Introduction

Integration (both inbound and outbound) comprise a major component in every ERP implementation and the degree of easiness and flexibility allowed to achieve the same at times even decides how successful an ERP application is. While in EBS inbound integration was mainly effected using control files and staging tables followed by API calls things have become a little easy with Cloud Application. Oracle Fusion for instance provides a very simple yet an effective way of integrating Fusion with third party application (allowing external systems to load/fetch data from Fusion using Web Services).

I have received multiple requests from individuals where they want to know the list of all the available Web Services in a particular Fusion Environment (yes the availability may differ on the application version and the patch level) and while it was very difficult till date to give an exhaustive and comprehensive list till date, the same have somewhat becomes much easier with the ‘Developer Connect’ Feature available in the release 11.

In this article we would not demonstrate how to use a Web Service for seamless integration but rather try to find out how to get the complete list of available Web Services and WSDLs from a Fusion Application.

So without much ado let us begin with the same.

Developer Connect

Developer Connect is an Oracle Sales Cloud Applications developer portal that provides information about Web services specific to a particular cloud instance. We can use this information to integrate or extend Oracle Sales Cloud Applications and develop customized business solutions. This overview introduces the features and capabilities of Developer Connect.

We can use Developer Connect to retrieve Web service information specific to your Oracle Cloud instance. You can retrieve Web service information such as service attributes, operations, business objects, security policies, and WSDL files.

Unlike a static documentation, the Web service information displayed in Developer Connect is dynamic. It shows all the customization done to Web services by your implementers and integrators. At any point, you can synchronize Developer Connect with your Oracle Sales Cloud instance to retrieve the latest Web service information.

We can use Developer Connect to search for and review Web service information required to implement a use case described in Oracle partner documentation. We can search for a Web service using the documented information such as the service name. We can then review the service object information to find out additional custom attributes not documented in partner documentation and understand restrictions related to their values.

Once we have searched and selected a Web service, we can review the operations available for the selected Web service and the request and response payloads for each operation. Developer Connect lets us to review, edit, and add sample payload XML for each operation of the selected Web service. It also allows us to delete a user-entered sample payload.

Demonstration: How to Use Developer Connect

As a first step we need to login into the application with a user having adequate roles (Application Implementation Consultant or Application Implementation Manager).

We would use ‘HCM_IMPL’ user for this example.

Once you click on the ‘Sign In’ button you will land up on the Homepage which would appear as below:

Next we need to click on the Navigator icon to view the menu.

Under Tools in Navigator, you should be able to notice the ‘Developer Connect’ link:

A quick click on the link takes us to be the next screen where we can search for all web services:

We would quickly try to open ‘Absence Case Version 2’ Web Service and try to understand the content displayed. There are several details associated with a Web Service which are available for use including

1. Web Service Summary

2. Web Service Operations

3. Web Service Service Data Objects

4. Web Service Security

5. Web Service Sample Payloads

We would try to understand each of the above in context with a sample Web Service ( ‘Absence Case Version 2’ for this example)

Web Service: Summary

This is the first tabular page which opens up when we click on ‘Absence Case Version 2’ link from the Web Services page.

It gives a summarized view of the Web Service including Name of the Web Service, Business Object, Life Cycle, QName, End Point URL, WSDL File, Security Policy and Description.

A tabular description of the same for ‘Absence Case Version 2’ Web Service has following details:

P.S: The original POD details has been replaced by xx for security reasons.

Web Service: Operations

This UI page displays the various web service methods available.

Web Service: Service Data Objects

This page displays the various Service Data Objects. Service Data Objects denote the use of language-agnostic data structures that facilitate communication between structural tiers and various service-providing entities. They require the use of a tree structure with a root node and provide traversal mechanisms (breadth/depth-first) that allow client programs to navigate the elements. Objects can be static (fixed number of fields) or dynamic with a map-like structure allowing for unlimited fields. The specification defines meta-data for all fields and each object graph can also be provided with change summaries that can allow receiving programs to act more efficiently on them.

This particular section displays the various attributes along with their properties like data-type, description, state and whether the same is optional or mandatory.

Web Service: Security

This particular UI displays the various Operations associated with a Web Service along with the privileges required to use the same.

Web Service: Sample Payloads

Any sample payloads available for ready reference is present there. For this Web Service (‘Absence Case Version2’ there isn’t a sample payload available) as shown:

Notice the ‘Add Sample Payload’ button which allows to load a sample payload which could be used for further reference.

The ‘Synchronize’ button on the top right hand side when clicked ensures the web service application is up-to-date and incorporates all the latest changes.

With this we come to end of article and hopefully now we know where to search of all Web Service Details (different methods, WSDL file, Security requirements.) required for smooth integration.

I hope this was useful and would come handy in your day to day job.

Thank You for your time and have a nice day!

Ashish Harbhajanka

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