Deploying external automation services

Whether you're using a test, staging, or production environment, you must deploy external automation services to Business Automation Navigator so they can be used by your business application (application) or workflow automation at run time.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that you install an Application Engine to your runtime environment.
  • While logged in to Business Automation Navigator as an administrator, ensure that Business Automation Navigator is in Platform or Platform and Content mode, which exposes the available Application Engine connection.
  • If you added the Application Discovery plug-in in 19.0.3, you must update it to discover the current applications. Go to the Plug-ins page, click the plug-in, and click Edit. Update the JAR file path to /opt/ibm/intPlugins/SSO/application-discovery.jar and click Load again to refresh with the new plug-in. Click Save to save the plug-in definition.

About this task

Deploying a service that is provided from an external automation service, follows a similar process to publishing a business application from Business Automation Studio. You export the external automation service from Business Automation Studio, and then import the automation service into Business Automation Navigator.

Exporting the external automation service
When you export the external automation service, you export a version of the external automation service from Business Automation Studio. The format for the application export is a compressed ZIP file.
Importing the external automation service
To import the external automation service into the Business Automation Navigator, set up a working connection to the Application Engine, which has the application that depends on the external automation service package.
Tip: As a best practice, publish your dependent external automation services before you publish your business automation.

Procedure

To publish an application:

  1. Log in to Business Automation Studio.
  2. Identify which external automation services are required for the application or workflow automation at run time. For your business application, you can check by going to the Business Applications page, click an application, and select the Automation services tab. The dependencies are listed under Dependent on services.
  3. After you identify the dependent external automation services, go to the Automation page, click External.
  4. Click the external automation service that you want to export.
  5. Locate the external automation service that you want to export, then click the Export button.
  6. Log in to Business Automation Navigator as an administrator.
  7. In the Connections page, an Application Service connection was automatically created for you when the container was deployed. Select the Application Service connection, click Edit and Connect, and log in to the Application Engine as an administrator.
    After you are connected, the Automation services tab is enabled, providing a list of automation services that are published in the Application Engine.
  8. From the Automation services tab, import the external automation service that you exported earlier.
  9. After the automation service is imported, you can see the automation service that is displayed as a tile.
    The automation service tile has an overflow menu button, which contains Preview and Details. The Preview button is where you can preview and interact with the automation service. The Details button is where you can access the overview, versions, environment variables, and service resources for the external automation service.
    Note: The first version of the automation service that you import is considered the default version.
  10. Import the certificate of your external automation service.

What to do next

Now that your automation service is published, you can publish your application. For more information about publishing applications, see Publishing applications.