Rating: 
Summary: Why use Omnimark for examples?
Review: A generally well written and a very interesting read except as another reviewer mentioned, for some annoying and inexplicable reason Microsoft Press, which I have found to generally be excellent, allowed the author to give example code in the Omnimark language. You've never hear of Omnimark? Nope, neither had I or most other people. All the examples in the book should have been given in a widely used language, the most obvious language being the platform neutral language of the web, PERL. The Omnimark tutorial in the Appendix wastes 80 pages that could have been ut to better use describing BizTalk. Given the importance of Biztalk to the Microsoft strategy, it's incomprehensible how they let this one through. That's the last time I buy a Microsoft Press book on spec.
Rating:
Summary: Bad, Good, and Ugly
Review: BAD: Another review hit the jackpot when s/he claimed the book was misleading: The book devoted (1) chapter to Microsoft's biztalk server 2000, and in that chapter you learned very little. What's a Channel? What's a Port? How do they work? I still don't know -> the book didn't mention them. GOOD: The book gave really good examples to help you understand how biztalk (the standard), SOAP, ROPE, xml, and xsl(t) fit together and gives a good tutorial on building your own BizTalk server from scratch. UGLY: The author attempts to shove the "OmniMark" language down the readers throats, claiming it is the language to end all languages. I was very upset when I had to sit and FOCUS REALLY HARD to understand the MANY examples written in Omnimark. Took me a week to read 260 pages. I should've been able to read it in 2 days MAX. 1 Star for greater XML/XSL understanding 1 Star for greater BizTalk Standard understading 1 Star for SOAP and ROPE understanding
Rating: 
Summary: Slightly misleading title.
Review: Be warned, there are fewer than twenty pages of information specifically related to the Microsoft product "BizTalk Server". To be fair, there are two different BizTalks; the B2B specification and Microsoft's enterprise level BizTalk server. It is entirely possible to roll your own BizTalk Server, as the authors explains very well, and not need to use Microsoft's server. I was looking for information on the former. The author does offer a good high level explanation of XML, Soap and the BizTalk specification. He has a good example of how to build your own BizTalk server with VB and ASP. He also demonstrates how to use some third party tool to work cross-platform. I was attempting to find information that would help me implement Microsoft's BizTalk Server. I figured that buying a Microsoft Press book about Biztalk Servers would do the trick, it didn't. Silly me.
Rating:
Summary: Slightly misleading title.
Review: Be warned, there are fewer than twenty pages of information specifically related to the Microsoft product "BizTalk Server". To be fair, there are two different BizTalks; the B2B specification and Microsoft's enterprise level BizTalk server. It is entirely possible to roll your own BizTalk Server, as the authors explains very well, and not need to use Microsoft's server. I was looking for information on the former. The author does offer a good high level explanation of XML, Soap and the BizTalk specification. He has a good example of how to build your own BizTalk server with VB and ASP. He also demonstrates how to use some third party tool to work cross-platform. I was attempting to find information that would help me implement Microsoft's BizTalk Server. I figured that buying a Microsoft Press book about Biztalk Servers would do the trick, it didn't. Silly me.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing - Not really a book about biztalk.
Review: Being new to XML, I learned quite a bit about xml and xsl from this book. Biztalk is basically an xml/xsl processing rule engine, so this background information was useful and appropriate. Once I finished the XML background chapters, the book rapidly spiralled downward. Most of the examples are actually web programming examples using this unpopular scripting language called 'Omnimark'. The section on Biztalk had very very little information in it. 'Professional Biztalk', though a little deep, is a much better book. This book should have been titled 'XML and Omnimark Programming with almost NO Biztalk'.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing - Not really a book about biztalk.
Review: Being new to XML, I learned quite a bit about xml and xsl from this book. Biztalk is basically an xml/xsl processing rule engine, so this background information was useful and appropriate. Once I finished the XML background chapters, the book rapidly spiralled downward. Most of the examples are actually web programming examples using this unpopular scripting language called 'Omnimark'. The section on Biztalk had very very little information in it. 'Professional Biztalk', though a little deep, is a much better book. This book should have been titled 'XML and Omnimark Programming with almost NO Biztalk'.
Rating: 
Summary: A must read for IT professionals to keep up w/ technologies
Review: Bill Gates called XML "breakthrough technology". SOAP is the best protocal to translate this technology into applications. Brian Travis is the most-regarded XML instructor and solutions developer. In this book, he provided comprehensive and thorough introductions to XML and the SOAP technologies, with a lot of practical, real-world applications. And he did this in a very smooth and interesting way, making it easy to understand and follow through. If you previously have some working experience with the Web, after finishing the book you are ready to build your e-commerce site using XML, BizTalk and SOAP immediately. I found the CD-ROM that comes with the book extremely helpful. It has everything you need to get started. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is involved in developing any sort of business solutions over the Internet. Even though you are not the hand-on person, this book will help you better understand the technology and make the right decisions.
Rating:
Summary: A must get introduction to SOAP and BizTalk
Review: Considering the groundswell behind XML, SOAP and others at Microsoft and around the industry the books available are pretty sparse. The book is very good although they should have chosen a more widely used language than Omnimark as an example. Book is a readable and well organized introduction and the companion CD (including e-book version of the book) is very good. I would like to see a deeper follow up from the authors.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for IT professionals, highly recommended!
Review: Definitely worth your time and money, very helpful. The book provids you everything you need to know to build XML applications for the Internet; and the companion CD_ROM has all the tools you will use. If you have a handful experience with the Web, you'll be able to your application right away.
Rating: 
Summary: A nice high level overview of SOAP BizTalk
Review: I agree with the previous reviews dated on September 20 and September 23. This book does provide you a nice high level overview of SOAP and BizTalk, and fun to read too. It doesn't goes terribly to the in-depth details, but still give you plenty of information for you to get started in these area. However, I do have some reservation regarding using Omnimark as the language for the SOAP and BizTalk Server examples, because it's not the most popular language in the XML world (it was very popular in SGML world). It will be nice to see some SOAP/BizTalk examples in JAVA! Talking about the MS BizTalk Server 2000, it comes with a nice tutorial, pretty helpful to get yourself familiar with the product.
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