Table of Contents

Introduction

It is somewhat intimidating to know where to turn for training as a new BizTalk Developer or Administrator. This article and it's accompanying article for Administrator Training is designed to answer the question: Where do I start to learn about BizTalk Server?

I would like to begin to highlight two article on this subject:

 



And without any doubt that Microsoft BizTalk Server site and BizTalk Server Developer Center are good starting points.



This guide describes a list of essential resources to help you plan start learning BizTalk Server.

BizTalk Server Virtual Labs

Microsoft Virtual Labs take you through a series of guided, hands-on labs. Each lab is estimated to be of duration 90 minutes.

BizTalk Server 2010 Virtual Labs

BizTalk Server 2010 it's build in the technologies found in previous versions, so many of the labs below will help you learn skills that apply also to BizTalk Server 2010.

BizTalk Server 2009 Virtual Labs

BizTalk Server 2006 and 2006 R2 Virtual labs

VHD Virtual Machine

BizTalk 2010 VHD Virtual Machine

Download this fully configured virtual machine of the latest release of BizTalk Server. Evaluate the new capabilities of BizTalk Server 2010 by completing the BizTalk Server 2010 Training Kit which is preinstalled on this VHD. The BizTalk Server 2010 training kit includes labs and training videos to help you learn about the new features of BizTalk Server 2010.

  • Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 VHD: This download comes as a pre-configured VHD. This download enables you evaluate Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010. [Release Date: 5/4/2011]
    • System requirements
      • Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008 R2
      • Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 Hyper-V Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V is required to use this virtual machine
      • In addition to the system requirements for Windows Server 2008 as described in the release notes, a 64-bit system with hardware-assisted virtualization enabled and data execution prevention (DEP) is required.

Developer Training Kit

Training Kit contains a complete set of materials that will enable you to learn the core capabilities of the technology or role that you will play:

  • BizTalk Server 2010 Developer Training Kit: The BizTalk Developer Training Kit contains a complete set of materials that will enable you to learn the core developer capabilities in BizTalk Server. This kit includes lab manuals, PowerPoint presentations and videos, all designed to help you learn about BizTalk Server 2010. [Release Date: 7/18/2011]
  • BizTalk Server 2010 ESB Training Kit: This training kit contains a complete set of materials that will enable you to learn about the ESB Toolkit in BizTalk Server 2010. This kit includes lab manuals, PowerPoint presentations and videos, all designed to help you learn about the ESB Toolkit. There is also an option below to download a Virtual Machine that is ready for you to use with the training kit. [Release Date: 8/20/2011]

Visual Studio Extensions

Project Wizards

  • BizTalk MapperExtensions Functoid Wizard: BizTalk MapperExtensions Functoid Wizard is a Custom Functoid Project Wizard for Visual Studio 2010. It allows you to create new Functoids project for BizTalk Server 2010 without having to create manually the project, in other words, having to manually create: A new class library project in Visual Studio 2010; Add a reference to the Microsoft.BizTalk.BaseFunctoids assembly and Add New Class and having to code the entire class. This Wizard will do this process automatically, and used in conjunction with Item Template for Visual Studio 2010: Custom BizTalk Functoid will facilitate and significantly expedite the development process of our projects.
  • BizTalk 2009 Custom Functoid Wizard: Project Wizard for Visual Studio 2008. It allows you to create new Functoids project for BizTalk Server 2009.
  • BizTalk Server Pipeline Component Wizard: A project meant to ease to development of pipeline components used within a BizTalk Server environment. Supports both C# and VB.NET

Class Templates

  • Item Template for Visual Studio 2010: Custom BizTalk Functoid: The New Functoid Class item template for Visual Studio 2010 allows you to create new Functoids for BizTalk Server 2010 without having to code the entire class and therefore allowing you to focus on what really matters, the functoid behavior.

Others

Toolkit's and SDK's

Toolkits

  • Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 ESB Toolkit: The Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 ESB Toolkit provides architectural guidance, patterns and practices, and a collection of BizTalk Server and .NET Framework components to simplify the development of enterprise-scale solutions on the Microsoft platform.
  • Microsoft ESB Guidance for BizTalk Server 2006 R2: The Microsoft ESB Guidance provides architectural guidance, patterns, practices, and a set of BizTalk Server R2 and .NET components to simplify the development of an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) on the Microsoft platform and to allow Microsoft customers to extend their own messaging and integration solutions.
  • BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0: The Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 provides architectural guidance, patterns and practices, and a collection of BizTalk Server and .NET Framework components to simplify the development of enterprise-scale solutions on the Microsoft platform.

