Adding SOAP headers to an outgoing response message

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You can add a SOAP header to an outbound response message by using a system variable and some JavaScript code.

About this task

IBM® Business Process Manager provides a system variable that allows you to add SOAP headers to an outbound response message, tw.system.header.soap.response. You can instantiate the tw.system.header.soap.response variable from the Variables tab above the process diagram or in the JavaScript code.

Procedure

To add a SOAP header to an outbound response message, add an entry to the SOAPHeaders array within the tw.system.header.soap.response system variable.
You can add the code to the Pre & Post > Post-execution Assignments section within a component of a general system service, such as a server script component.

To add a header that is called sessionToken to the response message, use JavaScript code such as the following example. Follow these best practices as you write your code:

  • Make sure namespaces are fully qualified, as they are in the following examples.
  • Avoid white spaces in the XML snippet that constitutes the SOAP header value.
  • Make sure that you only instantiate the tw.system.header.soap.response variable if it is null. Otherwise, you could end up clearing out SOAP header entries that were added by some other component within your general system service.
log.info(">>>>>> Adding a SOAP header to the response message...")

// Create the header object
var myResponseHeader = new tw.object.SOAPHeader()
myResponseHeader.name = "sessionToken"
myResponseHeader.nameSpace = "http://acme.com"
myResponseHeader.value = "<x:sessionToken xmlns:x=\"http://acme.com\">abdf-128974-33-33-fcea-10243-74-33</x:sessionToken>"

// If the response header system variable doesn't exist yet, 
// then you must instantiate it
if (tw.system.header.soap.response == null) {
     tw.system.header.soap.response = new tw.object.SOAPHeaders()
     tw.system.header.soap.response.headers = new Array()
 }  

// Determine which index we need to use when adding the new header entry.
//Add the new header at the end of the array so that the processing does not
// overwrite any existing entries.
var nextIndex = tw.system.header.soap.response.headers.listLength
log.info("Adding new header at index: " + nextIndex)
tw.system.header.soap.response.headers[nextIndex] = myResponseHeader
Note:
  • Only the value of the SOAPHeader is used to construct a response soap message. The name and namespace are not used. In the example, if you change the value of myResponseHeader.name or myResponseHeader.nameSpace, but do not change myResponseHeader.value, the change is not reflected in the response message.
  • Use the next available index when adding your new SOAP header entry to the tw.system.header.soap.response variable headers field, which is an array of SOAP header values. Otherwise, you might inadvertently clear out an existing SOAP header entry that was added by some other component within your general system service.