A Complete Solution
Spread for BizTalk Server 2006 provides a complete solution for integrating Microsoft Excel data seamlessly into your BizTalk applications.

Spread includes a pipeline disassembler that parses Excel data (XLS, Excel 2007 XML, CSV, TXT) into XML, and a pipeline assembler that creates Excel (XLS, Excel 2007 XML) and PDF documents from XML data in BizTalk Applications.

A Codeless Solution
Spread includes the Spreadsheet Schema Wizard and the Spreadsheet Format Designer that are both integrated into Visual Studio 2005. The Spreadsheet Schema Wizard enables the developer to codelessly create custom schemas. These schemas are used by the pipeline disassembler to define the structure of the resulting XML data as it is parsed from incoming Excel streams. This same wizard is used to define the schemas that represent XML data streams to be assembled into Excel or PDF documents through the pipeline assembler. The Spreadsheet Format Designer can be used by the developer to design the appearance of the resulting Excel or PDF documents to be created by the pipeline assembler.

A Simple Solution
The power of Spread is in its functionality, not in its complexity. Spread is a simple and elegant solution to a real business problem – the integration and use of spreadsheet data in your business applications.

Spread for BizTalk provides:

·         a codeless solution for the integration of Microsoft Excel data into your BizTalk applications

·         a Visual Studio integrated design-time that includes the Spreadsheet Schema Wizard, and the Spreadsheet Format Designer

·         automated parsing of Excel message streams (XLS, Excel 2007 XML, CSV, TXT) into XML message stream

·         automated document creation by assembling XML data in BizTalk applications into Excel (XLS, Excel 2007 XML), or PDF documents

FarPoint Spread for BizTalk Server 2006

This latest release of FarPoint Spread for BizTalk has been tested with Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2006 R2 and is fully compatible. The new release of FarPoint Spread for BizTalk version 2.0 now inlcudes an Assembler and adds several requested new features. Support has been added for Office 2007 XML format, also known as Microsoft Office Open XML (OOXML). In addition, FarPoint Spread for BizTalk now allows Microsoft Excel® workbooks with a variable numbers of sheets to validate against a single schema. This is useful for BizTalk® applications that receive Excel files with variable number of sheets of a common format.

FarPoint Spread for BizTalk is a pipeline disassembler that:

·         Allows you to integrate Microsoft Excel data into your BizTalk applications by parsing incoming Excel spreadsheet stream messages into XML

·         Codelessly automates the parsing of XLS message streams into XML message streams without the need for Microsoft Excel

·         Supports comma-delimited (CSV) and tab-delimited (TXT) Excel files in the design time wizard and run time component

·         Includes an easy wizard interface to create custom schemas

·         Allows multiple schemas to be set at design time to allow the runtime component to support multiple spreadsheet layouts within a single receive pipeline

·         Optionally includes or ignores hidden columns in incoming Excel (XLS) streams from the resulting XML

·         Optionally copies spanned cell data in incoming Excel (XLS) streams, to each individual cell in the span, in the resulting XML

·         Optionally includes or ignores sheet names in incoming Excel (XLS) streams as attribute data in the resulting XML

·         Allows you to design the schema by selecting the range of record item data in each sheet of an Excel (XLS) spreadsheet

·         Allows you to specify each column of incoming data to be represented either as an element or as attribute data in the resulting XML

·         Allows you to specify the XML data-type for each column of the incoming Excel stream.

·         Allows you to specify the element or attribute name of each data element in the resulting XML

·         Can be added to the Decode, Disassemble, or Validate stages of the receive pipeline of BizTalk

·         Has its design-time elements fully integrated into Visual Studio 2005

·         Complies with CLS with the exceptions where non-CLS-compliant Microsoft classes and interfaces are required

·         Latest version tested with BizTalk 2006 R2

FarPoint Spread for BizTalk is a pipeline assembler that:

·         Allows you to codlessly create Excel (XLS and Excel 2007 XML) and PDF documents from the XML in your BizTalk Application

·         Includes a Spreadsheet Format Designer to allow you to specify the formatting of the resulting document.

·         Allows you to make the following formatting specifications in the resulting document:

o    position and size images

o    set row and column backcolors

o    set row and column forecolors

o    set row and column fonts

o    set column alignment

o    set column number, date-time, and text formatting

o    set column widths

o    set row heights

o    specify the display of gridlines

o    specify the display of row and column headers

o     

·         Has its design-time elements fully integrated into Visual Studio 2005

·         Complies with CLS with the exceptions where non-CLS-compliant Microsoft classes and interfaces are required.

·         Was built and testing with Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2

Licensing for FarPoint Spread for BizTalk Server 2006

A licensed version of Spread for BizTalk is required for each Microsoft BizTalk production server where Spread for BizTalk is installed. Generally, that will be each production server that will parse Excel data with Spread for BizTalk.

A production server is any server with Microsoft BizTalk Server installed that is used to process information with your business partners, or used to process information with internal units of your company or organization.

The use of Spread for BizTalk on development, test, QA, or otherwise non-production servers does not require a licensed version of Spread for BizTalk.