SDK's

  • WCF LOB Adapter SDK 2010: The Microsoft© Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Line-of-Business (LOB) Adapter SDK provides for a simplified programming model on top of the WCF Channel Model by adding metadata browsing, searching and retrieving functionality, and development tools for generating and testing adapter code.
  • WCF LOB Adapter SDK: The Microsoft© Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Line-of-Business (LOB) Adapter SDK provides for a simplified programming model on top of the WCF Channel Model by adding metadata browsing, searching and retrieving functionality, and development tools for generating and testing adapter code.
  • WCF LOB Adapter SDK SP2: The Microsoft© Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Line-of-Business (LOB) Adapter SDK provides for a simplified programming model on top of the WCF Channel Model by adding metadata browsing, searching and retrieving functionality, and development tools for generating and testing adapter code.
  • BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Extensions For Windows Workflow Foundation SDK V1: The BizTalk Server extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation provide an SDK toolkit for developers building workflows in Windows Workflow Foundation to host these workflows in BizTalk Server 2006. This makes use of the functionality provided by BizTalk Server for orchestration. This SDK sample is unsupported by Microsoft Customer Support Services. 
  • BizTalk Server 2004 SDK Refresh: This BizTalk Server 2004 SDK Refresh contains updates and additions to the BizTalk Server 2004 SDK.

BizTalk Server Tutorials

The BizTalk Server tutorials contain detailed steps for implementing simple scenarios. These tutorials give new users an experience of using a variety of BizTalk tools while creating compiled, testable solutions.

BizTalk Server 2010 Tutorials

BizTalk Server 2009 Tutorials

  • BizTalk Server 2009 Tutorials: The BizTalk Server 2009 tutorials contain detailed steps for implementing simple scenarios. These tutorials give new users an experience of using a variety of BizTalk tools while creating compiled, testable solutions.
  • BizTalk Server RFI 2009 Tutorials: The BizTalk RFID tutorials contain detailed steps for implementing simple scenarios to give new users an experience of using a variety of BizTalk RFID tools and APIs while creating compiled, testable solutions.

BizTalk Server 2006/2006 R2 Tutorials

  • BizTalk Server 2006 Tutorials: The BizTalk Server 2006 tutorials contain detailed steps for implementing simple scenarios to give new users an experience of using a variety of BizTalk tools while creating compiled, testable solutions.
  • BizTalk RFID Tutorials: The BizTalk RFID tutorials contain detailed steps for implementing simple scenarios to give new users an experience of using a variety of BizTalk RFID tools and APIs while creating compiled, testable solutions.

BizTalk Server 2004 Tutorials

  • BizTalk Server 2004 Tutorials: The tutorials explain how to automate business processes within your company and among business partners, how to use Web services, and how to implement trading partner management and monitor business activities.

Other Tutorials

  • BizTalk Gurus: This is the top level group for Microsoft BizTalk Server. Find information on BizTalk 2004 to current release here including blogs, sample code, videos, and forums
  • BizTalk 2006 R2 University, that contain 17 BizTalk tutorials by Jeff Barnes
  • BizTalk 24*7 – Tutorials: Community Website for Biztalk Developers/Architects/Adminstrators.

BizTalk Server Labs and Code Samples

Microsoft Code Gallery

The MSDN Code Gallery  enables you to download and share sample applications, code snippets, and other resources with the developer community. You can find a plethora of all kinds of sample applications, and so on different technologies ranging from general c# to advanced solutions like Service Bus Explorer. For BizTalk Server you can find over 20 sample solutions, and code.

Feel free to download, rate them and leave feedback. If you have inspiration to create a sample or have lying around you can upload   your sample easily.

BizTalk Server 2010 Samples

BizTalk Server 2009 Samples

BizTalk Server 2006/2006 R2 Samples

Other sources

  • BizTalk 24*7 – Samples: There is a healthy open source community around BizTalk server which helps to fill the gap in the product. Here you'll see majority of the popular open source projects related to BizTalk hosted in CodePlex.
  • BizTalk Gurus – Samples: This is the top level group for Microsoft BizTalk Server. Find information on BizTalk 2004 to current release here including blogs, sample code, videos, and forums.
  • CodeProject - Samples: List of BizTalk project available on CodeProject.
  • CodePlex - Samples: There is a healthy open source community around BizTalk server which helps to fill the gap in the product. Here you'll see majority of the popular open source projects related to BizTalk hosted in CodePlex.

