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Well in general I am new to BizTalk and maintaining a very old setup, BT 2013 R2

Overall I am well versed in .XSLT and feel more comfortable managing xml directly than I do in the BT IDE ( well the vstudio IDE)

So here are a couple generic architecture questions:

  1. What are the steps to manage the maps manually through notepad? I see a lot of code in the .BTM.CS file, but those don't seem to get picked up. I seem to have to change the .BTM file first, then it generates the .BTM.CS

  2. My Map is Huge, I'm working with X12 and there are thousands of fields, what can I do to make this easier? I have to scroll through 10 layers deep just to make anything visible, then expand the map. BT IDE seems to have a big issue dealing with such big files

  3. Also any books anyone can recommend on the subject would be appreciated

Dijkgraaf
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Brandon Slezak
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    1. Yes, you should not change the BTM.CS files as they are generated from the .BTM files. 2. Not really on topic for StackOverflow You can search for fields in the map editor 3. Really off-topic for stack overflow. And by asking 3 questions in one it is also too broad. – Dijkgraaf Mar 01 '17 at 23:56
  • 3. If you google "Biztalk map book" you'll get an answer – Xurxo Garcia Mar 02 '17 at 10:26

2 Answers2

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I will say this first, I totally understand where you're coming from, but...

  1. You don't, sorry. The BizTalk Visual Studio Project System is an integral part of BizTalk development and you really, really, really should not even try using a text editor. .odx, .btm, .btp are all meta files managed by their respective designers. The .cs files are generated at Build-time so there is not opportunity to modify them at all.
  2. One way to improve Mapper performance is to areas of function into separate Tabs. The rendering of the design surface is the problem so the less to render at once, the better. Even separating direct links and Functoids helps.
  3. Sandro's book is the current standard: BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices
Dijkgraaf
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Johns-305
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Johns-305's answer is good - I'd just add that with XSLT in maps you do have the option of setting "Custom XSLT" for the map in the properties window. That can then be pointed to an external (source controlled) XSLT file which you could then edit using any XML/XSLT editor (Visual Studio or not). Just be aware that this option means you won't be able to us any of the visual mapper functionality, and the .btm file will basically just be a pointer to the compiler to use your custom XSLT rather than the XSLT that would be generated by BizTalk. You should not try to manage BizTalk's generated XSLT in this manner - only for cases where you're certain you want to use custom XSLT rather than the visual designer. To do that, open the map in Visual Studio (1), click the grid area (2), and then set the Custom XSLT Path (3):

enter image description here

(It's possible to do that by directly editing the .btm file, but not recommended - I did write a blog a little while back documenting the .btm format for what it's worth though: https://blog.tallan.com/2015/03/26/biztalk-mapper-file-format-btm-documented/.)

For orchestrations, you're out of luck.

Dan Field
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