Installation Instruction for Workflow Manager and SharePoint 2013 Workflow Configuration:

The full installation steps are provided here (in a video series): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn201724.aspx and here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj193478

The instructions provided above are pretty detailed and helpful except that I kept getting this error while configuring workflow manager and there was not much to go with online.

The Error:

System.InvalidOperationException:

Program C:\Program Files\Windows Fabric\bin\Fabric\Fabric.Code.1.0\FabricDeployer.exe exited with error: Windows Fabric deployment failed.DeploymentValidator:

warning: The Fabric Data Collection Agent is disabled for this deployment.
None of the declared nodes is for the current machine.

Finally i looked at the hosts file on the Developer VM and noticed that I had an entry for 127.0.0.1. Since I was using FQDNs for my workflow configuration, I commented this line and that fixed the error.

so open the file: C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts in notepad or a text editor and comment out the line with entries to the local host (127.0.0.1)

I venture that a large number of UX designers (really any designers, for that matter) frequently make design decisions based on a gut feeling, a trend, a personal aesthetic, or some “rule” that was learned in design school. Sometimes we make design decisions just so we can get a project out the door. We’ve all done it. All of it. However, our profession has slowly been increasing its awareness of why we make these decisions. Why does our gut and our experience tell us that this is the correct design solution for this business problem and its target user group? Why has this become a design convention? Why does this appeal to me?

All of these answers are deeply rooted in the sciences of perception and cognition. Perceptual biology and psychology play vital roles in why we implement our solutions in a certain way, and why those solutions work for our users. Even the rules of design that we were given by a formal education in the design space have scientific foundations that can be further explored for a better understanding of why these rules have proven to be successful over time. As designers, we have a responsibility to learn from even the most basic biological components of perception, and how the impact color theory. Why does redundancy help users be more efficient in their decision making, and when does it become more hurtful than helpful?  Why are alerts commonly red, not from a cultural perspective, but a biological one? Why are dark lines in layout worse than soft lines?

These are all questions that can be answered by scientific research. There is a deeper understanding of the design decisions we make than is shown on the surface. As designers, we need to move further from answers like, “Because that’s the way we do it,” and closer to answers like, “Because research has shown this to be effective.” Even answers like, “Because it draws the user’s attention,” should be expounded upon. At the very least, we should be having an internal dialogue in which we explain to ourselves scientifically why something draws the user’s attention. Having this knowledge and applying it to our every day work is what will make us true expert designers. We’re not designing applications or web interfaces. We are designing messages that are to be perceived by our users, their senses, and the associated biological and neurological systems that process those messages.

All of these elements address the visual design aspects of UX design. Largely, the principles we learn from understanding biological processing at some level only address how we go about sensory design. Graphic, UI, and sound designers can all make use of these principles in their own work. What really sets a User Experience designer apart is our understanding of how our users will react to, and interact with, our designs. This is where research in the cognitive sciences comes into play. Once we are able to understand how our user’s brain processes the information we’ve designed, we can make predictions about how a large percentage of our user groups will behave as a product of our designs. We can use those designs to mold our users’ movements and interactions. We can enable them become more efficient users in terms of accomplishing their tasks and goals. This is really where it all comes together for a UX designer.

Now, I am not saying there will not be hiccups along the way. There is no substitute for experience, but there is great value to us in learning from the experiences of others, and that experience is captured by the research done in the perceptual and cognitive sciences. The amount of research that exists that could help us with design challenges that we face every day is astounding. All we need to do as designers is research it, consume it, and make use of it. That is how we will grow as designers, and that is how our profession will continue to grow and demonstrate its value to our employers and clients. This is how we move forward.

For example, in the mapping below, I’m taking a flat file that has repeating fields to represent ten Line Items, all on a single record.  Using the Table Looping functoid, I can map these repeating fields to create multiple LineItem records in my destination.

However, the limitation to this functoid is that it can only have 100 parameters.  And the since first 2 parameters are used to specify the number of rows and columns, that really only leaves 98 parameters that you can specify.  In the example above I’m mapping 70 fields (7 fields per set of line item fields) to my table looping functoid, so I’m well within the 100 parameter limit. 

But let’s say I need to map another 4 fields for every Line Item.   That’s an additional 40 fields I’ll need to link to my table looping functoid, but there’s only room for 28 more parameters (100 – 2 row/column params – 70 field links = 28).

