Microsoft has been germinating a Complex Event Processing technology written by the SQL Server team for some time now.

The official announcement took place at Tech*Ed 2009, and an internal CTP has been floating around.

You can find the public bits (CTP2) available for download here as well as blogger Jesus Rodriguez's first thoughts here.

It also appears that MSDN has posted pre-release documentation here including Architecture images, sample scenarios, and documentation of the Microsoft.ComplexEventProcessing namespace.

I've pulled down the bits, set up a VM, and will be posting my notes shortly.

I've received a few e-mails asking about the source code for the book. It's been compiled, and is undergoing some double-checking now. Additionally, scripts are being built to allow the reader to start from specific points without having to walk through the entire book.

Look for a download from Apress' web site within the week. Many, many apologies for the delays.

I got an e-mail from a reader who indicated that the BAM Activity Tab in Microsoft Excel seems to be missing even after performing the installation of BizTalk.

The reader indicates:

Not only that, but when Excel is opened, an error is thrown that logs as:  
   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
   - <recoveryLog xmlns="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main">
     <logFileName>error031160_01.xml</logFileName>
     <summary>Errors were detected in file 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\LIBRARY\Bam.xla'</summary>
   - <additionalInfo>
     <info>This workbook has lost its VBA project, ActiveX controls and any other programmability-related features.</info>
     </additionalInfo>
     </recoveryLog>

I've run into this problem several times, but it seems once fixed, it doesn't crop up again.

Here's what I did to fix it:

1. Navigate to the Excel Add-ins window where you select the ones you want for that document (this is in Office 2007).
2. Uncheck the checked add-ins, such as Analysis ToolPak, Analysis Toolpack - VBA, and Business Activity Monitoring. This should remove the add-ins from the default template.
3. Restart Excel.
4. Return to the Excel Add-ins window again.
5. Check the add-ins that had been unchecked and click OK
6. If you get a warning message saying that an add-in was not installed and asking you if you want to install it, click Yes.
7. Wait for the installation process to run.  When it finishes, the Add-ins tab should be on the ribbon.
8. The BAM selection should be in the Add-Ins tab and work.

If that doesn't work, you may need to repair the BAM Developer tools. Failing that, uninstall the BAM Developer Tools, and uninstall Excel. Double check to ensure that the default workbook template for Excel has been deleted from the file system. Reinstall Office, and then re-install the BAM Developer tools.

Hope that helps.