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Dynamic Design-Time Adapter Configuration

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There are situations where static design-time adapter configuration and the standard default UI in the Add Adapter Metadata Wizard is not flexible enough to display an adapter's services for a BizTalk project to import. Alternatively, you can use dynamic design-time configuration, where you provide a customized UI to the wizard to display and select your adapter's services. The BizTalk Adapter Framework provides a set of APIs that you can use to import the required schemas for the adapter and to display the custom UI.

This section explains how to implement dynamic design-time configuration capability for your custom adapter. The changes you decide to make will be based on the needs of the applications with which the adapter communicates and the logic that the adapter needs to implement. Links to sections of BizTalk Server Help that describe these steps in more detail or provide additional background are provided when available. Additionally it calls out the places in the sample file adapter documentation that provide relevant examples.

Guidelines for the Dynamic Development Process

The following list provides recommendations for building dynamic design-time functionality into your adapter. During development you may not need to do all of these steps nor execute them in a rigid sequence.

  1. Create a list of adapter configuration requirements and configuration parameters that you need to set. If the parameters are globally used for all receive locations and send ports, specify them in the handler schema configuration file. If they are port or location specific, configure them in the send port and receive location configuration files.

  2. Modify the adapter property pages to account for any new configuration parameters. For information about this step, see Adapter Configuration Schemas.

  3. Create a custom user interface (UI) for the Add Adapter Metadata Wizard to select the schema to add to the project. Of all the recommendations listed here only this differentiates a dynamic from a static adapter. For more information about this step, see Dynamic Adapter DisplayUI Method and the class Microsoft.BizTalk.Adapter.Framework.IDynamicAdapterConfig.DisplayUI.

  4. Modify the sample code to return schemas as Web Services Description Language (WSDL) files. For more information about this step, see Static Adapter IStaticAdapterConfig Interface.

  5. Modify the existing WSDL files or create new WSDL files. For more information about this step, see Adapter WSDL Files.

  6. Modify the sample code to return additional XSD files needed by the adapter that are not included in the WSDL files. For more information about this step, see Adapter GetSchema Method.

  7. Modify the adapter registry keys and run the adapter registry file. For more information about this step, see Adapter Registration File.

  8. Install the static adapter into BizTalk Server. For more information about this step, see Install the Adapter into BizTalk Server.

  9. Test the changes made to the adapter property pages. Rebuild the adapter to test the UI that appears in the Add Adapter Metadata Wizard. For more information about this step, see Build and Test the Adapter Project

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