Setting the time zone in the BizTalk360 BAM Portal and other BAM improvements

Published on : Jul 5, 2018

Category : BizTalk360 Update

BizTalk360

Author

The BAM Portal in BizTalk360, provides the option for querying BAM views, perform activity searches, check user permissions and to view the query results of Related Activities and Documents the same as in the out of the box BAM Portal of BizTalk Server. However, the user couldn’t view the query results in their respective time zone in BizTalk360, like in the original BAM portal. We brought a number of improvements to the BAM Portal in BizTalk360; setting the time zone is just one of them.

Time Zone in BizTalk BAM portal

BizTalk360 Feedback portal Some of our customers requested the functionality to view the query result on their respective time zone. In BizTalk360 v8.8, we came up with the solution, by implementing “BAM Time Zone”. With the help of this, the user can choose the time zone specifically to their requirement. In the BizTalk BAM Portal, the query result is displayed according to the local Time Zone, while the actual data in the BAMPrimary database is stored in the UTC time zone. BAM captures milestones such that they are automatically recorded in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) format (this is also referred to as Greenwich Mean Time). When you send date/times to BAM using the APIs, they are received in the format sent without  conversion to UTC format.

Time Zones in BizTalk360 BAM portal

Earlier versions of BizTalk360 automatically picked up those data in the BAMPrimaryImport database and display it. BizTalk360 won’t convert any time zone as might be user required; the product will display UTC time zone the same as in BAMPrimaryImport database. From this version on, BizTalk360 will pick up the UTC time in the BAMPrimaryImport database and then convert that into the user required time zone. The user can set the required time zone using the BAM Time Zone. Configure time zone in BizTalk360 BAM portal

Usability of BAM Time Zones

The available time zones are displayed in the BAM Time Zone dropdown and the user can choose the specific time zone according to the system Timezone/ local time zone. Through this, the user can view the date time as in the original BAM portal. Configure time zone: time zones drop down The BAM Time Zone also includes Day Light savings, so query result is displayed according to the Day Light Savings.

Can Other Users set the BAM Time Zone?

Only the Super User will have the permission to set the BAM Time Zone. If other users also have that permission, that could create confusion, so to avoid this we have given permission to set the BAM time Zone only to Super Users.BAM Portal time zones: read-only for Normal users Other users can view which time zone has set, but they have not access to change the set BAM Time Zone.

Related Documents Improvements

In version v8.6, we have implemented the Related Activities and Related Documents Functionality. After this release, we came to know some new workaround from our customers, who noticed an issue in Related Activities view and Related Documents Download Functionality, like BizTalk360 Feedback portal: download Related documents The above issue is because, when the “Activity Id” has any special characters or it is custom created, the user could not view the detailed information. This has been solved in the current version of BAM. The user can now view the detailed information and Related activities without any constraints. BAM portal: Detailed information

Handling the XML Message in BAMPrimaryImport Database

We came across another new workaround with Related Documents Download functionality. The Related Document is not getting downloaded when the XML message is stored in BAMPrimaryImport Database. In the BizTalk BAM portal, the user can capture the whole XML Data in LongReferenceData column in the BAMPrimaryImport Database. This can be done by using the AddReference method of the BAM Orchestration Event Stream to log the complete xml message.BAM data in BAMPrimaryImport database BAM can store up to 1 MB of data through the AddReference method (using longReferenceData field with type NTEXT) on the event stream, a great well-performing solution for message-bodies which enables the storage of message bodies alongside the data that describes how it was processed.

Handling the XMLMessage in BizTalk360 BAM Portal

In the BizTalk360 BAM Portal, the Related Documents are only downloaded from the archive folder. From this version of BizTalk360 v8.8, the Related documents will get downloaded either from archive folder and from the database. It checks the XML message either in Archive folders or in the database, if it is found, it downloads the XML File in Zip File Format as shown below. BAM Portal: Related documents If the file is not available in both archive folders or database, it will throw a “File Not Found exception” as below. Downloading Related documents: File not Found exception

Filter Improvements

In the previous version, we received a feedback from customers that some filter conditions are not working as expected in the BizTalk360 BAM Portal. BAM Portal: Filters In the current version of BizTalk360, we have fixed the below mentioned filter conditions in BizTalk360 BAM.
  1. String Filter
  • Starts with
  • Ends with
BAM Portal: Fixed Filters 2. Date Time Filter
  • Later
  • On or Later
BAM Portal: Fixed Filters We improved those filters, so it will be working from BizTalk v8.8. We have implemented above functionality in the BAM Portal by keeping our customer feedback and understanding the consequence of users on execution. This implementation will highly optimize the BizTalk360 BAM Portal. If you are interested, you can read more on our Documentation portal.