Send Pipelines

The following figure shows the message processing workflow, highlighting the send pipeline.

Depicts the message processing workflow.

A send pipeline is responsible for processing documents before sending them to their final destinations. The send pipeline takes one message and produces one message to send.

You can create a new send pipeline or you can use one of the two default send pipelines included in BizTalk Server—the pass-through send pipeline and the XML send pipeline.

By default, the send pipeline consists of three empty stages: Pre-assemble, Assemble and Encode. This topic contains design considerations for populating these stages.

Note

A send pipeline can produce zero messages when a consuming component is added to the pipeline.

Pre-assemble stage

• This stage is a placeholder for custom components that should perform some action on the message before the message is serialized.

• This stage is run once per message.

• This stage can contain between zero and 255 components.

• All components in this stage are run.

Assemble stage

• Components in this stage are responsible for assembling or serializing the message and converting it to or from XML.

• This stage accepts zero components or one component.

• All components in this stage are run.

Encode stage

• This stage is used for components that encode or encrypt the message.

  • Place the MIME/SMIME Encoder component or a custom encoding component in this stage if message signing is required.

• This stage is run once per message.

• This stage can contain between zero and 255 components.

• All components in this stage are executed.

See Also

Receive Pipelines
About Pipelines, Stages, and Components
Types of Pipelines
Default Pipelines
Pipeline Templates
Pipeline Components
Types of Pipeline Components