Inbound Web Service – Part 3 – Web Service

Now that we have our IO and Workflow Process defined, we can look at exposing these through a Web Service. Luckily, Siebel has a number of functions that will allow us to do this quickly and easily!

1. Having tested the Workflow Process that we created last time, check in the IO and Workflow Process. Compile and deploy an SRF and deploy the Workflow Process through Administration > Business Processes > Workflow Deployment
2. Here comes the easy part! In Siebel Tools, connected to the Server data source, locate your Workflow Process, right click and select ‘Deploy As Web Service…’
3. The ‘operation name’ is the ‘port’ that the external system will refer to. Think of this as a function name in a class or Business Service definition. Specify a value of ‘getCustomerDetails’
4. The URL of the Web Service is the URL on which the external system will communicate with the Object Manager supporting the Workflow process. For example:
   • http://myhost/eai_enu/start.swe?SWEExtSource=WebService&SWEExtCmd=Execute&WSSOAP=1
   • Stick to this template for now – you can always change it later and we’ll see how to do so shortly
5. Leave ‘Generate WSDL’ unchecked for now and click ‘Finish’
6. Now log into the application thin client. Navigate to Site Map > Administration – Web Services > Inbound Web Services and query for ‘My Web Service Workflow’. Siebel will have set it all up for you, based on the properties of the Workflow Process
7. In order to get things working quickly, make a few changes to the Service Port. Be sure to set the login details appropriately. This allows the external application to call the Web Service without having to supply authentication details:
   • Binding: SOAP_RPC_LITERAL
   • Address: http://myhost/eai_enu/start.swe?SWEExtSource=SecureWebService&SWEExtCmd=Execute&UserName=SADMIN&Password=SADMIN
8. Click the ‘Generate WSDL’ button and save the resulting file somewhere safe
9. Click the ‘Clear Cache’ button, to force a referesh of Siebel’s Web Service cache – if you don’t do this, you’ll get an error when you try to call the Web Service

You have now created a Siebel Web Service that can be called remotely, from any machine with access to your Web Server.
In the next post, I’ll explain how to test this and see some useful results.