Partners and Partner Link Configurations
Partners are external services that can be invoked from BusinessWorks Process Definitions. Partners are defined by a name and a WSDL portType that describes the operations that can be invoked. The Invoke Partner activity is used within a process definition to invoke an operation on a partner service. The Receive Partner Notification activity is used within a process definition to invoke notification services, where the notification service sends a message that the invoker receives. Partners can be located either inside the same project as the process that invokes the service, or the partner can be an external partner service invoked over the Internet by way of the SOAP protocol.
To define a partner for the process definition, follow this general procedure:
-
Use the + and X buttons to add or delete partners in the table in the Partners field for a process definition. Move the partners up or down the list using the arrow buttons.
-
Double click on the value in the Partner Name column of the table to set the name of the partner service.
-
Select a partner, then use the Browse button in the PortType field to locate the appropriate WSDL containing the portType for the partner.
-
In the Select a Resource dialog, select the appropriate WSDL file and PortType, then click OK.
-
Optionally, you can use the Browse button in the Partner Link field to specify the Partner Link Configuration resource that contains the partner’s endpoint. If you specify the partner link in this field, you do not need to specify the Partner Binding tab in the Service when this process definition is used as an operation implementation. If you do not specify the partner link here, you must specify the partner binding on the service.
Partner Link Configuration resources associate partners with endpoints. Your service can then correlate partners invoked by the operations with partner link configurations that specify the actual bindings to endpoints.
Instead of specifying the actual endpoint of a partner service in the process definition, you may wish to specify the interface, and then let the service that uses the process bind the interface to the actual endpoint. This allows you to easily change third-party partner services without changing your implementation.
To create a partner link configuration resource, follow this general procedure:
Procedure
-
Drag and drop a Partner Link Configuration resource onto the design panel.
-
Click the + button to add a new partner. If necessary, use the X button to delete partners or the arrow buttons to move partners up or down the list.
-
In the Select a Service Endpoint dialog, select a valid endpoint. For WSDL files, valid endpoints are configured ports within the WSDL file. For services within the project, only endpoints configured to use LOCAL as the transport can be specified. If you wish to invoke a local service over SOAP, use a concrete WSDL that exposes the service by way of SOAP. If necessary, you can later change an endpoint for the specified partner by double clicking on the Service Endpoint column of the partner and selecting a new endpoint.
-
The partner appears in the table in the Partner field. Specify a name for the partner in the Name field. Specify a timeout (in seconds) for the amount of time you wish to allow for invokes to wait while a service responds. Zero indicates an unlimited amount of time.