BPA doesn't appear to have any sort of public API to manage or execute workflows. Searching the forums led me to this post, in which the official reply suggests some sort of API was in the works, but the post is several years old now.

Is this feature still planned for a future version of BPA?

John as far as I know no such thing was done so far.
I'm not aware of any plans to do so.
N/A clarification is welcome.

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Jean Delfosse - Automate Beta Tester
Win7 Pro 64 bits -Win XP Pro SP3 32 bits - AM8, AM7, BPA10, BPA9, BPA8, BPA7, AM6 Enterprise, AM4

Hello John,

Can you please elaborate on your question? Are you referring to something similar to an online SMC?

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Alex Escalante | Support Analyst
AutoMate | Division of HelpSystems
HelpSystems, LLC | T: +1.213.738.1700 | F: +1.213.738.7665

Alex,

Sorry, my question wasn't as clear as it could have been. I'm not looking for an online management console. I want to know if there's a way for an external application to send commands to a BPA server, in this case to execute a workflow. The possibilities that come to mind include a web service provided by the BPA server, or a public .NET library that can be used to communicate with the server.

I ask because I'd like to implement a feature in one of my company's internal applications, but the business logic is already mostly implemented in a BPA workflow. If the application could tell the BPA server to start that workflow, I could avoid a siginificant amount of development time. The catch is that I would also need to be able to determine if the workflow completes or fails.

I could have our application call the command-line executable in the BPA client install directory, but that executable only provides extremely limited feedback. It can confirm that the BPA server received a command, but gives no further information on the workflow starting, completing or failing.

The post I linked to in the OP suggests something like what I need was in the early phase of development two years ago, so I thought there might be some word on it appearing in an upcoming BPA version.

John,
you can run a workflow from an external application by invoking
"C:\Program Files (x86)\AutoMate BPA Server 9\AMExecute.exe"
To get the syntax, type
"C:\Program Files (x86)\AutoMate BPA Server 9\AMExecute.exe" help
at a command prompt.
This will run the workflow, but will return no feedback to the calling app.
You could possibly get feedback in querying the SQL BPA database.
Or (more simply) by designing your workflow so that it provides some log file that the calling app could read.

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Jean Delfosse - Automate Beta Tester
Win7 Pro 64 bits -Win XP Pro SP3 32 bits - AM8, AM7, BPA10, BPA9, BPA8, BPA7, AM6 Enterprise, AM4

Jean,

Thanks for the ideas. Unfortunately, I do need more feedback than the AMExecute utility can provide. I'll look into what the database has to offer, though I doubt my company's DBAs will allow the application direct access, even if it is read-only.

Adding some feedback method in the workflow itself might work... but I suspect that if it does, we'll eventually be using a lot of other workflows in the same way, which could get cumbersome.

Thanks again.

I understand your point, John. And agree with you.
But unfortunately that does not help fulfilling your need.


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Jean Delfosse - Automate Beta Tester
Win7 Pro 64 bits -Win XP Pro SP3 32 bits - AM8, AM7, BPA10, BPA9, BPA8, BPA7, AM6 Enterprise, AM4