Execute Workflow Actions Through Web Services

This article contains the following topics:

You can execute workflow actions on tickets in Serviceaide Intelligent Service Management from external applications using SOAP-based web service calls. For example, you can set a ticket status as "Canceled".

Overview

The application provides you a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) file. The WSDL file contains the scripts for executing different kinds of workflow actions on your tickets through an external application. To create a web service call, you require the following information:

• The Web Service user ID and password for the application.
• The WSDL file applicable to your ticket type.
• The unique web ID (MdrElement ID) of the ticket that you want to edit.
• The unique ID of the workflow action that you want to execute.

Also, identify the other information that you require to complete your web call. For example:

• If you want to assign a ticket to a specific individual or group, identify their IDs.
• If you want to assign a status to a ticket, identify the status ID.

You can find the IDs for all workflow actions, statuses, individuals, groups, and more, within the application.

MdrElement ID

Identify the ticket on which you want to execute the workflow action. Every ticket in the application is assigned a unique ID known as MdrElementID.

The MdrElementID is different from the ticket number that is assigned to tickets in the application.

The MdrElementID of a ticket is visible in the URL field when you open the ticket in a new window. In the following image, you can see the MdrElementID of a ticket marked with a red box:

Your SOAP application uses the MdrElementID to identify the ticket in the application.

You can also refer to the MdrElementID in your SOAP requests as row_id. While working with such scripts, you can use the row_id field to pass the MdrElementID.

You can also use a script that uses the ticket or case ID instead of the MdrElementID. In such cases, pass a fixed value as "-999" in the row_id field. Next pass the actual ticket ID in the ticket_identifier field.

WSDL File

Every ticket type in the application has a separate WSDL file. To access the WSDL file corresponding to your ticket type, use one of the following URLs:

• Service Request:
  • https://csm3.serviceaide.com/servicedesk/webservices/ServiceRequest?WSDL
  • https://csm3.serviceaide.com/NimsoftServiceDesk/servicedesk/webservices/ServiceRequest?wsdl
• Change Request:

  • https://csm3.serviceaide.com/servicedesk/webservices/ChangeRequest?WSDL

  • https://csm3.serviceaide.com/NimsoftServiceDesk/servicedesk/webservices/ChangeRequest?WSDL

• Problem:

  • https://csm3.serviceaide.com/servicedesk/webservices/Problem?WSDL 

  • https://csm3.serviceaide.com/NimsoftServiceDesk/servicedesk/webservices/Problem?WSDL

• Incident:

  • https://csm3.serviceaide.com/servicedesk/webservices/Incident?WSDL

  • https://csm3.serviceaide.com/NimsoftServiceDesk/servicedesk/webservices/Incident?WSDL 

The WSDL file contains XML scripts for executing different types of actions on tickets. To substitute your MdrElement ID and Workflow Action ID in the scripts, open the file in a SOAP editor.

If you are not able to access any of the above URLs, use the direct URL to the WSDL, in the following format:

https://direct-csm3.serviceaide.com/NimsoftServiceDesk/servicedesk/webservices/Incident?wsdl

Substitute the ticket type in the URL.

Create a Web Service Request

The process of executing a SOAP request can vary across different applications. The following procedure shows how to execute a workflow action on a ticket using SOAP UI.

Follow these steps:

1. Create a project in SOAP UI and add the path of the WSDL file to it.
   You can see the list of actions available in the WSDL file, under the project.
2. Select the action that you want to perform.
   The script for that action is displayed in the right pane.
3. In the script, enter the web service credentials, MdrElementID, and Workflow Action ID. Also enter the other IDs that are required for completing your web service call.
4. Run the script.
   SOAP UI displays the status of the execution.

If the script runs successfully, you can view the changes to your ticket in the application.

In this image, the user is executing a workflow action with ID 12 on a ticket with MdrElementID -999. The workflow action assigns the specified ticket to a specific group with ID 2. Note that the last_used_action_id refers to the workflow action that you are about to execute.

See the following image for a sample script that uses ticket or case ID in the ticket_identifier field.

In this sample, user is executing a workflow action with ID 12 on a ticket with case ID 100-157.