Application Binding

Downloads The code samples used in this user guide have been made available in the Be.Stateless.BizTalk.Factory.Samples GitHub repository.

Unsurprisingly, the developer has to start with the ApplicationBinding object when willing to write the bindings of a Microsoft BizTalk Server® application. Let us follow along and start writing code in the Org.Anization.Accounting.Bindings and Org.Anization.Accounting.Bindings.Tests projects we just created.

Let us create the following Application class in the Org.Anization.Accounting.Bindings project. This application binding is for an empty Microsoft BizTalk Server® application, that is to say an application without any of the Microsoft BizTalk Server® artifacts that Be.Stateless.BizTalk.Dsl.Binding supports —i.e. orchestrations, send ports, receive ports, and receive locations.

using Be.Stateless.BizTalk.Dsl.Binding;

namespace Org.Anization.Accounting
{
  public class Application : ApplicationBinding
  {
    public Application()
    {
      Name = "Accounting";
      Description = "Org.Anization's BizTalk Server Accounting Application";
    }
  }
}

To allow for continuous testing and validation of the Accounting application bindings, let us create the following ApplicationFixture in the Org.Anization.Accounting.Bindings.Tests project.

using Be.Stateless.BizTalk.Install;
using Be.Stateless.BizTalk.Unit.Dsl.Binding;
using FluentAssertions;
using Xunit;
using static FluentAssertions.FluentActions;

namespace Org.Anization.Accounting
{
  public class ApplicationFixture : ApplicationBindingFixture<Application>
  {
    [Theory]
    [InlineData(TargetEnvironment.DEVELOPMENT)]
    [InlineData(TargetEnvironment.BUILD)]
    [InlineData(TargetEnvironment.ACCEPTANCE)]
    [InlineData(TargetEnvironment.PRODUCTION)]
    public void GenerateApplicationBinding(string targetEnvironment)
    {
      Invoking(() => GenerateApplicationBindingForTargetEnvironment(targetEnvironment))
        .Should().NotThrow();
    }
  }
}

Thanks to this fixture, the whole Accounting application bindings would be generated and validated in memory every time the unit tests would be run for every target environment where the Accounting application is supposed to be deployed.

Remark BizTalk.Factory defines a bunch of target environment names in the Be.Stateless.BizTalk.Install.TargetEnvironment class, available in the Be.Stateless.BizTalk.Dsl.Environment.Settings NuGet package.

Notice that if the developer wishes to generate the XML bindings files on disk, he could write the following code, which would produce a file for each target environment every time the unit tests are run:

using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
using System.Text;
using Be.Stateless.BizTalk.Install;
using Be.Stateless.BizTalk.Unit.Dsl.Binding;
using Xunit;

namespace Org.Anization.Accounting
{
  public class ApplicationFixture : ApplicationBindingFixture<Application>
  {
    [Theory]
    [InlineData(TargetEnvironment.DEVELOPMENT)]
    [InlineData(TargetEnvironment.BUILD)]
    [InlineData(TargetEnvironment.ACCEPTANCE)]
    [InlineData(TargetEnvironment.PRODUCTION)]
    public void GenerateApplicationBindingFile(string targetEnvironment)
    {
      var path = Path.Combine(
        GetRepoRootPath(),
        $"Org.Anization.Accounting.{targetEnvironment}.bindings.xml"
      );
      File.WriteAllText(
        path,
        GenerateApplicationBindingForTargetEnvironment(targetEnvironment),
        Encoding.Unicode);
    }

    private string GetRepoRootPath([CallerFilePath] string sourceFilePath = "")
    {
      return Path.GetFullPath(Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(sourceFilePath)!, @"..\..\"));
    }
  }
}

Out of curiosity, the XML bindings file corresponding to the previous sample would look like this —though not very interesting nor useful:

<BindingInfo xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" Assembly="Microsoft.BizTalk.Deployment, Version=3.0.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" Version="3.5.1.0" BindingStatus="NoBindings" BoundEndpoints="0" TotalEndpoints="0">
  <Description>Org.Anization's BizTalk Server Accounting Application</Description>
  <Timestamp>2021-12-08T15:10:04.9700713+01:00</Timestamp>
  <ModuleRefCollection>
    <ModuleRef Name="[Application:Accounting]" Version="" Culture="" PublicKeyToken="" FullName="[Application:Accounting], Version=, Culture=, PublicKeyToken=">
      <Services />
      <TrackedSchemas />
    </ModuleRef>
  </ModuleRefCollection>
  <SendPortCollection />
  <DistributionListCollection />
  <ReceivePortCollection />
  <PartyCollection xsi:nil="true" />
</BindingInfo>

Let us now have a look at how as a developer we can configure the Receive Ports, Receive Locations, and Send Ports.