Translations in BizTallk Server means transforming a Document format to another format
Any type of file to be translated to XML, or XML to any type of file
Example:
Translating flat files to xml files and any type of files to xml.
You may doubt why the translation is required; the answer is BizTalk Server only
understands xml Documents and files coming to BizTallk Server need not be XML
Documents. So Changing the format is necessary.
Tthese translations are done at receive port and send ports
For Transforming one format to another format other than xml files at Receive Port,
we Must Custom Require Receive pipeline.
In the same way, for translating the xml to any file format at Send port, we Must
Require Custom Send Pipeline.
Generally two types of files are these
1. Flat files
2. Xml files
Flat file : It is any file which is readable and does not have any description about the data
in the file
Example for Flat File
1 Chaitanya BizTalk 23000
2 Pradeep Silver light 25000
3 Ramu Asp.net 23000
This is an employee information flat file. It gives only data , but does not provide
any description on the Data like empID ,EmpName,Technology,Salary
We have data Chaitanya , what is it? It does not have any Description i.e. EmpName
So flat files don’t have any description
See the Above xml file it has Data and Description about the Data
You understand the difference between xml files and flat files
Flat file types
There are two types of flat files
1. Delimiter flat files
2. Positional flat files
delimiter flat files
These are Separated by any Separator( separator is like ,(Comma), (Space),(Enter)
Take the previous flat file
1, Chaitanya, Biztalk,23000
2 ,Pradeep,Silverlight,25000
3 ,Ramu,Asp.net,23000
Here the fields like 1, Chaitanya are separated by Separator( ,(COMMA))
And first Line whole is a Record and the Every Record is Separated by Separator(Enter)
So in this flat file, There are 2 separators .
i.e. field separator is (COMMA) and Record Separator is (Enter).
So you can understand this Delimited flat file.
Positional Flat files
Positional flat files are Files , in this Data is separated by Column Index.
Take the previous flat file
1-25 26-50 51-75 76-100
1 Chaitanya Biztalk 23000
2 Pradeep Silverlight 25000
3 Ramu Asp.net 23000
Here each and every field is given with column index.
If you have EmployeeID that EmployeeID (1,2,3) must be between 1-25 columns,
That is for the employee id 25 column index is assigned.
Drawback
EmployeeID 1 takes only one columns and Remaining Columns Memory is wasted.
Memory Management issue comes here.
Note
So from these Delimited Flat files and Positional flat files.. Delimited flat files
are best.
Process
For the flat file coming to receive port it must be go to Disassemble stage in order
for Translating flat file to XML file
For this Translation first the flat file document must be validated
For validating flat file document , we Require Schema for Flat files.
So Our next step is Creating the Schema for flat files
So take flat file document i.e Previous only
1, Chaitanya, Biztalk,23000
2 ,Pradeep,Silverlight,25000
3 ,Ramu,Asp.net,23000
For this we have to prepare the schema, We have give the specifications for Building the Flat file schema.
The Specifications are
For any flat file schema, Delimiter is Specified at Parent Level
Suppose take above flat file we have delimiter at fields.
So we have to specify the delimiter specification at Record Level.
Record delimiter is Specified at Record Set Level(parent)
Ex: EmployeeRecordSet -------à Record Set
Employee Info ------à Record
ID ------------->Fields
Name ------- ->Fields
Technology ---->Fields
Salary ---------->Fields
To specify the delimiter 3 properties have to set
Field Level delimiter
Select Employee Info Record Properties,
Here delimiter is COMMA for fields
Set the Properties
1. Child Delimiter Type :Character
Because COMMA is Character Type
2. Child Delimiter:,
Here Child delimiter is Comma so place symbol here
3. Child Order : Prefix
Child Order means it asks where the Delimiter is ther
We have 3 options
1. Prefix: if the delimiter is before the field
2. Infix: if the delimiter is between fields
3.Postfix:if delimiter is after fields
So our delimiter COMMA is between fields only so Select Prefix Option
So filed level delimiter is over
Record level delimiter
For this select Record Set EmployeeRecordSet Properties
Set the 3 properties
1.Child Delimiter Type :Hexadecimal (Enter is not Character Type)
For enter button delimiter value is
\n ----àit is working fine for windows OS
\r ----à It is working fine for Linux OS
But in xml we don’t use \ because it doesn’t process after \
So the Hexadecimal Value for this is
\n----à0X0D
\r---àOXOA
So Combined Combination is
0X0D OXOA :It is our Delimiter.
It can work both on linux and Windows.
Windows Check OXOD and Complies
Linux Checks OXOD so wrong and it also checks OXOA so Right. And did compilation.
Space is placed between two hexadecimal values for not giving any problems.
OXODOXOA--àCompiler did not Understand and gives error
So
2. Child Delimiter: 0X0D OXOA
and 3rd option is
3. Child Order : Infix
It is always infix for every record level delimiter
For any Conversion of files to xml document we must use Custom Receive pipelines
So Add Custom Receive pipeline to the BizTalk Project,And in the Receive pipeline,
we have 4 stages
In these four stages , Translations are done at Disassemble stage only,i.e we have
to implement the disassemble component in this stage.
So, Add flat file disassemble component and in the disassemble component properties
select Document Schema property and give our Document schema.
Implementation
Create 2 folders In and Out for input flat file and out put xml file.
So create two ports Receive and send ports and configure those ports with that Folders
Add an orchestration to the BizTalk project
For receive port , select the custom receive pipeline and configure the URI with
C:/In/*.txt
And configure the send port
Creating the flat file instance
Select the schema, select the properties, select output file name,
Select generate output instance type: Native
And click on generate Instance
Drop the flat file document in the In folder, then BizTalk translates the flat file
and we got the xml file in the Out folder