Visio and BizTalk integration via BPEL

[George Stere]

Can Visio 2003 business process models be integrated with
BizTalk Server 2004 using BPEL? This is mentioned by
sites http://prade.microsoftemea.com/content/Work%
20Management/EIBPMScenarioVision.doc and
http://www.microsoft.com/office/visio/prodinfo/faq.mspx
(see Q: Can I integrate Visio 2003 with other Microsoft
technologies?)

I have installed Visio 2003 Professional but can not find
anything about "export as BPEL" of a Visio business
process model.

Can this be done, or must we wait for a future release?
The upcoming BizTalk Server 2004 promised "import BPEL"
functionality.

 

[Mai-lan [MS]]

It is not part of the Visio product to export to BPEL. You can write an XSLT
to transform the Visio XML file format to BPEL, but that XSLT isn't shipped
by Visio.

I'm not sure about the BizTalk Server 2004 support for BPEL, you might to
check with the biztalk newsgroups.

Thanks,
Mai-lan
Microsoft Corporation

 

[George Stere]

It still puzzles me why the FAQ site for Visio 2003
( http://www.microsoft.com/office/visio/prodinfo/faq.mspx )
mentions
"Q: Can I integrate Visio 2003 with other Microsoft technologies?"
"A. Yes. Visio 2003 integrates with:
BizTalk Server. Use Visio to design or document a business process and
then dynamically share the data through XML process standards, such as
old domain exit (ODX) or business process execution language (BPEL);
automate the task with Microsoft BizTalk® Server."
If it's not correct, it should be changed.

BizTalk 2004 can produce, via the Orchestration designer, odx file and
is able to export this as bpel.
I am new to Visio 2003 and I understand from your answer [Mai-lan]
that sharing data of business processes can only be done by manually
XSLT runs on .vdx, .vtx or .vsx Visio files. Quite costlty.

thanks,
George

 

[Mai-lan [MS]]

Hi, George: I agree, it's a little vague how it's worded. There is no direct
support for BPEL in Visio. An additional note that I found out:
The BizTalk Server 2004 ODBA (orchestration designer for business analyst)
tool, which is available at the end of March as a free download, will allow
you to create orchestration specifications which can be exported to ODX, but
not BPEL. This ODX can then be loaded into BizTalk Visual Studio based
toolset to implement the orchestration.

Thanks,

Mai-lan

It still puzzles me why the FAQ site for Visio 2003
( http://www.microsoft.com/office/visio/prodinfo/faq.mspx )
mentions
"Q: Can I integrate Visio 2003 with other Microsoft technologies?"
"A. Yes. Visio 2003 integrates with:
BizTalk Server. Use Visio to design or document a business process and
then dynamically share the data through XML process standards, such as
old domain exit (ODX) or business process execution language (BPEL);
automate the task with Microsoft BizTalk® Server."
If it's not correct, it should be changed.

BizTalk 2004 can produce, via the Orchestration designer, odx file and
is able to export this as bpel.
I am new to Visio 2003 and I understand from your answer [Mai-lan]
that sharing data of business processes can only be done by manually
XSLT runs on .vdx, .vtx or .vsx Visio files. Quite costlty.

thanks,
George

"Mai-lan [MS]" <[email protected]> wrote in message

It is not part of the Visio product to export to BPEL. You can write an XSLT
to transform the Visio XML file format to BPEL, but that XSLT isn't shipped
by Visio.

I'm not sure about the BizTalk Server 2004 support for BPEL, you might to
check with the biztalk newsgroups.

Thanks,
Mai-lan
Microsoft Corporation