An adapter is a software component that enables you to easily send messages out of or receive messages into BizTalk Server with a delivery mechanism that conforms to a commonly recognized standard, such as SMTP, POP3, FTP, or Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ). As Microsoft BizTalk Server has evolved, the need for adapters that quickly enable connectivity with commonly used applications and technologies has increased.
BizTalk Server includes the following adapters, which are referred to as the "native" or "integrated" adapters: FILE, FTP, HTTP, MQSeries, MSMQ, POP3, SMTP, SOAP, SQL, Windows Sharepoint Services, and the seven WCF adapters (WCF-WSHttp, WCF-BasicHttp, WCF-NetTcp, WCF-NetMsmq, WCF-NetNamedPipe, WCF-Custom, and WCF-CustomIsolated). Native adapters are installed with BizTalk Server. You can also create custom adapters for your specific solutions by using the BizTalk Adapter Framework.
Each of the native adapters is associated with a receive location designed to listen for messages from a certain transport at a certain address. After the message is received by the receive location, it is passed to the adapter. The adapter attaches the data stream to the message (typically in the body part of the message), adds any metadata pertaining to the endpoint that the data was received from, and then submits that message into the BizTalk Messaging Engine.
By default, when you run the BizTalk Configuration Wizard, the wizard installs the native adapters and creates an adapter handler with a default configuration for each one.
Using BizTalk Explorer and the BizTalk Server Administration console, you can modify the default configuration for the adapter handlers as well as add, remove, and modify send ports and receive locations for the adapters. For more information about these processes, see the appropriate topics in See Also.