Fortunately, BizTalk doesn’t restrict how many Table Looping functoids you have linked to a destination node.  And when you link multiple Table Looping functoids to a node, the mapping makes sure to set fields on the same record (based on the Table Looping row being set), rather than creating a new set of records for each Table Looping functoid.

So as an example, in the mapping below I added another Table Looping functoid to map the 4 additional Line Item fields.  Each LineItem record in the destination message will have 7 of its fields set by the first Table Looping functoid, and the other 4 fields set by the second Table Looping functoid.  And the resulting message will still just have 10 LineItem records (not 20).

The other nice thing about being able to split up Table Looping/input parameters into separate functoids is that it allows you to place the functoid on separate map pages, which will make the map easier to follow and maintain. In the screen below, I moved the second Table Looping functoid to another mapping page.

The ESB Toolkit 2.1 Exception Handling Framework provides the ability to easily report and and alert on both routed failed messages (where Failed Message Routing is enabled on a Receive or Send Port), as well as ESBFaults created from exceptions within an Orchestration. 

However, if you try routing failed messages on a Send Port that is bound to a Logical Port that has Delivery Notification enabled, you’ll get a Send Port failure with the following exception:

We’re expecting the routed failed message to be picked up by the All.Exceptions ESB Send Port (which subscribes to routed failed messages and ESBFaults and inserts them into the EsbExceptionDb), and from the error message, it’s clear that this Send Port is indeed subscribing to the message.  But the exception never makes it into the database, and we get this routing failure.  So at first it’s not clear what published message this error is referring to.

The Cause

I knew that enabling Deliver Notification (in the logical Send Port defined in the Orchestration) was playing a part…

Taking a look at the failed message’s context properties sheds light on the issue…

The AckRequired context property is still set to true on the routed failed message that is picked up by the All.Exceptions ESB Send Port.  This property is set to true whenever Delivery Notification is enabled, so that the Orchestration can subscribe to the resulting Ack or Nack message generated by the Send Port, and thus know whether the message was successfully delivered or not. 

However, if there is a failure on that Send Port with failed message routing enabled, BizTalk sets the ErrorReport context properties (with error information) and routes the message.  However, that routed failed message also retains all of its original context properties values, including the AckRequired property. 

Therefore, when the All.Exceptions ESB Send Port processes the failed message and inserts it into EsbExceptionDb, it sees that AckRequired is true, and produces an Ack/Nack message and publishes it to the MessageBox.  But because there are no subscribers to this Ack/Nacks coming from All.Exceptions, a routing failure occurs, and the Send Port performs a rollback of the original transaction (which inserted the failed message into the EsbExceptionDb), and suspends with the message due to no subscriber being found.

The Solution

The solution is a simple addition to the All.Exceptions ESB Send Port filter.  Add the following filter condition:

BTS.AckType Exists And

BTS.AckSendPortName ==All.Exceptions

Adding this filter has the All.Exceptions Send Port subscribe to those same Ack/NAck messages it produces.  But don’t worry, it doesn’t try to insert the resulting Ack/NAck into EsbExceptionDb.  Instead, this Send Port simply ignores or discards the Ack/NAck message.

Data graphics in Visio give users an easy way to visualize data. An important thing to keep in mind is that data graphics were not added as a data analysis tool, which is apparent when you try to do any semi-complex analysis with them. For this reason it is important to slice the data exactly how you want it before linking the data to Visio to use.

First, lets start with the basic data graphics available in Visio. To insert a data graphic for a shape, simply click on the shape you would like to provide a graphic to, navigate to the Data tab, and click on the Data graphics drop down in the  ribbon. From here you are able to edit the existing data graphic or create and save new graphics to be used in the future. The menu should look similar to the one shown here:

There are four main graphic types, the first being text callouts, which display the text of a field and its value. The second type is the databar which displays either a bar at some capacity according to a field value and maximum value or a bar chart with multiple fields and values next to each other. It is important to note that you must set the maximum as a static value, and the bar will be shown as a percentage of the field data and that value. Third, there are icon sets which displays an icon based on the value of the linked field, and last there is the color by value option which fills the shape with a solid color depending on the field’s value. For icon sets and color by value,  you can set the graphic based on equality, range of values, less than, greater than, and more.  Some examples of each data graphic type are below.

Text Callout:

Data Bar:

Icon Set:

And color by value:

The data graphics are able to be placed and oriented around the shape in any way, including inside of the shape. These are just a few of the data graphics provided by Visio, but there are a number of different options and details to play around with for each one.

