Edit

How to Create Role Links in Orchestrations

  • Article

The following are the basic tasks you will need to complete to use role links in your orchestration:

  • Create parties and send ports and associate them with each other.

  • Use the following procedure to create role link types and add the port types.

    To create a role link type
    1. In the Orchestration View window, expand Types, right-click Role Link Types, and then click New Role Link Type.
    2. Click the role link type you just created. In the Properties window, in the Identifier field, type Provider_Consumer_RoleLinkType.
    3. Expand Provider_Consumer_RoleLinkType, and then click Role_1. In the Properties window, in the Identifier field, type ConsumerRole.
    4. Right-click ConsumerRole, and then click Add Port Type. This starts the Port Type Wizard.
    5. On the Welcome to the Port Type Wizard page, click Next.
    6. On the Select a Port Type or create a new Port Type page, select Create a new Port Type, and then for Port Type Name, type ConsumerPortType.
    7. For Communication Pattern, select One-Way, and for Access Restrictions, select Public - no limit. Click Next.
    8. On the Completing the Port Wizard page, click Finish.
    9. Right-click Provider_Consumer_RoleLinkType, and then click New Role.
    10. Click Role_1, and then in the Properties window, in the Identifier field, type ProviderRole.
    11. Right-click ProviderRole, and then click Add Port Type. This starts the Port Type Wizard.
    12. On the Welcome to the Port Type Wizard page, click Next.
    13. On the Select a Port Type or create a new Port Type page, select Create a new Port Type, and then for Port Type Name, type ProviderPortType.
    14. For Communication Pattern, select One-Way, and for Access Restrictions, select Public - no limit. Click Next.
    15. On the Completing the Port Wizard page, click Finish. Note: Configured ports placed inside of role links do not retain their associated binding information.

    In the preceding procedure, you create a role link type that contains two roles—a ProviderRole that will receive and process messages from the consumer and a ConsumerRole that your orchestration will use the send port provided with the role to send messages to the consumer.

Note

The role link type can contain a provider role and a consumer role, and it can include one of either or one of each, depending on your business process needs.

  • Use the following procedure to add role links to your orchestration.

    To create a role link by using the Role Link Wizard
    1. In the orchestration Toolbox, drag the Role Link shape to the design surface. This starts the Role Link Wizard.
    2. On the Welcome to the Role Link Wizard page, click Next.
    3. On the Role Link Name page, in the Name field, type Provider_Consumer. Click Next.
    4. On the Role Link Type page, select Use an existing Role Link Type. In the Role Link Type Name drop-down list, select Provider_Consumer_RoleLinkType. Click Next.
    5. On the Role Identification page, select ProviderRole from the Which role will this orchestration implement to receive and process messages from partners? drop-down list. The wizard automatically selects ConsumerRole for This orchestration will use the role below to send messages to partners on ports inside the role. Click Next.
    6. On the Role Link Usage page, select I will be sending the first message to my partner's role. Click Finish.

    In the preceding procedure, you further define the ConsumerRole as the initiating role. This means that your orchestration will send the first message to the consumer through the port provided by the ConsumerRole and then the ProviderRole will receive the message sent back from the consumer for further processing.

    Note

    If there is only one role in the role link type, you need to define your role in the business process by selecting either Provider Role: I will be receiving the first message or Consumer Role: I will be sending the first message instead of performing step 5 in the preceding procedure.

  • Design your business process. You can leverage correlation sets to ensure that an incoming message matches the appropriate instance of an orchestration.

  • Associate the ports with Send and Receive shapes. In addition, do the following:

    • If the initiating role is a consumer for sending messages, explicitly set the DestinationParty property (once and only once) in your orchestration. To do so, set the value of the DestinationParty in the Expression shape, as in the following example, where ConfirmOrder is the name of a role link, and PartnerName and OrganizationName are parameters of a party:

      ConfirmOrder(Microsoft.XLANGs.BaseTypes.DestinationParty) = new Microsoft.XLANGs.BaseTypes.Party("PartnerName", "OrganizationName");

    • If the initiating role is a provider for receiving messages, the DestinationParty property is initialized automatically by the receiver. The DestinationParty is set to the provider itself. The SourceParty property is read-only, and is supplied through a trusted pipeline component to resolve the party name based on the security identifier (SID) of the sender or on a certificate associated with the party. The host running the pipeline component must be marked as Authentication Trusted. You can get the value of the SourceParty in the Expression shape by using the following sample code:

      PartyName = Buyer_Supplier(Microsoft.XLANGs.BaseTypes.SourceParty);

See Also

Using Role Links in Orchestrations How to Use the Role Link Shape How to Use the Role Link Wizard