Integrating an Internal Web Service [WSDL] within a Flow

Last Updated: 08/11/2016 Introduced in Verision: 2.0

Webservice references represent web services which can be integrated into a flow in a number of ways. To add a web service within the portal, navigate to the folder System > Flow Management > External Services, click the Add WebService Reference button, and supply the necessary details.

To call a web service method as part of a flow, in the Flow Designer, locate the appropriate component under Integration > External WebServices > [WebService Reference Name], and place it in your flow in the workspace.

Example

Our example flow will engage one of the platform’s native web services (Process Manager > Articles) as though it were an external web service. Once the connection is made, our flow will log in and add an article.

Begin by defining Process Manager > Articles as an external web service. In the portal, navigate to the folder System > Flow Management > External Services and click the button Add WebService Reference.

In the resulting Add ExternalWebServicesReference pop-up, define the settings for our web service reference, beginning with the Name – “Process Manager Articles.”

Next, define the URL for our webservice – http://192.168.168.109/processmanager/articles/articles.asmx. This is the URL for the Process Manager > Articles web service provided by our local copy of the platform.

Because the Process Manager > Articles web service is defined by WSDL, select the checkbox for Specify WSDL. WSDL-defined web services are able to describe the methods that users can use. We’ll see the benefit of this ability when we’re designing our flow.

For now, note that selecting Specify WSDL raises two new fields – WSDL > SourceType and WSDL > From URL – which are automatically defaulted to industry-standard values. Other web service configurations may differ, so be sure to consult the appropriate API references before adding new references.

This completes our external web service reference configuration. Click OK to save our changes.

The reference Process Manager Articles is now ready for integration with a flow.

Begin building our example flow in a Designer Folder. Create a new flow named External Web Services Flow, and open it for editing.

This opens our example flow in the Flow Designer.

In the Toolbox panel, expand the category Integration > External WebServices > Process Manager Articles. Using the reference we created earlier, the platform has contacted the Process Manager > Articles web service and retrieved a list of available methods. Each method is represented as a component which we can drag into our flow.

Our example flow requires that we add an article through the external web service, so we will drag an AddArticle1 component to the workspace.

To add an article via Process Manager > Articles web service, we will need to log in. For this, we’ll drag a LoginUser component to the workspace.

Next, we’ll connect our components with the outcomes specified by the Process Manager > Articles web service’s methods – Done and Failed. We will connect the Start Step’s Done outcome to the Login User 1 step. Next, we will connect the Login User 1’s Failed outcome the End Step, and its Done outcome to Add Article 1. Finally we will connect Add Article 1’s Failed and Done outcomes both to the End Step.

Our flow is complete and ready to debug. We will start the debugger by clicking the Debug Flow link at the top of the Flow Designer.

Note that in Decisions version 3.5 and above, you’ll need to click Test Flow to access the Debugger.

Our flow has completed successfully.

Integrating an Internal Web Service [WSDL] within a Flow

Example

Additional Resources