Now that you know what graphics are available, how can we actually link the shapes to data and view the data in a meaningful way? Luckily, Visio provides a very simple way to do this, and it’s almost impossible to miss if you’re looking for it. By clicking on the Link Data to Shapes button in the ribbon while in the Data tab, you can select data from external sources such as Excel, SQL, SharePoint lists,  SQL Azure DBs, and OLEDBs. Personally, I have only used the Excel and SQL options and have never run into any errors.

Now that the external data is in Visio we can link it to shapes. Only one row from each data source can be linked to the same shape, although many shapes can be linked to the same row. It is a good idea to separate your rows into visual units so that you have everything you need and nothing else in a single row. To link a shape to a data row, simply drag the row from the external data window and drop it on the shape. A default data graphic should immediately appear next to the shape displaying some data from the row. From here you are able to customize the graphic to fit your needs. Now that you know the basics of using data graphics in Visio 2013, play around in Visio and have fun creating some of your own!

]]> http://blog.tallan.com/2013/04/22/using-data-graphics-in-visio-2013/feed/ 0 http://blog.tallan.com/2013/04/22/sharepoint-rolodex-using-the-query-string-filter-web-part/ http://blog.tallan.com/2013/04/22/sharepoint-rolodex-using-the-query-string-filter-web-part/#comments Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:24:47 +0000 Craig Condon http://blog.tallan.com/?p=3310 Navigating through a list or library with dozens or hundreds of items or folders can be a tedious task.  There are a few ways to make it easier to find the information you are looking for.  One unique way is to build a rolodex to filter the list items conveniently.

The rolodex is configured by using a Query String Web Part and Content Editor Web Part to filter a list or library. The high-level steps to accomplish this are:

1. Create an “Index” field in the list or library.
2. Add a Query String Filter Web Part, a Content Editor Web Part, and the web part for the list to a site page.
3. Add code to the Content Editor Web Part with links that reload the page with the query string value.
4. Configure the Query String Filter Web Part to send data to the list web part.

I’ll use a Customers list for this example.

Create an “Index” field

The first step is to create a column in the Customers list that will hold the first letter of the Customer name.  This column, which I named “Index”, is a calculated column with the formula shown below (assuming the customer name is in the Title field):

=LEFT([Title],1)

A snapshot of your data might look something like this:

Add web parts to the page

The next step is to add a Content Editor Web Part, a Query String Filter Web Part, and the Customer list web part to a site page.

Add code to the Content Editor Web Part

Edit the HTML source of the Content Editor Web Part and add the code shown below.  Replace the URL with whatever the location of your page is.  Notice the “index” query string parameter – we’ll touch on that next.

The result should look something like this:

Configure the Query String Filter web part

Finally, configure the Query String Filter web part.  Set the Query String Parameter Name field to “index”, which represents the query string parameter in the URLs in the HTML code above.

Connect the Query String Filter web part to the Customers list.

On the “Configure Connection” tab, select the Index field from the dropdown list and then click Finish.

Conclusion

That’s all there is to it.  Now, when you click on a letter or number, it will filter the Customers list, as shown below where the letter “D” was clicked.

As a side note, the “Index” field in a list is a great way to create a “group by” view on your list.

The requirement for a domain trust relationship depends on how a SharePoint Farm is configured, the SharePoint Farm could either reside in a perimeter network (or hosted environment), or the SharePoint Farm could be split between a perimeter network and the internal network.

Scenario

In this post we will assume a simple SharePoint Extranet where a SharePoint Farm and an Active Directory are in a hosted environment, and resource from the local Corporate domain (domain.local) are needed in the hosted environment (domain.ext).

As you can see in the figure above, Active Directory 2 needs to trust Active Directory 1 and access it’s resources.

After the trust is successfully established, we will configure User Profile Synchronization in the hosted environment.

Assumptions

• DNS  or NetBIOS name resolution between the 2 domains.

Before a trust can be established, there are name resolution requirements that must be met to ensure that the domain can resolve the address of the domain controller in the target domain.

• Domain Functional Level on both domains.

