Professional BizTalk Server 2009?

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I've been looking into the possibility of updating the highly successful Professional BizTalk Server 2006 book to take into account new features and capabilities in BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and the recently announced BizTalk Server 2009 product.

A fair bit has changed to warrant new chapters and updating of various chapters but of course the main body of content is still accurate and will be brought forward into any new edition.

The current book is of course still absolutely usable for both BizTalk Server 2006, R2 and even 2009 as the main engine, features and best practices are unchanged.

I've listed some of my thoughts around what needs to be covered to expand the reach of the book given the new version but would love to hear of topics and sections that you would like to see added if you've already read the current edition.

Please send me a mail with your thoughts via my blog site or add comments to this posting, I'd really appreciate your views on what we should consider.

I haven't got formal commitment from Wiley yet as I'm still at the Table of Contents stage, here are my outline thoughts as it currently stands.

Technology Primer - Update

· Cover WCF basics

· Cover the penalty of XmlDocument vs Serializable Classes vs XPath with real-examples of overhead

BizTalk Architecture - Update

· Emphasise further how important testing is, don’t expect performance and how critical the performance of supporting systems is. Detail techniques for isolating and testing performance of supporting systems

· Cover any changes with BTS2009

· Potentially position BTS2009 vs Oslo at the architectural level

Adapters - Update

· Include drill-down on WCF Adapter topics

· Overview

· Different WCF-* adapters

· Walkthrough

· Demonstrate how a custom binding can be developed using the WCF Adapter SDK (null adapter?)

· Cover the new WCF Adapter bindings (SQL, MQS, etc)

     

Business Activity Monitoring - Update

· Provide implementation of BAM Latency Timer pipeline component

· Provide more real-world and common questions/issues guidance

Business Rules Engine - Update

· Position BRE vs the WF rules engine and futures

RFID - New Chapter

· Drill-down chapter into the RFID features of BizTalk complete with real-world examples

Testing - Update

· Provide more real-world “case studies” of how it’s been done right and the benefits..

· New BizUnit features (Excel)

· Update with any new VS2008 (and maybe future release features)

Performance and Scalability - Update

· PAL for analysis of performance logs

· Discuss SAN technology improvements

· ‘n’ step plan for identifying where bottlenecks lie within a BizTalk rig

· Expand throttling “plain” English guide, step-by-step diagnosis guide

Low Latency - Update

· Cover new options such as NetTcp and NetNamedPipe WCF bindings

· Include real-world perf-test results, step by step guide

Administration - Update

· Virtualization (HyperV)

· Best Practice Analyser

· MSBuild

· SQL2008 differences

BizTalk Best Practices - Update

· Add further best practices, small and large – with evidence as to why

Cloud Services (BizTalk Services, SSDS, etc.) - New Chapter

· Overview

· Connectivity

· Identity

· Cloud Workflow

· SSDS

· Cloud Commerce scenario code and walkthrough

First look at Oslo futures - New Chapter

· More soon ;-)