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ExpenseReportSubmission

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The ExpenseReportSubmission sample demonstrates how to submit a document to a BizTalk Server orchestration from a rich client such as Microsoft Excel.

Rich clients enable you to perform a number of actions, such as data validation and preliminary calculations, on the client. This helps to minimize interactions with the back-end server, which can be useful when only low bandwidth connections are available.

Prerequisites

You must ensure that your development environment is configured and enabled to work with BizTalk Server Web services. For more information, see Enabling Web Services.

What This Sample Does

This sample shows how you can submit an expense report to BizTalk Server directly from Excel, using the following sequence of steps:

  1. The user performs the manual sample steps provided in the Excel spreadsheet.

  2. Macro code in the spreadsheet converts the spreadsheet data to Extensible Markup Language (XML) format, and submits the XML message to BizTalk Server using an HTTP connection.

  3. The computer running BizTalk Server retrieves the XML expense report message, validates its format using the provided schema, and then drops it into a different folder.

  4. In practice, beyond the scope of this sample, another application such as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system would then retrieve the spreadsheet file for further processing.

Where to Find This Sample

<Samples Path>\AdaptersUsage\ExpenseReportSubmission\

The following table shows the files in this sample and describes their purpose.

File(s) Description
Cleanup.bat Undeploys assemblies and removes them from the global assembly cache (GAC); removes send and receive ports; removes Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) virtual directories as needed.
ExpenseReport.15.3.xls Excel spreadsheet with the expense report layout, associated macros, and buttons to invoke the macros.
MessageExample.xml Example of the XML expense report format.
Setup.bat Builds and initializes this sample.
In the \BTSExpenseDemo folder:

AssemblyInfo.cs,

BTSExpenseDemo.btproj,

BTSExpenseDemo.sln		 Provides project, solution, and related files for this sample.
In the \BTSExpenseDemo folder:

BTSExpenseDemoBinding.xml		 Used for automated setup, such as port binding.
In the \BTSExpenseDemo folder:

BTSExpenseOrchestration.odx		 Provides a BizTalk Server orchestration for this sample.
In the \BTSExpenseDemo folder:

SchemaExpenseReport.xsd		 Provides a schema for the XML expense report format.

To build and initialize this sample

  1. In a command window, navigate to the following folder:

    <Samples Path>\AdaptersUsage\ExpenseReportSubmission

  2. Run the file Setup.bat, which performs the following actions:

    • Compiles the Microsoft Visual Studio project for this sample, and deploys the resulting assembly.

    • Creates and binds the BizTalk Server send and receive ports.

      Note

      This sample displays the following warnings when creating and binding the ports:

      Warning: Receive handler not specified for receive location "BTSExpenseReceiveLocation"; updating with first receive handler with matching transport type.

      Warning: Host not specified for orchestration "Microsoft.Samples.BizTalk.BTSExpenseDemo.BTSOrchestration"; updating with first available host.

      You can safely ignore these warnings. (To accommodate for possible naming differences in user installations, the host name and receive handler have been omitted from the binding file.)

    • Enables the receive location, and starts the send port.

    • Configures IIS.

    • Binds and starts the BizTalk Server orchestration.

    • Sets the HTTP address to the location expected by the Excel spreadsheet.

    Note

    For more information about the BizTalk ISAPI filter, see How to Configure IIS for an HTTP Receive Location.

    Note

    You should confirm that BizTalk Server did not report any errors during the build and initialization process before attempting to run this sample.

    Note

    If you choose to open and build the project in this sample without running the file Setup.bat, you must first create a strong name key pair using the .NET Framework Strong Name Utility (sn.exe). Use this key pair to sign the resulting assembly.

    Note

    To undo changes made by Setup.bat, run Cleanup.bat. You must run Cleanup.bat before running Setup.bat a second time.

  3. The setup.bat file configures the virtual directory for this sample to run in the IIS application pool associated with the default web site. To configure the virtual directory for this sample to run under the context of a user in the BizTalk Isolated Host Users and IIS_WPG user groups, you should configure the virtual directory to run in a new IIS application pool. Configure the virtual directory to run in a new IIS application pool by completing the following steps:

    Note

    If you have already created a new application pool for another SDK sample then you can proceed to the last bullet item below.

    1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

    2. In the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, navigate to the Application Pools folder.

    3. Right-click the Application Pools folder and click New, Application Pool...

    4. Enter a name for the Application Pool ID: such as BizTalkSDKSamples, verify that the Use default settings for new application pool option is selected and click OK to create the new application pool.

    5. Right-click the new application pool and then click Properties.

    6. Click the Identity tab of the properties dialog box and change the identity under which this application pool runs to a user that is a member of the BizTalk Isolated Host Users user group. This user should also be a member of the local IIS_WPG user group.

    7. Configure the virtual directory for this SDK sample to run under the new application pool. The Application pool: setting is available on the Virtual Directory tab of the Virtual Directory properties dialog box. The virtual directory created for this sample is ExpenseReportSubmission.

  4. Add a web service extension to IIS for HTTPReceive.dll

    1. In the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, navigate to the Web Service Extensions folder.

    2. Right-click the Web Service Extensions folder and select Add a new Web service extension to display the New Web Service Extension dialog box.

    3. Enter ExpenseReportSubmission for Extension name:

    4. Click Add to display the Add file dialog box.

    5. Click Browse to display the Open dialog box and navigate to <BizTalk Server Installation folder>\HttpReceive\BTSHTTPReceive.dll and click Open, then click OK.

    6. Enable the option to Set extension status to Allowed and click OK.

Running This Sample

Use the following procedure to run the ExpenseReportSubmission sample.

Note

If you are using the enhanced security features of Microsoft Excel, the macros in the spreadsheet may be disabled. Follow the instructions provided by Excel about how to run unsigned macros from a trusted source.

To run this sample

  1. Open the Excel file ExpenseReport.15.3.xls included with this sample.

  2. Optionally, change the sample data in the spreadsheet without changing its format.

  3. In the spreadsheet, click Start to perform local calculations.

    The text of the button changes from Start to Submit.

  4. In the spreadsheet, click Submit.

  5. Observe the text of the submitted message, the result above the table with yellow background (cell C7), and the actual return code and text description below and to the right (cell G23).

    If submission fails, try again. Also, refer to the troubleshooting table in the Comments section.

Comments

Scenarios such as this can occur when, for example, a field sales force is equipped with older versions of Microsoft Windows that do not support the .NET Framework, and for which the requirement to upgrade to a more current version of Windows is not a viable option.

Essential features demonstrated in this sample are:

  • Submission from a rich client (not .NET-based)

  • Microsoft Office integration

  • HTTP receive connections

  • Simple orchestration

  • File adapter

    The following table shows some possible submission errors and their solutions.

HTTP error code Possible action
401 Unauthorized Enable anonymous access on the virtual directory.
503 Service Unavailable, and most other HTTP codes in the 400 and 500 ranges Ensure that the host runs and that the service is deployed, bound to the correct port, and started.

See Also

Adapter Samples - Usage