Both domains must have the same domain functional level (or close to the same), this can be simply done by going to Administrative Tools > Active Directory Domains and Trusts, then right click on the root of the domain then select Raise Domain Functional Level.

both of the prerequisites are out of the scope of this post, so I wont be discussing those in details, you can refer to the following TechNet Articles for more details:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee307976(WS.10).aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc787290(v=WS.10).aspx

Setting up the Trust

The Incoming Trust

1. In Domain.local Doman Controller, Go to Administrative Tools > Active Directory Domains and Trusts.

2. Right click the domain (Domain.local) then select Properties, then go to the Trusts tab.

3. You will be presented with this screen:

4. Click the New Trust button, this will start the New Trust Wizard

5. Click Next, In the Trust Name screen, type the external domain domain.ext then click Next.

6. On the Trust Type screen, select External Trust, click Next.

7. On the Direction of Trust screen, select One-way: incoming, Next.

8. On the Sides of Trust screen, select This domain only, click Next.

9. On the Trust Password screen, enter and confirm the trust password twice, click Next.

This password is to be used in establishing the trust with the other domain admin.

10. On the Trust Selections Complete screen, you can review your input and selections, click Next.

11. Finally On the Confirm Incoming Trust screen, you can either select to confirm the incoming the trust or not to.

12. Click Finish.

The Outgoing Trust

1. In Domain.ext Doman Controller, Go to Administrative Tools > Active Directory Domains and Trusts.

2. Right click the domain (domain.ext) then select Properties, then go to the Trusts tab.

3. Again You will be presented with this screen:

4. Click the New Trust button, this will start the New Trust Wizard

5. Click Next, In the Trust Name screen, type the external domain domain.local then click Next.

6. On the Trust Type screen, select External Trust, click Next.

7. On the Direction of Trust screen, select One-way: outgoing, Next.

8. On the Sides of Trust screen, select This domain only, click Next.

9. On the Outgoing Trust Authentication Level screen, select Domain-wide authentication, and then click Next

10. On the Trust Password screen, enter and confirm the trust password twice, click Next.

This password is to be used in establishing the trust with the other domain admin.

11. On the Trust Selections Complete screen, you can review your input and selections, click Next.

12. Finally On the Confirm Outgoing Trust screen, you can either select to confirm the incoming the trust or not to.

13. Click Finish.

The Trust is now completed.

The results of configurations made both in the Incoming Trust and Outgoing trust are:

Users in the domain.local domain can authenticate in the domain.ext domain but
users in the domain.ext domain cannot authentication in the domain.local domain.

Completing a Profile Sync in SharePoint 2010

Before going to Central Administration and configuring the User Profile Service Application, make sure that you have your users from the corporate domain (domain.local) in an OU (organization unit) in the domain.ext domain controller.

Also confirm that you have all your SharePoint domain accounts created and configured, those accounts are:

• User Profile Service Content Access Account (ex: EXT\SP_UserProfile)
• User Profile Synchronization Service Account(ex: EXT\SP_UserProfileService)
• User Profile Synchronization Account (ex: EXT\SP_ProfileSync)

Domain Controller Configurations

1) In the Domain.ext domain controller, open the Active Directory Users and Computers console, right click on the domain > Delegate Control

2) Add the EXT\SP_ProfileSync user, click Next, select Create a Custom Task to Delegate, click Next then Next.

3) Check Replicating Directory Changes, click Next, then click Finish.

SharePoint Server Configurations

Set Log on Locally rights for Farm Account

1. Start > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy.

2. Expand Local Policies > User Rights Assignments.

3. On the right Pane, Double click Allow log on locally to open it.

4. Click Add User of Group and add EXT\SP_Farm, click Apply then click OK to close the window.

5. From the Start Menu go to Run then Type gpupdate (this will refresh the changes made).

Temporary Grant The Farm Account Local Admin Rights

Add the EXT\SP_Farm account to the local administrators group on the SharePoint server. (remember to remove this account from the local administrator group at the end of the tutorial).

Setting up the Profile Sync

Create the User Profile Sync Service Application:

In Central Admin (login as SP_Farm):

1. Under Application Management click Manage Service Applications.

2. From the Ribbon, Click New > User Profile Service Application.

• Name: SharePoint User Profile Service Application
• Application Pool:
  • Name: UserProfileSvcAppPool.
  • Account (Configurable): EXT\SP_UserProfileService
• My Site Host URL.
• Everything else (including databases) stays the same.
• Click Create.

Start the User Profile Sync Related SP Services:

Back to Central Admin:

1. System Settings > Manage service on Server.

2. Start the following Services:

• User Profile Service.
• User Profile Synchronization Service (Select the Service App created in previous steps and type in the passwords for the Farm account).

