IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Programming IBM BPM

Developing using the web service API

The application programming interface (API) for web service clients defines a number of schemas and provides a set of operations to access Process Designer functionality from an external client application.

Because the web API abstracts the actual technology used in IBM BPM, you can write external client applications using different technologies such as Microsoft .NET or Java. You can use a number of toolkits depending on the technology you are using, such as the Axis WSDL-to-Java tool, to help you generate classes based on the WSDL description.

The web API provides operations that enable your client applications to:

• Query process instances and tasks
• Manage process instances
• Manage and synchronize tasks
• Search business data
• Manage external activities

Communication with Process Server using web service operations is asynchronous.

Compatibility considerations

The IBM BPM web API complies with the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 standard for web service interoperability. Complete interoperability and other guarantees for the web API are outlined at the beginning of the WSDL.

In some cases, you can implement versions of web service operations that are different from the version of Process Server. For complete compatibility information, see the WSDL file.

All clients created using the web API must include a ClientInfo header object that identifies the client to Process Server. This header passes time zone and other compatibility information to Process Server, as described in the WSDL.

• Web API and external implementations
  IBM BPM includes a sample external implementation that illustrates how to use IBM BPM web API operations when developing a custom application to enable process participants to complete a particular step within a process instance.
• Web API and client applications
  

  You can use the web API to develop a client that enables process participants to access and manage their process instances and tasks.

• Passing and retrieving variables
  

  You can pass variables to the web API by mapping IBM BPM simple variable types to XML data.

• Samples
  This section provides code samples to illustrate how you can use the web API.

Related information:
Web service API reference