BizTalk tricks

I was making a very simple BizTalk map changes last Friday.

we have a bunch of maps in our solution, which just convert one schema to another.  In one of the map, a couple of the values had been hard coded using string concatenate functoid.  but unfortunately , our vendor required us to change the values before it go live. So I just open the map and change the value, then checked in.

But after I deploy it to the server, it turns out the map doesn't pick up the value I had changed in the map. thus it still using the old values.  I was called up to fix it, obviously, VS don't think I made changes to the map , thus it doesn't compile it correctly, so I end up make some link changes in the map to make sure VS2010 pick up the changes. and then it is fixed.

Also , in order to avoid similar changes in the future, I create a functoid to read the values from the configuration file.  another strange thing happened, I put the function in a separate project, I deployed to GAC, but unfortunately , when I try to pick up the functoid from the map, it can't find the functoid which I added just now.

After I close the VS2010 and open it again, it found the new function correctly....

So in a conclusion
1. if you only make some value changes in the functoid of your map , please make sure VS2010 really had picked up the changes, make some link change should do it.
2. if you add new functoid  and VS2010 failed to pick it up , please restart your VS2010 , this might save you.

BizTalk is powerful , but the development is not that user friendly.