Introduction to Web Services
Web Services are external programs that are accessed via a URL. Web services provide an application programming interface that allows one or more operations to be invoked. Input parameters may be passed to an operation by a calling program, or from a form-based interface provided by the Web Service. The results produced by a Web Service may be returned to the calling program or displayed in a form associated with the Web Service.
LiveCompare provides support for Web Services two ways. An External Web Service may be called from a workflow using the Run Web Service action. In this case, one or more of the workflow’s input parameters may be passed as arguments a Web Service operation, and the results of the operation may be stored in one or more workflow datasets.
LiveCompare workflows may also be registered as Web Services using the Register Workflow as Web Service Wizard. This allows them to be run using the Run Web Service action, or called from an external program. Data Stores are not recommended for use in workflows registered as Web Services.
Running External Web Services from a Workflow