Biztalk Server Glossary

Message : Messages in BizTalk Server, which are the business data of a company, can be represented in a specific format, such as XML or Comma Separated Values (CSV). To process a message in BizTalk Server, you need to convert the message into XML format because the BizTalk Server architecture is designed in XML.

MessageBox : MessageBox in BizTalk Server is a SQL Server database that stores messages.
You can also use BizTalk Server to create various instances of MessageBox such as secondary
MessageBox and master MessageBox. The master MessageBox distributes message traffic
between different secondary MessageBoxes for processing. The secondary MessageBox handles a part of the message traffic that the master MessageBox sends.

Channels : A channel is a collection of attributes that specify the source of documents, which contain the business data that you need to transmit across enterprise applications. A channel also specifies thetasks that messaging services need to perform to transfer a document. In BizTalk Server, each channel has a unique ID and is associated with a port, which transfers data to a destination.

PipeLine : A pipeline is a group of Component Object Models (COM) or .NET components that process a message before sending it to its destination. A pipeline divides the processing of a message into different tasks called stages and defines the sequence to implement each stage. For example, a pipeline divides the processing of a message into three tasks: decoding the incoming message, dividing the incoming message into several parts, and converting the messages into XML format.

Ports : Ports are interfaces to exchange messages between two applications of a business process. A port connects BizTalk Server to a URL using a protocol, such as https and ftps. BizTalk Server messaging requires two types of ports, receive and send, to transfer messages between the applications of a business process.

A receive port combines the messages that an enterprise application sends to one or more
destination locations, called receive locations. A receive location uses an adapter to continuously monitor a specific URL for the arrival of messages. A send port receives a message from the BizTalk Server MessageBox and transmits the message to a URL through an adapter.