Today's integration project reality is deliver more, with less budget and in reduced timeframes. In the following session learn about some of the tools used by the pro's to deliver high quality BizTalk, ESB and API solutions, consistently, fast and at reduced cost. Some you will know well, but there may be a number you have yet to discover.

1. Top Ten (ish) Integration Productivity
Tools and Frameworks
Presented by Nikolai Blackie
Adaptiv Integration
18th of July 2015

4. I was there….
honest

5. Productivity Tools & Frameworks
The Microsoft Integration user community is fiercely active
Community members have shared tools and frameworks that you can
leverage
These people are amazingly talented, costs to DIY equivalents is
steep and you maintain for life
The following is a small sample of community & commercial across:
► Documentation
► Development
► Testing
► Deployment
► Support
► Troubleshooting

6. Documentation
Swagger (www.swagger.io)
► RESTAfarians reinventing WSDL
► Should use as DSL language for contract first definition that can
drive documentation and code generation
► Bottom up use Trex to override the swagger metadata generation in
APIs
APIMatic (www.apimatic.io)
► Multi platform API SDK generation as a service
► Supports large number of API definition languages
► Recently launched https://sdks.io/ developer API discovery portal
► Home grown NZ start-up, Auckland based

7. Documentation
BizTalk Server 2013 Documenter
► Created by Santosh Benjamin-Muthiah, picked up and maintained
by Colin Dijkgraaf and Mark Brimble
► Generate as built environment documentation as CHM or Word
BizTalk Web Documenter
► Created by Richard Hallgren (@riha78)
► Generate as built, view on the web via MVC Application
► Richard is looking for collaborators and roadmap ideas
Visio Microsoft Integration Stencils
► Created by Sandro Pereira @sandro_asp
► Integration marketecture goodness (aka beautiful diagrams)

9. Development Tools & Frameworks
BizTalk Business Rules Engine Pipeline Framework
► Great alternative to the ESB Toolkit, lower barrier to entry
► Created by Johann Cooper (@JohannCooper) and contributed to
be a huge team
► Leverages the Business Rules Engine (BRE) to abstract away logic
► Create complex, configuration driven, orchestrationless messaging
solutions
BizTalk Server Pipeline Component Wizard
► Created by Martijn Hoogendoorn
► Visual Studio plugin to automation custom pipeline authoring
► Useful for developers new to Pipeline component interfaces

10. Development Tools & Frameworks
Jetbrain Resharper
► Benchmark for refactoring tools since 2004
► Make custom BizTalk code elegant, refactor at pace
► dotTrace — .NET Performance Profiler
► dotMemory — .NET Memory Profiler
► dotCover — .NET unit testing and code coverage tool
► dotPeek — Free .NET decompiler
DanSharp XML Viewer
► Created by Daniel Probert (aka BizBert)
► Lightweight XML toolset, browse tree to discover xpath, test custom
xpath, validate against XSD
► Generate BizUnit Test Cases

11. Development Tools & Frameworks
RunScope (www.runscope.com)
► SaaS service for API development and operation
► Monitoring, Testing and Debugging of your APIs
► Very useful for mocking and payload verification during
development via http://requestb.in/
BizTalk CAT Instrumentation
► Framework - Valery Mizonov
► Controller - Thomas F. Abraham
► ETW based logging, 20 times faster than Debug.Trace
► Supports all BizTalk component types
► Measure code performance, output log messages, use in
development and attach live in production

12. Development Tools & Frameworks
Visual Studio
► Azure Remote Debugging features use for API Apps
► Web Load Testing on prem for lucky MSDN Ultimate folks, in the
Cloud via Visual Studio Online
SSO Configuration Application
► Better way to handle sensitive configuration details
► Eliminate BTSNTSvc.exe.config bad habits
► Single repository for multi node environments
► Backed up, secure, restorable

13. Development Tools & Frameworks
Notepad++
► Show off your developer chops, UI less
coding
► Great in built editing features for encoding,
format, EOL conversions & much more
► Plugins
JSON Viewer – pretty print formatting, structure
validation i.e. sort “{ }” hell
XML Tools – validate, format, collapse and
general navigation

