Using the BizTalk Adapters to Send and Receive Messages
There are a number of ways to use the BizTalk adapters provided with Commerce Server 2009, also known as the Commerce Server 2009 adapters. You can use the receive functionality of the Commerce Server 2009 adapters (receive adapters) to establish set time intervals upon which Commerce Server 2009 data will be exported into BizTalk Server. You can use the send functionality of the Commerce Server 2009 adapters (send adapters) to either retrieve Commerce Server 2009 data or to import data into Commerce Server 2009, both driven by the flow of messages within BizTalk Server. And regardless of whether you are using the receive adapters or the send adapters, the ultimate purpose of using the adapters is the automated exchange of Commerce Server 2009 data with another application or system, through BizTalk Server. Often, the other application is a line-of-business (LOB) system with which you want to integrate Commerce Server 2009.
This section provides more high-level information about using the Commerce Server 2009 adapters to exchange Commerce Server 2009 data with other applications such as LOB systems. It divides the discussion according to a logical boundary inside BizTalk Server. On one side of the boundary are the Commerce Server 2009 adapters and Commerce Server 2009 itself. The first two topics, about sending and receiving messages to and from Commerce Server 2009, discuss what you, as an adapter developer, need to think about on one side of this boundary. The third topic, about conversing with other systems, discusses what you need to think about on the other side of the boundary, where you will probably be doing some BizTalk Server development and potentially some development within the other system itself.