Calling WCF Service from a workflow in Sharepoint Online

Question

Is there any way to call a WCF service from a sharepoint online workflow (Sandboxed Solution)? I have looked up quite a few samples but they all seem to use farm solutions which is obviously not an option in this case.

Secondly, is there a way to start a workflow manually, one that does not require any startup parameters without the need for the user to actually be redirected to a pretty bland page and clicking on "Start"?

Thanks in advance! ;)

Answer 1

As James said, you can either use some client side technology like javascript/jQuery/ECMAScript or the Silverlight to call WCF services.

You can build custom actions by creating XML definitions in element files in Visual Studio projects and attach the workflow logic behind them. And, then you can specify where custom actions should appear, such as on the Site Settings menu or on a specific administration page.

Custom actions can also interact with SharePoint by using the JavaScript implementation of the SharePoint 2010 client object model.

Answer 2

One of the restrictions of sandboxed solutions is that you cannot call WCF web services. There is no way around this, other than calling a web service from the browser using client side (ie: Javascript) code.