BizTalk Receive Location Error - Verify the schema deployed properly.

I was getting an error with Biztalk Server when receiving a file from MSMQ although you get a similar error on FILE receive locations. The message was

There was a failure executing the receive pipeline: "Microsoft.BizTalk.DefaultPipelines.XMLReceive, Microsoft.BizTalk.DefaultPipelines, Version=3.0.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" Source: "XML disassembler" Receive Port: "Portname" URI: "FORMATNAME:DIRECT=OS:.\PRIVATE$\QNAME" Reason: Finding the document specification by message type "RootNode" failed. Verify the schema deployed properly.

It is caused because the message does not conform to a schema that Biztalk recognises, in my case because the RootNode is not recognised. The problem is BizTalk has not saved the original message. It's gone. The method described here shows how to keep a copy of the original file. There maybe other solutions but this works well for me.

The solution I outline is for FILE ports but once you understand the principle you will see how to apply it for MSMQ. The principle is to use a Receive Location and a Send Port Group configured for the Pass Through pipeline.

The Receive Location becomes the new port which polls for inbound messages that arrive in the directory c:\inbound. The Receive Location is bound to a Recieve Port which I'll call ReceivePort1.

The Send Port Group has 2 Send Ports in it. Both Send Ports, for the sake of simplicity, are FILE ports that are configured to write out the file using %SourceFileName% to the following directories c:\filecopy and c:\biztalkinbound. Both are configured to use the Pass Through pipeline.

Got to the Filter on the Send Port Group and add the following filter
BTS.ReceivePortName == ReceivePort1

Enable the Receive Location and start both Send Ports and the Send Port Group. If you drop a file into c:\inbound it will appear in both directories c:\filecopy and c:\biztalkinbound and it will retain the original file name.

Your original Receive Location should now point to the location c:\biztalkinbound and it will be configured for whatever pipeline you were using (XML Receive or a custom Flat File pipeline).

The benefit of this is you always have a copy of the original file in its original format in the directory c:\filecopy. As an added treat I got my orchestration to delete files that were successfully processed from this directory. So c:\filecopy became the place which stored files that failed to be processed - the classic being that they failed to match the correct schema as described by the error at the beginning of the post. Send an email alert to the Sysem Administrator and you'll be a hero.