the endpoint

Robots and BizTalk Services

justinjsmith — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:48:52 GMT

The Identity Provider in BizTalk Services (http://biztalk.net) is pretty darn cool. In general, it makes it easy to delegate identity and access control to a hosted service. In a more general sense, BizTalk Services make it easier to break through the boundaries that can keep software systems from talking to one another.

This video demonstrates how you can apply the capabilites of the BizTalk Services Identity Provider to manage the movements of a robot. Keep in mind that even though the scenario shown in the video is a bit cooky, the concepts are more broadly applicable. This was a lot of fun to make, and I hope you enjoy it.

BizTalk Services SDK Echo Sample

justinjsmith — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:53:27 GMT

This screencast walks through the Echo Sample in the BizTalk Services SDK (R9). In a nutshell, the Echo Sample highlights how BizTalk Services makes it easy to expose services that are behind a NAT or firewall.

For a basic introduction to BizTalk Services, see Tom Lake (who is wearing a legacy bright orange WinFX t-shirt from PDC’05). The interview concludes with a quick tour around building 42 meeting some of the other folks on the team.

For more information on the WF and WCF integration in .NET 3.5, check out Matt’s blog. Also, check out these screencasts:
Dynamically Creating Service Contracts using Workflow Services in .NET 3.5 here.

WCF 101 Demo (a la Notepad)

justinjsmith — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:07:45 GMT

WCF is all about services. Its features cover a broad spectrum of functionality - ranging from WS-* based interoperability to URI-centric REST architectures. As a result of these capabilities, there are many configuration "knobs" in the WCF API. These features and their associated API sometimes leads to confusion, especially when first approaching WCF. Rather than attempt to tunnel into all of the the nuanced capabilities of WCF, this screencast focuses on the high-points of WCF. In just a few minutes (eight I think), I build a receiving application (service), a sending application (client), and change both several times.

This demo is very similar to the one I normally give in my WCF 101 talks. I've found that this approach helps WCF newcomers focus on the basics. After all, understanding the basics must come before understanding nuances.

Service Oriented Thinking

justinjsmith — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 23:31:45 GMT

In the web services community, few terms are as loaded as "Service Orientation" (or SOA, or SO). Over time, the term has become so convulted that it's hard to identlfy its real meaning. My conversations with developers and architects tends to support that theory. In this screencast, I describe service orientation in practical terms and highlight the role WCF plays in building service oriented applications. It is my hope that the concepts I outline remove much of the fog that has collected around service orientation / SOA, and also help illustrate the role WCF plays in the service oriented arena.