Using Web Services with ESP

[Keith Grizzell]

Recent request if we can trigger web services from ESP Workload Automation 12.0 on our mainframe. I tried the Quote example from the book but when submitting I am getting a "transmitter busy" message and the job is stuck in sub delay. Is there a plug in or agent that must be installed on our server. We are currently using Workload Automation Agent 12.0 on windows server.

WEB_SERV QUOTE                                             
   AGENT VMINAPT03_WS                                      
  USER GMCC\ESPADMINNONPRD                                 
   TARGETNAMESPACE HTTP://WWW.WEBSERVICEX.NET/             
   SERVICENAME STOCKQUOTE                                  
   PORTNAME STOCKQUOTESOAP                                 
   OPERATION GETQUOTE                                      
   WSDL_URL HTTP://WWW.WEBSERVICEX.COM/STOCKQUOTE.ASMX?WSDL
   ENDPOINT_URL HTTP://WWW.WEBSERVICEX.COM/STOCKQUOTE.ASMX 
   PARAMETER TYPE(XSD:STRING) VALUE(CA)                    
   RETURNCLASS JAVA.LANG.STRING                            
   RETURNXML STRING                                        
   RETURNNAMESPACE HTTP://WWW.WEBSERVICEX.NET/             
   RUN DAILY                                               
ENDJOB                                                     

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[Keith Grizzell]
[ESP Scheduler]
[Grange Insurance]
[Columbus] [Ohio]
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[Lucy Zhang]

Hi Keith,

Sorry that we missed this post.

Not sure if the problem has been resolved. Generally "transmitter busy" means communication problem from ESP to the agent. 

If you still need help, please open a support case and provide related ESP JESMSGLG and agent logs.

Regards,

Lucy

[Keith Grizzell]

Thanks Lucy, We are in the preliminary stages of working on this and it is a low priority as we have been preparing to switch to new z16 mainframe and that has priority. I will check on my end to see if I can find out what maybe causing communication error next week and if I need further help I will open support case as you suggested

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[Keith Grizzell]
[ESP Scheduler]
[Grange Insurance]
[Columbus] [Ohio]
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[Keith Grizzell]

Hi Lucy, Is it possible to initiate a job by the invocation of a restful web service endpoint exposed by our application team with our current mainframe ESP setup. The scheduler would invoke the specified endpoint using GET/POST and use the HTTP status code to determine whether execution was successful. 

Our architecture team is looking for us to be able to do this. "Here are the benefits of having an enterprise scheduler that can invoke a restful web service endpoint:"

• Agentless (No agent required)
• Serverless (No virtual machine required)
• Greater operational efficiency (No server patching or agent updates required)
• High availability (active-active) for batch processing services
• Improved resiliency

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[Keith Grizzell]
[ESP Scheduler]
[Grange Insurance]
[Columbus] [Ohio]
------------------------------

[Lucy Zhang]

Hi Keith,

ESP is a mainframe scheduler product. it can't directly interact with distributed products without agents. Of course, if it can be done thru a mainframe JCL, then ESP can schedule the mainframe JCL.

I tend to suggest that we set up a call with you, to better understand the business requirement and environment and help provide the best possible solution.

There are a few solutions used by our customers.

Hope this helps,

Lucy

[Daniel Shannon]

Keith,

ESP does not currently support directly calling complex REST APIs. The WEB_SERV and WEB_DOCLIT job types work with SOAP web services. HTTP_JOB is typically used for GET/POST requests, however it only supports form based payloads. Until REST support is built into ESP, options like executing the curl CLI that customers are using. If you're looking to integrate with a commonly used SaaS application, we support numerous via the agent Plugin Extensions that can be found in the Automation Marketplace.

There are definitely ways to orchestrate REST applications from ESP, but it's more challenging than we would like it to be. We are working to simply this, but it's unfortunately not there today.