Using BizTalk Server and the WCF LOB Adapter SDK

This section contains information about the relationship of BizTalk Server and WCF LOB Adapter SDK. Information contained in this section includes comparisons of the two different frameworks provided by each and tips for migrating the BizTalk Server custom adapter.

Relationship with the SDK and BizTalk Server

WCF LOB Adapter SDK provides an SDK and set of tools and components that enable developers to write sophisticated adapters for line-of-business systems containing a dynamic set of operations and data. Adapters are exposed as WCF custom bindings and as such can be consumed by applications that can consume WCF bindings.

BizTalk Server is a product that enables message flow and coordination between a diverse set of enterprise systems; communication between BizTalk Server and external systems are handled through adapters that take external messages and transform them into a format suitable for processing by BizTalk Server.

These two technologies intersect in the BizTalk Server WCF adapter. It can consume bindings exposed by WCF and therefore consume the operations and data exposed by the adapter written with the WCF LOB Adapter SDK.

The following figures provides a high-level overview of how the BizTalk WCF adapter and WCF LOB adapters are used within BizTalk Server to communicate with target LOB systems.

Image that shows a high-level overview of how the BizTalk WCF adapter and WCF LOB adapters are used within BizTalk Server.

Image that shows how the BizTalk WCF adapter and WCF LOB adapters are used within BizTalk Server.

Differences between the SDK and the BizTalk Server Adapter Framework

While both the WCF LOB Adapter SDK and BizTalk Server Adapter Framework provide an SDK for writing custom adapters, there are significant differences in the amount of support provided in terms of API's and tools and also in the reusability of the adapter once it is completed.

Some of the primary differences between the two frameworks are summarized in the following table.

Feature WCF LOB Adapter SDK BizTalk Server Adapter Framework
API .NET Framework 4.5 and .NET Framework 4.5.1 assembly, provides help classes for metadata processing, connection management, and messaging COM, provides basic support for adapter operations.
Adapter exposure Exposed as WCF binding; available to any application that can consume a WCF binding. Exposed only to BizTalk Server; not reusable by other applications.
Tools Adapter Development Wizard, metadata browser for Visual Studio .NET n/a
Extensibility Yes (as WCF channel extension) No

Adapters created using the BizTalk Adapter Framework are consumable from only within BizTalk Server. On the other hand, adapters written to the WCF LOB Adapter SDK are surfaced as custom WCF bindings. This broadens their reach to any application that consumes a service, which for all practical purposes is any .NET application including BizTalk Server. The WCF-based adapters are used within BizTalk Server using the BizTalk WCF adapter and continue to exist in parallel with the native BizTalk adapters.