Endpoint References
An endpoint reference holds information to call a service. The simplest endpoint reference is usually a URL but it can also be much more complex.
In BPEL, endpoint references (EPRs) are modeled as partner link roles. When defining a partner link, two roles that can be defined are myRole
and partnerRole
:
<partnerLink name="responderPartnerLink" partnerLinkType="test:ResponderPartnerLinkType" myRole="main" partnerRole="responder" initializePartnerRole="yes"/>
Both partnerRole
and myRole
represent EPRs. So when assigning partner link roles or invoking partners, you are using EPRs behind the scene.Â
The following is a sample configuration for securedinvoke.epr
.
<wsa:EndpointReference xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3schools.com uep_schema.xsd" xmlns:wsa="http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing" xmlns:wsdl11="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"> <wsa:Address>https://localhost:9443/services/UserRegistrationService</wsa:Address> </wsa:EndpointReference>
There are multiple ways you can store EPR file(s).
Package it with the BPEL process. A sample tree structure of the BPEL package is given below.
 In the deploy.xml file, you can specify the file path as follows:<endpoint xmlns="http://wso2.org/bps/bpel/endpoint/config" endpointReference="securedinvoke.epr" />
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Store in the registry (config or governance registry). You can specify the file path in the deploy.xml file as follows:
<endpoint xmlns="http://wso2.org/bps/bpel/endpoint/config" endpointReference="conf:/securedinvoke.epr" /> OR <endpoint xmlns="http://wso2.org/bps/bpel/endpoint/config" endpointReference="gov:/securedinvoke.epr" />
Store in the file system. You can specify the file path relative to the CARBON_HOME as follows in the deploy.xml file:Â
<endpoint xmlns="http://wso2.org/bps/bpel/endpoint/config" endpointReference="./../../../../repository/conf/securedinvoke.epr" />
The following is a sample deploy.xml configuration:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <deploy xmlns="http://www.apache.org/ode/schemas/dd/2007/03" xmlns:sample="http://wso2.org/bps/sample" xmlns:services.core.ndatasource.carbon.wso2.org="http://services.core.ndatasource.carbon.wso2.org"> <process name="sample:AdminServiceInvokeSample"> <active>true</active> <retired>false</retired> <process-events generate="all"/> <provide partnerLink="client"> <service name="sample:AdminServiceInvokeSample" port="AdminServiceInvokeSamplePort"/> </provide> <invoke partnerLink="dataSourcePL"> <service name="services.core.ndatasource.carbon.wso2.org:NDataSourceAdmin" port="NDataSourceAdminHttpsSoap11Endpoint"> <endpoint xmlns="http://wso2.org/bps/bpel/endpoint/config" endpointReference="./../../../../repository/conf/securedinvoke.epr" /> </service> </invoke> </process> </deploy>
Configuring EPR for accessing basic-auth enabled services
A sample EPR configuration is given below. Add values for ‘authorization-username
’ and ‘authorization-password
’ to invoke the service which are secured with basic authentication.
<wsa:EndpointReference xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3schools.com uep_schema.xsd" xmlns:wsa="http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing" xmlns:wsdl11="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"> <wsa:Address>https://localhost:9443/services/UserRegistrationService</wsa:Address> <wsa:Metadata> <id>SInvokeEPR</id> <transport type="http"> <authorization-username>admin</authorization-username> <authorization-password>admin</authorization-password> </transport> </wsa:Metadata> </wsa:EndpointReference>
Securely storing the password in an EPR file
All WSO2 products, by default, come with a secure vault implementation, which is a modified version of synapse secure vault. It provides capability to securely store sensitive data such as plain-text passwords in configuration files of the WSO2 Carbon platform, such as user-mgt.xml, Carbon.xml, Axis2.xml, registry.xml etc. All WSO2 Carbon-based products inherit the secure vault implementation from the core Carbon platform. For more information, refer to WSO2 Carbon Secure Vault.
WSO2 Business Process Server provides the feature to securely store sensitive data in unified endpoint reference configuration files, using the Secure Vault functionality. Users can encrypt their passwords using tokens instead of the actual password inside the data service configuration file. The instructions below explain how to secure passwords in a data source configuration.
- Run the ciphertool script from the
<BPS_HOME>/bin
directory.- Linux: sh ciphertool.sh -Dconfigure
- Windows: ciphertool.bat -Dconfigure
- To encrypt the plain text using ciphertool, run the ciphertool script again without
-Dconfigure
option. It asks for the KeyStore Password of the running Carbon instance. The default iswso2carbon
. - Provide the plain text value that needs to be encrypted and the tool returns the encrypted text value.
- Update the
<BPS_HOME>/repository/conf/security/cipher-text.properties
file by adding a new alias (any name of your preference) and the encrypted value. E.g., BPELEPR.Password=[admin]. - Update the
<BPS_HOME>/repository/conf/security/cipher-tool.properties
file by uncommenting secret alias (e.g.: BPELEPR.Password) and providing the EPR file name along with the xpath for the authorization-password. E.g., BPELEPR.Password=securedinvoke.epr//EndpointReference/Metadata/transport/authorization-password,false
Multiple secret aliases are supported.
The following is a sample deploy.xml configuration:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> <wsa:EndpointReference xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3schools.com uep_schema.xsd" xmlns:wsa="http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing" xmlns:wsdl11="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/" xmlns:svns="http://org.wso2.securevault/configuration"> <wsa:Address>https://localhost:9443/services/NDataSourceAdmin/</wsa:Address> <wsa:Metadata> <id>SInvokeEPR</id> <transport type="http"> <authorization-username>admin</authorization-username> <authorization-password svns:secretAlias="BPELEPR.Password">password</authorization-password> </transport> </wsa:Metadata> </wsa:EndpointReference>