TimerJob editing workflow and web config - Consuming external webservice

Question

I have a list that is attached to a workflow (State machine, VS2010, SP2010). There is an OnWorkflowItemChanged activity that will check if a column of the list has been changed. If it changed, it will consume an external webservice.

I have also a TimerJob that will be triggered every day. It will edit the item, so the workflow will have to consume the external service.

However, When the TimerJob edit the column using SOM, there is a problem with the proxy:

System.Net.WebException: Unable to connect to the remote server ---> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because con...

I got the same problem at first with my workflow (without using the TimerJob) because I didn't edit the web config properly (in order to my workflow to use another proxy in the webconfig from inetpub/wwwroot/wss/virtualdirectories/80).

  <system.net>
    <defaultProxy useDefaultCredentials="true">        <proxy usesystemdefault="False" proxyaddress="http://ip:8081" bypassonlocal="True" />    </defaultProxy>
</system.net>

If I add the same code in the config of the timerJob _\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN\OWSTIMER.EXE.CONFIG), it will work. But the TimerJob will never consume a werbservice. What is the problem here?

    public override void Execute(Guid targetInstanceId)
    {
        try
        {
            SPWebApplication webApplication = this.Parent as SPWebApplication;
            SPWeb web = webApplication.Sites["/teamsites/FI"].RootWeb;
            SPList listJob = web.Lists.TryGetList("Task List");
            foreach (SPListItem item in listJob.Items)
            {
                if (item.Workflows.Count > 0 && !item.Workflows[item.Workflows.Count - 1].IsCompleted)
                {
                    item["WorkflowStatus"] = UpdateValue;
                    item.Update();
                }
            }
        } catch(Exception ex)
        {
            Log("TimerJob Action exception", TraceSeverity.High, EventSeverity.Error, ex.ToString());
        } 
    }

The other fix is for the TimerJob to call listdata.svc service in order to edit the field. The workflow will not have any problem to consume the service (without editing the TimerJob config).

So my question is, why does the timerJob need to use an open proxy in order to the workflow to successfully consume the external service ? It does not make change.

Answer 1

Well I guess you need to think about how the workflow is running. A workflow when triggered by a list item change is going to be executed within the SharePoint Timer Service process. So the change to the processes proxy settings is affecting both the Timer Service and also the Workflow process.

When you say the web service is external, is it outside of your network or is it just a machine that is running within the domain? Is the address you are accessing a fully qualified domain name or a partial address? e.g. FQDN=webservice.contoso.com or Partial=webservice.

If its FQDN that address will be treated by IE as in the Internet Zone so then you can have issues with authentication etc.

So check the IE settings that are setup for the Timer Service by logging in as the account that runs the SharePoint Timer Service and running IE.