How can web services be called in BluePrism?
Tolani Jaiye-Tikolo, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Developer - Blue Prism
Answered Jul 23, 2018 · Author has 116 answers and 412.2k answer views
Apologies for the late reply and by the way, Suresh already gave a good answer. To reiterate, Blue Prism provides supports for SOAP, WSDL web-based services. Blue Prism object sand processes can be exposed as web services with the intention to
- Enable third-party invoke them to add work items to the queue, which will be worked by another process or using existing infrastructure such as scheduling
- Get/Retrieve data from systems which Blue Prism already automates. For example, mainframe systems
- Trigger processing of work items e.g sending data & also retrieve outputs
Blue Prism objects or processes exposed can only be consumed if certain criteria are met. Some of these criteria are listed as follows
- The Web Service XSD Data Type match the supported Blue Prism Data Type e.g date, datetime, flag and etc. Complex Data Types will only be supported if they contain supported Blue Prism Data Type and they will automatically be read as Data Table/Collection in the Object/Process Studio
- The WSDL file is well formed and valid
- The character encoding of the web service should solely be UTF-8
- The third party has a connection to the runtime resources. For instance, they are on the same network and the third party has relevant privilege to access/trigger the exposed process/object. In a case, where the third party application is outside the network, a certificate based encryption is advised to be configured on BP server or a proxy to enforce security
After all the relevant conditions have been met and the object/process published, the Blue Prism exposed will be accessible via the following URL
- http://[machine name]:[port]/ws/
Third-Party Web Service can also be consumed in Blue Prism and for this to happen, you must have a general understanding of how this web service works. This means that, you need to have a valid WSDL file and also know the methods/functions that are available to you so as to know how to invoke it.
It is very paramount to consider using the GUI automation before proceeding to the web service route. Although, there are cases where the web service solution is a sticker option i.e going through the back door on a slow GUI may be more effective and result in a faster turnaround but security, cost of build, validation/verification should be weighed against the GUI automation. The solution design should ensure the platforms underpinning the systems are not over-burdened during stress times and thus, causing a denial of service to other customers. Care must be taken to ensure, the solution is efficient and resources are not idle . Blue Prism provides a number of recommendations for defining a Web Service solution in the Document > Web Services section on the portal.
It’s worthy to note that, native supports for creating RESTful web services are not provided by Blue Prism and a code stage may need to be utilised to achieve this. Although, a few VBOs have been supplied as examples to assist developers with relevant experience e.g HTTP, JSON , REST and Oauth.
I hope this helps.