Starting a process by using a REST API call

External services, such as an IBM® App Connect event-driven flow, can interact with a process by using a REST API call.

Calling the workflow API to start a process has the following structure:

Table 1.
API	Description
HTTP method	`POST`
URL	The fully qualified URL has the following structure: `https://hostname/bpm/dev/rest/bpm/wle/v1/process?action=start&bpdId=BPD_ID&branchId=Branch_ID` Where `hostname` is the hostname of the workflow server, `BPD_ID` is the BPD ID (which starts with '25.'), and `Branch_ID` is the branch ID (which starts with '2063.').
Request headers	The header must be in the following JSON format `{"Authorization":"Basic credentials"}` Where `credentials` is a base64 encoded string that is constructed from `userName:password`. If you are connecting to an on-prem workflow server use the appropriate username and password for your system. If you are connecting to a workflow server running in a cloud environment, the user name is a functional ID, and the password is a generated character string. You must make sure that the functional ID is granted access to the necessary operating environments. For more information about creating service accounts for IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation as a Service subscriptions, see Creating and managing service accounts.
Request body	(empty)