14. Development Tools & Frameworks
Beyond Compare
► One of many compare tools available
► 2 way & 3 way file compares and merges
► Tabular reconciliation and compare
► Command line interfaces

15. Integration Testing
SoapUI
► Ironically one of the best REST
test tools despite name
► Functional, mocking, security
and load testing in one tool
► Automation for CI and many
code gen features
► Free version and Pro for
Annual licence

16. Integration Testing
PaperCut (via @biztalkbill)
► No access to an SMTP server? Don’t want to accidentally spam live
customers?
► Desktop SMTP server / mocking tool
► Connect BizTalk POP3 and SMTP adapters for testing
► Accepts sends and stores locally, displays popup notifications on
desktop, logging and detailed message views

17. Integration Testing
BizUnit
► Created by Kevin B Smith
► Functional integration test framework for BizTalk
► Supports coded and Xaml based data driven tests
► Very extensible, highly automatable
LoadGen
► Templated data load generation tool for performance and load
testing
► Integrates with BizUnit and standalone
Continuous Integration Servers
► Team Foundation Server
► TeamCity

18. Deployment
Deployment Framework for BizTalk (BTDF)
► Founded by Scott Colestock, maintained by Thomas F. Abraham
► Convention based manifest driven BizTalk deployment framework
► Consistent, configuration driven, extensible approach to deployment
► High levels of community participation and support
BizTalkFactory PowerShell Provider
► Abstracts multiple BizTalk runtime assemblies and WMI queries into
single PowerShell provider
► Utilise for operations and patch deployments
Continuous Delivery Servers
► Octopus Deploy
► TFS Release Manager

19. Support and Operations
BizTalk Health Monitor
► BizTalk best practices and operations toolset
► Supersedes Message Box Viewer and Terminator
► Leverages decades of field engineer knowledge
► Documentation references that explain issues reported and why
they need to be resolved

20. Support and Operations
BizTalk 360 (http://www.biztalk360.com/)
► State of the art BizTalk support platform
► All BizTalk administration features in one location
AIMS (http://www.aimsinnovation.com/)
► Real time performance modelling and alerting
► Killer feature, performance deviation detection and proactive
notifications
Integration Manager (http://www.integrationsoftware.se/ )
► Log, monitor and report on any integrations in enterprise
► DTA replacement with support for BizTalk, App Services and other
custom applications

21. Troubleshooting
Network – can’t connect, connection drops, firewall issues?
► Fiddler
► Wireshark
► Microsoft Message Analyzer
Performance
► Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) Tool – applications slow,
bottlenecks, finger pointing?
► Performance Monitor – feed it PAL counter sets, records all
necessary counters for analysis
System
► Process Explorer – task manager for real developers
► Process Monitor – when everything else fails

22. Troubleshooting
TechNet BizTalk & Azure App Services Wiki
► BizTalk Server: List of Errors and Warnings, Causes and Solutions
► BizTalk Server - Troubleshooting Problems with MSDTC
► BizTalk Server: Backup BizTalk Server job failed Troubleshooting
► And many more community examples
MSDN Forums – BizTalk, API Apps & Logic Apps
Azure Feedback and Ideas – App Logic Feedback
Blogs
Social Media Hail Mary
► Twitter #msbts #mabs #azurebts #AppService
► LinkedIn groups

23. The Microsoft Integration community is world leading
among middleware platforms
Leverage the tools and frameworks provided by the
community and industry for consistency, training simplicity
and implementation cost savings
Remember any code and frameworks you write, you
maintain for the life of your systems, including upgrades
Give it a go
► Try one or two of these tools on your next project
► Even better, join a community project and contribute
Wrap Up

24. References
Productivity Tools OneDrive Repository
► All tools discussed downloaded in one location
► Links to tool sites and user documentation supplied
► Over 440mb of goodness in one place
► http://1drv.ms/1GnyEFk
http://www.high50.org.nz/
► Malcolm Law, in 50 days climbed 50 peaks and ran 50 off-road
marathons
► Raised $511,453 for the Mental Health Foundation in the process

25. Questions?