadecimal 0x1c character (also known as the End Block or EB character) immediately followed by the 0x0d character (Carriage Return). BTAHL7 performance counters only count these wrapper characters for sent messages. BTAHL7 performance counters do not count these wrapper characters when receiving messages.

Note

The MLLP protocol standard does not allow characters under 0x20 in the message payload because it interferes with the ability to detect the SB and EB characters. You can configure the SB and EB character values, so be wary of this issue when making changes.

In this step, you configure the MLLP adapter and SOAP adapter.

To create and configure the ports

  1. In Orchestration Designer, drag the Port shape from the Toolbox to the Port Surface on the left side of the Design view surface, and drop the shape so that it aligns horizontally with the DoorbellReceive shape.

  2. In the Port Configuration Wizard, click Next.

  3. On the Port Properties page, in the Name field, type SOAPReceivePort, and then click Next.

  4. On the Select a Port Type page, enter the following information, and then click Next to continue.

    Use this To do this
    Port Type Name Type SOAPReceivePortType.
    Communication Pattern Select One-Way.
    Access Restrictions Select Public - no limit.

  5. On the Port Binding page, click Next to accept the default values.

  6. On the Completing the Port Wizard page, click Finish.

  7. Drag the Port shape from the Toolbox to the Port Surface on the right side of the Design view surface, and drop the shape so that it aligns horizontally with the DoorbellSend shape.

  8. Using the Port Configuration Wizard as you did in steps 2 through 7, create an additional send port using the following parameters:

    Property Parameter
    Port Properties Name MLLPSendPort
    Port Type Name MLLPSendPortType
    Communication Pattern One-Way
    Access Restrictions Public - no limit
    Port Binding Specify Later
    Port direction of communication I'll always be sending messages on this port.

  9. In the Orchestration View window, with the Types, Ports Types, and SOAPReceivePortType nodes expanded, expand Operation_1, and then click Request.

  10. In the Properties window, in the drop-down list for Message Type, expand Schemas, and then click BTAHL7_Project.Doorbell.

  11. In the Orchestration View window, expand MLLPSendPortType, expand Operation_1, and then click Request.

  12. In the Properties window, in the drop-down list for Message Type, expand Multi-part Message Types, and then click BTAHL7_Project.DoorbellFinalMessageType.

  13. In the Name field, type Response, then press Enter.

  14. On the orchestration Design view surface, click the DoorbellReceive action shape.

  15. In the Properties window, in the drop-down list for Message, select DoorbellInputMessage.

  16. On the orchestration Design view surface, click the DoorbellSend shape.

  17. In the Properties window, in the drop-down list for Message, select DoorbellFinalMessage.

  18. Click the green handle in the SOAPReceivePort and drag it to the green handle on the DoorbellReceive receive shape to connect the SOAPReceivePort to the DoorbellReceive receive shape.

  19. Click the green handle in the DoorbellSend shape and drag it to the green handle on the MLLPSendPort port to connect the DoorbellSend send shape to the MLLPSendPort port.

  20. Click the Solution Explorer tab under the Orchestration View.

  21. In Solution Explorer, right-click BTAHL7V22Common, and then click Build. Ensure that a success message appears in the output window.

    Note

    If no success message appears, troubleshoot the solution.

  22. Right-click BTAHL7 Project, and click Deploy to deploy the BTAHL7 project.

    Proceed to Step 14: Publish the Orchestration as a Web Service.

See Also

Message Enrichment Tutorial