This article contains the following topics:
Outbound web services enables Serviceaide Intelligent Service Management to interact with external systems using SOAP or RESTful web service calls. The outbound web service operation is linked to a workflow action. When an analyst executes the workflow action on a ticket, the outbound web service operation is initiated. If the external application returns a response to the web service call, the product accepts the response and updates the ticket accordingly. |
As an administrator, you can configure web service adapters and can define the field mapping to enable exchange of data with external applications.
When you configure outbound web services, external applications can exchange data with the product without building a polling mechanism. You can set up the data exchange to update fields on the external application and on the application. The exchange of data happens in response to a call initiated by the product.
Complete the following tasks to configure your outbound web services.
To configure outbound web services for an external application, acquire basic understanding about the web services that it supports. Also identify the fields in the external application and the corresponding fields in the product.
If corresponding fields do not exist in the product, configure attributes that match your requirements. |
Gather the credentials that are required to configure the outbound web service calls. The credentials vary depending on whether the external application uses SOAP or RESTful web services.
SOAP-based Web Service Calls
Intelligent Service Management uses Web Service Description Language (WSDL) to communicate with SOAP-based applications. The WSDL file of the external application contains the information that is required for configuring web service operations. The WSDL document contains information such as methods, field mapping, and more.
To access a web service, find its WSDL entry. The WSDL entry is generally a URL on the Web. Companies control the access to their WSDL files to different degrees. Contact the administrator of the external application for access.
RESTful Web Service Calls
The RESTful web service calls are not defined in a formal document. However, some external applications define the supported web services. You can find the supported operations in the Web Application Description Language (WADL) file of the application.
Usually, RESTful web service calls do not require any authentication. Contact the administrator of the external application, if the application requires authentication.
Gather the following prerequisite information to plan the outbound web services:
During the planning process, you can identify the field mapping requirements. When the standard ticket fields and the existing custom fields do not suffice, you can configure custom attributes. You can then relate the attributes to custom field templates. You can identify the attribute name and the data type, and then you can configure the attributes. When you relate the custom fields to the custom field templates, the attributes become available for field mapping.
Note: Custom field mapping for Date field is not supported.
For more information about creating attributes, see Create and Manage Attributes.
For more information about creating custom field templates, see Create and Manage Custom Field Templates.
Follow these steps:
The product now supports exchange of data using outbound web service calls.
Intelligent Service Management uses web services credentials to connect to the external application for data exchange. You can create and manage credentials that are required to invoke the external web services for the data exchange. The same external web service credentials can be used for all authentication methods that the external application supports.
Follow these steps:
When you click Save, the Summary and Related Operations sections display.
Some applications require you to log in and log out for completing transactions. You can configure the actions as web service operations. You can then update the web service credentials for that application with the log in and log out operation details. |
The web service operations enable the exchange of data between the product and the external application. After you configure the web service credentials, you can configure multiple operations using the methods that the external application supports.
Follow these steps:
(Optional) Specify the Outbound Mapping. The value from the ticket field that you specify here populates the corresponding field in the external application.
You can map the fields either through the XML file or through the drop-down fields.
To specify the field mapping using the drop-down options, provide the following information and click the + icon to add the mapping:
External Field
Select an external field from the drop-down. The drop-down renders dynamically based on the method that you choose in the Select Method field.
Ticket Field
Specify the Intelligent Service Management ticket field tokens to map the ticket field that gets updated when the web service operation executes on the ticket. You can use standard ticket fields, custom fields, or user tokens that you configure.
Example: Standard ticket field ${description_long}
Note: The fields that are displayed as required fields in the WSDL document, display in the External Field list by default.
The web service operation is configured.
When you save the web service operation, the Summary portlet displays. The Summary portlet displays information about the status of the web service operation. |
You can now relate the web service operation to a workflow action.
The web service operations enable the exchange of data between the product and the external application. After you configure the web service credentials, you can configure multiple operations using the methods that the external application supports.
Follow these steps:
Verify that you have mapped only the required node of the response file to configure the Inbound Mapping value. For example, in the following code snippet, if you want to populate the attribute id, enter the node as employees.employee.id. Specifying the node as employees.employee will not populate any attribute.
{ "employees": { "employee": [ { "id": "1", "firstName": "Tom", "lastName": "Cruise", "photo": "http://cdn2.gossipcenter.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/story_header/photos/tom-cruise-020514sp.jpg" } ] } } |
The web service operation is configured.
When you save the web service operation, the Summary portlet displays. The Summary portlet displays information about the status of the web service operation. |
You can now relate the web service operation to a workflow action.
To pass all the custom attributes in a name-value pair, there is a specific token available in the Outbound web service operation.
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As an example of what the outbound mapping must look like in the Web Sevice Operation:
{"summary":"${ticket_description}", "description":"${description_long}", "category":{"$(@COMMON_NAME" : "Facilities.Conference Room.Reservation"}, "properties":"${cf_all_custom_fields_in_a_ticket}"} |
If the ticket has custom fields, while executing the web service operation the tokens will get replaced as below:
{"summary":"Summary for ticket", "description":"Details of ticket", "category":{"@COMMON_NAME":"Facilities.Conference Room.Reservation"}, "properties":{"collection":[ {"@COMMON_NAME":"Conference_Room_Name","value":"East"}, {"@COMMON_NAME":"Host_Employee_ID","value":"123"} {"@COMMON_NAME":"Number_of_Attendees","value":"23"}, {"@COMMON_NAME":"Meeting_Start_Time","value":"12:00"}, {"@COMMON_NAME":"Meeting_End_Time","value":"12:30"}]}} |
After you configure the web service operation, you can relate the operation to a workflow action. The application invokes the web service operation when the analyst executes the corresponding workflow action on a ticket.
You can relate a web service operation to a workflow action from WORKSPACES, ADMINISTRATION, Tools, Workflow Actions page. Use the Web Service Operations field of a workflow action to relate the action to a web service configuration.
You can configure workflow actions using both SOAP and RESTful Web service calls.
For information about workflow actions, see Create and Manage Workflow Actions.
To verify the configuration, you need access to both the product and the external application.
Consider the following example. You configure outbound web service to communicate with Service Desk Manager. You want the creation of a service request in Intelligent Service Management to result in the creation of an Incident in Service Desk Manager. To enable the communication, you configure the web service credentials for Service Desk Manager. Then you configure the web service operation to create an incident in Service Desk Manager. You configure the outbound mapping to make the ticket details field to update the corresponding ticket details field in Service Desk Manager.
Configure the field mapping to update the custom fields in the product with the details of the ticket in Service Desk Manager. Next, configure a workflow action CASD_Create Ticket and relate it to the web service operation. Assign the L1 support group permission to the workflow action.
To verify the configurations, submit a ticket and use the work action to move the ticket through the workflow. All web service operations are recorded on the ticket board. You can see the web service operation, the start time and the end time, and the status of the operation. When the web service operation fails, the trace log message provides more information about the cause of failure.
Follow these steps:
If the ticket list displays the corresponding incident ticket, the outbound web services call succeeded. You can navigate back to the ticket in the product to verify the ticket board for more details.