Community BizTalk Artefacts

There are a number of open source adapters that can aid you as BizTalk developer. These adapters are not the out of the box offered by BizTalk Server: BizTalk Server Adapter pack (that provides connectivity to SAP, Siebel, SQL and many more):

There are a number of open source functoids that can aid you as BizTalk developer. These functoids are not the out of the box offered by BizTalk Server:

There are a number of open source pipelines components that can aid you as BizTalk developer. These pipelines componentsre not the out of the box offered by BizTalk Server:

BizTalk Server Documentation

BizTalk Server 2013 Documentation

  • Installation Guides Related to BizTalk Server 2013 – Beta: This page provides the installation guides for various products shipped with BizTalk Server 2013 - Beta.

BizTalk Server 2010 Documentation

  • BizTalk Server 2010 Documentation: Download the installation documentation for BizTalk Server 2010
  • Microsoft BizTalk Adapter Pack 2010 Documentation: Download the documentation for Microsoft BizTalk Adapter Pack 2010
  • Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 Technical Overview: This technical overview provides you with a guided tour of BizTalk Server 2010.
  • Introducing BizTalk Server 2010: Get an overview of BizTalk Server 2010, and see how it can address your business needs.

BizTalk Server 2009 Documentation

  • BizTalk Server 2009 Documentation: Download the installation documentation for BizTalk Server 2009 in two formats: CHM and HXS
  • Microsoft BizTalk RFID 2009 Installation Guides: Download the installation instructions for BizTalk RFID.
  • Microsoft BizTalk Adapter Pack 2.0 Installation Guide: Download the latest installation instructions for the BizTalk Adapter Pack 2.0.
  • Microsoft BizTalk Server Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0: The Microsoft® BizTalk® Server Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 4.0 enables integration between Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and other business applications.

BizTalk Server 2006/2006 R2 Documentation

BizTalk Webcasts and Video Tutorials

The BizTalk Server tutorials contain detailed steps for implementing simple scenarios. These tutorials give new users an experience of using a variety of BizTalk tools while creating:

  • BizTalk Server 2013: The new cloud related adapters: BizTalk 2013 will feature some new adapters, the WCF-BasicHttpRelay, WCF-NetTcpRelay, SB-Messaging and WCF-WebHttp. The first three have capabilities to configure connectivity with the Windows Azure Service Bus. This will enable you to create solutions that will enable communication between systems and applications across network boundaries. In this talk you will see the full potential of these adapters in various scenarios. [by Steef-Jan Wiggers] New!
  • BizTalk Assessment and Architecture Review: Making a good BizTalk assessment and architecture review is a not a simple thing. BizTalk Server needs many different technologies in order to run. There are many aspects to be considered and many things to inspect in order to make a complete BizTalk architecture review. Nino Crudele explains with full of fun and humour in this 45 mins talk. [by Nino Crudele] New!
  • What's new in BizTalk 2013, Windows 2012, and SQL 2012: For BizTalk Administrators and Developers it’s important to stay ahead of new releases and be aware of what’s happening? BizTalk Server 2013 will be out soon and the new improved features in SQL and windows Server 2012 is important to be aware of. There have been major updates in Fail over clustering, DNS, Group Policy and Hyper-V and Networking. In video Tord will guide you through the updates and features so you are ready to initiate and start using BizTalk Server 2013. [by Tord Glad Nordahl] New!
  • BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0: Dynamic Messaging: The BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0: Dynamic Messaging video demonstrates BizTalk Server and BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 in a process that uses dynamic messaging. It also shows how to use Microsoft Office SharePoint Server to provide human intervention into a process, and demonstrates BizTalk’s Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) capabilities.

