We are using BizTalk 2002 to perform mappings, some are quite large
(100s of schema elements). We have several issues with it, I was
wondering if these get better in BT-2004 or 2006, or if I may be bold -
if another tool may better fit our needs?

The biggest problem we have with using BizTalk's mapper is that it is
essentially the only component of BizTalk we really need, and having to
install and configure BizTalk is a huge overhead. We would much rather
use a tool that only does the mapping, and does it well.

A problem that is common to most of the mapping tools is visualization
and editing of large maps. I just read a paper by some MS research
folks entitled "Visualization of Mappings between Schemas" that has
some nice ideas - any chance these will be incorporated to BizTalk?

There is no support AFAIK for structural transformations, e.g. taking a
record with X repeating fields (e.g. phone numbers) into X records,
each with a single field (holding the 1st, 2nd etc phone number), or
the same when the input record has a single string field where
individual values (phone numbers) are separated by a known delimiter
(e.g. ","). See for example ItemField's ContentsMaster for a product
that can do these.

Also lacking support for lookups (aka dictionaries), that map specific
data values (optionally in a context) to other values.

In general is there some list of improvements to the mapper between the
2002, 2004 and 2006 versions? (BTW, what is now the ETA for BT2006?)

Thanks, my apology for the message ending up so long...

-- Shaul Dar (shauld@medcon.com)

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Hi,

BTS2006 is anytime better. Comapring it with BTS2004 - I have noticed good
changes in terms new features, enhancements and performance.

Talking about "visualization" while mapping; All 3 versions of BTS are good
in this. However, you may find enhanced functoids as well as more working
area in BTS2006 mapper which enables you to manage huge maps.

You have also mentioned that you only need mapping facility - I have noticed
BTS2006 performing better than BTS2004. I have never tested it for 2002 for
similar scenarios. You may have to do some performance testing for that.

As BTS2006 is (almost) completly different from 2002; I think you need to do
a proper evaluation of both to get to some conclusion.

Talking about mapping capibilty : I think below should be possible even with
BTS2002 mapping capability.

> There is no support AFAIK for structural transformations, e.g. taking a
> record with X repeating fields (e.g. phone numbers) into X records,
> each with a single field (holding the 1st, 2nd etc phone number), or
> the same when the input record has a single string field where
> individual values (phone numbers) are separated by a known delimiter
> (e.g. ","). See for example ItemField's ContentsMaster for a product
> that can do these.
>

Regards,

Jay Kinker__


"shauldar@gmail.com" wrote:

> We are using BizTalk 2002 to perform mappings, some are quite large
> (100s of schema elements). We have several issues with it, I was
> wondering if these get better in BT-2004 or 2006, or if I may be bold -
> if another tool may better fit our needs?
>
> The biggest problem we have with using BizTalk's mapper is that it is
> essentially the only component of BizTalk we really need, and having to
> install and configure BizTalk is a huge overhead. We would much rather
> use a tool that only does the mapping, and does it well.
>
> A problem that is common to most of the mapping tools is visualization
> and editing of large maps. I just read a paper by some MS research
> folks entitled "Visualization of Mappings between Schemas" that has
> some nice ideas - any chance these will be incorporated to BizTalk?
>
> There is no support AFAIK for structural transformations, e.g. taking a
> record with X repeating fields (e.g. phone numbers) into X records,
> each with a single field (holding the 1st, 2nd etc phone number), or
> the same when the input record has a single string field where
> individual values (phone numbers) are separated by a known delimiter
> (e.g. ","). See for example ItemField's ContentsMaster for a product
> that can do these.
>
> Also lacking support for lookups (aka dictionaries), that map specific
> data values (optionally in a context) to other values.
>
> In general is there some list of improvements to the mapper between the
> 2002, 2004 and 2006 versions? (BTW, what is now the ETA for BT2006?)
>
> Thanks, my apology for the message ending up so long...
>
> -- Shaul Dar (shauld@medcon.com)
>
>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]