3. Wait till the status changes to Started. (Approx. 10 mins).

4.  Perform an IISreset.

Configure Connections and Perform a Sync (Import)

In Central Admin:

1. Under Application Management > Click Manage Service Application.

2. Select SharePoint User Profile Service Application then Click on Manage from the ribbon.

3. Click on Configure Synchronization Connections under Synchronization.

4. Click Create New Connection

• Connection Name: SP AD Sync
• Type: Active Directory
• Forest Name: Domain.​ext
• Account Name: EXT\SP_ProfileSync
• Password: Type the password.
• Click Populate Containers and check the required OUs (including the one from the Domain.local
• Click Ok.
• Go back to The SharePoint User Profile Service Application management page.
• Under Synchronization click Start Profile Synchronization and start a Full Synchronization.
• You can monitor the Synchronization status by clicking on Synchronizing on the right hand side. (Wait for the sync to complete before going to the next step).

To Confirm Profiles are syncing, Under People Click on Manage User Profiles and type a user name (from domain.local) in Find profiles field, if results are returned then that means the sync is configured successfully.

The BizTalk 360 blog has a great section giving an overview of the features of BizTalk 360, and they also have many great videos showing how to install,configure, and use BizTalk 360.

Though I want to focus on a few of the new features of the recently released version 6 of BizTalk 360.

Whats New

Search and Action on BizTalk Artifacts

The search and action on BizTalk artifacts feature allows users of BizTalk 360 to quickly query BizTalk artifacts and perform normal administrative actions on the artifacts like starting/stopping/disabling, etc.

In the example above, I have used the ‘Search BizTalk Artifacts’ feature to search for all receive locations with the string ‘Receive Loc’ in the name.  I can then do mass operations like enabling or disabling all of them.  In the below example, I have searched for all orchestrations with the string ‘Tallan.BizTalk’ in the name.

The examples above show the ease of which an administrator can perform actions on groups of BizTalk artifacts and manage an environment with a large number of applications and artifacts.  More information about the Search and Action on BizTalk Artifacts feature can be found at the BizTalk360 site.

ESB Exception Management Portal

Another new feature of BizTalk 360 version 6 is the addition of a new dashboard showing the Microsoft Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Toolkit error messages logged by BizTalk.  The ESB Toolkit is a collection of tools that extend the service oriented capabilities of BizTalk, though one of the most widely used features of the ESB Toolkit is its centralized exception management capabilities. The toolkit contains an ASP.NET portal and accompanying set of BizTalk applications and assemblies which subscribe to warning and error messages and provide an easy to navigate web site to view and manage the errors. With the newest version of BizTalk 360, the ability to view and manage errors usually shown in the ESB Portal have been added to the BizTalk 360 dashboard. This allows an administrator to easily see any errors through the ESB dashboard functionality, and easily query instances and administer the BizTalk environment from the same interface, a true time saver.

More information about the ESB dashboard withing BizTalk 360 can be found on the BizTalk 360 site.

Updated Custom SQL Query Functionality

A neat feature of previous versions of BizTalk 360 was the ability to create and store custom SQL queries in the BizTalk 360 dashboard.  With the new update, the custom SQL functionality has been redone and is more streamlined, also allowing for easier editing of queries.

The above picture shows a custom SQL query for showing all of the receive locations that are disabled, and also shows the edit window allowing an administrator to edit the query.

SQL Job Outcome monitoring

One of the major components of BizTalk 360 is the ability to add alarms that will fire on certain conditions within the BizTalk environment, and send emails or text messages when the alert conditions were met.  One of the alerts that can be set is an alert monitoring SQL Jobs and ensuring that all of the jobs tied to the alert are at the desired state, enabled etc.  In the newest version of BizTalk 360, not only is the state of jobs able to be monitored, but also the outcome of the last execution.  Now alarms can be set to send an email to an administrator when important jobs do not run, such as a backup job, or the BizTalk archive logs.  The image below is an example of an alarm ‘test’ with one job set to always be enabled, and the last execution executing successful in order for a ‘pass’ condition on the alarm.  You can see that the last execution of my SQL Job failed, thus the status of the alarm is ‘Critical’ and an alert email will be sent to the email addresses specified in the alarm configuration.

For more information about BizTalk 360 check out the BizTalk 360 blog, An evaluation edition of BizTalk 360 can be downloaded from their site as well.

In this post I will go over the new features of Microsoft BizTalk Server 2013.  And explain how a few of the new features can contribute to a more efficient solution.

