Calling a WCF web service from a SharePoint 2013 Visual Studio Workflow

Question

I have a scenario where I need to access a WCF web service (locally hosted) from a SharePoint 2013 Visual Studio workflow. Below given is what I have done so far:

This is what the workflow does:

This is my Variables List

This is the message in the 1st WriteToHistory

This is the property window of 'BuildDynamicValue'

The HTTPSend activity and its propertie are shown below:

RequestHeaders Property of the WCF call

Final WriteToHistory's Message

The Code Behind of the WCF Services are shown below:

IService1.cs Data Contract

Service1.cs Method Implementation

DTOTest class

What Should Happen?: The 2nd WriteToHistory should write 'You Accessed the WCF service" message taken from the WCF service.

Please Help!

** ******UPDATE 1:****** **

I manage to get a REST web service running with methods using json. How can I get the values of a custom class object returned by the REST web service. This is what I get on the browser when I hit the web service uri.

{"GetDTOTestResult":{"DateTimeNow":"The DTOTest was returned at 9/15/2014 10:28:49 AM","Message":"Sample Message"}}

How can I get the DateTimeNow property via the GetDynamicValueProperties activity?

Answer 1

Found the solution... I had to mention

GetDTOTestResult/DateTimeNow

as the path for the property in the GetDynamicValueProperties activity.

Answer 2

Since this popped up again being refreshed by Community account, I want to summarize the general idea of what you need to do:

Workflow Side

1. Use DynamicValue to represent a JSON object to be passed into a REST-service. Also, DynamicValue to receive return values from a REST-service.

2. Use 'BuildDynamicValue' action to add properties to the DynamicValue workflow variable.

3. Use 'GetDynamicValueProperties' to pull specific properties out from the DynamicValue workflow variable. This is also how you can walk the JSON object graph.

4. In general, DynamicValue can not be logged easily to history, which has a tiny character limit of 255 characters. Try push them into a file in a document library for debugging. Or limit logging to first 250 characters.

5. The property path is similar to XPath: Result/Value1

Service Side

1. On WCF service side, use [WebGet] for GET requests. Use [WebInvoke] for POST requests.

2. POST Requests are more suitable for multiple parameters, in which case, you want to wrap BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.WrappedRequest at least the Request.

   [WebInvoke(BodyStyle=WebMessageBodyStyle.WrappedRequest, UriTemplate="/GetHello", ...] string GetHello(string hello, string world);

Call it like this:

POST { 
    url: '/GetHello', 
    data: { 
        'Hello': 'hello', 
        'World': 'world' 
    } 
}