Adapters

This section contains comprehensive information about adapters. It describes how adapters
are used in Microsoft BizTalk Server and how to configure adapter handlers, send ports, and
receive locations for each adapter. It provides batching support information to help you
understand and use the native adapters in your BizTalk solution.

In This Section
1. Adapters in BizTalk Server
2. Dynamic Send Port Handler is Configurable
3. Security Considerations for Adapters
4. SB-Messaging Adapter
5. File Adapter
6. FTP Adapter
7. SFTP Adapter
8. HTTP Adapter
9. JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Adapter
10. JD Edwards OneWorld Adapter
11. Oracle E-Business Suite ODBC Adapter
12. Oracle Database ODBC Adapter
13. PeopleSoft Enterprise Adapter
14. Siebel eBusiness Applications Adapter
15. TIBCO Enterprise Message Service Adapter
16. TIBCO Rendezvous Adapter
17. MQSeries Adapter
18. MSMQ Adapter
19. POP3 Adapter
20. SAP Adapter
21. SMTP Adapter
22. SOAP Adapter
23. SQL Adapter
24. Windows SharePoint Services Adapter
25. WCF Adapters
26. Creating and Deleting Adapter Handlers
27. Configuration Parameters that Affect Adapter Performance
28. Troubleshooting BizTalk Server Adapters
29. Additional Adapter Information

1. Adapters in BizTalk Server

One of the primary design goals of BizTalk Server is to facilitate the exchange of business
documents between trading partners. To help meet this goal, BizTalk Server includes several
adapters that provide connectivity between BizTalk Server and trading partners using
commonly recognized data protocols and document formats. This topic discusses what an
adapter is and why you use an adapter.
What Is an Adapter?
An adapter is a software component that enables you to easily send messages out of or
receive messages into BizTalk Server with a delivery mechanism that conforms to a
commonly recognized standard, such as SMTP, POP3, FTP, or Microsoft Message Queuing
(MSMQ). As Microsoft BizTalk Server has evolved, the need for adapters that quickly enable
connectivity with commonly used applications and technologies has increased.

BizTalk Server includes the following adapters, which are referred to as the "native" or
"integrated" adapters: FILE, FTP, HTTP, MQSeries, MSMQ, POP3, SMTP, SOAP,
Windows Sharepoint Services, and the seven WCF adapters (WCF-WSHttp, WCF-BasicHttp,
WCF-NetTcp, WCF-NetMsmq, WCF-NetNamedPipe, WCF-Custom, and WCF-
CustomIsolated). Native adapters are installed with BizTalk Server. You can also create
custom adapters for your specific solutions by using the BizTalk Adapter Framework.

Each of the native adapters is associated with a receive location designed to listen for
messages from a certain transport at a certain address. After the message is received by the
receive location, it is passed to the adapter. The adapter attaches the data stream to the
message (typically in the body part of the message), adds any metadata pertaining to the
endpoint that the data was received from, and then submits that message into the BizTalk
Messaging Engine.

By default, when you run the BizTalk Configuration Wizard, the wizard installs the native
adapters and creates an adapter handler with a default configuration for each one.

Using the BizTalk Server Administration console, you can modify the default configuration
for the adapter handlers as well as add, remove, and modify send ports and receive locations
for the adapters. For more information about these processes, see the appropriate topics in
See Also.

Why Use an Adapter?

Using adapters greatly simplifies the transfer of messages into or out of BizTalk Server. If
your existing infrastructure uses any of the transports for which there is a corresponding
BizTalk adapter, then the process of sending messages to or receiving messages from BizTalk
Server is as simple as configuring the appropriate adapter to send or receive messages with
the corresponding transport mechanism.

Summary of Functionality Supported by BizTalk Native

Adapters
The following table lists the primary benefit of each native adapter and whether the adapter
provides the following features:

 Transaction support. The ability to send and receive documents under the context of a
distributed transaction coordinator (DTC) transaction. This functionality is required for
maintaining ordered message delivery and to guarantee that documents are not duplicated
or lost.
  Two-way communication support (Request/Response or Solicit/Response). The ability to
send a document and process a response message from the destination or to receive a
document and send a response message to the source.

 In-order receive support. The ability to publish received documents to the BizTalk
MessageBox database in the exact order that the documents were received.

 SSO enabled. The ability to use SSO authentication when sending or receiving documents
with the adapter.

 Hosting process The process in which the adapter executes. BizTalk IP executes within the
BTSNTSvc.exe process, while IIS OOP run outside the BizTalk Server process in the Internet
Information Server (IIS) process.

