How To Use Multiple Channels with Different Outbound Document Definitions and an XLANG Schedule

This article describes how to configure multiple BizTalk Messaging Channels to launch or interface with the same BizTalk Orchestration Schedule, even though each channel uses different outbound document definitions.

When accessing an Orchestration Schedule from BizTalk Messaging, the receive action in the schedule has a Message Type property. The Message Type property identifies what documents to retrieve from the Orchestration Activation Component (OAC). Each document that is handled by OAC has a Label property, called PROPID_M_LABEL, which is populated with the name of the outbound document definition from the submitting channel. The Label property must match the Message Type property from the Orchestration Schedule.

Problems can occur if you have multiple BizTalk Messaging Channels (and each has a different outbound document definition) that are bound to either the same messaging port or multiple messaging ports. These messaging ports are all configured to interface with the same Orchestration Schedule, either new or existing. In this scenario, each channel submits documents with different Label properties, and the Orchestration Schedule must be configured to accept multiple Message Types.

To configure the Orchestration Schedule to accept multiple Message Types, create a schedule that has a fork shape and multiple receive actions that have the desired Message Types configured. This allows the schedule to retrieve one of many different documents from OAC.

NOTE: This does not allow an Orchestration Schedule to retrieve multiple documents in a single running instance of the schedule; it only enables an Orchestration Schedule to retrieve multiple formats instead of just one.