Activities cannot communicate with a workflow process

Edit online
Draft comment:
This topic is shared by BAW, CP4BA. Last updated on 2025-03-13 12:15
You might encounter problems in which an activity fails to communicate with a workflow process that it starts.

Symptoms

You might experience the following problems if an activity and workflow process cannot communicate:
  • The activity is started, but the web service for the workflow process is not invoked.
  • The activity does not receive a response from the web service, so the case properties are not updated as expected.

On IBM® Business Automation Workflow, you can use the failed event manager to find failed events for your web service.

Causes

These problems might occur in the following situations:
  • The response address that identifies where the web service is to send the response is not correct.
  • The component manager for the isolated region where the activity is deployed is not started. The component manager must be started so that it can deliver events from Business Automation Workflow to the web service.
  • The web service was not deployed or was not started. The web service must be available and running to receive events from Business Automation Workflow.
  • The authentication credentials are not set correctly to permit communication between the activity and the web service.
  • If the web service moved to a different server, the XPDL document that contains the activity might contain the wrong endpoints for the web service. The XPDL document, which is created by Business Automation Workflow, uses these endpoints to locate the web service that is associated with an activity.

Diagnosing the problem

To enable tracing in the Business Automation Workflow environment, make the following changes in the P8BPMWSBroker.properties file.
  • Set filenet.ws.listener.tracefile to a valid path and file name.
  • Set filenet.ws.listener.tracing to true.
  • Set filenet.ws.request.tracefile to a valid path and file name.
  • Set filenet.ws.request.tracing to true.
Tip: The P8BPMWSBroker.properties file is in the following Workplace XT installation folder: install_location/FileNet/WebClient/WorkplaceXT/WEB-INF
Draft comment: fmosher
We no longer install Workplace XT. Where is this file now?
If you cannot identify the problem, enable tracing in the Business Automation Workflow environment as follows.
  1. Open the administrative console.
  2. Click Troubleshooting and then click Log and Trace.
  3. Click the server on which your web service is located.
  4. Click Change log detail levels and then click the Run time tab.
  5. Expand the tree and select SCA and com.ibm.ws.webservices to enable tracing.
In addition, check the Business Automation Workflow administrative console for any failed callbacks:
  1. Open the administrative console.
  2. Click Integration Applications.
  3. Click Failed Event Manager.

Resolving the problem

To resolve this problem, perform the action that corresponds to the problem that you identified:
The response address is not correct
Ensure that the Listener URL endpoint that is configured in Component Manager is valid. Ensure that Business Automation Workflow can reach the Listener URL endpoint.
Component manager is not started
To start the component manager:
  1. In Process Task Manager, expand the Component Managers node and select the component manager for the isolated region where the deployed activity is running.
  2. Click Start on the toolbar.
The web service is not deployed or the web service endpoints are not correct
Deploy the web service module into the target Business Automation Workflow runtime environment. For instructions, see the Business Automation Workflow documentation.
If the web service moved to a different server, configure the web service endpoint URL information for HTTP bindings. For instructions, see the Business Automation Workflow documentation for the feature pack.
Then, use FileNet® Deployment Manager to update the PE Partnerlink element in the solution definition for the target environment and redeploy the solution.
The web service is not started
Use the Business Automation Workflow administrative console to ensure that the web service is running.
Authentication credentials are not correct
When you create the web service module, you can specify that user name and password credentials are to be supplied when a workflow activity invokes a web service module on Business Automation Workflow. Optionally, you can use a secure socket (SSL) connection to provide an additional level of security for the request from IBM Business Automation Workflow.
To ensure that security is correctly configured from Business Automation Workflow, use the Component Managers function in Process Task Manager to verify authentication credentials.

After you correct the problem, you must resubmit the activity request. To do so, use Process Administrator to locate the request in the Conductor queue and complete the Review step.