 
Adapter Primary benefit Transaction Two-way In- SSO Hosting
support communication order enable process
support receive d
support
File Easy to use. No No No No BizTal
k IP
FTP Is widely used No No No Yes BizTal
for business- k IP
to-business
communicatio
ns.
HTTP(s) Is widely used No Request/Respon No Yes IIS
for business- se and OOP
to-business Solicit/Respons
communicatio e
ns.
SOAP Supports the No Request/Respon No Yes IIS
use of Web se and OOP
services. Solicit/Respons
e
MSMQ Supports Yes No Yes No BizTal
guaranteed k IP
once-only
delivery of
messages
between
BizTalk Server
and Microsoft
Message
Queuing.
MQ Series Supports Yes No Yes Yes BizTal
guaranteed k IP
once-only
delivery of
messages
between
 BizTalk Server
and IBM
WebSphere
MQ for
Windows
platforms.
Windows Enables the No No No No BizTal
SharePoint exchange of k IP
Services XML and
binary
messages
between
BizTalk Server
and SharePoint
document
libraries.
POP3 Supports No No No No BizTal
receiving k IP
documents
through e-mail.
SMTP Supports No No No No BizTal
sending k IP
documents
through e-mail.
Custom Supports your Yes, Yes, requires Yes, Yes, BizTal
system. requires custom code. require require k IP
custom s s
code. custom custom
code. code.
WCF- Supports WS-* Yes, Request/Respon No Yes IIS
WSHttp standards over transactions se and OOP
the HTTP are Solicit/Respons
transport. supported e
on
WsHTTP
(only WS-
Transaction
s)
WCF- Communicates No Request/Respon No Yes IIS
BasicHttp with ASMX- se and OOP
based Web Solicit/Respons
services and e
clients and
other services
that conform to
the WS-I Basic
Profile 1.1
using HTTP or
HTTPS.
WCF-NetTcp Supports WS-* Yes Request/Respon No Yes BizTal
 standards over se and k IP
the TCP Solicit/Respons
transport. e
WCF- Supports Yes No Yes Yes BizTal
NetMsmq queuing by k IP
leveraging
Microsoft
Message
Queuing
(MSMQ) as a
transport.
WCF- Provides a fast Yes Request/Respon No Yes BizTal
NetNamedPi transport for se and k IP
pe cross-process Solicit/Respons
communicatio e
n on the same
machine ( only
for WCF
apps).
WCF-Custom Enables the Yes. Yes. Yes, as Yes. BizTal
use of WCF long as k IP
extensibility the
features. bindin
g
support
s it.
WCF- Enables the Yes. Yes. No. Yes. IIS
CustomIsolat use of WCF OOP
ed extensibility
features over
the HTTP
transport.

Line of Business Adapters

Following is a list of the Line of Business (LOB) adapters provided by Microsoft.

 
Adapter Description Supported Versions
PeopleSoft Enables exchange of Component Interface (CI) Supported Line-of-
Enterprise messages between BizTalk Server and a Business (LOB) and
PeopleSoft system. Enterprise systems
JD Edwards Enables exchange of Business Function messages Supported Line-of-
OneWorld XE between BizTalk Server and a JD Edwards Business (LOB) and
OneWorld system. Enterprise systems
JD Edwards Enables exchange of Business Function messages Supported Line-of-
EnterpriseOne between BizTalk Server and a JD Edwards Business (LOB) and
EnterpriseOne system. Enterprise systems
TIBCO Enables exchange of XML and binary data Supported Line-of-
 Rendezvous format messages between BizTalk Server and Business (LOB) and
TIBCO Rendezvous. Enterprise systems
TIBCO Enterprise Enables exchange of XML and binary data Supported Line-of-
Message Service format messages between BizTalk Server and a Business (LOB) and
TIBCO EMS server providing a tightly Enterprise systems
integrated and reliable application infrastructure.

Dynamic Send Port Handler is

Configurable
[Unless specifically noted, the content in this topic applies to BizTalk Server 2013 and 2013
R2.]

When creating a Dynamic Send Port, an adapter Send Handler is configurable for every
installed adapter. Consider the following scenario:

Scenario

There are two ESB itineraries in an application. Itinerary1 uses a Dynamic Send Port to send
data to a File share. Itinerary2 uses a Dynamic Send Port to send e-mail. In the past, Dynamic
send ports execute in the adapter's default host. Itinerary1 is designed to target a low volume -
big message size scenario. Itinerary2 targets a high volume - small message size scenario.
Since there is only one default host for an adapter, all messages are routed using the same
host, decreasing the performance.

The Change

To improve the performance of Dynamic Send Ports, an adapter Send Handler is configurable
to use any host. In the ESB scenario, Itinerary1 uses HostA to send data to a File share.
Itinerary2 uses HostB Port to send e-mail.

Select a Send Handler

When creating a Dynamic One-Way Send Port or Dynamic Solicit-Response Send Port, the
Send Handler is configurable for every installed adapter. Steps:

1. In the BizTalk Server Administration console, expand BizTalk Group

[GroupName], expand Applications, and then expand the application to contain the
send port.

2. Right-click Send Ports, click New, and then click Dynamic One-way Send Port or
Dynamic Solicit-Response Send Port.

3. In Properties, click Configure.

 The adapters are listed with the default Send Handler. Click the down arrow to select
a different host.

4. Click OK save the settings.

5. Unenlist and reenlist the new dynamic send port.

6. Restart the original host instance.

7. Restart the new host instance.

Additional Send Port configuration options include:

 How to Configure Transport Advanced Options for a Send Port

 How to Configure Backup Transport Options for a Send Port

 How to Configure Outbound Maps for a Send Port

 How to Configure Filters for a Send Port

 How to Assign a Certificate to a Send Port

 How to Configure Tracking for a Send Port

The different hosts can be fine-tuned. The following links discuss performance optimization:

General BizTalk Server Optimizations

Managing BizTalk Server Performance Settings