OK, so I had planned my first 'proper' post to be about my excursions into using the SDC Build Tool to build and deploy BizTalk solutions.... however, the post took on a life of its own and has become far too long for my liking.
I've therefore decided to ease myself into this more slowly and start with some shorter, hopefully more concise posts.
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I firmly believe that all static BizTalk ports should be late bound, and any developer caught using the 'Specify Now' option when designing an Orchestration needs a stern ticking-off indeed!
I've found binding files to be a powerful deployment tool (albeit a configuration management 'challenge' - more of this in another post) as they provide a quick and repeatable way of configuring ports and binding Orchestrations - they can even be used to reconfigure existing ports and orchestrations without undeploying the assembly...... usually.
One such exception I came across recently, was when a SQL port was changed from 2-way to 1-way, attempts to import the updated binding file against the existing port failed repeatedly. Only after deleting the original port and letting the import process create the port would it work properly.
It seems that there must be a limitation to the extent of changes that can be made to a port without deleting it (i.e. attributes that give the port its fundamental 'type' - for want of a better word). It's on my list to see whether there are any other port attributes that cannot be changed without recreating the port, as it does have an impact on deployment process.