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Introducing BizTalk Server 2010 AppFabric Connect

BizTalk Server 2010 introduces a new feature “AppFabric Connect”, which combines rich proven features of BizTalk Server with the flexible development experience of .NET to allow users to easily develop simple integration applications. This enables users to:

• Develop custom .NET applications that require connectivity to backend Line of Business (LOB) systems like SAP, Oracle database, Oracle E-Business Suite, Siebel, and SQL Server without writing custom code for LOB connectivity.
• Utilize the XML-based data transformation capabilities of the easy to use and rich interface of the BizTalk Server Mapper directly from within a .NET project.

AppFabric Connect uses Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) activities to programmatically access BizTalk Server's LOB connectivity and data transformation capabilities. This enables users to easily create new composite applications using the WF model, which can be deployed, hosted and managed in Windows Server AppFabric. AppFabric Connect also accommodates a class of scenarios (such as Web-based queries) that can utilize BizTalk Server 2010 functionality from a WF application hosted in IIS rather than from a BizTalk Server application running in a BizTalk Server host instance. This provides flexibility for WF developers that may not want or need other BizTalk Server functionality and also maximizes the use of available resources at runtime; the overhead required to run WF applications hosted in IIS is significantly less than the overhead required to run applications hosted in the BizTalk Server runtime.

More Information

• Installing the AppFabric Connect feature - For information about installing the BizTalk Server 2010 AppFabric Connect feature, please see Installing the BizTalk Server 2010 AppFabric Connect feature (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/installing-the-biztalk-server-2010-appfabric-connect-feature.aspx).

• BizTalk Server 2010 AppFabric Connect feature Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - For information about known issues, troubleshooting, and frequently asked questions about the AppFabric Connect feature, please see BizTalk Server 2010 AppFabric Connect feature Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/biztalk-server-2010-appfabric-connect-feature-frequently-asked-questions-faq.aspx).

• Walkthrough of the AppFabric Connect feature - For information about how to utilize functionality provided by the AppFabric Connect feature from a Visual Studio 2010 WCF Workflow Service Application, please see BizTalk + WF/WCF, Better Together (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/biztalk-wf-wcf-better-together.aspx). This walkthrough demonstrates how Workflow developers can now access BizTalk Mapper functionality to implement document transformations and complete WCF LOB connectivity without having to first configure a BizTalk Server environment.

Other languages

This article is available in the following languages

• Norwegian: Work with BizTalk AppFabric Connect (nb-NO)

See Also

Another important place to find a huge amount of BizTalk related articles is the TechNet Wiki itself. The best entry point is BizTalk Server Resources on the TechNet Wiki