Graphical Dynamics user community

Hi all, head developer Jenny here.

I want to know if you've ever wanted to be able to trigger an AutoIntern event based on the result you get from a webservice call - presumably a SOAP call, or maybe even an XML-RPC call. (Does anybody even use XML-RPC?)

We want to support webservices as a type of trigger, just like we support triggering an event on a database query, etc. So we need your input on this.

- Do you use webservices in your organization? If so, how?

- What protocols do you use?

- If AutoIntern supported a webservice-based trigger rule, how would you use it?

- Would you need to be able to browse a UDDI catalog to find the service you'd need to call, or do you know the specific URI to call?

- Would you need to be able to browse a WSDL file to find the method to call, the parameters to send it, and the return value or (out) parameter to examine for the trigger, or would you have those specs beforehand?

We're still learning about webservices and the various standards out there, and it looks like supporting them in a generic way is going to be a BIG project no matter how you slice it. I figure any initial support for SOAP, etc., will consist of simple helper functions in WIL, and maybe another WIL extender to go with the DOM extender.

The idea is that you would set up a When rule for once every minute, and this rule would run an event that consisted of a WIL script that would build the SOAP request, send it to the server, get the response, parse the response, and finally decide whether to run the "real" event.

Something like this wouldn't be a turnkey solution to firing off an automated process from a webservice query, but perhaps it'd be enough of a start to be useful to someone?

The long-term goal would be to create a full-fledged "Webservice" rule, complete with a wizard-based interface where you would (maybe) browse a UDDI catalog, then (certainly) browse a WSDL file for the list of methods to call, and you'd enter values for the (in) parameters and choose the (out) parameter to trigger on. But that's definitely a long-term goal.