| Tomas Restrepo \(MVP\) 2005-08-25, 2:52 am |
| Artificer,
> All the demos I have seen so far about integrating using BizTalk assume
> that I am using XML as the common data format between the two systems but
It's probably because it is easier to build the demos that way, but it is
certainly not required by biztalk. It can certainly use EDI, Flat Files, and
whatever other system you have, provided you can connect to it.
> there is something that I am not very clear about. Let's supouse this:
> Company A have a Database Application developed with Delphi and using an
> oracle Database. Company B Developed using VB 6 and SQL Server. Now these
> two companies want to do business. I want to use BizTalk Server 2004 two
> help me integrated them but of course none of those two companies is using
> XML or Web Services. These applications are custom applications. Will
> BizTalk be able two communicate this two system or I have to do some
> conversion to XML first?
>
> Basically my primary question is if BizTalk help communicate two systems
> how BizTalk get connected to those systems in the first place?
It connects to them through adapters. BizTalk does have an integrated SQL
adapter to connect to SQL Server directly, and there are third party
(including one free) adapters for oracle. BizTalk also comes out of the box
(or downloadable from MS.COM) with adapters for HTTP, SOAP, SMTP, MSMQ,
MQSeries, WSE, FTP and EDI, while there are other adapters out there for
everything from SAP to AS2 and whatnot.
That said, in you specific case, I believe that using direct database access
for the integration (while possible) would be the wrong choice, given the
fact that you'd be trying to directly access databases from two different
companies either through internet, vpn or something like that. Performance
will certainly suck big time in an escenario like this, and any half
competent architect or administrator in at least one of the two companies
(the one not hosting biztalk) would most certainly disallow it for security
and trust reasons 
A better approach might be to wrap at least one of the two applications with
a set of services that allow biztalk to communicate with it safely over
whatever network you decide. This could be, for example, MSMQ if it's a
private network, or webservices or simple http POSTs over the internet. It
might seem like more work at first, but it will pay off in the long run.
--
Tomas Restrepo
tomasr@mvps.org
http://www.winterdom.com/
|