Adding an Application Creation Workflow

This section explains how to attach a custom workflow to the application creation operation in the API Manager. First, see Workflow Extensions for information on different types of workflow executors.

Configuring the Business Process Server

1. Download WSO2 Business Process Server.

2. Set an offset of 2 to the default BPS port in the <BPS_HOME>/repository/conf/carbon.xml file. This prevents port conflicts that occur when you start more than one WSO2 product on the same server. Also see Changing the Default Ports with Offset. 

   <Offset>2</Offset>

   Tip: If you change the BPS port offset to a value other than 2 or run the API Manager and BPS on different machines (therefore, want to set the hostname to a different value than localhost), you do the following:

   • Search and replace the value 9765 in all the files (.epr) inside <APIM_HOME>/business-processes folder with the new port (9763 + port offset.

    

3. Open the <BPS_HOME>/repository/conf/humantask.xml file and <BPS_HOME>/repository/conf/b4p-coordination-config.xml file and set the TaskCoordinationEnabled property to true.

   <TaskCoordinationEnabled>true</TaskCoordinationEnabled>

4. Copy the following from the <APIM_HOME>/business-processes/epr folder to the <BPS_HOME>/repository/conf/epr folder. If the <BPS_HOME>/repository/conf/epr folder does not exist, please create it. 

   • ApplicationService.epr
   • ApplicationCallbackService.epr

5. Start the BPS server and log in to its management console (https://<Server Host>:9443+<port offset>/carbon).   

6. Select Processes > Add and upload the <APIM_HOME>/business-processes/application-creation/BPEL/ApplicationApprovalWorkFlowProcess_1.0.0.zip file to BPS. This is the business process archive file.
   
7. Select Add under the Human Tasks menu and upload the <APIM_HOME>/business-processes/application-creation/HumanTask/ApplicationsApprovalTask-1.0.0.zip file to BPS. This is the human task archived file.

Configuring the API Manager

Open the <APIM_HOME>/repository/deployment/server/jaggeryapps/admin-dashboard/site/conf/site.json file and configure "workFlowServerURL" under "workflows" to point to the BPS server (e.g. "workFlowServerURL": "https://localhost:9445/services/")

Engaging the WS Workflow Executor in the API Manager

First, enable the application creation workflow.

1. Log in to APIM management console (https://<Server Host>:9443/carbon) and select Browse under Resources.
   

2. Go to the /_system/governance/apimgt/applicationdata/workflow-extensions.xml resource, disable the Simple Workflow Executor and enable WS Workflow Executor. Also specify the service endpoint where the workflow engine is hosted and the credentials required to access the said service via basic authentication (i.e., username/password based authentication).
   

   <WorkFlowExtensions>
   ...
       <ApplicationCreation executor="org.wso2.carbon.apimgt.impl.workflow.ApplicationCreationWSWorkflowExecutor">
            <Property name="serviceEndpoint">http://localhost:9765/services/ApplicationApprovalWorkFlowProcess/</Property>
            <Property name="username">admin</Property>
            <Property name="password">admin</Property>
            <Property name="callbackURL">https://localhost:8243/services/WorkflowCallbackService</Property>
       </ApplicationCreation>
   ... 
   </WorkFlowExtensions>

   Note that all workflow process services of the BPS run on port 9765 because you changed its default port (9763) with an offset of 2.

   The application creation WS Workflow Executor is now engaged.

3. Go to the API Store Web interface, open My Applications page and create a new application.
   It invokes the application creation process and creates a Human Task instance that holds the execution of the BPEL process until some action is performed on it.    

4. Note the message that appears if the BPEL is invoked correctly, saying that the request is successfully submitted. 

5. Log in to the Admin Dashboard (https://localhost:9443/admin-dashboard), list all the tasks for application creation and approve the task. It resumes the BPEL process and completes the application creation.
   

6. Go back to the My Applications page on the API Store and see the created application. 

   Whenever a user tries to create an application in the API Store, a request is sent to the workflow endpoint. Given below is a sample:

   <soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:wor="http://workflow.subscription.apimgt.carbon.wso2.org">
      <soapenv:Header />
      <soapenv:Body>
         <wor:createApplication xmlns:wor="http://workflow.application.apimgt.carbon.wso2.org">
            <wor:applicationName>application1</wor:applicationName>
            <wor:applicationTier>Gold</wor:applicationTier>
            <wor:applicationCallbackUrl>http://webapp/url</wor:applicationCallbackUrl>
            <wor:applicationDescription>Application 1</wor:applicationDescription>
            <wor:tenantDomain>wso2.com</wor:tenantDomain>
            <wor:userName>user1</wor:userName>
            <wor:workflowExternalRef>c0aad878-278c-4439-8d7e-712ee71d3f1c</wor:workflowExternalRef>
            <wor:callBackURL>https://localhost:8243/services/WorkflowCallbackService</wor:callBackURL>
         </wor:createApplication>
      </soapenv:Body>
   </soapenv:Envelope>

   Elements of the above configuration are described below:

   Element	Description
   applicationName	Name of the application the user creates.
   applicationTier	Throttling tier of the application.
   applicationCallbackUrl	When the OAuth2 Authorization Code grant type is applied, this is the endpoint on which the callback needs to happen after the user is authenticated. This is an attribute of the actual application registered on the API Store.
   applicationDescription	Description of the application
   tenantDomain	Tenant domain associated with the application (domain of the user creating the application).
   userName	username of the user creating the application.
   workflowExternalRef	The unique reference against which a workflow is tracked. This needs to be sent back from the workflow engine to the API Manager at the time of workflow completion.
   callBackURL	At the time of workflow completion, the workflow-completion request is sent to this URL by the workflow engine. This property is configured in the <callBackURL> element in the api-manager.xml file.