Overview of Dynamic Configuration

The Deployment Framework for BizTalk makes it easy for you to centrally manage all of the variables (connection strings, user names, passwords, file paths, URL's, etc.) that connect the pieces of your application together within each environment in which it runs.  This is one of the most important and powerful features of the Deployment Framework.

Each Deployment Framework for BizTalk project includes an Excel spreadsheet that captures an unlimited number of "settings" (name/value pairs) stored as rows in the spreadsheet.  Each setting (row) has a default value in addition to a value for any number of deployment environments (stored in columns).  This makes it very easy to manage a large matrix of settings across environments in one place.

The screenshot below shows a sample spreadsheet:

These settings are directly supported in many contexts:

• Token-based replacements within XML or other files, including XML port bindings files
• MSBuild properties for use within the deployment project file
• Runtime access from maps, orchestrations, pipeline components and .NET code
• ESB itineraries for dynamic routing

Storing runtime configuration information for a BizTalk solution can be tricky, because traditional .NET configuration files are difficult (but not impossible) to use in this environment.  Many people prefer to use the BizTalk SSO for this type of information.  With the Deployment Framework, this problem becomes simple to solve.

It is worth noting that the sensitive information in the spreadsheet should (eventually) be managed by the operations team that has access to production environments, and stored on a secured file share that is referenced when deploying the application.

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