Routing

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The most important functionality of a BizTalk server is getting your documents from your system to someone else's system. This functionality might be as simple as posting a request to a Web server over HTTP, or it might require a complex set of routing steps to get around firewalls or other security measures. In addition, when you receive a response from your trading partner, you will probably need to route the response internally to the appropriate department.

Think about a municipal clerk. When you go to a municipal building, you submit forms at a window. You might have forms for paying a parking ticket or traffic ticket. You might have forms for building an extension onto your house. You might have an application for the state to recognize a marriage. The clerk behind the window routes your forms to the appropriate department in the building. This generalized clerical front-end saves you from having to decide which office door in the municipal building you should enter to deliver that form.

Your BizTalk server operates like that clerk: It must be able to recognize which kind of document is coming in and route that document to the appropriate party for processing. This routing usually involves kicking off a workflow process that is appropriate for each type of transaction.