BizTalk Cross Reference Data Management Strategy
- by charlie.mott
Article Source: http://geekswithblogs.net/charliemott
This article describes an approach to the management of cross reference data for BizTalk. Some articles about the BizTalk Cross Referencing features can be found here:
http://home.comcast.net/~sdwoodgate/xrefseed.zip
http://geekswithblogs.net/michaelstephenson/archive/2006/12/24/101995.aspx
http://geekswithblogs.net/charliemott/archive/2009/04/20/value-vs.id-cross-referencing-in-biztalk.aspx
Options
Current options to managing this data include:
Maintaining xml files in the format that can be used by the out-of-the-box BTSXRefImport.exe utility.
Use of user interfaces that have been developed to manage this data:
BizTalk Cross Referencing Tool
XRef XML Creation Tool
However, there are the following issues with the above options:
The 'BizTalk Cross Referencing Tool' requires a separate database to manage. The 'XRef XML Creation' tool has no means of persisting the data settings.
The 'BizTalk Cross Referencing tool' generates integers in the common id field. I prefer to use a string (e.g. acme.country.uk). This is more readable. (see naming conventions below).
Both UI tools continue to use BTSXRefImport.exe. This utility replaces all xref data. This can be a problem in continuous integration environments that support multiple clients or BizTalk target instances. If you upload the data for one client it would destroy the data for another client. Yet in TFS where builds run concurrently, this would break unit tests.
Alternative Approach
In response to these issues, I instead use simple SQL scripts to directly populate the BizTalkMgmtDb xref tables combined with a data namepacing strategy to isolate client data.
Naming Conventions
All data keys use namespace prefixing. The pattern will be <companyName>.<data Type>. The naming conventions will be to use lower casing for all items. The data must follow this pattern to isolate it from other company cross-reference data. The table below shows some sample data. (Note: this data uses the 'ID' cross-reference tables. the same principles apply for the 'value' cross-referencing tables).
Table.Field
Description
Sample Data
xref_AppType.appType
Application Types
acme.erp
acme.portal
acme.assetmanagement
xref_AppInstance.appInstance
Application Instances
(each will have a corresponding application type).
acme.dynamics.ax
acme.dynamics.crm
acme.sharepoint
acme.maximo
xref_IDXRef.idXRef
Holds the cross reference data types.
acme.taxcode
acme.country
xref_IDXRefData.CommonID
Holds each cross reference type value used by the canonical schemas.
acme.vatcode.exmpt
acme.vatcode.std
acme.country.usa
acme.country.uk
xref_IDXRefData.AppID
This holds the value for each application instance and each xref type.
GBP
USD
SQL Scripts
The data to be stored in the BizTalkMgmtDb xref tables will be managed by SQL scripts stored in a database project in the visual studio solution.
File(s)
Description
Build.cmd
A sqlcmd script to deploy data by running the SQL scripts below. (This can be run as part of the MSBuild process).
acme.purgexref.sql
SQL script to clear acme.* data from the xref tables. As such, this will not impact data for any other company.
acme.applicationInstances.sql
SQL script to insert application type and application instance data.
acme.vatcode.sql
acme.country.sql
etc ...
There will be a separate SQL script to insert each cross-reference data type and application specific values for these types.
