Using Ports in Orchestrations

Ports specify how your orchestration will send messages to and receive messages from other business processes. Each port has a type, a direction, and a binding, which together determine the direction of communication, the pattern of communication, the location to or from which the message is sent or received, and how the communication takes place.

Note

There is a distinction between a port and a port type. A port is an instance of a port type; several different ports may have the same port type.

Depending on these factors, a port may have associated with it a URI (a physical location), a transport (either FILE, HTTP, SOAP, SMTP or BizTalk Message Queuing), a send pipeline to prepare a message for sending (for example, by assembling, encrypting, compressing, or performing some other action on it), and a receive pipeline to prepare a received message for processing (for example, by disassembling, decrypting, or decompressing it).

You add ports to an orchestration in much the same way that you add controls to a Web Form or Windows Form. You can also add ports by using the Orchestration View window.

In This Section

• Communication Pattern

• Communication Direction

• Port Bindings

• How to Use Ports in Orchestrations

• How to Work with Port Types

• How to Run the Port Configuration Wizard

• Working with Direct Bound Ports in Orchestrations

See Also

How to Run the Port Configuration Wizard
Using Role Links in Orchestrations