Can ActiveADAPTER help me retrieve information from Active Directory?
Yes. The Active Directory Receive Adapter can be used to create a Receive Location that queries Active Directory at regular intervals and submit the results to your BizTalk application. A message can be submitted to BizTalk at every polling interval, or only when a change occurs in the query results (this is the "On Change Only" option on the Active Directory Receive Adapter property configuration).
In addition, the Active Directory Send Adapter can be used with a Solicit-Response Send Port to perform an on-demand query. You just send your query parameters to the send port in a message that conforms to the supplied schema, and receive your results back in a new message.
What will ActiveADAPTER add to what I see in BizTalk Server?
After installing ActiveADAPTER you will see a new transport type option when configuring a send port or receive location. With BizTalk send ports, you can create, delete, rename, move, and modify Active Directory objects. With BizTalk receive locations, you can draw XML messages into BizTalk containing Active Directory query results.
On your Programs menu you will also have an ActiveADAPTER program group containing shortcuts to documentation, sample orchestrations and schemas to get you developing your solutions quickly.
Can the Active Directory Receive Adapter help me build an orchestration that listens for changes to Active Directory?
Yes. The ON CHANGE ONLY option on the Active Directory Receive Adapter provides this feature. A message is submitted to your BizTalk application only when the results of the query you have specified change. This feature provides a great way to trigger orchestrations and keep information in your Enterprise Applications synchronized.
There is also a REAL-TIME mode that gets events from Active Directory asynchronously and submits them to BizTalk as they happen.