Getting Started

This section describes the Messaging Patterns feature under Analytics, which is divided into the following parts:

• Getting started
• In-Depth View

In getting started, this section provides an introduction to Messaging Patterns. It consists of the following parts:

• What are Messaging Patterns in BizTalk360
• What are the Analytics Services associated with Messaging Patterns?
• Messaging Patterns - Points to remember

What are Messaging Patterns in BizTalk360

BizTalk360 has the functionality to allow users to view the graphical flow of messages within your BizTalk Group. The Graphical Message Flow Viewer constructs visualizations of message flow and displays them in a nice graphical way with all the details of the ports and orchestrations through which the message traveled through the system.

The challenge with Graphical Message Flow Viewer is that, for instance, if there are 100 messages passing through the system at a particular point of time, each message is tracked at the service instance level with a unique id. At an operational level, this is very useful. However, it does not give any insight into the number of transactions that are processed by BizTalk Server.

To solve this problem, BizTalk360 introduces the capability of Messaging Patterns to visualize the list of message flows that has happened in the system. The key difference from Graphical Message Flow Viewer is that, in the message flow list, only the unique messaging patterns get recorded. As in the previous case, if there are 100 messages passing through the system at a particular point in time, not all the 100 message flows are recorded in the Messaging patterns. Only the unique message patterns are recorded, which could be just, say, 15 or 20.

In BizTalk360, Messaging Patterns is a part of the "Analytics" section that hosts the Performance Analyser Dashboard and the Throttling Analyser 

Rename the Message Flow Pattern and View the transaction volume at port level

It does not just end with viewing the message patterns, but users also have the ability to rename the message flows to a meaningful name (since the flows appear with the flowUId alphanumeric value from the database) with a meaningful description so that they know what is unique about a particular message flow that happened in the system. In addition, users also have the ability to view the transaction volume at each port in the flow (say, receive ports, orchestrations, and send ports).

Hiding Message Patterns

The Hide option is used to hide the message patterns from the list which are temporary de-commissioned or less used message patterns.

Delete Message Patterns

You can delete the message patterns which are no longer in use.

What are the Analytics Services associated with Messaging Patterns?

In order for Messaging Patterns to work, there are few backend services that are responsible for keeping track of the unique message flows from the various messages that pass through the system every day. It is important that these services are running in a healthy state in order for the message flows to be stored and displayed in the user interface. The two main services associated with Messaging Patterns are:

• Artifact Tracker
• Mapping Data
  
  You can view the health of these artifacts under the Analytics Services Status section in BizTalk360 Health under BizTalk360 Settings.

Messaging Patterns - Points to Remember

Here are the important points to remember when working with BizTalk360 Messaging Patterns functionality:

• Make sure you have enabled tracking at the 'Pipeline' level for the unique data flow data to be captured by the Analytics service
• Message Count and Average Execution Time graphs are displayed for a 24-hour period. Click and drag the mouse on the graph to zoom in into the graph data. To reset the graph, click the Reset button
• The Analytics service has a refresh interval of 15/60 seconds
• Date and Timestamp values displayed in the graph depends on the User Profile setting (Click the user icon at the top right corner of the page and define the User Profile settings)
• Super Users - Have all the rights to view the message flow, associated port information, the message count, and average execution time graphs
• Normal Users - Have the capability to view the message flow. However, if the message flow happens through an application for which they do not have access, they will not have the privileges to view the artifact information and the graph.
• For instance, Scott is a normal user and has access only to ACME and Contoso applications in BizTalk360. When Scott tries to view the Messaging Pattern of messages that passed through the RuleTestApp application, he will see a permission denied error message.
• Normal Users do not have the permissions to edit the name and description of the Messaging Patterns
• The 'Pin to Dashboard' icon pins the Messaging Patterns to the 'Main Operations Dashboard' and not to the Analytics Dashboard
• Even though there are no purge settings for Messaging Patterns in BizTalk360, the Messaging Patterns data will be automatically purged based on the Tracking Database settings. Make sure you keep the right setting in the tracking database if you wish to retain the Messaging Patterns data for a specific period of time.