Biztalk Interview Questions and Answers
Question - 21 : - When installing Biztalk and SQL on a Windows XP SP2 Desktop, what pre-requests are required?
Answer - 21 : - Correct answer: A Lot. The best answer something like I have a custom written installation document I use or I always referrer to the most current updated installation guide from Microsoft.
Question - 22 : - What are the components of the BizTalk Server?
Answer - 22 : -
Here are the components of BizTalk Server architecture,
- Receive Port - message listener
- Adapters - exchange information between external systems
- Pipeline, dis-assembler and sub-components - normalizing schema through XML
- Message-box - XML messages are published internally and subscribers will consume them
- Subscribers - subscribe to the messages or context properties in the Message-box
- Biz-talk Orchestration Engine - to process internal messages for republishing to Message-box
- Send Port - consumes the XML messages and converts them to wire messages
- Adapter - wire messages are sent to the target system
Answer - 23 : -
Ans: A subscription is usually a set of conditions that ensure a subscriber gets the required message. There are two types of subscriptions,
- Activation Subscription - a message when received should create or activate a new instance of the subscriber
- Instance Subscription - a message should be routed to an already existing instance of the subscriber that is in running state
Question - 24 : - Explain about artifacts in BizTalk server
Answer - 24 : -
Artifacts are the components that are required for a BizTalk application to function. Here are some of the artifacts,
- Receive Ports
- Receive Locations
- Send Ports and Send Port Groups
- Role Links
- Schemas
- Maps
- Pipelines
- Adapters
- Orchestrations
- Policies
Answer - 25 : - Direct Binding is used to bind one orchestration port directly to another. The messages from one Orchestration can also be routed to the MessageBox of another Orchestration.
Question - 26 : - Explain about the distinguished field in BizTalk server
Answer - 26 : - Distinguished fields are properties of messages that can be added to a message. It is mainly used for decision making or data manipulation in Orchestration when the message is received on the port.
Question - 27 : - What is a promoted property?
Answer - 27 : - Promoted properties are defined inside a schema to provide more visibility to a message. They are used for accessing key items of data in a message i.e distinguished fields and property fields rather than going through the entire message.
Question - 28 : - What is a Message Type?
Answer - 28 : - Message Type is the most common property that is prompted in the BizTalk pipeline to ensure proper routing. Data of any format like documents, SQL records, flat files, email, etc can be sent between systems as messages. Each schema created by a developer for a structure of messages includes a message type.
Question - 29 : - Define correlation in BizTalk Server
Answer - 29 : - At any point in time, multiple instances might run simultaneously. So the correlation of messages with the Orchestration instances can be achieved by defining correlation sets. It will associate an incoming message to a specific instance in the Orchestration.
Question - 30 : - Tell the difference between static, dynamic and direct binding?
Answer - 30 : -
- Static Binding - at the time of deployment, a static port will already be configured to send messages to a specific external port. The compilation would be slower as the static binding will be implemented at compile time
- Dynamic Binding - used to select transport types and locations dynamically at runtime. Compilation time will be faster
- Direct Binding - developers have full control on subscriptions and message context to route messages