General

Some of the usual updates to any Microsoft software comes in the form of new platform stacks that are supported, and BizTalk Server 2013 is no different.  BizTalk now supports:

• Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
• Windows Server 2012
• Windows 7 SP1
• Windows 8
• Visual Studio 2012
• .NET Framework 4.5
• SQL Server 2008 SP1
• SQL Server 2012

New Adapters

New features included with BizTalk 2013 are a set of new adapters which allow for connectivity to other applications and protocols, such as Windows Azure and RESTful services.

• SB-Messaging Adapter: The SB-Messaging adapter allows BizTalk to send and receive messages form the Queues, Topics and Relays of a Service Bus such as Windows Azure.
• WCF-BasicHttpRelay Adapter: Allows BizTalk to communicate with an ASMX Web services using the WCF protocol.
• NetTcpRelay Adapater: Send and receive WCF calls using the secure NetTcpRelayBinding.
• WCF-WebHttp Adapter: The WCF-WebHttp adapter allows BizTalk to send and receive, or expose BizTalk artifacts using REST.
• SharePoint Services Adapter: Sends and Receives messages to SharePoint Services
• SFTP Adapter: Enables Biztalk to securely send and receive messages to FTP servers using SSH.

One new adapter which may have a large impact on how BizTalk projects are developed is the new SFTP adapter.  Many clients of mine have had a need for secure messaging to an FTP server, and we have often had to settle for third party SFTP adapters which are sometimes poorly documented or supported.  Even the ones that are well documented and supported are not trivial to implement in a client environment because of doubts about the credibility and security of a third party developed adapter, a valid point when dealing with clients that, rightfully so, demand a high level of security in their solutions.  With the SFTP adapter provided out of the box by BizTalk Server 2013, all of these concerns are addressed and implementation of new interfaces using SFTP adapters are easier without the need for installing third party software.

The SB-Messaging, WCF-BasicHttpRelay, and WCF-NetTcpRelay adapters allow for easy communication with Azure.  Microsoft has a short article on configuring the SB-Messaging adapter, and Kent Weare has a great article about implementing the SB-Messaging adapter to communicate with an Azure Service Bus.

Configurable Dynamic Send Port

In BizTalk Server 2010 and previous versions, dynamic send ports used the default host instance, without the ability to change the host instance handler used by the dynamic send port.  With BizTalk Server 2013, a new feature will be added allowing a send handler to be assigned for each dynamic send port, bringing it in line with the functionality of static send.  MSDN has a short page on this enhancement to Dynamic Send Ports.

Viewing the Artifact Dependencies

A possible cause of frustration when dealing with larger BizTalk applications, or applications with a large number of artifacts, is determining what dependencies exists between artifacts.  For example which ports an orchestration depends on, or which maps a port is using the transform messages.  With BizTalk 2013, a new feature has been added to easily show all of the dependencies between artifacts.

The MSDN BizTalk blog has is has a great tutorial on viewing the dependencies of artifacts.

ESB Toolkit included ‘Out of the Box’

The Microsoft Enterprise Service Bus Toolkit is a collection of tools that extend the service oriented capabilities of BizTalk, though one of the most widely used features of the ESB Toolkit is its centralized exception management capabilities.  The toolkit contains an ASP.NET portal and accompanying set of BizTalk applications and assemblies which subscribe to warning and error messages and provide an easy to navigate web site to view and manage the errors.

In previous versions of BizTalk Server, the Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit has been a separate installation and required its own  configuration procedure that took a considerable effort in order to correctly install and configure.  In BizTalk 2013, the ESB Toolkit installer is contained within the BizTalk 2013 installation media, and can be installed from the start menu.   Most of the remaining configuration is the same as in the previous version, however some of the ESB Toolkit configuration steps have been streamlined.

More information about configuring the ESB Toolkit, can be found on the MSDN page.

The first image is a screen capture of the HTML and CSS I’ve used. Note how everything is behaving according to it’s default properties. The headers create line breaks, the anchor tag doesn’t.

The next set of images I’ve set everything to block. Each element is going to have its own line. I’ve made no changes to the HTML, just the CSS.

The third set of images should be equally obvious, each element is set to display: inline.

Now, the OL is making the list indent in, because it’s still applying the 40px of padding the OL has built in. (the browser picks the amount, in FF it’s 40px, it might be different in your browser, and this is one reason for a CSS reset.)

I hope this has cleared a lot of things up for you. If you cant remember if an element is inline or block, just put it next to an element you know the behavior of, and see how it reacts. I’ll save inline-block and the other newer options for another blog post. Those are a lot more complicated and require a longer and more complicated explanation than the basic two.