IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Create processes in IBM Process Designer > Modeling processes > Integrating with web services, Java and databases > Create inbound integrations

Publishing IBM BPM web services

IBM BPM can publish web services in the same way that it consumes web services. Using a SOAP connection, external applications can call the IBM BPM web service to initiate a particular service or set of services.

You can create and publish a web service to enable external applications to initiate a particular IBM BPM service or set of services. Using a SOAP integration, external applications can call the web service.

See Building a sample inbound integration to learn how to build a sample integration that includes a web service.

Follow these steps to create a web service that external applications can call:


Procedure

  1. Start IBM Process Designer and open the appropriate process application in the Designer view.

  2. In the Designer view, select the plus sign next to the Implementation category and then select Web Service from the list.

  3. In the New Web Service window, type a name for the service and then click the Finish button.

  4. In the Common section, you can type a description of the web service in the Documentation text box.

  5. In the Operations section, click the Add button to choose an existing service to add. Because the services that IBM BPM initiates from a web service do not have an associated task, do not add services that include the following components: Coach, Modify Task, and Browser Script. See Understanding service components for more information about these components.
  6. Under Operation Details, type a name for the selected service in the Operation Name text box. (Change Untitled to the name that you want.)

  7. Optionally, you can type a description of the operation in the Documentation text box.

  8. Click the Add button in the Operation section to continue adding services.

  9. In the Behavior section, enable the Protected check box if you want access to the WSDL URI to be password-protected. If password-protected, a user must supply a user name and password to access the operations described in the WSDL URI. If the Protected check box is not enabled, the tw_webservice default user account is invoked. See Manage default users and groups for more information about the tw_webservice default user.

  10. In the Behavior section, click the WSDL URI to view the XML description of the resulting web service and its elements and operations. You can supply this URI to the developers who need to call the operations within the web service.

  11. Include a Message Event in your BPD for the incoming request as described in Modeling events .

  12. Create an Undercover Agent (UCA) that calls this web service as described in Understanding and using undercover agents and then attach the UCA to the event from the preceding step.


What to do next

When install a process application on a test or production server, all web services are included in the list of exposed items in the Process Admin Console.

Create inbound integrations