BizTalk Schemas & Types

In integration there is one of the important points is message format. This would be agreed in between source system & destination system that message format will not be change. BizTalk has Schemas in xsd format to validate the source system message and send the message to destination system in agreed message format.

 Schemas describe the structure of messages that are to be sent back and forth between BizTalk and the system BizTalk is exchanging the message with.

Based on schemas BizTalk generate a Message Type. Based on message type BizTalk Message Box database specify which orchestration or send port receives the published message.

BizTalk Schema Types:

When we start any BizTalk project to development. There are the following schemas shows in Visual studio when Launch Schema wizard.

Below are the details of schemas:

1. Flat File Schema: This schema is basically used for csv or flat file message. For flat file there are two types of message – Position or delimiter based. As we know BizTalk process message only in xml format. So, in this case BizTalk stored all the flat files details in Annotation section of schema when it is generated. BizTalk has flat file schema wizard which make easy to create schema from flat file or csv files
2. Property Schema:  Property Schema in BizTalk is usually about taking values from incoming message and moving them into the context of the message, so they are easily accessible and usable for routing. A property schema is a simple version of a BizTalk schema that plays a role in the process of copying promoted properties back and forth between the instance message and the message context.

this schema specifies an unstructured collection of fields into which you can promote fields from within an instance message defined by a schema associated with your property schema.

Promoted properties are persisted to the Message box database. The Message box generate a large join in SQL Server each time a message is published, which is basically a join between the Context of Message, the possible properties, and the properties of all subscribers. So, the no. of Promoted Properties should be kept minimum

3. Schema: This is basically xml schema. An XML schema describes a business document that is represented in XML. Because Microsoft BizTalk Server uses XML as its canonical representation for business documents, inbound and outbound documents do not require any translation.

4. Flat file Schema Wizard: This wizard is basically used to make easy to create schema from flat or csv files. It provides simple steps to create schema based on position of flat files or delimiter e.g. (, or ;).

The BizTalk Flat File Schema Wizard is designed to simplify the process of creating flat file schemas by providing the following:

• The ability to use flat file instances as input
• A visual design surface for working with delimited and positional flat file schemas
• An interactive wizard-based process for adding elements to the schema and defining flat file related annotations.

Below is the link to create schema based on flat file document:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/biztalk/core/walkthrough-creating-a-flat-file-schema-from-a-document-instance

5. JSON Schema Wizard:  From BizTalk 2013 R2, BizTalk also support JSON file messaging. BizTalk has JSON schema wizard which is basically used for converting json message into xml message.