I recently started working with the DB2 Adapter for BizTalk Server and must admit I've been pretty happy with the results. DB2 not one of my specialties, but it is still out there and not going away anytime soon. I always enjoy getting the chance to work with new adapters when I can. The Adapter is reliable and fast and makes working with yet another platform a pretty simple experience for the BizTalk developer.
I did, however, have one unexpected experience with it having to do with Element Form Defaults (which I guess I'll write about more later). After generating schemas for receive locations I eventually figured out that the adapter was returning data with an Element Form Default of qualified even though the schema was set to unqualified. As I tested my maps it was clear from the validation failure messages that the namespace was an issue. This was pretty easy to fix (change the Element Form Default to Qualified). Easy enough.
Later I found myself doing sends to the DB2 Adapter and found some more interesting details. Request messages sent to the DB2 Adapter must Unqualified (that is their Element Form Default cannot be Qualified). Easy enough again. Unfortunately the response to these messages still follow the requirement of being Element Form Default Qualified. This presented a bit of a Chicken and Egg scenario. The solution is actually a good practice in my book: don't have different messages in the same schema. I broke the request and response into their own schemas and set the Element Form Default separately.
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