BizTalk Server Community Webcasts

BizTalk Server Developer Center

  • BizTalk Webcasts: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/biztalk/aa937645.aspx
  • BizTalk Server Videos: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/biztalk/dd849956
    • EAI Tutorial 1: Before You Begin the Tutorial: This is the first video out of the four-video BizTalk Server Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) tutorial presentation. This video presents a simple EAI scenario to explain the basic functionalities of BizTalk Server 2010 and the process of developing a BizTalk Server solution. The remaining four videos of this series will build upon the scenario described in this tutorial. [by Microsoft]
    • EAI Tutorial 2: Define Schemas and a Map: This is the second video of the BizTalk Server 2010 EAI tutorial. In the first video, we reviewed a simple EAI scenario, and prepared for creating a BizTalk Server EAI solution. In this presentation, we will create two schemas and a map that are needed for the orchestration. [by Microsoft]
    • EAI Tutorial 3: Define the Business Process: This is the third video of the BizTalk Server 2010 EAI tutorial. In the last video, we created two schemas and a map that are needed by the orchestration that we will create in this video. This video demonstrates how to add a new project to the solution for hosting the new orchestration.  [by Microsoft]
    • EAI Tutorial 4: Deploy the Solution: This is the fourth video of the BizTalk Server 2010 EAI tutorial. In the last two videos, we created a BizTalk project with two schemas and a map, and another BizTalk project with an orchestration. This video demonstrates how to deploy, configure, and test the solution. [by Microsoft]
    • EDI Tutorial 1: Before You Begin the Tutorial: This is the first video out of the five-video BizTalk Server Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) tutorial presentation. This video presents a simple EDI scenario to explain how BizTalk Server 2010 supports exchanging EDI messages and the process of developing a BizTalk Server EDI solution. The remaining four videos of this series will build upon the scenario described in this tutorial. [by Microsoft]
    • EDI Tutorial 2: Create Trading Partners and Business Profiles: CreateTradingPartnersandBusinessProfiles – This is the second video of the BizTalk Server 2010 EDI tutorial. In the first video, we reviewed a simple EDI scenario, and prepared for creating a BizTalk Server EDI solution. This video demonstrates how to create trading partners and business profiles. [by Microsoft]
    • EDI Tutorial 3: Create Send and Receive Ports: This is the third video of the BizTalk Server 2010 EDI tutorial. In the last video, we created trading partners and business profiles. This video demonstrates how to create receive ports and send ports required for exchanging messages between the trading partners. [by Microsoft]
    • EDI Tutorial 4: Create Trading Partner Agreement: This is the fourth video of the BizTalk Server 2010 EDI tutorial. In the last video, we created send and receive ports that are used to transfer messages between trading partners. This video demonstrates how to create a trading partner agreement between two business profiles. [by Microsoft]
    • EDI Tutorial 5: Test the Solution: This is the fifth video of the BizTalk Server 2010 EDI tutorial. In the last video, we created the trading partner agreement to process the EDI messages that will be transferred between business profiles. This video demonstrates how to test the EDI solution by sending EDI messages. [by Microsoft]
    • Processing Flat Files: In the Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) tutorial, we developed a BizTalk Server solution that takes an inventory replenishment request in XML format, and processes the request. The tutorial demonstrates how BizTalk Server transports and transforms the messages, and manages the business process. This presentation expands the EAI tutorial to demonstrate another core function of BizTalk Server, which is message translation. We recommend you go through the EAI tutorial before watching this video. In this presentation, we will change the scenario, so that the warehouse system sends the replenishment request in the flat file format in addition to the XML format. [by Microsoft]

BizTalk 24*7

Other Languages

  • BizTalk Mapper: Como funcionam os mapas em BizTalk Server 2010 (pt-PT): Maps or transformations are one of the most common components in the integration processes. They act as essential translators in the decoupling between the different systems to connect. In this video, as we explore the BizTalk Mapper Designer, we will explain its main concepts, covering slightly themes such as product architecture, BizTalk Schemas and some of the most widely used standards in the translation of messages. This video also aims to explain how maps are processed internally by the engine of the product as we explore the map editor BizTalk Server. [by Sandro Pereira]

TechNet Wiki

The TechNet Wiki is a technical resource for the community. Anyone who joins the community can contribute new topics, edit and enhance existing topics, provide comments and friend other registered users.

In the last months almost 50 new articles have been written by community members, this is a great place to find high quality information:

Books

There a great number of BizTalk books present today ranging from BizTalk Server 2000: A Beginner's Guide to BizTalk Server 2010 Patterns. In this article you will find all the books published on BizTalk Server since it's 2004 version and up, including links to reviews and blog posts.

Forums and Blogs

BizTalk Blogs and Groups

This article is intended to be a knowledge base of all BizTalk blog’s that are available.

And Also:

  • BizTalk Blogs: Latest news and opinion from BizTalk experts
  • BizTalk Gurus: Community Site focused on Microsoft BizTalk Server, Server and Platform AppFabric and Windows Workflow Foundation
  • BizTalk 24*7: Community Website for Biztalk Developers/Architects/Adminstrators

Forums

eMagazines

Whitepapers

BizTalk Server Other Topics

  • BizTalk Server Assessment and Architecture Review: This white paper examines the best practices to make a BizTalk assessment and architecture review. This includes how to organize good documentation (for all BizTalk aspects, message flows, transformation, technologies stack, infrastructure, network, adapters, disks, connections, configurations and databases) as well as the correct indicators for the whole BizTalk environment. [by Nino Crudele] New!

BizTalk Server 2010 Whitepapers

  • Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 Technical Overview: This technical overview provides you with a guided tour of BizTalk Server 2010.
  • Instrumentation Best Practices for High Performance BizTalk Solutions: The traditional ways of instrumenting BizTalk solutions may not always be the most effective from a performance standpoint. The commonly used instrumentation and tracing components leveraging the Win32 Debugging APIs may introduce a potential bottleneck and become responsible for performance degradations in multi-threaded BizTalk applications running under stress. From the other side, source code instrumentation delivers a great degree of visibility into the application behavior and helps reduce the overall troubleshooting efforts. Consequently, a fundamentally new approach to instrumenting high performance BizTalk solutions has become crucially important to enable collecting the rich and detailed diagnostic information in a non-intrusive manner with virtually no overhead and no impact on the application performance.
  • Integrating BizTalk Server and nServiceBus: This paper reviews the common integration scenarios between BizTalk Server and nServiceBus, and discusses various approaches to make the products work together.
  • Better Together: Integrating BizTalk Server and StreamInsight: This paper presents a series of architecture models for integrating BizTalk Server and Microsoft StreamInsight.
  • Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 White Paper: Using Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 to Exchange Documents with Microsoft Dynamics AX: This white paper discusses how to integrate BizTalk Server with Microsoft Dynamics AX to exchange service documents.
  • Unleash SAP using the Microsoft Platform: Using BizTalk Server to Bring Two Worlds Together: This document describes how to integrate, automate, and simplify business processes using Microsoft BizTalk Server and SAP.
  • BizTalk Server – Basics principles of maps: Maps or transformations are one of the most common components in the integration processes. They act as essential translators in the decoupling between the different systems to connect. In this article, as we explore the BizTalk Mapper Designer, we will explain its main concepts, covering slightly themes such as product architecture, BizTalk Schemas and some of the mo st widely used standards in the translation of messages. [by Sandro Pereira]
  • BizTalk Server – How maps work: Maps or transformations are one of the most common components in the integration processes. They act as essential translators in the decoupling between the different systems to connect. This article aims to explain how maps are processed internally by the engine of the product as we explore the map editor BizTalk Server. [by Sandro Pereira]

BizTalk Server 2009 Whitepapers

BizTalk Server 2006/2006 R2 Whitepapers

BizTalk Server 2004 Whitepapers

  • Understanding BizTalk Server 2004: This paper discusses the various services, features, and functionality available to developers, IT professionals, and information workers in BizTalk Server 2004, and how each of those users can use BizTalk Server to help solve their business problems.

Posters

Courses

QuickLearn

QuickLearn Training Inc.  Go beyond the Microsoft curriculum with QuickLearn training. Our trainers will help you master the skills necessary to both develop and administrator a robust BizTalk Server environment. In addition to our public classes delivered live from our classrooms in Kirkland Washington, they are offered through partners throughout the world. They are also available for private delivery at your venue. Our public classes can be attended in person or remotely using the latest in virtual classroom technologies.

Our classes are updated frequently to reflect the latest versions and updates to BizTalk Server. Our BizTalk Server 2013 courses include:

QuickLearn also still offers courses for BizTalk Server 2010 including: BizTalk Developer Fundamentals,  Immersion  and Deep Dive.

QuickLearn also offers Expert Series courses which spend 2-3 days focusing on specific BizTalk technologies:

Many BizTalk Server developers also find our Administrator course useful.

We are sure you will love our experienced and passionate instructors.

Plurasight

Plurasight is an online training library providing developers access to an in-depth suite of searchable and browse-able training courses focused on current and emerging Microsoft platform technologies.

See Also

Read suggested related topics:

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.